Littleton Students, Faculty Protest Toni Morrison Ban

http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2005abc/october2005ab/littleton.cfm

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Posted October 14, 2005.

Littleton Students, Faculty Protest Toni Morrison Ban

High-school students and faculty in the Littleton (Colo.) Public Schools district voiced their displeasure October 5 at an earlier decision by the school board to pull Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye from the media-center shelves of the Heritage and Arapahoe high schools. Students conducted sit-ins in their respective school libraries during which they read excerpts from the novel, and English teachers defended the book at a board meeting held that same day.

Acknowledging that Bluest Eye is “painful, difficult to read,” Heritage High School English teacher Amanda Hurley told board members, “We have to discuss it, we have to learn from it.” Heritage senior Camille Okoren agreed, telling the October 7 Denver Rocky Mountain News, “Once you ban one book, parents and teachers think it’s OK to ban another book. Everyone is offended by different things.”

The board withdrew The Bluest Eye from library shelves and reading lists in August in response to a parent who challenged the book’s explicit description of sex in telling the story of an 11-year-old who is raped by her father. According to district policy, it cannot be reconsidered before the end of the school year. Nonetheless, Littleton High School English teacher Judy Vlasin told the News that she would soon be filing an application for the title’s reinstatement.

Posted October 14, 2005.