Occult Titles Bedevil New Jersey Parents
Worried about the effect of two school-library books about devil worship on their 8th-grade son, Tahir and Wanda Mella are seeking the restriction of The Devil’s Storybook, The Devil: Great Mysteries, Opposing Viewpoints, and other books on the occult from elementary and middle-school students in Gloucester County, New Jersey’s Washington Township Public Schools unless they have parental permission. “It’s a measure for parents to control the education of their children, which is every parent’s prerogative,” said David O’Quinn’s stepfather Tahir Mella in the February 5 Cherry Hill Courier-Post. Despite pressure to take immediate action, the school board decided January 27 to adhere to district policy, which requires the formation of a reconsideration committee to review the challenged titles.
The controversy began last fall, when Wanda Mella discovered evidence of her son’s interest in satanism beyond his checking out the two school-library titles. In his room, she found printouts about the occult that Mella learned he had obtained from websites on computers at the Chestnut Ridge Middle School since she supervises his Internet use at home. Around that time, David cut the middle of his forearm with a razor blade and endured his friends’ tatooing the first two letters of the name “Damien” on the back of his neck.
In January, the Mellas formed the group National Concerned Citizens for Youth to restrict library access to occult materials for minors younger than high school age and the display and sale to youngsters of such subject matter in bookstores. Among the 20 people who have joined the group is local beauty-salon owner Martino Cartier, who is organizing a February 8 candlelight prayer vigil “to pray for the [school] board members to make the right decisions.”
Posted February 6, 2004.
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