School board continues censorship squabble
By Arrick Gordon
news@morganton.com
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
MORGANTON - East Burke High School Media Coordinator Peggy Poe addressed the Burke County school board Monday in defense of the controversial book “The Kite Runner,” throwing her support behind the literature, urging the board not to censor the award- winning work of fiction.
In February, Vicki Dobson addressed the school board and challenged the use of the book within the classroom. Dobson sought its removal primarily for author Khaled Husseini’s use of strong language, racially-motivated rape of a child and other mature content.
Following Dobson’s complaint, the book was sent to a specially-assigned review committee at Freedom High School. The committee, comprised of faculty, students, parents and community members, made its recommendation to the school board in late March to keep the book in the classroom.
As a result, Dobson appealed, in writing, to the school board to overturn the committee’s recommendations and take final action.
Superintendent David Burleson urged the board to follow the procedures outlined by school policy and the committee.
“We should keep the book in the advanced and honors literature classes,” Burleson said, “and send out a detailed letter to the parents describing the content and nature of any book with questionable language, sexual content or adult themes. It is up to the parent to decide if he or she wishes her son or daughter to read an alternate assignment.”
School board member Tracy Norman felt that the letter would not be adequate unless passages or descriptive quotes of the material in question were included in the letters to parents.
Board member David Barnard felt that censorship was not the solution and that the teachers should be given the authority to decide what is appropriate within the classroom environment.
The issue has been tabled until the next board meeting.
The board is considering the naming of the Jimmy C. Draughn High School baseball field in honor of former teacher and baseball coach Glen Yoder.
A petition with nearly 1,000 signatures was previously submitted to the school board by community members living within the Draughn High School district specifically seeking a naming recognition in honor of Yoder.
Draughn is slated to receive its Life Safety Inspection later this week, a crucial step toward the final completion of the building project. According to Randall Brackett, construction at the site will be completed in approximately three weeks.
Brackett also informed the board that the school’s sports practice fields and stadium have been suffering as a result of the ongoing drought and that the previously planted grass seed is not rooting or growing very well. As a result, a variance was received from the Town of Valdese which will allow the school to irrigate the fields three times a week.
Robert L. Patton High School has suffered from the same problem and very little grass is currently on its sports practice and stadium fields. A contractor is scheduled to evaluate and reseed the fields.
The official dedication and open house for Draughn High School may take place at 2 p.m. on Aug. 24. However, the date and time is tentative pending final board approval.
The school board will meet again at 11 a.m. on June 30 at at the board room on Parker Road.
25 comments:
What about the First Amendment rights of the students who aren't in Honor's and AP classes? Why has this book been BANNED or CENSORED in those classes? Have you contacted the NCAC and the ACLU about this travesty?
Do you think the CP students aren't mature enough to handle the description of the rape of a child? Do you think they'll copy the language? What exactly is the logic here?
Why are you underestimating them?
Im going to write a fictional book about how sorry of a Superintendent we have.I will make the board pass it out and students must read it or it is censorship! It will be fought.
I ame a huge supporter of our superintendent. The restrictions he placed on the availability of TKR for class use and student access in the library are nothing more than an attempt to please all parties, and keep the book in the schools.
I do not agree with any of the restrictions. Every child who wants to read and study the book should be allowed to do so.
The superintendent walks a difficult path. The board does not have to accept his recommendations, but much will depend on how the motion before the board is worded and whether some board members will "see the light" and refrain from removing the book.
I honestly think David Burleson works and wants very much to be what Burke County needs in a Superintendant. I really believe he is a Godly man who wants to do whats best for our kids. Although I do not understand why everybody thinks he is going to be replaced. Has he been asked to resign or something? Am I correct to assume that this mess started with the so called video tape incident that supposedly happened or is there more involved? I am not saying that is not enough but I would like to know. I am a concerned citizen, taxpayer, and parent of Burke.
Tracy is CLUELESS!!! It gags me to listen to her go on and on about how she "will lay down for the students"......I thought she only "laid down" for select school board members among others in the community. She is a disgrace - sitting there like she is so pure and wants to protect our children form the horrible Kite Runner....what a joke....she has made a mess out of her own life and has done such damage to her own children....I do not want her anywhere near my children!!! I feel so sorry for her children and ex-husband....again she is a disgrace to Burke County and especially to her children and ex-husband. She chose to put her own needs (to be in the public light) above those of her family....she should not even have any rights to her younger child. I hope her ex-husband has enough sense to keep her far away from the younger child since she has done such a fine job with the older one that has been in court NUMEROUS times!!!!
A lot of people support the last couple of comments. Thank you
TKR really is a test case for Burke County and its BOE. The superintendent has wisely decided to leave the book in the schools with some restrictions.
Some members of the board have foolishly tried to justify its removal by using silly excuses such as a student's lack of Pre-Frontal Cortex development and not wanting to accept the liability for the "harm" the book "will cause" to the children who read it.
On the audio, Armour and Wilkinson called for a vote to put up or shut up on this issue. Tim and Tracy chickened out, retreating to the we-need-to-speak-to-the-attorney excuse. Just a stall tactic for more dramatic effect.
The voters have spoken alright.
How did we get from
"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" to this?
TKR Page 7 –
He handed his cigarette to the guy next to him, made a circle with the thumb and index finger of one hand. Poked the middle finger of his other hand through the circle. Poked it in and out. In and out. “I know your mother, did you know that? I knew her real good. I took her from behind by that creek over there.”
The soldiers laughed. One of them made a squealing sound. I told Hassan to keep walking, keep walking.
“What a tight little sugary cunt she had!” the soldier was saying, shaking hands with the others, grinning.
TKR Pages 75-76
"I don't know," Walli was saying. "My father says it's sinful." He sounded unsure, excited, scared, all at the same time. Hassan gripped an arm, twisted and bent at the elbow so that Hassan's hands were pressed to his back. Assef was standing over them, the heel of his snow boots crushing the back of Hassan's neck.
"Your father won't find out," Assef said. "And there's nothing sinful about teaching a lesson to a disrespectful donkey."
"I don't know," Walli muttered.
"Suit yourself," Assef said. He turned to Kamal. "What about you?"
"I.... well...."
"It's just Hazara," Assef said. But Kamal kept looking away.
"Fine," Assef snapped. "All I want you weaklings to do is hold him down. Can you manage that?"
Walli and Kamal nodded. They looked relieved.
Assef knelt behind Hassan, put his hands on Hassan's hips and lifted his bare buttocks. He kept one hand on Hassan's back and undid his own belt buckle with his free hand. He unzipped his jeans. Dropped his underwear. He positioned himself behind Hassan. Hassan didn't struggle. Didn't even whimper. He moved his head slightly and I caught a glimpse of his face. Saw the resignation in it. It was a look I had seen before. It was the look of the lamb.
end of excerpt.
Author goes on to explain the look on a lamb’s face as it is about to be slaughtered. It’s a look of resignation and acceptance for what must take place to it.
TKR Page 77 (sounds of the rapist)
“I stopped watching, turned away from the alley. Something warm was running down my wrist. I blinked, saw I was still biting down on my fist, hard enough to draw blood from the knuckles. I realized something else. I was weeping. From just around the corner, I could hear Assef’s quick, rhythmic grunts.”
TKR Page 78 (rectal bleeding due to the sodomy)
“He began to say something as his voice cracked. He closed his mouth, opened it, and closed it again. Took a step back. Wiped his face. And that was a close as Hassan and I ever came to discussing what had happened in the alley. I thought he might burst into tears, but, to my relief, he didn’t, and I pretended I hadn’t heard the crack in his voice. Just like I pretended I hadn’t seen the dark stain in the seat of his pants. Or those tiny drops that fell from between his legs and stained the snow black.”
TKR Flashback – Page 84
“I closed my eyes, turned my face to the sun. Little shapes formed behind my eyelids, like hands playing shadows on the wall. They twisted, merged, formed a single image: Hassan’s brown corduroy pants discarded on a pile of old bricks in the alley.”
TKR Flashback – Page 91 (again, rectal bleeding due to the sodomy)
“For a few weeks, I preoccupied myself with gravity and momentum, atoms and cells, the Anglo-Afghan wars, instead of thinking about Hassan and what had happened to him. But, always, my mind returned to the alley. To Hassan’s brown corduroy pants lying on the bricks. To the droplets of blood staining the snow dark red, almost black.”
TKR Flashback – page 116 (more graphic details of the sexual act during the rape)
“My mind flashed to that winter day six years ago. Me, peering around the corner in the alley. Kamal and Walli holding Hassan down. Assef’s buttock muscles clenching and unclenching, his hips thrusting back and forth. Some hero I had been, fretting about the kite. Sometimes, I too wondered if I was really Baba’s son.”
Barack Obama’s presidential campaign is planning to beef up the team surrounding his wife Michelle Obama, to give her the kind of professional campaign veterans experienced in rapid response to negative attacks – the kind of staff that is usually only seen around an actual candidate, according to a senior aide.
The move is meant to address concerns within the campaign that Michelle Obama will be the target of significant attacks from conservatives this year. Their pre-emptive response is a team that one aide says is unprecedented in presidential politics. According to multiple aides, this team will work with Mrs. Obama to modify her stump speech — in part to include more stories from the voters she met during the primary season — in a bid to counter criticism by some conservatives that she is out of touch.
Former Kerry campaign Communications Director Stephanie Cutter has already been tapped as Mrs. Obama’s chief of staff, and additional staff will be hired in the coming weeks.
Aides say they expect Mrs. Obama to make occasional campaign stops over the next several weeks — including roundtables with military wives, and a womens’ event next week – before hitting the trail full time around July 4.
Barack Obama said Wednesday he has not spoken with former rival Hillary Clinton recently.
After a Washington campaign event, the presumptive Democratic nominee was asked by reporters when he last spoke to the New York senator — and how he plans to deflect critiques of his foreign policy inexperience that she made during the primary season, and McCain is now repeating.
"I have not had conversations with Senator Clinton because she has been getting a well-deserved vacation. And, we will be speaking I think in the next few days…certainly within the next week, and we’ll be having an ongoing conversation," said Obama. "But if you look at my positions and Senator Clinton’s, there is not a lot of difference which is why it’s so easy for advisers, senior advisers, of Senator Clinton to support my candidacy."
Clinton and Obama are set to appear together at a Democratic fundraiser next week.
The McCain campaign has spent the past few days criticizing Obama's national security and foreign policy positions, with surrogates painting Obama as inexperienced and naïve.
The upcoming Republican and Democratic nominating conventions are being funded by more than $100 million in contributions from corporations who also spend substantial sums lobbying the federal government, according to a new study by the Campaign Finance Institute released Wednesday.
Roughly $55 million in private financing is being provided to support the Democratic convention in Denver, and $57 million for the Republican convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul. The organizational donors behind that convention funding have donated another $100 million to federal candidates and parties since 2005 and spent a total of $721.3 million lobbying the federal government during the same period, according to the institute’s analysis.
The institute’s report comes shortly after presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama prohibited the Democratic National Committee from accepting contributions from lobbyists or political action committees, to bring its fund-raising practices in line with those of his presidential campaign. Presumptive Republican nominee John McCain spearheaded legislation which banned unregulated “soft money” from federal campaign donations — but the new regulations did not include a soft money ban on funding for nominating conventions.
The Campaign Finance Institute is affiliated with George Washington University. The analysis released by the institute Tuesday included data provided by the Center for Responsive Politics.
Just finished the Kite Runner. Great book. I would give it to my 14 year old son to read, but he hates reading. He has the maturity to handle the book. Maybe all of the controversy will pique his interest and he will get at least one book read this summer?
Oh well, I can dream can't I?
Question: If I leave the book on my coffee table and one of my son's friends reads the book without his parent's knowlege, will I be sued? Maybe I should have all of the parents of my children's friends sign waivers releasing me from liability from my unintended negligence in having all kinds of questionable literature around - Shakespeare, Maugham, Twain, Angelou, Morrison. I will lock up the Henry Miller . . . I am still not old enough to read that.
Louise
By the way, I was impressed with Mr. Burleson's handling of the inane questions batted around at the meeting on June 9.
He tried to stress that the themes of the book were what class discussions revolved around, and that teachers who taught the book had the good sense on how to teach the subject. This explanation in spite of the fact that he introduced a very reasonable solution to allow parents to choose another book for their children to read.
The ensuing discussion led me to believe that some of the board had not ever participated in an advanced english class.
I am not a die hard Burleson supporter - he has disappointed me at times in my dealings with his office. I do think he is the best person for the job, and I was pleasantly surprised at how he handled himself at the meeting, and exhibited intellectual independence and reason during the "discussion."
louise,
If you get careless with your copy of TKR, you could very well be sued for negligence should an unsuspecting waif discover it and read it. But, then again, you will have probably allowed that kid to learn something useful for living in today's world.
So, go ahead and take the risk.
this site is being boycotted in respect of mr. hastings.
Yes p22, I was considering suing myself for allowing myself to read it (under the "gross negligence" theory), and the school board for piquing (sp?) my interest in this book in the first place.
Louise
to anonymous 6:21 regarding your repetitive boycott message: I think there has been a self-imposed moratorium on posting on the blog in respect for Mr. Hastings and his family and because so many of us are in shock of losing such a great man. I don't know why or if Mr. Hastings' friends or family would support a "boycott" of this blog.
Louise,
Agree. Think there has been a self-imposed moratorium on posting on the blog in respect for Mr. Hastings and his family & because so many were in shock of losing this dear friend.
But, I really don't think his family gives a damn about this blog, & whether or not it's being "boycotted" or not.
On the last board meeting audio, 3 out of 5 board members did not want to add addressing TKR or the Map Issue to the agenda. What's up with THAT?
Isn't it now up to the board to determine TKR's fate? So where are the new district lines?
This board is absolutely useless!
Agreed.
As was the previous board.
Just how was the previous board totally useless?
I seem to recall that IN SPITE of a couple of board members' shenanigans, the previous board found the money and land to build two new high schools, successfully sued a general contractor and a surety company for the money to repair WA Young and Ray Childers schools, protected the reduced class size ratio of 15:1, kept its technology department in-tact, supported a superintendent who was ranked as one of the top five in the state, had a school system that was the envy of the state, and could retain teachers and attract teachers from neighboring counties.
The previous board understood its role to hire the best employees and allow them to run the system.
Don't tell me the previous boards were useless.
The previous board was useless.
it all begins & ends with Nepotism.
So when is the board going to tackle TKR? I'm betting Ms. Dobson is wanting to know. It wasn't on Saturday's aqenda - before they PULLED the agenda off the site, that is.
What is the board afraid of? Accepting liability for the book's dark passages and what they fear those passages will do to kids?
This would not have been an issue with past boards.
REF: "So when is the board going to tackle TKR?"
WHO CARES???
REF: "This would not have been an issue with past boards."
THAT'S A BUNCH OF B.S.
LAST BOARD WAS TOO BUSY WORRYING ABOUT PROTECTING THEIR OWN & THOSE AT THE CENTRAL OFFICE.
This just in:
I have heard that the Dobsons have withdrawn their last appeal to the BOE as of today - that The Kite Runner is no longer under assault. Can anyone verify this?
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