N C A C

Kids Right to Read Project

A project of the National Coalition Against Censorship

CO-SPONSORED BY

American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression Association of American Publishers Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

Members, Reconsideration Committee Sweet Home School District 1920 Long Street Sweet Home, Oregon 97386

February 5, 2014

Dear Committee Members, We are writing in regards to the challenge to Sherman Alexies Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian in Sweet Home public schools. We understand that some citizens in the district object to language and sexual content in the book. We urge you to stand by district educators and retain use of this book in 8th grade classrooms. Absolutely True Diary is a largely autobiographical account of the authors upbringing in Spokane, WA, in circumstances not together unfamiliar to many students in Sweet Home. The book is beloved by teens and adults alike for its uplifting story of triumph by a boy with few advantages as well as its honest, fresh voice. It is selected by teachers across the country for its appeal to reluctant readers and because it serves to introduce vital issues such as the struggles of young adulthood, the search for personal identity, bullying and poverty. The literary value of this novel is widely recognized and it has won numerous awards including the National Book Award for Young Peoples Literature in 2007, the 2008 Book Sense Book of the Year Childrens Literature Honor Book, the 2008 Pacific Northwest Book Award, and the 2008 American Indian Library Association Youth Literature Award, among many others. Before the book was introduced in Sweet Home middle school classrooms this year, district teachers sent home an extensive packet detailing the pedagogical value of Sherman Alexies novel, explaining how it would be taught, informing parents about its content and contextualizing said content within the overall message of the work. Those parents who wished their child to read an alternate assignment were not only able to do so, they were afforded the opportunity to personally select which text their child would read instead. To go further and remove the book potentially violates the constitutional rights of other students and parents. Whats more, the practical effect of acceding to any parents request to censor materials will be to invite more challenges, and to leave school officials vulnerable to multiple, possibly conflicting demands. Removing a book because some object to, or disapprove of, its content violates basic constitutional principles. Government officials, including public school administrators, may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.Texas v. Johnson(1989); see alsoBoard of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26 v. Pico(1982) (local school boards may not remove books from school libraries simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books ) The First Amendment guarantees certain individual rights that may not be infringed by state actors, including public school educators, even with the mandate or approval of the majority. More than 60 years ago, the Supreme Court held that The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials, and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the

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courts. Ones right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections. West Virginia Board of Elections v. Barnette (1943). We urge you to recognize the serious constitutional implications of removing a book with clear educational merit, like The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, simply because some people do not like or approve of what it says. The task of selecting readings for the curriculum properly belongs to professional educators. Parents may be equipped to make choices for their own children but, no matter how well-intentioned, they simply are not qualified to make curricular decisions. Without questioning the sincerity of those who object to the book, their views are not shared by all and they have no right to impose those views on others. We strongly urge you to keep Absolutely True Diary in Sweet Home school district classrooms. While one may sympathize with the parents concerns, the school has a duty to base its decisions on sound educational grounds and constitutional considerations. The students deserve no less. Sincerely,

Joan Bertin Executive Director National Coalition Against Censorship

Chris Finan President American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression

Charles Brownstein Executive Director Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

Judy Platt Director, Free Expression Advocacy Association of American Publishers

CC: Don Schrader, Superintendent Members, Sweet Home Board of Directors Colleen Henry, Principal, Sweet Home Junior High School