Modesto Parent-Activist Faces Off With Teachers Over Explicit Book
by Jim Brown
December 2, 2003
(AgapePress) - An obscene book once banned by a California public school district is now back in classrooms.An English department committee in the Modesto city school system has recommended that the book Always Running be reinstated and remain on the district's reading list. This reverses a recent decision by superintendent Jim Enochs, who pulled the book after learning that it contained vulgar and profane language as well as X-rated passages depicting rape and oral sex.
The controversial book about gang life in Los Angeles is on California's recommended reading list for public schools, but parent and concerned resident Pam LaChapell, who successfully fought to get the book removed the first time, says the book's content is unsuitable for young people.
Still, she believes that the current problem has arisen not so much out of disagreement over the appropriateness of the material as out of a sort of turf-war between the Modesto Teachers Association and the community's parents.
According to LaChapell, the teachers see the selection of books as a teachers' rights issue. "They believe that teachers have a right to exercise their best judgment as they see fit and include books in their curriculum that meet their objectives," she says. "We've got a battle between parents rights and teachers rights, and the union is very vocal and powerful in this community."
LaChapell wants the issue placed in the hands of the school board. She says she and other concerned community members have a December 15 date to meet with the board, where "we will present our argument for why this book and books of this kind need to be removed from our school district's reading list."
LaChapell hopes this group will be able to encourage the school board to uphold high moral standards in the selection of curriculum materials. She is urging community members to write complaint letters to the school board in advance of the mid-December meeting.
