UPDATE!

Banned Author Coming to Defend his Work
Decatur Daily, September 22, 05
http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/050922/banned.shtml

Visit by Banned Author
Athens News Courier, September 22, '05
http://www.enewscourier.com/articles/2005/09/21/news/news02.txt

Author whose book was banned to speak
Moulton Advertiser, September 22, '05
Click HERE.

Beloved author banned again.
Guerrilla News Network, September 20, '05
http://www.gnn.tv/B09160

Author's school visit cancelled
SpeakSpeak.News
http://www.speakspeak.org/speak-blog/index.php?cat=18

A Dangerous Thing
Powell's Bookstore
http://www.powells.com/essays/crutcher.html

An open letter to Dr. Carroll
September 27, 2005

Athens News Courier
September 22, 2005

Visit by banned author found

By Tanjie Schrimsher, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

Students in grades 7 through 12 at Clements High School who were scheduled to hear a presentation by award-winning author Chris Crutcher on Monday won't be listening to the writer's professional advice after all. Crutcher's visit to the school was cancelled this week at the instruction of Limestone County Schools Superintendent Dr. Barry Carroll. Crutcher, a family therapist, is the author of numerous books geared toward pre-teen and teen readers. His book, "Whale Talk," was pulled from libraries in Limestone County schools in March after the parent of an Ardmore student filed a complaint about its use of rough language. Contacted Wednesday, Carroll said Crutcher's visit was cancelled because "it's a controversial issue." He said school officials had not told him that Crutcher had been invited to the school. "When I was made aware of it by someone other than a school official, it was cancelled," he said. When asked whether his approval is required for all assemblies and speakers throughout the school system, Carroll said "teachers are required to get approval from the principals" and principals are required to seek his approval "on that type of issue." A press release issued Tuesday by Crutcher representative Kelly Halls, said Crutcher's presentations do not contain harsh language and that CHS Principal Donald Wilson had been assured of this prior to his approval of Crutcher's visit. Wilson did not return a Wednesday message left at the school seeking comment. Halls said Crutcher's school presentations "are never offensive or distasteful. Nothing he says is inappropriate." Crutcher, who according to Halls will make a presentation to selected Athens Middle School students on Tuesday, regards the Clements cancellation as a form of censorship. "This isn't about 'Whale Talk,'" Crutcher said. "It's about any book that has the potential to offend someone, which is any book." Any time a book is challenged in the school system, as "Whale Talk" was, a committee is selected to read the challenged book and make a recommendation on whether to retain or withdraw the book within the school system. In the case of "Whale Talk," the committee -- and Dr. Carroll -- recommended keeping the book on library shelves. That recommendation was rejected and the book banned by a 4-3 vote of school board members. "I wish some of these school board members knew more about child and adolescent development -- or had the information most teachers and school librarians are required to have -- before they are allowed a voice in education," Crutcher said. Carroll would not offer a definitive answer when asked whether he would have approved Crutcher's visit if asked in advance. "Chris Crutcher can do what he wants; it's a free country," Carroll said. "He just wasn't approved to speak in our school system." Crutcher will be in North Alabama for several appearances Monday and Tuesday. On Monday, he will address students in Lawrence County. On Tuesday morning he is scheduled to visit AMS. Tuesday evening at 6:30 he will make a presentation to which the public is invited at the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library at 915 Monroe Street in Huntsville. For more about Crutcher, or about literary censorship, visit www.chriscrutcher.com.

AS BACKGROUND...

Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom
July 2005

Decatur, Alabama

Heidi vigorously scrubs her brown arms with a bristle brush at the kitchen sink. She just finished a therapy session. Heidi pretended to be her stepfather, a man who calls her racist names like “stupid black bitch” because she is biracial. The therapist watches Heidi scrub and knows Heidi wants to wash herself until she is white so her stepfather will love her.

Heidi's therapy session, in Chris Crutcher's book Whale Talk, led the Limestone County Board of Education on March 7 to ban the book from its school libraries. Board members John Wayne King and Charles Shoulders and board President Roger Whitt voted in favor of keeping the book on the shelves while board members Earl Glaze, James Shannon, Bryant Moss and Darin Russell garnered a majority vote to ban Whale Talk.

“I think it is obscene that your school board does not trust you enough to know you can read harsh stories, told in their native tongue, and make decisions for yourself what you think of the issues or the language,” Crutcher wrote in an online letter to Limestone students.

Ardmore High School parent Christi Brooks filed the complaint about Whale Talk in November 2004 because of offensive language. She wrote that she objected to the language, and more offensive racial statements and profanity. Although the book “is talking about teamwork and dealing with racism,” Brooks wrote, students using the material “would be more likely to use the words every day.”

Ardmore senior Sheila Foster, 18, who is a school library aide, said reading a book with profanity does not make her want to curse. “I was brought up that I wouldn't get away with saying things like that,” she said. “Kids can probably hear worse language riding on the school bus. Some books have pretty good points. You just have to get past the language.”

“I know the board members need to protect themselves because people file lawsuits for anything these days,” she said. “But to me, it definitely would be hard to say, ‘Don't let every person read this book.' Everyone is different.”

A review committee of parents and staff recommended the board keep Whale Talk, which was in the high school libraries, saying it provides a realistic view of life, including the “consequences of prejudice, outspoken and malicious people.” The committee said the book also highlights the importance of forgiveness over revenge, and the message of the book is more important than the language it contains.

Superintendent Barry Carroll agreed, but the board voted 4–3 to ban it.

“I think we have to make sure books are age-appropriate,” Carroll said. “I think most high school students are mature enough to handle books like Whale Talk.”

Board member James Shannon, who voted to ban it, said it did not matter that the parent who complained about Whale Talk is his niece. He said the book's content, not her opinion, swayed him. “If kids shouldn't be saying it in the halls, they shouldn't be reading it in our schools,” Shannon said. “Why shouldn't I vote on that?”

At a subsequent board meeting in early May, Limestone County's school librarians challenged the board to defend its decision. The librarians, represented by Creekside Librarian Janet Saczawa called on each board member to read Whale Talk from cover to cover.

“It is obvious to many of us that some of the board members have not read the book in its entirety,” Saczawa said. “In doing so, you have violated your own board policy, which states that you will read the material being challenged in its entirety, not just Xeroxed copies of the offending passages.”

“As in all of his novels, Crutcher, a family therapist who has first-hand experience with teens in these situations, portrays his subject in real and unflinching terms,” Saczawa said. “In a time when some students feel compelled to resort to violence in response to racists and bullies, I feel that learning how to deal with these problems without resorting to violence is much more important than shielding them from a few words they've already heard.”

“Whale Talk is a disturbing book,” Saczawa said. “What is even more disturbing is that it is based on actual cases that Mr. Crutcher has encountered in his practice. Some of our students face similar situations every day. You do these students a disservice if you remove this book and others like it from our schools, thereby telling them that you are offended by their stories, their situations, their pain, and ultimately, by them.”

Board members did not immediately respond to Saczawa's plea that they each read the book, consider its message and reconsider the ban.

The author responded, however, by donating five copies of Whale Talk to the Athens-Limestone Public Library. Crutcher said he would give the same number to the library nearest any other school that bans any of his books.

“I'm not being nasty about it at all,” Crutcher said. “I don't take it personally, but I believe in intellectual freedom, and that's the best way I can think of to say it.” Crutcher explained in his online letter to Limestone students that he once was a therapist for a girl like Heidi and that for children like her to survive, their peers must accept them.

“I write the stories I write to bring things like this to your attention,” Crutcher wrote. He added, “acceptance will come from understanding.”

Crutcher also wrote an online letter to Limestone citizens and the school board: “The kids you turn your backs on when you take away their stories are the ones who lose, as well as you as a community of adults who may appear to fear their truths. Remember, if you take Whale Talk out, you can take any book out.”

Whale Talk isn't the first book Limestone has banned. In 1998, the board voted against former Superintendent Les Bivens and a review committee's recommendation to keep Judy Blume's Blubber in libraries. The board voted 4–3 to ban her book because it contained the words “damn” and “bitch.”

Parents, teachers, and students objected. After an election that unseated three of the four members who opposed the book, the board voted in 1999 to return it to school libraries. In 2000, J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye came under scrutiny for objectionable language, but survived.

Reported in: Decatur Daily News, April 17; Athens News-Courier, May 3.