District 214 board approves disputed books after hours of speeches

[Gidney N Cloyd]

(Quick background: A board member at a Chicago area public high school tried to eliminate several well-known books from the reading list. )

From the article at http://www.dailyherald.com/story.asp?id=193095 :


Shortly after 1:30 a.m., board members voted 6-1 to approve the texts for 2006-07.

Leslie Pinney - the board member who started it all with a plea earlier this month to yank books from the curriculum and replace them with books more suitable for teens - got her say about 1 a.m., when the horde had thinned to about 75 people.

Pinney, elected to the board in 2005 amid promises to bring her Christian beliefs into all board decision-making, repeated her concern for the text Thursday, but said those who suggest she's trying to ban books are mischaracterizing her intentions.

[Oversea Visitor]

1. Interesting titles in articles

Haha she wants to ban

A Botany of Desire:A PLANT's eyeviews of the world :rofl:

[greekspeak]

2. Not trying to ban them, just remove them so they are not able to read

Doesn't the Bible this woman likes to thump say not to lie? She wants to have her cake (a Christianized curriculum) and eat it (pro-free press/speech) too. Sorry Leslie. You are a book banning puritan.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

3. One lesson here that shouldn't be overlooked is >>>

This is an elected position and it's a position of influence that liberals can easily get elected to, if this woman is any example. More of us should be running for local office.

[jwirr]

13. This is good advice. The pubs work to control local levels first &

then move up.

[NYC]

4. Contested titles:

The books Pinney's questioning are:

Kate Chopin's 1899 classic “The Awakening”;

the Vietnam War books “Fallen Angels” by Walter Dean Myers and

“The Things They Carried” by Tim O'Brien;

Stephen Chbosky's teen angst tale “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”;

the best-seller “Freakonomics”;

Toni Morrison's “Beloved”;

Kurt Vonnegut's “Slaughterhouse-Five”;

“How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents” by Julia Alvarez; and

“The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World,”

which is being used only at Buffalo Grove High School next year.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

5. My stepson gave me Freakanomics for Christmas...

I haven't had a chance to read it yet; but now I'm inspired to hurry up and finish one of the books I'm in the middle of. :D

[NYC]

12. Let me know how it is.

I haven't read any of the books on that list, except Slaughterhouse Five.

[WhiteTara]

6. strike another note for freedom

:applause: for all those people who came out and said NO

[OKNancy]

7. k

[deadparrot]

8. Ill. suburb schools reject book ban

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill., May 26 (UPI) -- A suburban Chicago school district has approved a reading list despite calls by a board member to remove some controversial books.

The board meeting for Township High School District 214 in Arlington Heights, Ill., was so packed that many of the 500 audience members sat in an overflow room.

WBBM-AM, Chicago, reports the school board ignored the complaints of board member Leslie Pinney and others who said some of the books on the advanced class reading list were obscene.

Those included "Beloved" by Toni Morrison and Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five."

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060526-035847-5125r

[LynneSin]

9. God forbid we make our children learn to think

:eyes:

[Gato Moteado]

10. wow....slaughterhouse five

one of the best anti-war pieces ever written is in the preface to that book....written by vonnegut, a veteran of WWII.

i wonder why they wanted that banned.....hmmmmm.

[CatholicEdHead]

11. Here are the yearlong school board minutes

http://www.dist214.k12.il.us/community/depts/superintendency/boemm/index.php

I do not think the current meeting is up yet.