If you read Kansas State Board of Education chairman Steve Abrams’ commentary this week in The Eagle, you likely did a double take when you got toward the end. That’s where Abrams claimed that “superintendents and local school boards in some districts continue to promulgate pornography as ‘literature,’ even though many parents have petitioned the local boards to remove the porn.” Huh? What districts? What books?
Abrams told The Eagle editorial board Tuesday that he was referring to the Blue Valley school district in Johnson County, where some parents protested some of the books in high school English classes. Abrams could only remember one of the disputed books, “Beloved” by Toni Morrison (though the challenged books also include “Black Boy” by Richard Wright and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey). This is porn? This is “some districts”?
Not surprisingly, superintendents across the state didn’t appreciate the broad-brush accusation that they peddle porn. And not only does the Blue Valley school district have a thorough process for evaluating complaints about books, superintendent Tom Trigg said, his district also doesn’t force any student to read a book over parental objections.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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