OJAI : Parents Complain About Textbook

Scores of angry parents showed up at the Ojai Unified School District meeting Tuesday night to complain about what they called graphic and obscene passages in a literature anthology textbook used by high school freshmen.

Some stopped short of calling for banning the book but demanded that the district do a better job of informing parents about an existing policy that allows students to read alternative material if they find assigned stories offensive.

But other parents and citizens argued that the book, which includes Shakespeare, Poe and other literary icons, should be pulled from school shelves.

“Some students drink and smoke, but we don’t give them a six-pack and a pack of smokes when they arrive at school. It’s the same thing,” said Alan Fletcher, who has twice lost election bids to the school board.

The 1,500-page volume, called “Literature, an Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama,” includes some short stories and poems that contain profanity and objectionable story lines, the parents complained.

“Here (students) can’t say these words on school property, yet it can be required reading for them,” said Pastor Scott Harrell of the Ojai Valley Baptist Church.

One parent scolded what he called a “lynch mob mentality” for trying to censure children other than their own. “Parents are capable of imparting values to their children, so that literature will not be something to fear,” said Michael Shapiro. “Teaching children what’s good, what’s bad and what’s sinful should be done in the church and in the home.”

School board trustees and Supt. Andrew Smidt said teachers are encouraged to provide alternate course work whenever a student or parent objects to a particular reading assignment.

“That’s the mystery of this thing to me,” Smidt said before the school board meeting. “We (already) do that. We’ll certainly be more formal about acknowledging that option.”

Nordhoff High School Principal Michael Maez said two of the 280 freshmen students so far have requested other assignments.

But “what’s actually happened is we have kids reading that literature book that wouldn’t even consider opening it before this controversy,” he said.

After about an hour of public discussion Tuesday night, the school board directed staff to mail letters to the parents of ninth graders alerting them to potentially objectionable passages in the book and informing them that alternative reading materials are available.