Trustee’s Book Donation Alarms School Officials

Wrapping them in indigo tissue paper and crimson ribbon, trustee Elaine McKearn donated the books as red-white-and-blue-perfect Presidents Day gifts to Conejo Valley’s 18 elementary school libraries.

But principals and McKearn’s colleagues have greeted the gifts--copies of conservative radio personality Alan Keyes’ “Our Character, Our Future: Reclaiming America’s Moral Destiny”--with alarm and anger.

Written by the former Republican presidential candidate, the book addresses character, corruption and the Declaration of Independence. But it also hits on topics that might make the Founding Fathers blush: abortion, divorce, extramarital affairs, AIDS and homosexuality.

Folded in the books was a handbill inviting people to pay to see an upcoming Keyes speech, benefiting the conservative commentator’s foundation.

According to a memo from Conejo Valley Unified School District Supt. Jerry Gross, McKearn violated district policies--one demanding that material be suited to students’ age and another requiring scrutiny of gifts and fliers--by delivering the 135-page books. As a result, Gross said in an interview that he had “no choice” but to instruct principals to send the books to district headquarters rather than place them on library shelves.

“I’m bound by my duties to the board to ask that [the books] be returned,” Gross said.

McKearn says the books were a personal donation to the schools, made apart from her duties as a trustee. Keyes’ philosophy is in keeping with the district’s push to teach character in the classrooms, she contends.

“What’s the big deal?” she asked Friday. “I didn’t think I needed district approval because these are my personal gifts, using my personal stationery, delivered on my personal time, using my own money. Nothing mentions that I’m a board member.”

Trustee Dorothy Beaubien said the books put principals in a tough position by having to reject a gift from one of their bosses, who has the power to hire and fire them.

“It’s very difficult for people in the schools to refuse to take a book--or any gift--when a board member is giving it to them,” she said. “It makes it very awkward.”

Although the gifts were heart-felt and well-intended, principals were concerned that the content and reading-level of “Our Character, Our Future” didn’t match the needs of elementary students--even the fourth- through sixth-graders for whom McKearn suggested it.

“I mean, we’re into “Winnie the Pooh” here,” said Bradley Baker, principal of Walnut Elementary. “This book has a place--and it has a place in education--but not at this age. If you were, say, doing a high school debate against abortion, this would be a great book to reference.”

At most area elementary schools, popular titles include “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” “Little House in the Big Woods” and “Make Way for Ducklings.”

“It’s a political treatise of sorts and probably beyond the understanding of elementary students,” board President Mildred Lynch said of Keyes’ book.

The proud owner of an autographed copy of Keyes’ book of speeches, McKearn said her own children have read “Our Character, Our Future.” The book is perfectly suited to older elementary students, she said.

*

Over-regulation of her actions squelches her free-speech rights, McKearn contends. “If I can’t do this as a regular person, I don’t know what we can do these days,” she said. “Am I supposed to have every correspondence and every phone call checked first with the superintendent? Is that the way it works?”

McKearn’s actions have frustrated three of her board colleagues, Beaubien, Lynch and Dolores Didio.

In recent months, Christian conservative McKearn has drawn fire for blurring the line between her actions as an individual and as a board member. Most notably, she circulates a “contract” with parents and teachers--not approved by the board--during her official duties of visiting schools and talking to parent groups.

“This makes me very angry because we keep telling her that you cannot work as an individual,” Beaubien said. “If you’re going to do these kinds of things, you need to check it out with the district. If you don’t know [the policies], you find out. You don’t just go off like a loose cannon and barrel through blindly.”

Beyond breaking district policy, the content of Keyes’ book is far afield from the state Education Code’s required curriculum for first- through sixth-graders: English, math, social sciences, science, art and physical education.

*

In Conejo Valley schools, the book’s more sensitive topics aren’t broached until the first sex education classes--abstinence-based lessons given in the ninth grade.

McKearn likens the themes in Keyes’ book to the anti-drug DARE program: evils that must be mentioned so that children can avoid them.

“I think most parents [here] would probably agree that Dr. Keyes has the right way of thinking,” she said. “People who are not parents or who are of an alternative lifestyle may not agree.

Her opponents on the board said they can’t help but wonder if McKearn is trying to foist her Christian conservatism on unwitting children.

“Is it really an idea that you want to put across or is there some kind of agenda here?” Didio asked.