Banning Books Might Backfire

* Re “Parents Ask School District to Ban ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’ ” (Dec. 3):

The Times reported that some parents in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District have complained about the use of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” in the 11th-grade literature program on the grounds of obscene content. These parents are doing a singular service to the community. By raising controversy about the book, they are ensuring that district students will read this fine novel with unaccustomed enthusiasm.

District teachers now can defuse the issue by voluntarily removing the novel from next year’s reading list without the district having to make a formal decision on the merits of the case. They can substitute one of the many fine books listed (along with one or two trashy ones) among the “25 most challenged books” given in the Times article, and the process will repeat itself next year and so on. This will ensure many years of enthusiastic interest in literature on the part of its students.

DAVID L. RECTOR

Costa Mesa

* I wonder if Anna Marie Buckner [a petitioning parent] and her ilk also think that any book containing incest, sodomy, flagellation, rape and slavery, not to mention hundreds of murders and a significant crucifixion “puts . . . images into children’s minds” and ought to be banned as reading for children.

Better be careful about banning books--your favorite might be next.

JIM CORBETT

San Clemente