Another Attack on Student Books

It’s a different school district and different books. But it’s the same ill-advised, closed-minded attempt to narrow the educational view of students in Orange County.

This time the move to ban books from the student reading list comes in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, where board member Wendy Leece wants to bar students in two advanced placement English classes from reading the award-winning novel “Snow Falling on Cedars,” by David Guterson, and “Of Love and Shadows,” by Isabel Allende.

In recent months books on the lives of gay men and lesbians, part of a biographical series, were pulled from the library shelf at Orangeview Junior High in Anaheim. That prompted the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, for the first time in its history, to file a lawsuit against a school district over censorship.

In the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District, a new panel is being formed to develop guidelines for book approvals in an effort to resolve the controversy over attempts to ban “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” The book, which has been used in the district for seven years and is recommended by the California Department of Education, is being challenged by a small group of parents.

The Newport Beach situation is not the first time that Leece, who wanted trustees to post the Ten Commandments in district classrooms, has tried to remove books from the reading list. Indeed, at a Jan. 23 school board meeting trustees approved the book “Biology: Principles and Explorations” over Leece’s objection.

When the board meets Feb. 13 it should add the books to its reading list. The district already has a policy of requiring parents’ permission before their children can read or see books and films that are controversial. That’s more than enough safeguard.

Education is not about insulating students from learning experiences that books offer. Rather it should broaden their viewpoints and expose them to ideas. School trustees should vigorously resist efforts to do otherwise.