School District to Decide Whether to Ban Book

Kern High School District administrators are set to decide next week whether to ban a Toni Morrison book from the district’s recommended reading list after several parents objected to the novel’s provocative content.

“The Bluest Eye,” a national bestseller, tells a story of a young girl’s troubled childhood, including dealing with racism and her sexual abuse by her father.

“The book addresses some difficult issues that people have to deal with, and in doing so, it has to invoked some images that have made some parents uncomfortable,” district spokesman John Teves said Friday. “The question is, ‘Is this material appropriate for the classroom?’ ”