Banning a Book Near You

We call them school librarians, but in these contentious times, I'm inclined to call them heroes.

Take Karin Perry, for example. That's "Mrs. Perry" to you middle schoolers. She cast the winning bid in an auction to bring best-selling author Ellen Hopkins to speak to her students at Whittier Middle School in Norman, Okla.

This was a big "whoo-hoo!" for Perry's students. Hopkins writes fiction for adolescents, including "Crank," a heartbreaking tale of a bright 15-year-old girl whose life is derailed by her addiction to methamphetamine. Hopkins wrote the book after her own gifted daughter went to prison for the same drug addiction.

Hopkins often talks to students about the dangers of drugs, but Mrs. Perry asked her to talk last week about writing. Students were bubbling with questions, but they never were allowed to ask Hopkins any of them on school grounds.

One parent didn't like the content of Hopkins' book. That's all it took for Superintendent Joe Siano to order a committee review of the book and to disinvite the celebrated author.

Now is as good a time as any to mention that this is Banned Books Week, which is sponsored annually by the American Library Association to celebrate the freedom to read.

The ALA says there were at least 513 challenges to books last year but that nearly 80 percent of such challenges never are reported. It takes only one — one parent, one family, one community member — to jump-start a crusade to deprive everyone else's children of the right to read.

Here are some of the authors whose books have been challenged across the country in the past two years: Mark Twain, Toni Morrison, John Steinbeck, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Julia Alvarez, Ernest Gaines, Kurt Vonnegut, Khaled Hosseini, Bobbie Ann Mason and J.D. Salinger.

Hacks, every last one of them.

The call to ban Hopkins' book was endorsed heartily by local newscaster Kelly Ogle, who hadn't read the whole thing but did count the F-bombs. In a segment aptly titled "My 2 Cents," Ogle also accused Hopkins of painting "an ugly and graphic picture" of meth addiction.

Hopkins told me she has received thousands of letters from teenagers who say her books helped them turn their lives around. She also said she is seeing an uptick in attempts by individual parents to ban books by her and other authors, and she thinks she knows why.

"They're definitely emboldened by what happened with Obama's speech," she said, referring to the president's televised address to students a few weeks ago. His speech was banned in many classrooms across the country after school districts buckled like brittle knees to conservatives who objected even before knowing its content.

President Obama's speech was praised widely later as positive and inspiring, even by many conservative leaders. But the damage was done, Hopkins said.

"These are scary times for librarians and teachers. All it takes now is for one parent to object. If we let them win, they're just going to keep doing it."

Not in Karin Perry's patch of America, they aren't.

Mrs. Perry couldn't speak to me without permission from her superintendent, who never returned my call. Not to worry. Sometimes it's true that actions speak louder than words. Let me tell you what she did.

Mrs. Perry asked Hopkins whether she still would come. The answer was yes. Then she asked Hillsdale Free Will Baptist College — love the name — whether she could move Hopkins' talk to their campus. The college said yes.

About 150 students, parents, teachers and librarians attended last week's speech. So far, there are no reports of fainting or even frantic fanning of faces. But as we all know, it only takes one person to declare otherwise before you're smack-dab in the middle of a dust storm over the First Amendment.

If that wind kicks up dirt on your corner, may there be a Karin Perry at a library near you.

Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and the author of two books from Random House, "Life Happens" and "... and His Lovely Wife." She is a featured contributor in a recently released book by Bloomsbury, "The Speech: Race and Barack Obama's 'A More Perfect Union.'" To find out more about Connie Schultz (cschultz@plaind.com) and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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