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Lake Los Angeles, California
The Wilsona School District board has approved new library book-selection guidelines in the wake of trustees' controversial decision to remove twenty-three books including the latest Harry Potter book from a list recommended for a school library. Books now cannot depict drinking alcohol, smoking, drugs, sex, including "negative sexuality," implied or explicit nudity, cursing, violent crime or weapons, gambling, foul humor and "dark content."
"In selected instances, an occasional inappropriate word may be deleted with white-out rather than rejecting the entire book," the policy said.
"We realize there might be a story about police, but that's not violent crime, that's police doing good," Superintendent Ned McNabb said. "There's no way you can take the judgment out of it. You frame it better so it's easier to know what the guidelines are."
The new guidelines, which were approved June 22, were developed by a committee consisting of McNabb, board President Sharon Toyne and trustee Patricia Greene. The board voted February 16 to remove the twenty-three books from a list of 68 that had been recommended by a parent-teacher committee for the Vista San Gabriel Elementary School library. The list had been forwarded for board approval.
Trustees said one rejected book contained an unsavory hero who was a bad role model for children; another was about a warlock, which they said was inappropriate; and others were books with which they were unfamiliar and didn't know whether they promoted good character or conflicted with textbooks.
Rejected titles included three bilingual Clifford the Big Red Dog books, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Disney s Christmas Storybook, and two books from the Artemis I7OwI series, whose namesake character was described in reviews as a boy-genius anti-hero and criminal mastermind.
At a March board meeting, trustees indicated that they planned to bring some of the axed books back for approval, such as the Clifford and Disney books. They said these books were not objectionable but were nevertheless lumped in with the rejected books. The board rejection upset some parents and surprised school officials.
It was unclear whether Harry Potter books would be allowed under the new guidelines. "In my opinion, that's one of the tougher judgments. Most would and some might not," McNabb said. "The general consensus...