The Moore County Board of Education banned four books, “The Bluest Eye,” “Eleanor & Park,” “Looking for Alaska” and “Crank,” from school libraries at its Jan. 16 regular meeting.
On Jan. 8, Moore County Schools Deputy Superintendent Dr. Mike Metcalf and Director for Curriculum and Instruction Donna Gephart shared the recommendations of the District Media and Technology Advisory Review Committee for nine challenged books.
With a vote of 4-2, the board accepted the committee recommendations for “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini to remain in Union Pines and Pinecrest High schools with no restrictions. The story covers bullying and suicide.
With a vote of six for removal and one for keeping by board member Stacey Caldwell, “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison is no longer available at Moore County schools. The book review committee recommended the “highly pervasive vulgar” book, as described by Chair Robert Levy, with no restrictions.
With a vote of six for removal and one for keeping by Caldwell, “Eleanor & Park” by Rainbow Rowell will no longer be available.
“Started off as beautiful teenage story, but the longer you got into it, was disgusting and vulgar,” board member Pauline Bruno said about making the motion for its removal.
Board member Philip Holmes made the motion to accept the committee’s recommendation to keep “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie at Union Pines High School with no restrictions and to make it available at middle schools.
The book review committee stated Alexie’s book contained alcohol use and profanity.
Vice Chair Shannon Davis made the motion for parental approval of Alexie’s book at middle schools, with it remaining unlimited accessibility at high schools, and the vote passed unanimously.
The board accepted the committee’s recommendation for “Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher for grades nine through 12 with no restrictions and only with parental permission for grades six through eight at middle schools. The story shows the impact of bullying when a girl dies by suicide.
With a vote of 6-1, “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson will be available for grades eight through 12. Davis voted against it.
According to the committee, Anderson’s story is about a high school freshman girl who was raped over the summer. She called 911, and all her friends bullied her. The story is about how she overcame trauma to find her voice.
Caldwell was the only member to vote against removing “Looking for Alaska” by John Green for high schools with no restrictions and only with parental permission for grades seven and eight, which Bruno said was pornographic. It will be removed.
In a 6-1 vote, Caldwell voted against removing the book Levy said was “totally, unequivocally educationally unsuitable.” The book “Crank” by Ellen Hopkins is no longer available.
The board accepted the committee’s recommendations for “City of Heavenly Fire: The Mortal Instruments” by Cassandra Clare for grades six through 12 with no restrictions.
“The novel was challenged for the violence … Sexuality was not a theme but mentioned in the novel with lacking details. The description was not descriptive nor explicit or vulgar,” the committee wrote in its report about Clare’s book.
Board member David Hensley said he opposed the banning of book votes because the school board is the ultimate in-judicator yet is not impartial, based on book review committees composed of five members when Moore County has over 100,000 citizens.
“Any one of them could have stepped up and challenged these books,” Hensley said about the board stepping in because the state’s general statute allows citizens to challenge books, but in 2022, the school board approved Levy’s recommendation to remove citizens from challenging books.
Levy said the extreme financial impact drove his recommendation to remove citizens from challenging books without the support of a board member to propose a ban.
“I do welcome any member of the board to propose a policy which is different from this policy,” Levy said.
Caldwell proposed donating the banned books to the public library, and the board said it would discuss listing them as surplus to mark as donations.
Caldwell, along with Hensley, was originally against the reviewing of questionable books that Holmes brought up last summer.
Read about the banned book discussions from October 2023.
To hear about other topics discussed at the school board meeting, watch the video here.
Feature photo: The Moore County Board of Education/Photo via the school district.
~Written by Sandhills Sentinel journalist Stephanie M. Sellers; BS Mass Communications and Journalism, MFA Creative Writing. Stephanie is also an English instructor at Central Carolina Community College and Father Vincent Capodanno High School. She is the author of young adult fiction, including When the Yellow Slugs Sing and Sky’s River Stone, and a scholarly fiction on North Carolina’s Tuscarora natives, which is available at the Special Collections Library at UNC-CH.
