High school district arbitrarily bans a great work of literature

By Dave Waddell
August 23, 2004

Oscar Wilde once wrote: "The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame." Wilde wasn't referring to Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye," recently banned by spineless administrators in the Shasta Union High School District, but he might as well have been.

I don't know what was more troubling -- the district's arbitrary, rather secretive censorship decision or the subsequent silence from the community. To my knowledge, there has not been one editorial, not one letter to the editor, not one follow-up story. No wonder it is so easy to censor great literature.

Here's what I gather to be the facts after reading the Record Searchlight's one-sided news account published July 26:

Enterprise High School teacher Amy Garrett, described by district Superintendent Mike Stuart as "one of the best English teachers in the district," wanted to make reading "The Bluest Eye" an "option" for students in her Advanced Placement English class. Last spring, she went through the district's established process for getting a book approved for classroom use. The steps included presentation of the novel at a public board meeting and putting it on display at the district office for 30 days. "The Bluest Eye" passed muster without objection and was approved.

But then, horror of horrors, a parent -- one parent, it seems -- complained about the content of the book, and the powers that be immediately caved. "Too graphic," proclaimed administrator Randy Brix. Whether such an important matter was taken back to the elected board of trustees for public hearing, as it should have been, the R-S story didn't say.

For some reason, the story also did not identify the parent, but it would not surprise me if he or she is not unlike Rosalyn Strode, who recently objected to "The Bluest Eye" being taught in junior and senior honors classes at East Bakersfield High School. In so doing, Strode talked about what God thinks and how the book was the "vile and perverted imagination of a demented mind."

Now, I think of Bakersfield more as the country-music capital of California than a place of progressive thinking. Yet Kern High School District Superintendent Bill Hatcher, instead of at first blush banning the book, appointed a committee of administrators, teachers and community members to review it. The committee supported its use unanimously and, after an emotional public hearing, the school board agreed.

A quick Google search turned up only one recent banning of "The Bluest Eye" -- in Redding. That same search found that the novel is listed on recommended reading lists at scores, if not hundreds, of middle schools and high schools across the nation. They include Liberty Christian School in Huntington Beach, LaRue County High School in Hodgenville, Ky., Malden Catholic High School in Boston and South Mecklenburg High School in Charlotte, N.C., just to name a few.

Is "The Bluest Eye" graphic? Absolutely. It's also difficult, disturbing, haunting. It is, as Hatcher described it, "a tough read." But it's an important literary work that high school students in the upper grades should be exposed to. In the hands of a good and careful teacher, its content would make for meaningful and educational classroom discussion.

Oscar Wilde had it right about censorship: "The Bluest Eye" is a book about the world's shame. Are Redding's 17- and 18-year-olds so sheltered and delicate that they can't handle it?

Dave Waddell teaches journalism at Chico State University. He lives in Redding.

Copyright 2004, Redding. All Rights Reserved.