CLEVELAND, Ohio -- State school board President Debe Terhar has drawn criticism this week for objecting to the Ohio Department of Education listing the novel "The Bluest Eye" by Lorain native Toni Morrison -- a Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning author -- as an example of writing that teachers can use in high school classes.



Terhar, according to reports by public radio's StateImpact Ohio and the Columbus Dispatch, called descriptions in the book of a rape of a young girl by her father "pornographic" and said she would not want children reading it. She also said the book should not be promoted by the state in its listings of works to use under the new Common Core standards.



Terhar, of Cincinnati, declined to talk to The Plain Dealer on Wednesday, instead referring questions to an ODE spokesman. On Thursday, she and the department released a written statement in which Terhar reiterated part of her position.

"I do not personally believe these passages are suitable for school-age children," the statement said. It also said, "Nothing more and nothing less should be inferred. In particular, no disparagement was meant towards the celebrated career of Ohio author Toni Morrison."

The same section of the book has drawn attention from Common Core opponents in other states. But Terhar said her comments are not ammunition against the Common Core, a new multi-state set of standards that supporters say will encourage more critical thinking by covering fewer subjects in more depth.

"I remain completely supportive of Ohio’s new learning standards and those comments should not be construed to indicate that my commitment has waned," she wrote.

State board colleague Mary Rose Oakar, who represents much of Northeast Ohio on the board, told The Plain Dealer on Thursday she was "disappointed" in Terhar. Oakar was not at Tuesday's board meeting because of a primary election in Cleveland that day, but she said she heard about the remarks and thinks Terhar is misguided.

She said that Morrison, a black author who was poor as a youngster growing up in Lorain, can be an inspiration to students in places like Cleveland and Lorain.

"A junior in high school is not going to be shocked by what happens (in the book)," Oakar said. "If you think young people don't know about crimes like this, I think you're wrong."

"She has a right to her opinion," Oakar continued. "But I am not for censorship of authors like Toni Morrison."

State board member Kathleen McGervey, of Avon, whose district includes Lorain, did not return a call placed to her office Thursday. A phone number listed on her state board Internet page had a full voice mail.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio also has challenged Terhar, sending her a letter Tuesday.



"Unfortunately your comments are another in a long history of arguments that advocate the banning of African-American literature because it is 'too controversial' for schoolchildren," ACLU Ohio Executive Director Christine Link wrote. "Rather than removing these books, the ACLU encourages schools to use controversial literature as an opportunity to improve students critical thinking skills and to create open dialogue between students and the community."

Link invited Terhar to a Sept. 26 event at Columbus Dance Theater that will include works by Morrison as part of the ACLU's "Banned Books Week."

Earlier this year, Terhar was criticized by board members for making a post on Facebook that seemed to compare President Barack Obama's gun control policies to Hitler. The board voted not to remove her from the board or as its president after she apologized for the post. Oakar was among those that voted for her removal.



Morrison's book is included in a 10-page list of examples of writing that schools can use in an appendix to the multi-state Common Core standards. The ODE website contains a link to this appendix.

A single paragraph of text from the book is included later in the full 183-page document. That paragraph does not include the rape account.

It reads:

Morrison, Toni.

The Bluest Eye

New York: Random House, 2007. 121–122. (1970)

"One winter Pauline discovered she was pregnant. When she told Cholly, he surprised her by being pleased. He began to drink less and come home more often. They eased back into a relationship more like the early days of their marriage, when he asked if she were tired or wanted him to bring her something from the store. In this state of ease, Pauline stopped doing day work and returned to her own housekeeping. But the loneliness in those two rooms had not gone away. When the winter sun hit the peeling green paint of the kitchen chairs, when the smoked hocks were boiling in the pot, when all she could hear was the truck delivering furniture downstairs, she thought about back home, about how she had been all alone most of the time then too, but that this lonesomeness was different. Then she stopped staring at the green chairs, at the delivery truck; she went to the movies instead. There in the dark her memory was refreshed, and she succumbed to her earlier dreams. Along with the idea of romantic love, she was introduced to another— physical beauty. Probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought. Both originated in envy, thrived in insecurity, and ended in disillusion. In equating physical beauty with virtue, she stripped her mind, bound it, and collected self-contempt by the heap. She forgot lust and simple caring for. She regarded love as possessive mating, and romance as the goal of the spirit. It would be for her a wellspring from which she would draw the most destructive emotions, deceiving the lover and seeking to imprison the beloved, curtailing freedom in every way."