Columbia County high school students will have a few less options for reading material after three books recommended by teachers were not approved by the school district and might not be in the schools' media centers.

The books are "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," which depicts an autistic 15-year-old investigating the death of a neighbor's dog; Dear Martin," a novel about an African American private school student who starts a journal of letters to Martin Luther King Jr. about his struggles in life, including a violent encounter between him, a friend and a police officer; and "Regeneration," which is about a British World War I soldier who refuses to continue serving and is sent to a mental hospital.

"The information that was provided was just unacceptable," Superintendent Sandra Carraway said.

Each school year, the District Reading Resources Professional Learning Community, sometimes referred to as the Novel Committee, submits a list of supplemental novels recommended for reading in English courses in high schools. Each book is reviewed by two teachers who are asked to provide the reading difficulty and page numbers of any potential areas of concern, including profanity or sexual content. The list is reviewed by Carraway, and approved books are voted on by the school board.

Committee members submitted this year's recommendations last spring and were specifically asked in an email Aug. 6, the day before school began, to provide a list of page numbers of any sex or rape scenes, graphic depictions or profanity other than "hell" or "damn." Carraway said that after reviewing the list of books, there were three she was not willing to bring to the board for approval because of the explicit content. She does not recall having to do this in the past.

"As a former English teacher and an English major, when we're charged with educating children – people's children – we act in the place of parents, and it's our decision to decide does the literary value of a novel outweigh potential areas of concern," she said. "Just like at (sporting events) we do not let them play music with explicit language. They either have to play music that has been cleaned up or not play those songs."

Carraway said the district does not have a process to decide what books are allowed in the media centers but will begin looking at a review procedure.

"We absolutely recognize we should because books like 'Dear Martin' and the content in that book – it's not a book that we would want sitting on a shelf," she said. "We're a public school district charged with educating children, and we have a certain level of responsibility for ensuring that the material that they have access to that's provided by us is appropriate."

The 14 books presented to the board for approval in September included "Jurassic Park," "Into the Wild" and a classroom edition of "The Martian," some of which also contain explicit language, including the F-word on multiple occasions. All of the books presented were approved by the board.

Carraway said there was discussion of having teachers redact profanity and other content from all copies of those books. After further discussion with teachers and principals, if a teacher uses one of the books that contains questionable material, a notice will go home to parents and they will be given the option to receive a redacted copy of the novel. This method has been used previously if the teacher decided to do so.

"That's our way of being sensitive to different people's values and ideals and that when their children are in school with us they can count on the content of what they're studying or reading to be age appropriate," she said.

When asked why the books that were not recommended could not be redacted, Carraway said "the content was extreme."

The Novel Committee will meet Wednesday to continue discussions about the approved books.

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