Illinois: Controversial Book Headed Back to Glen Ellyn District 41 Library Shelves
From The Daily Herald:
A controversial book removed in April from eighth-grade classrooms at Hadley Junior High School in Glen Ellyn will be back on the shelves when students return to class in the fall.
The Glen Ellyn Elementary District 41 school board voted 6-1 Monday to overturn the decision by a previous board to remove copies of “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” from eighth-grade literacy classrooms at Hadley over concerns about sexually explicit content and language.
Most board members were willing to reinstate the book after assurances from district administrators that a revised parental notification letter would be sent at the start of each school year warning parents that their children could be getting access to sometimes mature content in classroom libraries.
Parents would have to sign the letter and return it to school before their child could check out books from the classroom library. They could also comment on the letter if there are texts they do not want their child reading.
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Opponents of the book, including Lisa DiGiacoma, a Glen Ellyn resident, said teachers who wore pins and necklaces to school with the words “freedom” and “stop banning books” were pouring “gasoline on an already inflamed and contentious issue.”
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.