Virginia’s education board is considering regulations that would give parents the right to veto school set texts with sexually explicit content, worrying civil liberties groups that it could be used to ban books as varied as Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five and The Diary of Anne Frank from state classrooms.
The rules would compel schools to warn parents of any set reading they may find objectionable, the Washington Post reports. They would also require schools to provide suitable alternative texts if parents object.
PEN America and the Authors Guild are among six signatories of a letter sent by the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia to the state’s board of education expressing opposition to the proposals. The letter argues that the use of the term “sexually explicit” is vague and potentially prejudicial, leaving texts such as Romeo and Juliet, The Diary of Anne Frank and Brave New World in danger of being red-flagged as objectionable.
Virginia ACLU’s Claire Guthrie Gastañaga said: “This is not good policy, and it’s treading on dangerous legal ground. We’ll be evaluating what happens at every step of the way.”
Teachers’ groups warned that flagging sexually explicit content would undermine broader themes in set texts. Sarah Crain, advocacy chair for the Virginia Association of Teachers of English, told The Washington Post: “The big concern is when you take a label that has a very broad definition and you reduce a book or a work down to something that is a mere decontextualised fragment of the work … that actually impedes the ability for teachers and parents to have informed conversations.”
It is the latest salvo in a battle that has raged in the state between teachers and parental and religious groups. It marks the revival of a bill that was passed by the Virginia General Assembly last year following complaints from a single parent about Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved being on the curriculum, despite featuring a sex scene. Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe vetoed the bill and expressed support for school boards to monitor what materials are appropriate for students.
Already about half of the state’s schools warn parents of material they feel may be sensitive or controversial and some allow parents to request alternative texts. In December, the policy led to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and To Kill A Mockingbird being pulled from schools in one district after a parent objected to their use of the N-word. The decision was later reversed.
Proponents of the measures claim parents need to be explicitly warned because they are too busy to read through set texts. Laura Murphy, the parent who initially tried to have Beloved banned, told the Washington Post that the burden should be on teachers to explain “why it’s worthwhile and why it’s a good read and a valuable component of the child’s education”.
The proposals will be reviewed by the board of education on 26 January.
• This article was amended on 2 February 2017 to clarify that the measure under consideration by Virginia’s board of education was not a bill.
