Writers on Restore Ottawa strongly believe in the first amendment. We do not believe in censorship, but do believe in providing our children with great opportunities. We also believe the schools have a responsibility to protect our children from books that have the potential to harm them because they may not be age appropriate. What we are asking is for the school to rate books by age appropriateness and label books that contain controversial topics or have the potential to harm children who stumble across them. Examples could include extreme violence, sexually explicit, sexual violence, teen drinking and/or drug use, and politically charged (abortion, global warming, BLM). If the book requires a label, parental permission should be required for access.
The book My Mother the Cheerleader by Robert Sharenow is available to kids in the library at Central High School in Grand Haven. It was set in 1960 in New Orleans. Louise, a 13-year-old girl went to the school Ruby Bridges attended just after the court segregation decision. Unfortunately, the townspeople were not excited about having an African American child attend the school. Not excited is in fact a vast understatement. The townspeople protested each and every morning outside the school as Ruby entered. Pauline, Louise’s mother was one of the protesters outside the school and sarcastically referred to as a cheerleader. This historical fiction book is actually a great way for children to learn how everyday people felt about segregation.
This book contained very little if any vulgar language, but it did contain some sexual content and violence. I am a strong believer in the first amendment, and therefore do not believe in book banning or censorship. There are two aspects of this book however, that make it difficult for me to advocate children having unrestricted access to it while at school. The first is that the book contains a rape scene as well as a few sexual scenes. The rape scene happens on page 225 and is not overly graphic, but it clearly describes a rape. If children are reading books about illegal sexual acts of violence, parents have a right to know so that they can discuss these topics with their children. Simply giving parents access to the history of library books their child has checked out is insufficient. Because this book contains a rape scene it should be rated 15+ and the school should require parental permission before children have access to this book.
My second concern is that this is an anti-parent book. This means that the parent is an antagonist in the story. In My Mother the Cheerleader, Pauline, the mother, runs a bed-and-breakfast. She drinks lime-mint juleps every afternoon and sleeps with many of the guests and local men. She is mean to her daughter, forces her to cook meals for the guests, and makes her empty the bedpan of their permanent resident. Reading an occasional book where the parent is the antagonist will not harm children. Unfortunately, the anti-parent theme is common in many modern library books and over time this common theme chips away at the parent-child relationship and family structure of our communities. I would allow my child to read this book considering that child were over the age of 15 and I had the opportunity to discuss the book with my child.