OJAI : Parents Speak Out for Disputed Book

Scores of parents crowded the Ojai Unified School District board meeting for the second consecutive meeting to discuss a controversial literature anthology that some say should be banned.

However, at Tuesday night’s meeting many more people spoke in favor of the textbook and supported the school board’s decision last month to stand by the anthology, Supt. Andrew Smidt said.

Dozens of angry parents said at a meeting last month that the 1,500-page book should be pulled from the freshman reading list because it contains profanity and passages that include sexual situations.

But school board trustees refused to ban the book and directed Smidt to send letters to the parents of all ninth-graders informing them of the book’s contents.

Under district policy, students or parents objecting to portions of the book can request alternate assignments, Smidt said.

“It’s a very legitimate role for citizens and parents to be able to speak on behalf of the educational needs of their children,” Smidt said.

“I regret we can’t satisfy everyone in the process,” he said. “But this is a public institution, and we can’t satisfy the needs of the most conservative or the most liberal people.”

At the previous meeting Oct. 19, only one parent spoke in favor of the textbook, called “Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama.”