TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON, N.J.—The regional school board gave itself a reading assignment: digest three books with mature themes and language that Westwood Regional Middle School parents have been arguing have the potential to do irrevocable harm and should be pulled from school.
When the board meets Thursday, July 25 at 7:30 p.m. in Hurley Theater, they’ll take a closer look at an administration report they accepted at their previous meeting that says the books should stay.
From there, they may keep the books as indicated or take other action with an eye toward setting a policy that could give parents greater insight into what titles the school stocks at its media center.
In the center of a tempest strengthening since spring are three popular young adult novels available for seventh-graders in Westwood and the Township of Washington to pull from class shelves for personal choice reading and optional discussion:
- “Boot Camp” by Todd Strasser, detailing scenes of brutal physical and psychological abuse. Says “Publishers Weekly,” “Strasser offers no easy answers, and nimbly navigates a host of moral gray areas.”
- “Can’t Get There From Here” also by Todd Strasser. “School Library Journal” says the novel offers “A powerful and disturbing look at the downward spiral of despair that remains too common for too many teens.”
- “Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher, the story of a young high school student as she descends into despair brought on by betrayal and bullying, culminating with her suicide.
Banned Books Week online says that title was the most challenged of 2017 and calls the text “a valuable tool in igniting conversations about suicide, bullying, and consent.”
One of the parents who complained on the school’s website and in person is Michael Pontillo, who also is Westwood’s chief of police.
Another is Michelle Sembler, who told Pascack Press that she’s not opposed to difficult material being explored, just so long as it’s done under supervision, the material has been reviewed for the curriculum, and parents are informed.
“The topics are not in the seventh grade health curriculum, L.E.A.D program, or course guide for language arts,” Sembler said in part.
She added that the books lack opposing views on controversial issues.
“Each book is told from one point of view—the main character—in a fictional story. How is that educational? Anybody can write a book. I can write a book,” she said.
Pontillo said at the board meetings of April 25 and June 27 that “Boot Camp” and “Can’t Get There From Here” alone are disturbingly inappropriate.
He explained that they specifically expose kids to active shooter planning, bomb making, burglary and theft, shooting and murdering others, “having sex repeatedly with your teacher,” drug and alcohol use; kidnapping, torture, prostitution, pedophilia, sexual abuse, and suicide.
He said, “From an educational standpoint is there any difference in an unsupervised child reading a book or reading the same content over the internet? If the material is objectionable on a screen it’s still objectionable in print form.”
He added, “Can someone from the district show any material that shows a positive result from exposing children at an early age to violence or graphic sexual content?”
Pontillo said, “If a district parent invited kids the age of their middle school children over and made available to them graphic sexual material, would the district find that acceptable? The answer should be a resounding no.”
A national discussion around series
“Thirteen Reasons Why” was adapted into a more graphic Netflix series linked to a rise in youth suicides. Last week Netflix edited the central suicide scene two years after the show originally premiered.
As “Variety” reported, “The scene now depicts actress Katherine Langford staring at her own reflection in the mirror before cutting to her parents’ reaction in a later scene. There is no longer any depiction of the character’s suicide.”
“Thirteen Reasons Why” received recognition and awards from several young adult literary associations. The paperback edition reached #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list in July 2011.
In the series, which replaces the title’s “Thirteen” with “13,” high school student Hannah Baker leaves behind 13 taped recordings detailing why she took her own life. Her former classmates are left to piece together Hannah’s final weeks in a made-for-television mystery.
The series deviates from the book, including name changes, plot elements, and character personalities. For example, the novel has Hannah taking pills to end her life; the series had her cutting her wrists.
After the show’s release, school psychologists criticized the novel’s premise for failing to address mental illness responsibly.
Middle schoolers read the books for fun
Following an author visit from Strasser, all three books were added to the WRMS language arts classroom library by Principal Shelley LaForgia, who on June 12 filed a committee report answering formally filed complaints from parents in May.
The committee’s four other members’ names have not been released, a decision some on the school board and in the public questioned at the June 27 meeting.
According to LaForgia in her report:
- “Boot Camp” and “Can’t Get There From Here” should remain in seventh grade classrooms “as the maturation level aligns with some seventh grade students, they provide opposing views on controversial issues, and contribute to variety of content.”
- “Thirteen Reasons Why” should be moved to the media center, “as the maturation level aligns with fewer students, but it still provides opposing views on controversial issues, and contributes to variety of content.”
- A full inventory of titles and their grade level locations should be made available to parents online to improve their ability to engage in their child’s reading.
- “A clearer explanation of the Reading Workshop model will be shared with parents, including an emphasis on the parent’s involvement in their child’s reading.”
LaForgia explained that library enrichment involves staying current with student interest and improving the variety of materials available. Student requests are taken into account.
“In particular, ‘Thirteen Reasons Why’ was added as a result of so many sixth and seventh grade students bringing the book in from home. We decided to only have it available in our seventh grade classrooms,” she said.
She said in the report, “All books are available for student choice; no student is required to read them.”
As well, she said, parents always have the ability to contact the teacher for an immediate change in selection and teachers meet regularly with students to confer on their choices and advise them accordingly.
“They teach students how to select titles that are both of interest and appropriate level, and encourage students to change if they do not like or are not comfortable with a book,” LaForgia said.
The titles of concern are present only in seventh grade classrooms. There are seven copies of “Boot Camp,” two copies of “Can’t Get There from Here,” and two copies of “Thirteen Reasons Why” in the Middle School.
The books are level Z and Z+, labeled with a black sticker on the spine, indicating that they are more mature in nature
As Board President Susan Sweitkowski read the report aloud June 27, one school mom in the audience gasped and was seen to weep.
The board balked on endorsing the report, saying it will take the matter up July 25 after all members read the material for themselves.
Wearing a business suit, not the uniform he wears when speaking on official matters, Pontillo called out LaForgia’s participation on the report committee a conflict of interest.
He said the school district’s “failure to act responsibly on behalf of the district students and staff is disheartening, saddening, and irresponsible.”
High schools warned parents on Netflix series
In spring 2017, Pascack Valley High School Superintendent Dr. P. Erik Gundersen and Emerson Superintendent Brian P. Gatens sent separate messages home advising that staff, as well as officials at the Bergen County Department of Education and National Association of School Psychologists, had become increasingly concerned about students viewing “13 Reasons Why” without a follow-up discussion with their parents or other responsible adult.
“In watching the series, young people and teens could interpret the message that suicide is a viable and/or romanticized option. The show’s content is extremely graphic, with disturbing scenes in each episode, which may be difficult for impressionable minds to watch and process in a healthy way,” Gundersen said.
‘Not about book banning’
Sembler told Pascack Press that local parents’ concerns should not be read as an effort to ban or censor books.
“Controversial issues should be explored fully. I understand that and am all for it. But these are in the classroom for young kids’ entertainment. It’s not giving them a fair representation of any of these issues,” she said.
At least, she said, the middle school should send home permission slips when a child requests to see such mature content.
“We expect the school to maintain a certain level of childhood for our kids. This isn’t about censorship, banning books, or who made a mistake, right or wrong: It’s about what’s best for our children,” she said.
Of the report defending the books, Sember, an electrical company vice president, said it was deficient and “hard to take seriously.” She said she was pleased the board has questions of its own.
Sembler told Pascack Press she got the word out on the books after she wrote WRMS Assistant Principal Kenneth Russo asking they not be offered at a book sale.
In Russo’s reply, a copy of which Pascack Press acquired, the administrator said the books would stay, noting none are required reading and that “Students and parents have the option to avoid books they are not comfortable with. We believe it is the right of the parents to decide what is considered appropriate for their child in this regard.”
He said board policy supports the idea that students are exposed to controversial issues and opposing views on those issues.
He also said it would be a form of censorship to restrict access to the books over “discomfort with ideas or topics, rather than the students’ ability to understand the book.”
He offered to share “valuable literature on the subject” with Sembler and thanked her for reaching out.
Meanwhile, the National Coalition Against Censorship says parents, administrators and teachers should work together to develop an understanding about how they will respond if material is challenged, recognizing that it is impossible to predict what may be challenged.
Educators should always have a rationale for the materials employed, “regardless of whether they think something is potentially controversial,” the organization advises in part.
Reading lists online
WRMS posted summer reading recommendations for seventh grade language arts. It does not include the books in question. The list’s “Z” level options include:
“Among The Hidden” by Margaret P. Haddix, “Fever 1793” by Laurie Halse Anderson, “Monster” by Walter Dean Myers, “Of Mice And Men” by John Steinbeck, “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton, “The Pearl” by John Steinbeck, “Son of the Mob” by Gordon Korman, “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson, “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, “Night” by Elie Wiesel, and “No Pretty Pictures” by Anita Lobel.
For more, visit wwrsd.org.