A few weeks ago, a book, “The Upside of Unrequited,” was “moved” from the Sparta Middle School to the Sparta High School.
While several parents have expressed their approval of the Sparta Board of Education, I find this book ban problematic for a number of reasons.
First, select members of the Sparta Board of Education rejected an unbiased committee of professionals, which voted, 5-2, in favor of keeping the challenged text designated to the middle school.
The members of the BOE who advocated for this ban have been collaborating with the sole complainant of the book for nearly a year on sites and pages meant to divide us as citizens and dismantle public education itself.
The odds of every board member having read the book are slim at best. These facts instantly compromise the intentions of these select members of the board.
Second, as we see notoriously sweeping bookshelves in states like Florida, the movement to ban books under the guise of “inappropriate content” seems to have arrived in our beloved district.
This book was not the first and surely will not be the last. When does this crusade end? What consequences will this have on our district’s rankings, our future property values, and the access to education through books and resources that our children are constitutionally entitled to?
Last, this orchestrated ban (and every consequent ban sure to follow) sends a clear and unfortunate message to our teachers, staff and district professionals. By overturning committee findings as a board and equipping unqualified parents with the ability to wage cancel culture tactics upon our district, our professionals are left feeling hopeless, unappreciated, unheard and undermined.
This is a major problem with severe consequences, as the teachers and staff in Sparta are paramount to our longstanding success as a district.
I respect any parent’s right to request that their child does not have access to a given book. Send an email, make specific requests, and watch how swiftly the involved school parties will honor and uphold them.
But when you remove the opportunity to explore new perspectives from my children in the name of a subjective and dubious set of morals, I will push back every time.
The author of this book, Becky Albertalli, discussed the recent ban in Sparta. She encourages parents with, “Read it. As an adult, if your eighth-grader, your seventh-grader, whoever, is interested, read it. Know what’s in it, what you’re talking about. And if your kid still wants to read it, chances are they’re going to find a way.
“Wouldn’t you rather them talk to you about it? You can have a conversation with them. I’m not saying you have to have the conversation that I would have with my kids about it, you can have a conversation about why you think it’s inappropriate. Let that be a dialogue.
“Don’t pretend that these books contain content that they don’t. Don’t lie about why you object to them. Have respect for your kids and other people’s kids.”
The Sparta Board of Education should spend every moment working to address the status of our elementary facilities rather than wasting its time on matters the majority in our township are not concerned with.
Much like the sex-education standards, it appears the Sparta Board of Education’s priorities are out of touch with Sparta residents’ reality.
Discussing referendums would be time better spent than discussing books that have been on our library shelves for years.
As a select few work to remove access to books and resources in our district and are apparently supported by select members of the board in the process, we choose to respect and support our professionals.
The upside of respect has far more potential and can accelerate our district far beyond the downside of censorship.
Kaitlin Gagnon
Sparta
