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Ga. School Board Removes Eight V. C. Andrews Books
by C.K. Source: American Libraries, November 1994, News Front section In Oconee County, Ga., where the growing population is changing the area from a rural, small town into a suburban community, the clash of the "newcomers'" values is being felt in the high school media center. Parents are irate that the school board is attempting to impose its religious beliefs. On Sept. 12, the board voted to uphold the recommendation of a 19-member system-wide media committee to remove eight titles by horror writer V.C. Andrews and to restrict access to a ninth title, after a parent challenged them. "We felt it was not appropriate material and it does not supplement our curriculum," said Kay Shepard, a member of the school board and the committee that reviewed the books. Resident Patrick Beall told AL there is a strong fundamentalist presence on the board. "The voters were asleep at the wheel when they allowed fundamentalist Christians on the school board," Beall said. Parents didn't mobilize until the controversy heated up July 11, when the board ordered the committee by a vote of four-to-one to screen the system's entire 40,000-book collection and all new acquisitions. The board told the committee to remove any books containing "sexually explicit or pornographic" material. Parents and community members felt the board overrode the school's existing policy for dealing with material challenges and provided no recourse for parents who don't want books removed. "We were just asking the board to follow the policy already in effect," said Bill Yarborough, one of the organizers of Resolving Educational Adversity Diplomatically (READ), an anti-censorship group formed to monitor the board's actions. Yarborough told AL that the group began as a committee of nine and 427 people joined at the first meeting. In late July, READ called for the resignation of School Board Chairman Kenneth Bridges, saying he was not a legal resident of the county, a requirement for belonging to the school board. Bridges resigned, leaving an open seat on the five-person board, which had not been filled by mid-October. The public outcry increased until the board on Aug. 1 rescinded its order to purge the collection. Shepard told AL she was not surprised by the extent of the public response but she added that she felt that "the media blew the whole thing out of proportion." Besides extensive coverage in the local papers, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution took up the cause, with news reports and an editorial. READ members aren't happy with the decision to remove the Andrews books, but Beall told AL that no legal actions are planned. Instead, the group will watch the board closely and will stay politically active. Yarborough said the issue the board raised is larger than just a community problem, even in a growing area like Oconee county. "This is bigger than a local issue," he told AL. "This has drawn a lot of lines: they are calling us liberals but we mostly fell like we're middle-of-the-road folks."
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