National authors ask Indian River School Board to reinstate books it's removed from shelves

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — National authors spoke up this week, asking the School Board — which had removed their books from library shelves over concerns about their content — to reinstate their books.

Letters from young-adult novelist Jodi Picoult and children's book author Alan Gratz were among those read at Monday's board meeting, asking the board to return their books to the libraries.

Gratz's book, "Ban This Book," was removed in May by a 3-2 vote. Dr. Gene Posca, Kevin McDonald and Jacqueline Rosario voted in the majority, despite a recommendation from the district's book-review committee that the book remain on the shelves.

"The decision indicates that the removal was motivated by politics, and not what is best for the students and families of Indian River County," Gratz said in his letter. "The removal of 'Ban This Book' is a small part of a much larger epidemic of book banning across the United States. This backlash is a direct result of the incredibly modest yet hard-won gains we as a publishing community have begun to make in the diversification of children's books by or about traditionally unrepresented members of our communities."

He continued, "To remove my book because it dared to mention books you have already banned is erasure of the highest order."

The book was challenged by Jennifer Pippin, president of the Indian River County chapter of Moms for Liberty, over concerns it contained references to other works that had been removed because of sexually explicit content.

Pippin thanked the board for removing the book.

"Our children ages 4-12 that the book was available to in this school district deserve better reading material than that," Pippin said.

More: In a 3-2 vote, Indian River School Board bans a book about banning books

The board took no action on the requests.

Members of the local group Education Champions read the letters during the citizen-input portion of the meeting, saying the School Board's book removal has gained national and international attention.

"Please do the right thing, and place 'Ban This Book' back on the school shelves," said Marilyn LaVecchia, founding member of Education Champions of Indian River County. "We ask you to lead by example. Our children and the nation are watching and will judge us by your actions."

Some board members took exception to having their actions referred to as "book banning." Books are banned only when inaccessible, said Posca. Instead, he said, the books were "curated" from the school libraries. They still are accessible through public libraries and can be purchased on sites such as Amazon.com, he said.

"We took a children's library and we curated it free of pornographic material," Posca said. "A lot of the books that we banned had things like little girls being raped and extremely violent rape scenes that really were disgusting and offensive (and) were put in a positive light."

About 140 books challenged for containing explicit sexual content have been removed by the School Board in recent years. A few books removed last year were written by Picoult, including "Nineteen Minutes," a book about a school shooting and the effects of bullying.

"The reason it is banned is usually because of a single page that depicts a date rape and uses anatomically correct words for the human body," Picoult wrote in the letter. "It is not a gratuitous scene, and it is not salacious, yet it has been challenged as porn."

Picoult wrote that "hundreds" of children have told her "Nineteen Minutes" stopped them from committing a school shooting because it showed them they were not alone in feeling isolated.

"The book did not harm them. It gave them tools to deal with an increasingly divided and different world," she wrote. "That is what books do. They help kids see themselves in a different way. They help kids see the world in a different way."

More: 128 books under review in Indian River County school libraries; some already removed

More: Challenged books gone from Indian River County school libraries after School Board vote

Picoult asked the board to support those writers who "create windows from which kids can escape and mirrors from which they can find themselves."

Many of those challenging her books, she wrote, have never read the books, which help children learn and think for themselves.

"Make no mistake. What children are being exposed to (through her books) are ideas and lives different than their own, which creates compassion and empathy," she wrote. "Or, in some cases, children are being exposed to ideas and lives exactly like their own, which provides representation and validity and a sense of belonging."

Colleen Wixon is the education reporter for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers. She covers education issues and the school districts in Indian River, Martin and St. Lucie counties.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: National authors ask Indian River School Board to reinstate books it's removed from shelves