Johanna
Regarding the specter of being fired, you are probably tenured and they
would need something much more egregious than you having a sub read
Tango to your children. See your union people for assurance. (And,
frankly, I don't see anything you did for which to apologize.)
Along with a reconsideration policy, you should also have a well-defined
process that deals with complaints. Ideally, difficult decisions (keep
the book or not?) should be committee-based, rather than administrative
power-based.
Don't go it alone. Find allies within your school. Be respectful of
opinions other than yours, but don't collapse in the face of those
opinions. Use book reviews--other voices, along with your own, to
bolster any argument you may have. Maintain the dignity you deserve.
thomas neil tomporowski
Perham High School LMC
Prairie Wind Middle School LMC
Perham, MN , USA 56573
ttomporowski@perham.k12.mn.us
www.perham.k12.mn.us/phs/staff/ttomporowski
-----Original Message-----
From: School Library Media & Network Communications
[mailto:LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of JH@newsonglibrary.org
Sent: Sunday, April 01, 2007 8:07 AM
To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: ELEM: HELP!! Banning books?
Dear Netters,
I am a bit frantic because I'm changing providers and haven't had email
for
over a week. So I'm trying to do this via web mail. In case I cannot
get
your answers in my email box, could you please send your responses to
the
list?
I read And Tango Makes Three to my second graders. This is a true story
of
two male penguins in the Central Park Zoo in NYC who were partners and
who
raised a chick. (Their keeper put an egg in their nest.) I had a sub
for
a day and I learned a week after the fact that she had some something to
the principal about it. The principal, who is new this year, took the
book
to the superintendent. He threatened to consider firing me if anything
else about like this happened again. [He listed two other times I had
done
this, niether of which had anything to do with me.] I had gotten my hand
slapped six or so years ago for thrying to deal with homophobic name
calling in a fourth grade class.
Being terrified of losing my job, I wrote a letter that said I had made
an
error in judgement, apologized, but refuted the two accusations that had
nothing to do with me. I went back to my library and started pulling
all
books with a mention of two moms or two dads, or a gay uncle, or...
Then I
looked at what I was doing and started feeling sick to my stomach. I
thought the penguin story was benign. The super's got a reputation for
hard ball, followed by broken glass. He wasn't here when the
name-calling
incident happened, so all of his evidence is from documents in my file.
I don't know what to do. I don't know the principal well enough to talk
about any aspect of this. I come to a complete halt at the thought of
removing all books with even a mention of same-gender partners. But I
wince at what might happen if a student takes out one of these books and
a
conservative parent files a complaint. Yes, I have a reconsideration
policy. But if the super got wind of any challenge, I know he'll
override
it.
Thanks!
Johanna
Johanna Halbeisen
Woodland Elementary K-4
Southwick, MA 10177
JH@newsonglibrary.org
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