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'Repulsive' Text Spurs School Review

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By MARILYN BROWN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 13, 2007

Updated: 12/13/2007 12:14 am

TAMPA - Not all teenagers are reading "Harry Potter."

The Hillsborough County School Board discovered that at Tuesday's board meeting, when a mother read a graphic passage from a book her daughter checked out of her high school library.

School board chairwoman Jennifer Faliero stopped the mother in mid-sentence, later explaining that the passage - describing an attempted rape - was too explicit for the televised meeting.

"I totally agree with her," Faliero said Wednesday. She halted the reading because, "we got the message. She didn't need to go further due to the explicit language of the passage. That was repulsive."

The book, "Just Listen" by Sarah Dessen, is in every Hillsborough high school library, said Christine Van Brunt, the district's supervisor of media services for grades six through 12. As of Wednesday, all high schools were asked to mark that book with a sticker saying "for mature readers." A committee at Armwood High School will review it, she said.

The book is "realistic fiction," a favorite with teenagers, she said. It also is on the Florida Teens Read list recommended by the Florida Association for Media in Education, the state organization for media specialists.

"This book really deals with a sensitive topic," Van Brunt said, "I know the scene described was very intense."

Book Intended For Mature Readers

Van Brunt describes the story: The main character is at a party and her best friend's boyfriend tries to rape her. It never happens. Her friend sees it and the girl is blamed, accused of trying to steal her boyfriend. She didn't do anything. The book is how she deals with this.

"It's a story kids are probably going to be into reading," Van Brunt said. "The kids like reading about things that really happen - unfortunately, this really happens."

The assault scene with a graphic description of the drunk partygoer forcing himself on the victim makes the book for mature readers, she said.

The issue of what books are suitable for students surfaces periodically, usually when a parent discovers what his or her child is reading.

Books challenged in Hillsborough County are read and reviewed by a committee of parents, students and teachers at the particular school. The group then determines its fate, which may be appealed to a district committee.

Challenges rarely get to the district level and few are removed from shelves, Van Brunt said. The last book challenged at the district level was "The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers," in 2002, determined by a Durant High School committee to be accessible to all and by a King High committee to be accessible only through teachers.

The district committee kept the book, she said. "It was a reference book."

In the case of "Just Listen," the Armwood High committee will read the book over winter break, said Kay Salmon, a media specialist at the school. The school's five copies are in demand, Salmon said.

"The author is fantastic," Salmon said.

"This is probably one of the most popular group of books we have," Salmon said of the titles on the Florida Teens Read list for grades nine through 12. Brochures encourage teens to read all the books and include a brief synopsis of each of the 15 books on the list.

The books include stories about a teen dealing with an out-of-work, alcoholic father, a 15-year-old forced into slavery, a 16-year-old in the year 2076 living in a world where verbal abuse, obesity and dangerous activities are outlawed and a story of a 13-year-old girl from Nepal forced into prostitution in India.

The brochure's disclaimer says that "in order to engage their interest and to provide a spur to critical thinking, the book selections include those that involve sensitive issues." It also says that some content may not be suitable for every student and that is it a voluntary program.

"In a democratic society, a variety of ideas must find voice. As a reader, teens have a choice to read the more mature titles or to close the book," it concludes.

Graphic Scene Startled Parent

When Milisa Burt found "Just Listen" in her 15-year-old daughter's backpack, she said, it was the page she read to the board with its explicit description that shocked her.

"It was just awful," she said. "I have no problem with the story line in the book. It's just the graphic detail. You're going to see it on TV and everywhere else - still, finding it in your daughter's backpack ..."

"If we wouldn't show it as a movie in school, it probably shouldn't be in the library," she said.

Still, Burt said she will not forbid her daughter, who usually reads mysteries, from reading the book because she thinks she will want to read it even more.

"I'm just going to let her read it and then discuss the issue with her," she said.

Reporter Marilyn Brown can be reached at (813) 259-8069 or mbrown@tampatrib.com.

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