Turner Elementary removes 'The Land' from shelves

By Dong-Phuong Nguyen, Times staff writer
In print: Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Story Tools E-mail this story Contact the editor Print this story Comment on this story Social Bookmarking Digg Facebook Stumbleupon Reddit Del.icio.us Newsvine

ADVERTISEMENT

NEW TAMPA — An award-winning book containing a racially offensive term has been pulled from the shelves at Turner Elementary School after a parent's complaint.

A committee of school administrators, parents and teachers from the northeast Hillsborough school said The Land by Mildred Taylor was "above the maturity level of elementary students at Turner" and will donate the book to a middle school, school officials said Monday.

The decision came a few weeks after Darryl Brown filed a formal challenge to the book, which his 11-year-old daughter Ashyaa was reading from the school's accelerated reading list.

The Land is about the son of a prosperous landowner and a former slave whose white father raises him openly in post-Civil War Georgia. It includes use of the N-word.

Brown, who is African-American, said he was happy with the committee's decision, but not elated.

"It's a very small victory," he said. "We won the battle, but the war is the situation that allowed this to come into the school system, the process that the county used and the media specialist used to allow the books in."

Brown, who came under fire for challenging a historically accurate novel written by an African-American woman, said his objection has nothing to do with keeping his daughter innocent or naive about the ways of the world.

"I do not want any child to have to read this offensive language in an elementary school," he said. "They'll get enough of it in society as they grow. But for the school system to actually nurture this, to have these books out there, where these kids actually take tests about them, is that okay?"

While the nine-member committee felt The Land was worthy of the honors it received, it was influenced by what it considered sexual overtones, brutality/violence and racial slurs, according to its report.

The decision, however, was not unanimous.

The committee debated the issue for about two hours before members wrote their votes on pieces of paper. The three parents on the committee were out-voted by the two administrators, three teachers and the media specialist.

"I thought it was an excellent book," said parent Jeanann Kuch, who voted to keep it at Turner. "I have mixed emotions about (the decision)."

Craig Younger, another parent, said the review process can be improved. Questions arose that could not be answered, he said, and an outside facilitator might have added clarity.

Younger said, for example, that it would have been better to keep the book at the library but for use by fifth-graders only.

"Unfortunately, it had to be keep it or remove it," he said. "There were no other options. Now that we're taking this book from fifth-graders who read at a higher level, that's another form of censorship. Either way, I don't think anybody really wins."

Brown said he is preparing to file another challenge. This time, it's for The Starplace by Vicki Grove, another award-winning book that contains the N-word. He needs to finish reading it before he can file the complaint, he said, and he's halfway through.

Brown said this is an age-appropriateness issue, not a race issue. In fact, he got worked up again Monday afternoon when his daughter came home with a book called Holly's Secret by Nancy Garden.

It's about a little girl with two lesbian mommies.

Dong-Phuong Nguyen can be reached at (813) 269-5312 or nguyen@sptimes.com.