At Mat-Su book banning discussion, 'you can see America's IQ points circle the drain'

The Mat-Su school board draws national ridicule for banning five classic works of American literature. The board deserves it.

“Banning five of the most celebrated works of 20th-century American literature sounds bad, but the details of this case are even more ludicrous. The board members were talking specifically about the reading list used in elective English classes for 11th and 12th graders — students old enough to drive; some of them old enough to vote. Watching the videotape of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough school board meeting on April 22, you can actually see America’s IQ points circle the drain and slip away,” wrote Ron Charles, a Washington Post book critic.

Rather than admit their error, the board members have decided to argue about the definition of the word “ban,” stealing a page from Bill Clinton’s dissertation on weasel words: “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.”

"I've been hearing a lot of hype, you know that the book has been banned and it hasn't been banned. The books will still be available in the (school) libraries. They are not subject to be removed from the district," Tom Bergey, president of the school board, told the Frontiersman.

It’s not hype he’s been hearing. He was one of five board members who voted to ban five books from the high school curriculum.

The offending books are, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” “The Great Gatsby,” “Catch-22,” “Invisible Man,” and “The Things They Carried.”

The statement by board members that the books were banned because of a completely implausible employment rights scenario is dumb. During the meeting the board members raised the idea that passages of certain books, if read aloud in an office, would produce an immediate employment complaint about violating the rights of others, so these books should be banned.

A numbskull who stands up in a professional office and starts reading aloud, for no reason, from anything, would be ushered into the HR department.

Board member Jeff Taylor, who said at the meeting that “controversial” books do not belong in classrooms, took to Facebook to complain about the coverage of the ban by Frontiersman reporter Tim Rockey. Taylor said it’s not a ban because the book has not been removed from the library, just banned from use in classrooms.

“Thursday morning the world woke up to a word that has caused a storm that will last for some time. The local “Frontiersman News” tweeted a very irresponsible tweet that stated ‘The Mat-Su Borough School District School Board voted 5-2 to ban 5 books from the MSBSD schools.’ This was shocking to everyone who read it, myself included,” said Taylor.

“The initial post, which was mostly false, sensational, and misleading went nationwide. It was posted in the Washington Post, caught the attention of CNN and caused incredible amounts of stress and anxiety,” Taylor said.

The initial post that the “world woke up to” was not mostly false, sensational and misleading. It was accurate.

Rockey did a good job covering this story and has nothing to apologize for. The newspaper was wrong to post a correction on its story saying, “The original version of this story included the word ban. The books were not banned, but rather removed from curriculum.”

The books were banned from the curriculum.

Taylor “protests too much, methinks” with this Facebook pronouncement:

“Ban” means to ‘officially or legally prohibit.’ I want to say this very loudly. THESE BOOKS ARE NOT BANNED! They are on bookshelves, they are in teachers’ libraries, they are available and could be recognized and recommended as great literary works. They could be discussed and written about. They are not banned.

The decision to prohibit teachers from using the books in class, not physical possession of the five volumes, is the issue.

Taylor said he regrets saying “I wish they were gone” about the five books, four of which he had not read.

“If words could be taken back, I would take these five words back and say instead, ‘I would prefer these books be replaced with other, less descriptive, books,’” he said.

“Honestly, my initial thought was why ‘The Great Gatsby?” I have not read the others,” he said on Facebook. “Regardless, it was listed and therefore part of the group.”

Stop with this nonsense. Less descriptive?

The five board members didn’t do their homework or read the books. Taylor and board member Jim Hart both confessed to having once read “The Great Gatsby.” Hart didn’t remember anything about it and Taylor said he didn’t know why it would be banned other than its appearance on this page of “Controversial Book Description,” singled out for its “language and sexual references.”

Taylor and the other four members of the school board majority should admit they screwed up and turn their attention to the real problems facing young people. The job of the school board is to give young people the best shot at doing well in life, preparing them for what happens after they leave high school for the last time.