Grasping at Straws

The following is excerpted from the AJC article on the recent attempt by parent Laura Mallory to ban the Harry Potter books from the library in her child’s Gwinnett County public school.

Bray “strongly” recommended the books stay. Here are her 10 reasons:

1. Mallory hasn’t read any Harry Potter book in its entirety.
2. The books are popular, highly praised and encourage kids to read.
3. The books depict good vs. evil, and good wins.
4. The book’s characters don’t endorse the Wicca religion.
5. Kids who read the books are old enough to understand the difference between reality and fantasy.
6. Some of Mallory’s objections take parts of the books out of context.
7. There’s no reason to assume children become abnormal just because they read the books.
8. Removing the books would set a precedent because two other school system media review panels have ruled the series should stay.
9. Teachers never required Mallory’s children to read the stories.
10. To remove the series based on Mallory’s objections “would open this very fine school system to ridicule by many of its citizens as well as citizens of the nation.”

As much as I agree that the Harry Potter books should remain in the school library, I don’t agree with presiding officer Su Ellen Bray’s reasons. Where are the “rights” in this? I really think she was trying to fill a list of ten reasons. For me, the tenth reason on her list is not a reasonable one by any means. Are the children in those schools learning that they should not take a stand for something that they believe in, even if it means being ridiculed? Moreover, is it not okay for kids to read books in which evil wins? And would it really matter if the books DID endorse the Wicca religion?

To me, the following excerpt from kidSPEAK outlines the most compeling reason for keeping Harry Potter in the library:

In late April, a federal judge ruled that the school board had violated its students’ First Amendment rights by restricting the Harry Potter books because they believed the books promoted witchcraft. The judge said that “regardless of the personal distaste with which these individuals regard ‘witchcraft,’ it is not properly within their power and authority as members of defendant’s school board to prevent the students at Cedarville from reading about it.”