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Irving, Texas, School Librarians Drop Appeal on Consent PolicyA group of library media specialists at the Irving (Tex.) Independent School District have agreed to withdraw their appeal of a policy requiring middle-school students to get parental permission before checking out When Jeff Comes Home. The policy was set by ISD Superintendent Jack Singley in December 2005, following a complaint that parent Dana Foster filed after her 11-year-old daughter checked out the book—which deals with a teenage boy’s recovery from sexual abuse—from the Travis Middle School library, the Dallas Morning News reported January 11.“After we did all of our research, we just decided it was better for right now to withdraw the appeal,” said Heather Lamb, librarian at the de Zavala Middle School library. “We’re still going to fight for First Amendment rights, just not this battle.” At its January 9 meeting, the school board canceled a public hearing on the policy after Lamb and the other librarians agreed to support it. Catherine Atkins, the book’s author, told the Morning News she was disappointed the appeal had been dropped. “As a school employee myself, I understand the pressures,” she said, “but I regret the loss of open access to When Jeff Comes Home in the Irving district.” The book is based on the case of 7-year-old Steven Stayner, of Merced, California, who was kidnapped by Ken Parnell in 1972 and escaped seven years later. Sam Houston State University library science professor Teri Lesesne agreed, adding, “I hate to see one parent exercise this type of pressure. It’s one parent who objected, and now it’s restricted. Boy, that’s scary to me. I’m a parent. What I would say is take it back to the library.” The school district has six copies of the book available at four middle schools. The parental consent rule does not apply to the seven copies in the district’s high schools. Posted January 13, 2006; modified January 17, 2006. |
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