EDITOR’S NOTE: The Tillamook School District #9 School Board meeting is Monday September 9th at 5:30pm. There is NOT an agenda item about reversing the ban on “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents.” Multiple letters from TSD#9 parents (we are including one letter), from over 50 community members and a letter from over 700 authors, requesting that the school board reverse the ban are being ignored. The investigation of the process by which this book was removed has shown that no formal complaint was ever filed, a school board member contacted the principal about concerns from a parent, and the book was removed in FEBRUARY, 2024 without any review. The review in July did not follow the school district’s policies and processes as well. Initially, we were told the book remained in the teacher’s library and in the high school library, which was not true. All the books were removed in February. “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents” is banned/censored by Tillamook School District. A local group – Tillamook County United Against Book Bans – is organizing next steps, formal complaints and gathering community support. Please send your letters to reverse the book ban to TSD#9. If you would like to help with other local efforts email to tillamookunitedagainstbookbans@gmail.com.
To the Tillamook School District #9 Board,
As a TSD#9 parent, I am deeply disappointed in the Board’s decision to remove the book, How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents from the 10th grade English curriculum, and respectfully request that this decision be reversed.
A ban is defined by PEN America as “any action taken against a book based on its content and as a result of parent or community challenges, administrative decisions, or in response to direct or threatened action by lawmakers or other governmental officials, that leads to a previously accessible book being either completely removed from availability to students, or where access to a book is restricted or diminished.”
Banning a book because someone decides it’s “obscene” is a very slippery slope. “Obscene” is a subjective term, and almost impossible to measure. In the Supreme Court case of Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26 v. Pico, the Court ruled that school boards do not have unrestricted authority to select library books and that the First Amendment is implicated when books are removed arbitrarily. Justice Brennan declared: “Local school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books and seek by their removal to prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.”
In Tinker v. Des Moines School District, the Supreme Court held that students “do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate.”
In the past few years, bans and attempted bans on books have skyrocketed nationally, and the vast majority of these have been geared toward books written by and about people of color, from other cultures, and who are LGBTQ. This book’s author and characters are women from another culture, and its removal smacks of racism, sexism, and xenophobia. Young women in our local schools who come from a Hispanic culture can relate to the stories and experiences in this book; in fact, many women can.
The Curriculum Review Committee’s 4/3 recommendation to remove the book from the curriculum would have gone the other way if only one person had changed their vote. It deserved more thoughtful consideration than inflammatory statements, out of context quotes, and hysteria.
One of the review committee members spoke at the last Board meeting and cherry-picked out-of-context passages to sound inflammatory. One passage was a string of words used to describe sexual activity. He didn’t mention that the passage was about an adult woman who was quoting the crude language being used by a man who was trying to coax her into bed. It’s a passage about women deserving respect from men. His feeble attempt at a joke, calling the book, “How the Garcia Girls Lost their Virginity,” was immature and crude, and unbecoming of someone reviewing school curriculum.
Another speaker, who coordinated with the first one, read a passage describing an encounter between an immigrant child with limited language skills and an attempted kidnapper and sexual abuser. He fixated on the child’s description of what she saw in the car – the kidnapper inappropriately touching himself – and decided it was “obscene.”
As the survivor of child sexual abuse, and someone who has worked in the field of sexual assault prevention, I deeply resent this passage being characterized as some sort of smut. It was a glimpse through the eyes of a confused child who was being exploited by an adult and appropriate within that context. I also don’t appreciate that speaker being allowed in the meeting to verbally abuse and name-call the crowd, even after being reminded to address the board. He referred to anyone who didn’t agree with him as a “sexual deviant.” This behavior should have been immediately stopped and never allowed in a public meeting.
Removing this powerful, award-winning book from the curriculum was completely unnecessary, knowing it was never required reading in the first place. Students knew they could simply choose a different book.
Our students count on solid leadership from adults who protect their best interests. This includes access to relevant educational materials that help them to understand the world. I would have no problem with my high school student reading this book, nor would most parents I know. I read the entire book and I’m disappointed that it would be considered “obscene” by any measure. There was literally nothing in that book that was worse than anything my seventh grader heard in the halls of East Elementary School for the past three years.
I and other parents are concerned about potential violations of school board and school district policy, and an obviously pre-made decision by members of the board, based on a national book banning agenda. There appear to be conflicts of interest, and the muzzling of voices in opposition, by the acting chair in violation of public meeting laws. This sets our district and community up for accusations of racial discrimination and the violation of student rights. Is this what we really need, and how does this protect kids?
I hope you will reverse this decision, rather than capitulating to a group of people who likely didn’t even read the entire book. Our students deserve better.
Sincerely,
TSD#9 Parent Against Book Bans*
*The Tillamook County Pioneer is redacting the names of the parents and local community members because there have been concerns about safety and the possibility of retaliation against their children, students, teachers or others. That should be a concern for the TSD#9 School Board — the culture of our community – people, teachers, students are afraid to speak up about injustices because they are not being heard or they will be threatened; and community members are being told to “be careful.” Yes, this is happening in Tillamook.