Statement of the Board of Education:
It has recently come to the attention of the Board of Education of the City School District of New Rochelle that a particular book used in one high school class, Girl Interrupted, was permitted to be abridged by the removal of certain pages from the text. This action was not authorized by the Board of Education and absolutely is not condoned as sound teaching practice.
The Board has directed that the full text of the book, as originally published, shall be substituted immediately, and that no further modifications of this type, i.e., removal of pages, shall be permitted under any circumstances. It has always been the policy of the City School District of New Rochelle that students be advised in advance if a particular assigned text contains material that might be offensive to some individuals, so that such individuals can "opt out" of the assignment and a different text can be substituted. This policy will continue to be observed in the future. As for Girl Interrupted, the Board of Education does not specifically endorse any of the author's language or content, but the Board respects the integrity of the complete work and will direct that it be made available to any student who desires to read it.
The response of Richard E. Organisciak, the School Superintendent, on the other hand, leaves a lot to be desired (same link).
I hope that no one will leap to hasty conclusions regarding the use of this book in its expurgated state. I trust that questions raised by Girl, Interrupted will give us an opportunity for reflection in recognizing the interplay of First Amendment and related interests in our educational selections.
While I understand that this is the only literary text from which pages have been excised, as a District we will undertake a review of our policy and practices as they relate to the selection of materials in all formats.
Bowdlerizing books is a horrible practice. As Cox noted:
"Bowdlerizing is a particularly disturbing form of censorship since it not only suppresses specific content deemed 'objectionable,' but also does violence to the work by removing material that the author thought integral," said Joan Bertin, Executive Director of the National Coalition Against Censorship. "It is a kind of literary fraud perpetrated on an unsuspecting audience."
The ultimate decision on whether to ban books rests with Cindy Babcock-Deutsch, the President of the School Board. Babcock-Deutsch has a well-documented history of practicing censorship in her role as chairperson of board of education meetings. She has repeatedly asserted that "privacy laws" bar criticism of senior school administrators at school board meetings. More recently she has resorted to threats, interruptions and physical intimidation to silence critics at what are public meetings in public buildings.
There's a process for raising challenges to books and the school didn't follow it.
Sources at the District who declined to be identified confirmed that the district does have a book selection and book challenge process but those same sources claim the district failed to follow those policies in this case.
"We should either teach a book or not teach book," said one New Rochelle teacher who disagreed with the District's decision. "What sort of message do we send our students when we vandalize books?" While agreeing the content is not be suitable for all students, the teacher pointed out that the student involved were mostly 12th graders including some who were over 18 years of age. "Does someone in the school think these kids don't know about sex?"
Mr. Organisciak's response evades a key issue: There is a policy, it wasn't followed and rogue officials who bowdlerized the book haven't been called on the carpet. Come on, New Rochelle, you can do better than this.
Update: When I attended the high school, it was absolutely stunning, french gothic architecture, sitting on twin lakes. It was big and diverse, with 3,000 students. The year after I graduated a 16 year-old from the Bronx came along and torched it. It's been rebuilt, but it doesn't look the same. On the other hand, I don't remember it having all this:
It includes a working clock tower, indoor swimming facilities, eight tennis courts, two football fields, an outdoor track, a television station and a planetarium. The planetarium can hold 84 viewers and uses a 'Spitz Scidome', 360 degree fulldome video projector with ATM-4 automation and a 5.1 surround sound audio system.
This is more what I remember:
On seven separate occasions, the City's schools have received the prestigious Blue Ribbon Award from the U.S. Department of Education. New Rochelle High School is one of the most diverse high schools in the country; the student body represents over 60 different countries from around the world. The school offers over 240 courses including honors, research and advanced placement courses.
I was just searching for a photo of the school as it used to be, when I came across this Wikipedia entry listing some of its graduates. I had no idea the alumni include Elia Kazan, Andrea Mitchell, Richard Roundtree, Gloria Borger (CNN) or Don Hewitt (60 Minutes).
