School board votes to keep disputed book

Santa Rosa high school instructors can continue to teach T.C. Boyle's "The Tortilla Curtain" in class, but the parent who sought to remove it from the district's reading list maintains that it's inappropriate for high schoolers.

Liz Franzel, whose daughter was assigned "The Tortilla Curtain" in her junior English class, said the book's depiction of rape, graphic sex, racial relations and frequent profanity make the text inappropriate in a classroom setting.

"I'm not trying to ban the book," she said. "Keep it on the library shelf, but do not make it recommended or required reading in the classroom."

The school board disagreed and late Wednesday unanimously upheld a review committee's October decision to keep the book available for classroom lessons. The book will be limited to junior and seniors and students and their parents are allowed to opt out of reading the text and to study an alternate selection.

"I felt like it honored the concerns of the parents by the amount of time we spent," said Nancy Watanabe, a member of the review committee that included teachers, a librarian and administrators.

Watanabe, an English teacher at Ridgway High School, called "The Tortilla Curtain" a "pretty amazing book."

First published in 1995, "The Tortilla Curtain" is on the California Department of Education approved reading list for high school students. It is currently being taught by teachers in at least two Santa Rosa high schools, according to district staff.

It follows the intersecting lives of two families living outside of Los Angeles: A well-to-do white husband and wife and a Mexican couple who have come to the U.S. to establish a new life before their unborn child is born.

One couple wants to maintain their American dream, the other wants to create it.

Trustee Tad Wakefield, who teaches English at Santa Rosa Junior College, initially proposed restricting the book to seniors and requiring parents to approve before the book is assigned. In the end, Wakefield voted to uphold current policy.

"It is undeniable that there are specific scenes in this book that many people would find objectionable and there is profanity throughout, that is undeniable," he said. "You could argue that this could overwhelm a younger student."

The half-dozen parents and a former high school student who spoke to the board Wednesday argued that allowing students to opt out of classroom reading only serves to ostracize those who may already be uncomfortable with the book.

"The content that is inside the pages of this book are totally unacceptable," said Bill Severi, whose daughter's junior English class is studying the book.

Trustee Larry Haenel, who spent decades as an English teacher at Montgomery High, said students should be allowed to examine controversial topics within a structured classroom setting.

"It's important because students deal with real life issues, and they are not always pretty. They need to be exposed to these issues and they need to discuss them," he said. "A good piece of literature deals with these situations in a realistic manner so the students can discuss the ramifications of these controversial issues."

That is not a teacher's job, Franzel argued.

"They are overstepping their boundaries because it is so not their place - that is not the realm that they need to be talking in," she said. "It is the parents' place to discuss those things with their child and to choose whether or not they want their child to be discussing these things."

Montgomery High School librarian Cathy Collins cautioned against limiting access to a book that has been reviewed both locally and at the state level.

"I totally understand that a parent has the right to say &‘No, I don't want my child reading this book,'" she said. "But where I take issue is when one parent is dictating what every other child should read."

In two presentations to the board, Franzel has opened her remarks by reading aloud graphic, violent and profanity-laced sex scenes from the book. She apologized both times to those in the audience who might have been offended.

But reading aloud portions of the book without taking it in as a complete work is unfair, Collins said.

"To be spending our time focusing on those little words rather than on the larger message of the book is a mistake," she said.

But parent Jeney Priby told the board that no context is appropriate for high schoolers to read about rape.

"I don't know that context matters," she said. "There are other ways to teach these lessons that don't involve rape."

Franzel maintained the emotional public debate could spark a greater interest among parents in what their students are reading in class.

"I'm the first to admit that I have not always read everything that my kids have brought home," she said. "From now on, I will be one of those parents because you don't know what your child is reading. When you send your child to school, you trust that your child is going to be reading appropriate literature."