by Jeremy Morrison
The Escambia County School Board has removed the first title from a list of more than a hundred others that have been marked as potentially inappropriate material for students within the Escambia County School District.
“Unfortunately, sometimes under the guise of education, students are being indoctrinated to obscene and pornographic material, or age-inappropriate materials in our school,” said board Chairman Kevin Adams.
As a result of a 4-1 vote during a special workshop Nov. 1, 12th grade English students in the district will no longer be able to read Stephen Chbosky’s “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” The decision stems from an appeal of an earlier decision by the District Materials Review Committee to continue allowing the teaching of the book.
Concerns about this particular book were raised by Northview High School teacher Vicki Baggett. Baggett was also the individual who put together the list of inappropriate books — books on the list must undergo an individual evaluation process prior to being banned — and appealed the recent decision to keep “Perks of a Wildflower” available for high school seniors, following certain protocol, including the sign-off of both parents and school administration.
Members of the public who spoke during the workshop couched their support for removing the book — and other such titles — in religious parlance: asking school board members to choose between “man’s standards and God’s standards.”
“My pastor has told me it’s vile, he’s read some of it,” Charles Luther told board members, imploring them to seek religious council concerning “Perks of a Wallflower.” “Are you going to the pastors? Seeking their advice? That’s your duty before God, to do so.”
The lone diverging vote on the school board came from District 4 representative Patty Hightower, who made a motion to keep the book available to students. After sensing the sentiment in the room from both members of the public, as well as her fellow board members, Hightower defended her position.
“I made the motion. And I am a Christian, just in case you didn’t know,” Hightower began.
This defense elicited some blowback from both the public gallery and the board — “Ok. Mrs. — Ok. Let’s stop that,” interrupted Chairman Adams — but Hightower continued: “And I have read the book. I would not think it appropriate for the younger levels in our schools. I believe that I want to treat our teachers as the professionals I believe they are. As I read the book, there were things that were — while I wish our children were not exposed to them, unfortunately they are.”
“Many of the people that come to public forum talk about things they have not actually read,” noted Hightower, recalling how she and her own children use to discuss the books they were assigned in school and about a prime academic benefit of literary engagement: “I think the role of education is to help our students deal with the world that they have to deal with.”
Hightower’s position — or the findings of the district’s own review process — did not sway the other four school board members. Chairman Adams, in fact, nodded to wider state, and national-level conversations originating from conservative corners about removing books from schools, noting that the district’s moves were in line with marching orders being issued by Right Wing-darling Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“I was probably five foot from Gov. DeSantis today, who made it very clear to me how he felt about some of this stuff in our school district, and I mean it was just point blank,” Adams said, referencing a campaign season swing through town the governor had enjoyed earlier in the day.
Prior to voting to remove “Perks of a Wallflower” from the district’s offerings, Chairman Adams said that the school district had the responsibility to protect its students — students with “malleable minds” that are “easily shaped” — and remove indecent material.
“What is our level of decency in this district?” Chairman Adams asked. “Our decency standards are not high if we allow this type of inappropriate material, content in our district.”
The material that the Northview teacher originally raised objections to in “Perks of a Being Wallflower” included “extreme sexual content descriptions,” while concerns raised about other books pertained to other issues, such as language or “secret lesbian relationships.” “Perks of Being a Wallflower,” which won numerous literary awards and was the subject of a subsequent film, is a coming-of-age story published in 1999. Other books included on Escambia’s list of 116 inappropriate titles span a literary range and include: “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood; “The 1619 Project” by Nicole Jones; “Slaughterhouse Five” by Kurt Vonnegut; and “Forever” by Judy Blume.