Posted on July 17, 2018 at 3:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
The Authors Guild has denounced a police organization’s objections to a high school summer-reading list, reports Publishing Perspectives.
John Blackmon, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Tri-County Lodge #3 in South Carolina, complained in June about two options for a freshman English class’s assignment.
In response, the high school in question added four more choices to the original list of four but kept the challenged books: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas and All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely.
Both young-adult novels deal with police brutality.
On Friday, the Authors Guild sent an open letter to the police group, stating: “Attempts at censorship by law enforcement organizations cannot be tolerated in a democracy. Educators must be free to choose books on any and all subjects for their students’ reading.”
The Fraternal Order of Police is a national nonprofit with individual branches (or lodges) around the country.
The guild previously had joined the National Coalition Against Censorship, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, the American Booksellers for Free Expression, PEN America, and the National Council for Teachers of English in sending their support of the books to Wando High School Principal Sherry Eppelsheimer.
Read the rest of the guild’s July statement at Publishing Perspectives.
Categories: Today in Books