BETHEL — “This is not someone going after a book with a pitchfork. I think the book is great from an adult perspective, but not for a child,” said former School Board Member Stephanie Erickson who filed a book challenge against the book, ‘Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,'” available to middle schoolers at Telstar Middle/High School Library.
The book, “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” on loan at Telstar Middle/High School, has been challenged by former SAD-44 School Board member, Stephanie Erickson, of Greenwood.
Erickson said the Bethel Citizen article that appeared on Nov. 15 did not tell readers the content of the book.
“I think the public needs to know what is actually in the book … before they formulate an opinion,” she said.
The debut novel by Jesse Andrews was released in 2012. “It is the story of Greg Gaines, the terminally awkward groundhog-looking kid who just wants to survive high school without anyone really paying attention to him; his only friend and coworker Earl Jackson, who is the creative genius that he makes deeply terrible movies with; and Rachel, a girl with cancer that Greg’s mom is forcing him to hang out with,” according to the author’s website.
Hard copies of the book have been checked out four times at the Bethel Library in November and December. It isn’t known how many electronic copies have been loaned.
In her challenge of “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” Erickson listed specific quotes from the book under the headings pedophilia, sexual abuse and vulgar language. She wrote in her complaint that the novel stereotypes churchgoers as child predators, athletes as homophobic and Israelis as promiscuous.
“My greatest concern is not just for the immature mind who can’t differentiate what is normal and what is not, but the immature mind who is also a victim of sexual abuse and Kelly [Fraser, Telstar librarian] has no way of screening that. She told me she screens the kids but she’s not going to know that. If these kids are reading about being raped by their uncle or having sexual interactions with their father and they are victims at home of sexual abuse, there is a risk that these kids are now going to think what’s happening to them is o.k. That’s a hard line for me.”
She said she felt the book was well-written, “but I am also 36 years-old. I am not trying to ban the book outright. I think that a mature adult could absolutely handle [the book] or maybe even our seniors at school. My concern is the immature middle schoolers that have access to it. And even some of the younger high schoolers.” She said the book covers some deep, intense topics.
School setting
Erickson said it is the setting that concerns her. “If this was a public … library and [the book] was put in the young adult section where it belongs, that’s very different than put at a middle high school library.” She said she had previously proposed a policy change to the current Telstar library policy that would have separated sexually explicit materials between the high school and middle school levels. “I was told we don’t have any of these books in the library, so it’s not necessary.”
Erickson said she first talked with Fraser in February, on the advice of Former SADD-44 Superintendent Dave Murphy. Fraser told Erickson she did find the book to be inappropriate for the library. Frazer told her she screened the books as they were checked out, “You can’t screen for children who are victims of sexual abuse… even if you’re screening before they check it out they still have access to it while they are in the library,” she said.
“I am not a book banning person type of person. I definitely believe we should have freedom. It’s just the setting needs to be appropriate… I am sure there are great articles that are written in Penthouse Magazine but that doesn’t mean we are going to put those at the school so that the kids have access to those articles.”
Erickson homeschools her children, ages 12, 8 and eight months-old. She said of her 12 year old, “there is some language in that book that she has not been exposed to – she falls in that category.”
“My kids aren’t in the school but my kids are part of the community … Their experience in school is what shapes them as adults. It matters even if it’s not my kids, it’s my community. That’s why I was on the school board, too.”
Erickson said she would try to be there Monday, Dec 18, when the school board hears from the five-member committee made up of an administrator, the school librarian, a teacher, a community member, and the English department chair. The SAD-44 school board may vote on the issue then or at the following meeting.
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