Huntington Beach, Calif., Activists Want Maya Angelou's Book "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" Pulled From School Libraries

Huntington Beach, Calif.,  activists are pushing to remove one of Maya Angelou's most famous books from school libraries. They say "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" includes material that's not appropriate for children. A scene from the book, that depicts the rape of an eight-year old girl, was read aloud Monday night during the Huntington Beach City Council meeting. One resident, Judy Ahrens, said "I'm not happy to read this, I'm not proud to read this." "It's very uncomfortable to read it, but for the sake of our kids we have to do things that aren't comfortable for the sake of our kids." I guess the Harry Potter books about sorcery are far better than real life situations cited in Ms. Angelou's book. These people are upset that the book can  be found in school libraries in four separate school districts.

Ocean View School Board Trustee John Briscoe said that the book contains child molestation scenes, lesbian scenes, teen sex scenes and teen pregnancy scenes. Never mind the fact that 115 girls out of 800 at a high school in Chicago are pregnant. It isn't as if we can sweep all the unpleasant and criminal things some children may be confronted with in life under a rug. Child molestation is a reality, not to mention teen sex and teen pregnancy. This book isn't for elementary school students, but high school students, some of who are already sexually active and some have also been pregnant or know another student who has been.

The mayor of Huntington Beach says he allowed the speakers to continue because he feels it's a matter of freedom of speech.  "Comments can be on whatever you want, and we don't try to dictate what people say, and we ask them to be courteous so it's not a personal attack, and we kind of say, 'Keep the personal attacks down,'" said Huntington Beach Mayor Keith Bohr.

John Briscoe says he's brought the issue to several school boards, but he says so far no one is doing anything about it. "And the first response in any bureaucracy is to wait and see and delay and defer and maybe the problem will go away," said Briscoe. "This problem isn't going away. I'll be on this like a hen on a wet worm. I'm not going to stand for this kind of literature." Source: ABC Local

Here's the irony in all this hoopla. The superintendent of Ocean View School District says as soon as the matter was brought to their attention, they submitted the book for review. He said that in his district there are only two copies, and it's been checked out five times in the past five years. Gee, so much for children making a mad dash to the library to check out "I Know Why the Caged Birds Sings." As a parent of elementary and middle school aged children, I do have a real concern with the subject matter of the books being presented to my children. I feel that some books of a more graphic nature are not meant for elementary school children. But there have been instances in which 12 year old girls have become pregnant and girls much younger have been raped, so this is certainly no secret to a middle school child.