Banning Books in Georgia (or at least trying)

[Pangloss62]

I remember that when I first watched The Wizard of Oz, it scared the bejeezus out of me. I also recall listening to a record of a recitation of Poe's Tell-Tale Heart WITH SOUND EFFECTS in Second Grade. I was chilled to the bone. And The Legend of Sleepy Hollow creeped me out when our teacher read it to us around Halloween. There were no lack of witches, ghosts, and scary characters in the schools of my youth. And as any kid will tell you, its fun to get scared and let your imagination take you away to another place. But here in Georgia, things are a bit different. The below is from the American Library Association:

Harry Potter Faces the Challenge from Georgia

The latest in a succession of challenges to the wildly popular Harry Potter series is taking place in the Gwinnett County (Ga.) Public Schools, where school board members held a hearing April 20 about whether the novels should be removed from the shelves of the suburban Atlanta system’s media centers. “I want to protect children from evil, not fill their minds with it,” explained complainant Laura Mallory, whose three children attend the J. C. Magill Elementary School in Loganville. “Harry Potter teaches children and adults that witchcraft is okay for children.” The day before the hearing, Mallory explained in the Gwinnett Daily Post that although she had researched the issues before filing her challenge, “it would be hypocritical for me to read all the books [because] I don’t agree with what’s in them. I don’t have to read an entire pornographic magazine to know it’s obscene.” She garnered support from several other families, including one that denounced the series to the school board as having lured a teen into practicing witchcraft. “As a former witch, I can tell you that witchcraft is not fantasy,” Jordan Fusch, 15, testified at the hearing. “I felt I could not escape the clutches of witchcraft. It has taken several years of counseling to get to where I was before witchcraft and reading Harry Potter books,” she went on to say, according to the April 21 Daily Post.“ A child who is unable to recognize the difference between fantasy and reality is either too young or too immature to read [the Harry Potter books], or has issues bigger than removing the Harry Potter books is going to solve,” countered Laura Bowen, a mother of three. A number of area parents and children also voiced support for the series in some 250 letters to school officials, GCPS Director of Media and Information Services Faye Curlee told board members. Dismissing the argument that Harry Potter should be retained because it motivates reluctant readers, Alton C. Crews Middle School parent volunteer Gaye Bruce said, “Any topic, like how to be a terrific terrorist or car bombing 101, could be used to entice children to read.” A decision about the series’ fate in the school libraries is expected at the May 11 board meeting.
Posted April 28, 2006.

Why is it always Georgia? It's so embarrassing.