Extreme Book Banning: Michigan Edition - call in the FBI?
Howell, Michigan has been a seat of controversy lately over English teachers’ use of works by Toni Morrison, Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Wright in 11th and 12th grade classes. Vicki Fyke of the Livingston Organization for Values in Education filed a complaint with the Livingston County prosecutor that stated - get this - Morrison, Wright and Vonnegut books are legally obscene and also violate laws against child pornography and child sexual abuse. She filed the complaint with the prosecutor when her complaints to the school board were dismissed.
To make matters worse, Stephen J. Murphy III, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, referred her complaint to the FBI! The FBI, folks! What that means, in the eloquent words of author Brent Hartinger on his blog, is this:
“This was not just another book being challenged. Book challenges are a fair expression of freedom of speech; everyone has a right to make them, and every school and library should have a process in place to consider them.
But in this case, people need to understand: for having assigned classic books by acclaimed authors, these English teachers were being reported to the FBI, accused of distributing “pornography” to kids. If this travesty had been allowed to continue, these educational profressionals would have had to hire lawyers; their characters would have been brutally and maliciously attacked, they’re careers would have been threatened, and they may very well have faced prison time. It’s possible they would have had to register as “sex offenders” for the rest of their lives!
It’s not hyperbole to say that this is like something out of 1984–it really IS something from 1984! There is literally criminalizing books, and education. And don’t tell me if the FBI had investigated and a precedent had been created, even if they hadn’t actually pressed charges, it wouldn’t have had a HUGE chilling effect on what books can be taught in classrooms, and on the very nature of education in the US. The very notion of academic independence and intellectual freedom was at stake.
Had this been allowed to continue, this would not have been the America I know, the land of the free.”
Book challenges, I understand - but trying to prosecute high school English teachers for “distributing pornography”? That’s going a little too far. No, make that WAY too far.
Come talk to Brent Hartinger next Thursday, March 22 at his workshop, “Books Don’t Suck” at Millbury Public Library. Register at www.cmrls.org.
I live in this Michigan town of Howell. It is a haven for Republicans, and always will be. I feel so outnumbered.
We have this local group of idiots called LOVE (Livingston Organization for Values in Education). They are a pure hate group, they’re anti everything.
When some kids put up a diversity flag in the high school, LOVE’s founder, a loud mouth creep named Vicki Fyke, called it a gay flag, and had it removed. Then, Wendy Day, a school board member who is a LOVE sympathizer, called for kids to attend school with duct tape over their mouths to protest abortion. Thank God that one was shot down.
Their latest fiasco was to try to ban several books that their organization called indecent. Fyke even enlisted the FBI and the county prosecutor in the matter, but they basically told her it’s a matter for the school board. Now, in an upcoming May election, they’re trying to sneak a couple more of their supporters onto the school board. If they get in, what a mess they will cause.
This organization is an embarrassment and is helping drive home values down in the community. What family wants to move here and subject their kids to a school life under the watchful thumb and eyes of LOVE?
I’ve been trying to move but my home has been on the for sale list forever. Mine and hundreds of others throughout Howell. Home values around here have been dropping, values are down 20 to 25 percent. I blame LOVE because families are avoiding this town in droves.
If you notice a group like this being formed in your community, you’d better band together and squash it quickly before it gets too big.