Parents to appeal Clarke superintendent’s book decision to state board | Online Athens

The parents of a Clarke County middle school student will appeal to the state Board of Education after Clarke County School Superintendent Philip Lanoue declined to change his decision not to remove a book from a classroom reading list.

Chad and Beth Lowery had asked school officials to remove the book, “And the Earth Did Not Devour Him,” by Tomas Rivera, from a middle school class reading list at Burney-Harris-Lyons Middle School, where their daughter is a student.

Lanoue would not, but offered to allow parents to opt out if they didn’t want to read the book considered a classic of Chicano literature.

But a paragraph in the book, describing an old man’s frustrated, angry outburst, contained language that 12-year-olds shouldn’t read, the Lowerys believe. They didn’t ask that the book be removed from the library, just from classroom reading lists, Chad Lowery said Thursday.

via Parents to appeal Clarke superintendent’s book decision to state board | Online Athens.