Thanks for interjecting your note of reality; I was beginning to think no
one would.  It seems to me that an assumption was made based on
superficial, possibly inaccurate, and definitely skimpy information.  I
am a veteran of these censorship wars, and I know that the U.S. Dept. of
Education does not involve itself in this type of situation.  It most
certainly is not going to select the Tempe school system out of thousands
where this novel is taught to pop in and remove it from the curriculum.

I have taught the novel myself and dealt with all the attendant issues
which invariably arise from the community itself.  More recently, my
campus spent over a year dealing with challenges to Maya Angelou's "I
Know Why the Caged Bird" sings.  What at first seemed to be a scattering
of parents claiming that the book was "pornographic and promoted a
lesbian lifestyle" was in fact a well-organized and orchestrated effort
by the Radical Right (Committee for Education Excellence and the Eagle
Forum) against multiculturalism.  The next two targets were Momaday's
"House Made of Dawn" and Anaya's "Bless Me, Ultima."  Pretty clear, isn't
it?  I would guess that something similar may be happening in Tempe.

I work closely with the American Library Association, People for the
American Way, ACLU, and the Texas Freedom Network.  All of these
organizations interact with the others and alert members to intellectual
freedom and censorship situations where support is needed.  Not one has
issued an alert for Tempe.  More information is needed before we start
slinging
torpedoes inside the Washington Beltway on this one!

Mary Ellen Scribner
Westwood High School
Austin, TX