Complaints from a police union and parents prompted a South Florida school system to temporarily stop teaching a fictional book about a Black boy who was fatally shot by a white police officer, district officials said.
A representative with Broward County Public Schools, one of the largest school districts in the nation with more than 260,000 students, confirmed in a statement to NBC News on Monday the novel “Ghost Boys” has been pulled, for now, from two fifth-grade classrooms.
The district spokesperson said in a statement that, after receiving a letter from the Fraternal Order of Police, it was determined proper procedures to make sure the Jewell Parker Rhodes book could be taught in classrooms were not followed.
“Members of the School Board of Broward County received a letter from the Fraternal Order of Police, Florida State Lodge – District 5, expressing concern about the use of a specific young adult novel in some 5th Grade classrooms,” the statement read.
The book is deemed by the district as “supplementary fictional text,” meaning it’s not a standard, instructional resource within the school system’s curriculum, the statement said.
The district says “procedures were not proactively followed prior to the assignment of the novel. Subsequently, upon receiving parental concern, the use of the book was paused in two 5th Grade classrooms until procedures are implemented.”
Paul Kempinski, a member of the Fraternal Order of Police, Florida State Lodge, District 5, said Monday the book in question is “propaganda” against police.
“The book is propaganda that police officers are liars, racists, murderers,” said Kempinski. “It goes out of its way to characterize police officers like that.” Kempinski, who read the novel, wrote a letter about the book and the union posted it on their social media websites last Thursday. The union then tagged the Broward County Public Schools.
The letter stated: “I have taken the time to read this book and am in disbelief that this would be a 5th-grade reading assignment, or that this book would be at all approved by the Broward County Public Schools.”
Parker Rhodes declined comment through her publicist.
A website highlighting the author’s work describes “Ghost Boys” as a story of 12-year-old Jerome, who is shot by a police officer who mistakes his toy gun for a real weapon. As a ghost, Jerome sees the “devastation that’s been unleashed on his family and community in the wake of what they see as an unjust brutal killing,” the website reads.
The book has received dozens of awards from different organizations since 2018, per the website.
The district’s decision raised concerns from the National Coalition Against Censorship, a Manhattan based nonprofit that advocates for freedom of expression. The group contends even if the book is deemed controversial by some, stories affecting students of color are hard to find within some school systems, spokeswoman Nora Pelizzari said.
About 40 percent of Broward’s students are Black, according to district statistics.
“All across the country there is very important work being done to diversify curricula to make sure that students are reading books that reflect their own lives and their own realities so that they can get the most from their education,” Pelizzari said. “But also, so that other students in the classroom, for whom that might not be their reality, can be exposed to lives and ideas and experiences beyond their own.”
Kempinski said books like “Ghost Boys” are creating more tension between police and communities they are sworn to protect.
“There is a lot of work to be done between police officers and the community,” Kempinski said. “Our police officers in South Florida work hard to try and build bridges in the community. Books like these, damage those relationships without creating real solutions.”
Pelizzari’s group in October 2020 wrote the Kingsbury Elementary Charter School District in California after it removed “Ghost Boys” from being taught. Pelizzari said representatives with her group are still reviewing the case in Broward County to determine if they will officially respond to officials in Florida.
“We advocate very strongly for school districts to have robust book review policies because book challenges happen all the time. Hundreds of hundreds every year, all across the U.S. in every school district,” she said. “The best types of policies and procedures favor keeping the books in classrooms and in circulation, until a proper review can be completed.”
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
