Guilford County Board of Education votes to retain a second book challenged by parents

The Guilford County Board of Education voted 5 to 1 on Thursday to retain the book Life is Funny by E.R. Frank in the Northern Guilford High School library. 

Last year, a parent complained about its availability at school due to its sexual content. The challenge was discussed at a special meeting on Dec. 8.

Parent Jim Morris read a sexually explicit passage from the book aloud to the board. 

“Would you watch this, what I just described, as a movie with your 14-year-old or read it out loud to them? Just ask yourself that,” Morris said. “Imagine sitting down with your kid, seeing this on live video, or reading it to them and saying, ‘Oh, this was education.’”

This was the second time in two weeks that the board met to discuss a parent’s challenge to a book at the school. On Nov. 29, a parent who had complained about the book Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward also read a sexually explicit passage aloud to the board. 

In that case, the board voted to retain the book for optional use in an AP English course. Life is Funny is not part of any required curriculum. 

Vice-Chair Winston McGregor questioned what prompted this parent’s complaint. 

“It's been checked out three times since 2013. Once in 2013, once in 2016, and once in 2022; it's not been returned,” she said. “So I have some curiousness about why we're here. Who decided? Did a child really bring the book home? Was it on a nationally circulated list that someone decided to make an issue of?”

The district’s Director of Library Media Services Natalie Strange said the book is one of more than 12,000 in the Northern Guilford High School library. The novel follows the lives of 11 diverse teenagers who struggle with various issues. 

“Our libraries contain books that represent all aspects of the human experience,” Strange said. “We hope to help our students understand better current world issues, increase awareness about social practices, and promote unity and empathy.”

Board Member T. Dianne Bellamy Small said students stand to benefit from reading about the challenges people go through in books like Life is Funny.

“Books that are banned are, a lot of times, books that teach important moments of history. The stories of books that have been banned inspire us, and are realistic and truthful,” she said. “Now, we may not like realistic, but everybody sitting in this room has lived life to the point where you are now. And everything in your life has not necessarily been pretty.”

Board Member Linda Welborn said she would like the administration to look into creating a rating system for books to warn students and parents about explicit content. 

“If we're going to this level of book, then the book needs to say, ‘graphic sex,’ ‘topics that are questionable,' that 'this may not be appropriate for 14-year-old,'” she said. “I mean, if you’ve got to do PG-13, and you have to have permission to watch a movie at a certain age, then this is crossing the line for me.”

The board voted against this suggestion, but McGregor said it was a discussion the board could have at another time. 

Additionally, Strange said parents are welcome to visit the library to preview books, and set parameters for their children with the school librarian. 

Welborn was the only vote against retaining the book in the school library. The board upheld two previous decisions by the school’s Media Technology Advisory Council and the Guilford County Schools District Review Committee to keep the book available. 

Amy Diaz covers education for WFDD in partnership with Report For America. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.