Wake school board panel upholds Cary High School decision to keep 'Lawn Boy' in library

The panel ruled 2-1 Thursday that "Lawn Boy" can remain in the school's library.

A parent, Chad Slotta, petitioned for the book's removal, but the high school denied it. Slotta, whose child attends the school, then appealed to the district, which also denied the petition. He then appealed to the school board, which assigns three-member panels to such appeals.

Board members Christine Kushner and Lindsay Mahaffey -- who is also board chairwoman -- voted in favor of the school's decision not to remove the book. Board Member Roxie Cash voted in favor of removal.

"Lawn Boy" is a novel written by Jonathan Evison, who based it in part on his own life experiences. It tells the story of a Mexican-American boy growing up. It covers issues of race and sexual orientation and includes discussion of a sex act between two fourth-grade boys.

After the meeting, Kushner told WRAL News she felt the focus on two references to the sex act misses the broader purpose of the book, which she said represented typical American values.

"I found overall the theme of this book was about perseverance and overcoming trauma and self-sufficiency and hope," Kushner said. "And I felt this book could help kids who do have trauma in their lives. If it helps one student, then that’s enough."

Cash said the book "had content that served a purpose in showing a poor young man that had resilience and determination to get out of his struggling lifestyle."

However, she said, "the parts that were graphic did not serve any purpose in telling the story" and were "not, in my opinion, appropriate for all students."

"Lawn Boy" has been the subject of complaints nationwide after a mother in Texas complained about the book being available in a school library to her school board.

In Wake County, the book is not a part of school curriculum, but it is available for check out in some school libraries.

Following the decision, Slotta sent a statement to WRAL News that he continues to believe the book's "sexually explicit" content should not be available to minors.

"If a newspaper can’t print the material, I find it hard to see why school administrators would think it appropriate content for minors."

Last week, three Cary High School students urged the school board not to listen to attempts to ban books from school libraries. The students said books depicting LGBTQ+ characters need to be available to LGBTQ+ students, who often don't see LGBTQ+ characters prominently featured in books. They argued books can help people understand both themselves and people who are not like them. The students asked that they be allowed to decide for themselves whether to read a book.

"If I don’t want to read a certain book, I won’t read it," Sage Clausen said.

North Carolina school boards have policies allowing people to petition to remove materials from curricula or libraries. In Wake County, board policy states library materials can be removed "only for legitimate educational reasons and subject to the limitations of the First Amendment."

Petitions are rare and don't necessarily make it to the board level, if the school finds in favor of the parent or finds another accommodation.

A 2014 petition to ban "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison and "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker resulted in East Wake High School banning "The Bluest Eye" from curriculum and limiting "The Color Purple" to alternative assignments that require parents to consent to their children reading the book, according to an article from The News & Observer article back then. At the time, the bans applied only to the engineering school, under the school's since-revamped structure.