Vote puts 'Bunny Suicides' back in school library
BROWNSVILLE, Ore. (AP) — A book of cartoons will remain, unrestricted, in the Central Linn High School library.
School board members voted 5-1 Monday to keep "The Book of Bunny Suicides" by British humorist Andy Riley.
The school board has voted multiple times on the issue since October, when parent Taffey Anderson complained about the book.
After her 13-year-old son brought the book home, she threatened to burn it.
The 2003 book is a collection of cartoons showing bunnies committing suicide in various ways.
"We can't censor," said board member Pat McConnel. "I'm here as a board member. I can't vote my personal feelings all the time."
Publicity about her complaint drew widespread attention, including a letter from the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, It warned that removing the book could violate the First Amendment and suggested parents be allowed to ask that their children not be allowed to check out particular items.
Superintendent Ed Curtis said the district already allows parents to "opt out" of a particular book, whether in the library or in the classroom.
In a similar case in Prineville, the school board voted 4-1 Monday to keep "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" out of classrooms, though in the library, while the school district revamps its policies.
The book was a best-seller and a National Book Award winner. It was written by Sherman Alexie and is about a boy growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation who decides to attend an all-white school. The protagonist in Alexie's book discusses masturbation.
A committee made up of teachers, the public, an administrator and a librarian reviewed the book and voted 4-1 to recommend the school board reinstate the book without restrictions.
The freshman whose father touched off the debate said the book was not appropriate.
"Personally, I think we're having two things taught to us," Jozee Moss told The Bulletin newspaper of Bend. "We have the principal telling us, I don't want you cussing in this way or you'll get a referral. And yet this book talks about all these things in crude ways."
