Mr.

Bob Rogers
Superintendent, Murray Independent Schools
bob.rogers@murray.kyschools.us
Murray Board of Education
208 South 13th Street
Murray, KY 42071
June 10, 2014
Dear Superintendent Rogers and members of the Board:
We are troubled by the recent removal of the book UnWholly from a 7
th
grade reading class at Murray Middle School. We
understand that the parent of a student complained that the books content was inappropriately dark and disturbing.
Although no formal review was conducted, the principal judged that the book violated the districts Controversial Issues
Policy and directed the teacher to stop teaching it.
Complaints from parents who consider a particular book inappropriate for their children occur on a regular basis
around the country. It is important to handle these complaints in a way that respects both parental concerns and
educational imperatives. For this reason, we urge you to adopt and consistently implement a formal review policy,
which would enhance communication between the school and students parents, as well as prevent the hasty removal
from students hands of books of clear educational value.
Neal Shustermans UnWholly, the sequel to his critically-acclaimed UnWind, imagines a dystopian future in which
troubled teens can be shipped to camps for unwinding, a socially-sanctioned procedure wherein all of their organs
and tissues are harvested for needed medical transplants. The storys protagonists are survivors struggling with this brutal
system.
The complaining parent, who apparently had not read the book, may have been responding to the cover illustration of a
seemingly sinister young man in a black cloak. However, the troubling vision of the future in UnWholly does not serve
merely to shock or satisfy morbid fascination. It stands in a long literary tradition of dystopian fiction, from Jonathan
Swifts Gullivers Travels to Yevgeny Zamyatins We, in which imagined possible societies force us to confront the potential
consequences of social engineering and new technologies. Like George Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four, UnWholly depicts
the dehumanizing effects of a system that subordinates individual dignity to the greater good. Like H.G. Wells The
Island of Dr. Moreau, it explores the ethical limits of medical science. UnWholly does what any book selected for classroom
reading should do: it encourages thoughtful reflection and discussion in its classrooms.
Parents do have a right under the U.S. Constitution to guide the upbringing and education of their children. However,
numerous courts have consistently ruled that this parental right does not encompass the right to tell a public school what
his or her child will and will not be taught. Leebaert v. Harrington, 332 F.3d 134, 141 (2d Cir. 2003). If parents had such a
right, the schools would be forced to cater a curriculum for each student whose parents had genuine moral
BY ELECTRONIC MAIL
disagreements with the schools choice of subject matter. Recognizing that this would be an untenable burden, the law
recognizes that the role of schools is to administer school curricula responsive to the overall educational needs of the
community and its children.
Every community is home to a diversity of opinions on moral and religious questions. For every parent who objects to an
assigned book there will be others who favor it. In practice, the attempt to alter school curricula in response to individual
objections means privileging the moral or religious beliefs of some families over others. It is precisely this form of
viewpoint discrimination by government that our constitutional system is designed to prevent.
The schools response to the complaint is especially vulnerable to criticism because no formal review policy was followed.
Most educational organizations strongly recommend that schools adopt a clear procedure for challenging instructional
materials, which normally requires a written complaint from a person, who has read the work in its entirety. The
complaint must specify the basis for the challenge and the requested remedy. A review committee of teachers and
administrators, the professionals most familiar with students educational needs and interests, evaluates the merits of the
complaint and makes a recommendation to school officials. While helping to ensure that schools remain on a solid legal
footing, a formal review process also enables school staff to engage with parents in a manner that is thorough, objective,
consistent and fair.
In support of an April 26 request by a Murray Middle School parent, we strongly urge the district to reinstate Unwholly
and adopt, as well as consistently implement, a formal review policy. Suggestions for the development of review policies
can be found in our resources on the First Amendment in Schools. We hope you will this information helpful. Please do
not hesitate to contact us if we can be of further assistance.
Sincerely,
Chris Finan
President
American Booksellers Foundation For Free Expression
Judy Platt
Director, Free Expression Advocacy
Association of American Publishers
Joan Bertin
Executive Director
National Coalition Against Censorship
Charles Brownstein
Executive Director
Comic Book Legal Defense Fund