Source: Houston Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images / Getty
CARMEL — The Carmel-Clay School Board met on Monday. During this meeting they discussed potentially banning the book “All Boys Aren’t Blue” From school libraries in the district.
This process is made possible after the passing of a law in 2023 that allows Indiana residents to ask a school district to review and remove books they think are inappropriate for children.
The complaint regarding “All Boys Aren’t Blue” is that the book, which is a series of essays about growing up as a queer black man in New Jersey and Virginia, depicted sexual themes, assault, and statutory rape.
Cindy Black, the woman who originally filed the complaint against the book said during the meeting, “As you ponder the literary merit of this book. Together with its graphic sexual and racist content. I would ask you to consider the words of another American author when speaking to the need for quality literature in our schools, as he so eloquently stated, ‘the man who does not read good books, has not advantage over the man who cannot read at all.'”
Defenders of the book were at the meeting as well saying that the book, while graphic, could potentially help others in the LGBT community.
Board Member Louise Jackson would say during the meeting, “I am also deeply heartbroken that some of us are unable to open up our hearts and minds to the experience of someone different.”
The Carmel-Clay school board would have a committee review the book. The committee recommended that it not be removed from school libraries.
The board ultimately voted to keep the book in libraries, 3 – 2.
