Carmel Clay school board narrowly rejects attempt to remove book from high school library

Carmel-Clay School Board Holds Vote on Banning Book (wibc.com)

Tony Katz:

Now it’s an interesting question. Should a book be in a school library if I’m not able to discuss it on this radio show? And you could argue that there are other books where I couldn’t read certain passages on a radio show. It doesn’t mean that a book shouldn’t be in a library. Doesn’t mean that at all. The question is, is the book in and of itself obscene? I haven’t read the book. I can tell you that, Senator John Kennedy. Actually read passages from the book during a Senate Judiciary hearing back in September of 2023 and he was excoriated for it.

Tony continues:

There are terms here that I certainly could not use on radio. If I can’t use the term on radio, should it be in a school library? Note that I have said school library. I didn’t say this shouldn’t be printed. I didn’t say that the book should be gone. I don’t believe in any of that. It’s about a school library. The vote was three to two by the school board of trustees to keep the book in the Carmel High School library. So, there’s a second part of this. This is a high school library. Not an elementary school library. Should the book remain? I haven’t read the book, as I stated, but there’s a very interesting conversation that we should be having, whether it’s Carmel or whether it’s Greenwood or anywhere else.

My natural inclination is to leave books in libraries. It should also be natural to note that a school library is not the Public Library. These are different things. We should also note that, at least in Carmel, the library is across the street. It’s not banning books to say we don’t have this book in a school library. You’re all silly for thinking that. For saying that you’re silly. You’re embarrassing yourselves.

I also want to make a point here as reported by youarecurrent.com. (link below) Miss Nelson discusses that part of this book is important because it talks about sexual abuse, and children who have been sexually abused may want to be able to access something that talks about things that they’ve gone through. And Miss Nelson Williams, said, and I quote, “I could speak to being part of the 25% of high school girls that were sexually assaulted, being afraid to tell anyone and actually telling someone and not being believed. Being able to hear someone else’s story and know that I wasn’t alone would have been very powerful for me at that time in my life as we grapple with young people’s mental health, I think it’s important young children feel that they are heard and seen in our community.”

Carmel school board narrowly votes to keep controversial book in library • Current Publishing (youarecurrent.com)

Tony sums up:

I would like to respond to this. With two parts 1st. Dear Lord, that’s awful. As that is awful and horrific and I only hope whoever did this to you spent a lot of time in jail. I would want that for anybody who’s been abused. That is horrific. When I was a kid. I was not sexually abused. When I was a kid. I did have. A bully. And I did have pennies thrown at me in middle school. That was that was something because I’m Jewish. The point that I use that I make here is not a comparison piece to something you went through, but rather that experiences, as awful as they are, do not mean policy for others. And I have a very hard time. Thinking that we should take an experience to someone that someone had and decide that it is a policy piece… I’m sorry that happened, but that doesn’t set policy for me. And while Miss Nelson Williams discusses something that happened to her, and I don’t question it in the slightest, it is not something that sets policy for Carmel in what parents decide is best for their kids. And parents should know this, and they should go about, if they don’t like the results, advocating for different people on the school board and advocating for different results. You don’t get to just sit back on your laurels.