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Lorain County JVS Board votes against removing book from ninth grade curriculum

A hot issue during the final Lorain County Joint Vocational School Board of Education meetings of 2023 was whether an assigned book for ninth-graders was age appropriate.

During the Jan. 18 meeting, the board voted 9-2 against a motion that would have removed the 2006 John Green novel “Looking for Alaska” from the JVS ninth grade curriculum.

Diane Kerecz, the mother of a 14-year-old JVS student, brought up the issue to the board at a meeting last fall after her daughter notified her about sexual content in the book.

Kerecz attended the Jan. 18 board meeting and reiterated her issue with the book for the age group assigned to read it.

“I implore you, please do not give it to our 14-year-olds,” the mother said. “I never said to ban the book. I don’t believe it’s for 14-year-olds.

“If it’s essential to your curriculum, I implore you to give it to the older kids.”

Also in attendance at the meeting was Dick Polen, who echoed similar sentiments to Kerecz.

Polen said his main concern with the book is that he believes it does not provide value to students.

“What we are really asking for, is a better one,” he said. “This book, ‘Looking for Alaska,’ I don’t see the value in it.

“This is the United States of America, and we don’t ban books here; we’re just asking for something better.”

Polen said his stance against the book also is due to his family’s religious background.

“We want something with morals in it,” he said. “Something that doesn’t talk about God in a bad way.”

Lorain County JVS superintendent Glenn Faircloth responded to those concerns by affirming his belief in the school to handle difficult topics in literature in a productive way.

“One of our educational goals at Lorain County JVS is to foster and promote critical thinking,” Faircloth said. “Our students are thoughtful readers who have the intellectual capacity to explore difficult issues.

“Our English and language arts teachers are well trained to foster these conversations in the classroom.”

Faircloth also noted that parents have the right to speak up if they do not want their child to consume assigned material.

In such situations, a student may be assigned alternative material without penalty, he said.

Wellington board representative Ayers Ratliff supported the public’s concerns and made a motion to remove the book from the ninth grade curriculum.

The motion would have allowed the book to stay in the school’s library and be taught in other grades.

“There’s nothing in the book that the kids don’t know, I will say that,” Ratliff said. “The thing of it is, we learn to act different in different situations.

“A 14-year-old child that goes to church may do things a certain way. They go to school and things are done a certain way in the classroom. In the hallways or at lunchtime, I’m sure things aren’t the same.”

Ratliff said the material in “Looking for Alaska” is not appropriate for a classroom.

“When you take a book and break it down and start discussing it, then you’re talking about great literature,” he said. “That book is not great literature.”

Other board members spoke up against removing the book.

Oberlin City Schools board member Anne Schaum said many other topics taught in school could be considered sensitive and that is not practical to remove them from curriculums.

“We’re on a huge slippery slope,” Schaum said. “It’s not just going to be books. There could be an article.

“Back when I was in high school, we read ‘Macbeth.’ You’re talking about murder and that could be a sensitive topic to somebody. When you look at literature and art, and all kinds of topics, this is a tough thing.”

Avon Lake City School District board member Gail Soinski-Opaskar said encountering difficult topics in educational material can contribute to the strengthening of a student’s morality.

“I believe it is our job as educators to expose our children to many different issues that they will be exposed to in society and they need to be prepared to confront and understand their morality from their families,” Soinski-Opaskar said. “I believe children need to be strong in their belief system because they are going to encounter many of the issues that are in this book.

“Let’s develop strong individuals in their morality.”