State Refuses to Take Book Off School Reading List : Education: The racial story is recommended as optional for older students. The Simi Valley couple who sought its removal consider a class-action suit.

A novel criticized for the way it depicts blacks will not be removed from the state’s optional reading list as a Simi Valley couple wanted, the state Department of Education has decided.

But the department will recommend the book for an older audience, said state Education Department Associate Supt. Fred Tempes. He said “The Cay” should target seventh- and eighth-graders, not fifth- and sixth-graders.

Teachers also will be told to approach controversial reading subjects with sensitivity, Tempes said Thursday from Sacramento.

“We want to make sure that the teachers use sensitivity in presenting ideas that may be difficult, and that they consider all the implications before they do,” Tempes said.

Alex Plummer, a Simi Valley parent, said he is not satisfied with the state’s response. Plummer and his wife, Beverly, prompted a review of the book after they complained that their son was harmed by its presentation in a classroom where he was the only black student.

The elder Plummer said he doesn’t want to ban the book from the school library. But, he said, it should not be used in the classroom because not all teachers would be able to promote appropriate discussion and put minority students at ease.

“If this book is going to be offensive to some people, common sense would tell you this is a problem,” Plummer said. “Why would you want it in class?”

The Ventura County chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People joined the fight against the book, which depicts the relationship between a white boy--who is shipwrecked on a Caribbean island--and an older black man who befriends the boy.

“The decision to keep “The Cay” on the extended (reading) list is representative of a wanton disregard for the minds of our children,” Theodore M. Green Sr., vice president of the local NAACP chapter, said Thursday.

Critics say the book depicts the black character in derogatory stereotypes.

In one passage, the white boy says of the black man, “He crawled over toward me. His face couldn’t have been blacker, or his teeth whiter. They made an alabaster trench in his mouth, and his pink-purple lips peeled back over them like the meat of a conch shell.”

Tempes said the novel, written by Laguna Beach author Theodore Taylor in 1969, ultimately speaks against prejudice. But he admitted that the message could be lost on children as young as 10 and 11.

“This book has a lot of value for a lot of kids in the state of California, but it requires a little bit more sophistication on the part of readers to know what the author really intended,” Tempes said.

The book has won several literary awards, but it has stirred controversy since the 1970s when it was removed from public and school libraries in some parts of the country.

The Plummers originally took their grievance to the Simi Valley Unified School District Board of Education, which decided to remove “The Cay” from the required reading list but kept it on a list from which teachers can select supplemental reading materials.

When the Plummers and the NAACP took their appeal to the state Department of Education, a nine-member committee of educators convened to review the book and make a recommendation to Tempes. They recommended keeping the book on an optional list but for older students. Local school districts, however, are not required to follow the state’s reading list.

Plummer and Green said they are considering filing a class-action lawsuit against the Simi Valley school board and the state Department of Education for violating the civil rights of black students by allowing the book to be taught.