STEVE SMITH -- What’s up?

Last Tuesday, Newport-Mesa Unified school board member Wendy Leece

asked her colleagues to pull two books from the reading list of English

classes at Newport Harbor High School. The two book are “Of Love and

Shadows,” by Isabel Allende, and “Snow Falling on Cedars,” by David

Guterson.

I have not read the books, but I have read the objectionable passages,

so here are a few comments about what I anticipate will be a major verbal

assault on Leece.

Newport Beach and Costa Mesa are not living in a vacuum. What is

happening in other urban areas across the country is happening here as

well. Our TVs have 200 channels and show just about every type of graphic

sexual or violent scene one can imagine. Our kids are growing up way too

fast, and it seems as though we’re all running around like headless

chickens trying to get who knows where to do who knows what.

And because over the years we have trusted the wrong people to

maintain standards in our society, we have blurred the lines of those

standards to the point that just about anything goes.

Schools should be a safer harbor from all that adults have wreaked on

society. Students should be shielded from the distractions and

temptations that many of us give in to each day. I’d like any kid, from a

home with problems of any sort, to see school as a place they look

forward to going to because it does not have any of the elements of their

home lives.

Yes, I want students in a bubble and make no apologies for it. I want

them to have at least one place in their community where it’s not OK to

use bad language, where the rule is to treat people with respect and

where you get rewarded for doing good work and punished for doing bad

work, unlike the real world, where people who do bad things get

presidential pardons. Schools should be the place where standards are

constant and the rules are clear. Break the rules, and you suffer the

consequences.

There will be a rush to call Leece’s request “censorship,” but it’s

not even close. Leece is not asking that these book be forbidden to be

sold or displayed in the city limits, nor is she asking parents to forbid

these books in their homes. Leece is not asking for the “Fahrenheit 451”

trucks to patrol the city to round up these or any other books. Children

are still free to access these books by any other means at their

disposal. They can borrow them from a friend or buy them at a bookstore

or check them out from the library, if they can find them. But they

should not find them at school. Trust me, these kids will have plenty of

opportunities to read this book and any other books they wish to read

when they are away from school or when they graduate.

I don’t believe that these books will make any student want to quit

school and walk the streets for a living. But that is hardly the point of

Leece’s request. This is about maintaining standards in our public

schools.

You may think that these kids are old enough to read books with

graphic passages, but they are not. Most of these kids are younger than

18 and are minor children, and adults have a responsibility to protect

them from their own behavior.

For them, as well as for the ones who are 18, society has placed

restrictions on their behavior. This has been done, with much

consideration, for their own protection. Disagree with Wendy Leece if you

think that these books are appropriate, but remember, too, that our

school board has already forbidden on our campuses many other books and

other forms of media that have been deemed inappropriate.

But in the meantime, please don’t launch any personal attacks on Wendy

Leece. You may disagree with her, but she’s only trying to maintain your

child’s concentration.

And my goodness, can’t we find any other books that deliver the same

messages without the graphic passages?

***

On another note, the Daily Pilot lost assistant city editor Jasmine

Lee to another newspaper a week ago. During the time I worked with her, I

relied on Jasmine repeatedly for her opinion and guidance. She was an

invaluable sounding board, wise beyond her years, and she will be missed.

* STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and freelance writer. Readers

may leave a message for him on the Daily Pilot hotline at (949) 642-6086.