Parent: 'To Kill a Mockingbird' validates racist language
Marie Rothstein-Williams, a white parent of a biracial child who attends Nandua High School, spoke at a Nov. 15 Accomack County School Board meeting against the use of the books “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “To Kill a Mockingbird" in Accomack County classrooms and libraries.
“I keep hearing ‘This is a classic, this is a classic.' I understand this is a literature classic but at some point I feel the children will not or do not truly get the classic part, the literature part — which I’m not disputing this is great literature — but there is so much racial slurs in there and offensive wording that you can’t get past that.”
Rothstein-Williams stated that the nation is divided as it is and she teaches her son that he is the "best of both worlds," and doesn't want him to feel otherwise.
"There's other literature they can use," she said. "We're validating that these words are acceptable and they're not acceptable by no means."
BACKGROUND: "To Kill a Mockingbird" suspended in Accomack schools
A racial slur appears more than 200 times in Mark Twain's “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and almost 50 times in Harper Lee's “To Kill a Mockingbird."
A committee has been formed and the use of both novels in both classrooms and libraries has been temporarily suspended per the Accomack County Public Schools policy manual.
The policy manual outlines that when a formal complaint is filed about learning resources, a committee consisting of the principal, the library media specialist, the classroom teacher (if involved), a parent and/or student, and the complainant will review the learning resource and the materials will be temporarily suspended pending the committee's determination.
A copy of the Accomack County Public Schools policy manual can be found online at www.boarddocs.com/vsba/accomack/Board.nsf/Public.
Listen to the board meeting audio: