Anaheim Schools Sued Over Removal of Books

The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit Thursday against an Anaheim school district, complaining that officials pulled 10 biographies of gay people from the shelves of a junior high campus.

Lawyer Martha Matthews said it is the first time the ACLU of Southern California has sued a school district over censorship.

The books, part of a series called “Lives of Notable Gay Men and Lesbians,” were removed from the Orangeview Junior High library in September after a teacher complained that they were inappropriate. Among those profiled in the biographies are economist John Maynard Keynes, father of supply-side economics, and classical Greek poet Sappho.

Officials of the Anaheim Union High School District could not be reached for comment Thursday. Parents at the school declined to comment, saying they were not familiar with the books.

The series is published by Chelsea House, which also publishes such titles as “Heroes of Faith,” “Black Americans of Achievement,” “North American Indians of Achievement,” “Hispanics of Achievement,” “American Women of Achievement” and “Female Firsts in Their Fields.”

Many of those books are in the Orangeview school library, and some were part of a shipment of books that contained the gay and lesbian series that arrived at Orangeview the first week of school.

The gay and lesbian series never made it into students’ hands, however, because as librarians were shelving the books, a teacher saw them and complained, librarians said.

The principal took them home to review them, and then sent them to the district office, where they have been ever since, librarian Christine Enterline said Thursday.

Despite Enterline’s objections, school officials refused to return the books, according to the suit filed in U.S. District Court.

Enterline said it was the first time in her five years with the district that officials have removed books from her library. According to the suit, officials later told Enterline that she had violated district policy by ordering the books, that their reading level was too high for Orangeview students, and that the books presented a safety hazard because students who checked them out might be harassed by other students.

Matthews called such explanations “a pretext for viewpoint-based censorship,” which she said is prohibited by the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Article I of the California Constitution.

“We all know why these books have been banned,” Matthews said. “The books were banned because they had a positive statement to make to kids about gay and lesbian people. The books were banned because of deep-seated prejudice.”

In early November, Enterline, assistant librarian Tom Kovac and a few angry parents contacted the ACLU. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of two students at the school who said they think there is an anti-homosexual bias on their campus. To protect their identities, neither the students nor their parents were named in the lawsuit.

Kovac said he felt compelled to go to the ACLU because the removal of the books was “so totally against district policy.”

“No parents objected to the books, and there was no formal challenge made to any of these books,” he said. “A teacher just came in and made some flippant comment and the books were gone. And you can’t do that.”

Martin Duberman, a playwright and professor of history at City University of New York who is the editor of the series, said he was appalled that the books had been pulled out of the library. He said the series is important because most teenagers don’t know that there have been gay and lesbian people throughout history who have led productive, happy lives.

“We know this kind of blatant homophobia is still deeply embedded all around us,” Duberman said. “But they really shouldn’t get away with this.”

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Banned Books

The series of books on “Lives of Notable Gay Men and Lesbians,” pulled from the library shelves at Orangeview Junior High School, profiles the following people:

* Sappho, classical Greek poet

* James Baldwin, novelist

* Willa Cather, novelist

* John Maynard Keynes, economist

* Oscar Wilde, playwright

* T.E. Lawrence, political activist, soldier and writer

* Marlene Dietrich, entertainer

* Liberace, pianist

* k.d. lang, pop singer

* Martina Navratilova, tennis player