A fifth grader’s mother complained to the Portage Township School Board Monday about a book he took home from his teacher’s personal library.
The book, “Looking for Alaska,” wasn’t age-appropriate, she believes.
PEN America, an anti-censorship group, lists the book by author John Green as the second most-banned book during the 2023-24 school year. It won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award presented by the American Library Association. Amazon’s listing for the book says it’s appropriate for grades 9-12.
“What happened in this instance is a serious lapse in judgment and oversight, one that has impacted many families in our school community,” parent Michelle Drummond said.
Drummond questioned what process or resource teachers use to check reading levels and content of books brought into classrooms and whether they’re appropriate for kids that age. Fifth graders are typically 10 or 11 years old.
Myers Elementary School Principal Jon Evers issued a statement, but it didn’t include an apology to parents, she said. No one else in the district had apologized, she said.
Drummond said she went to her son’s school twice, returning the book her son borrowed and wanting answers. “He knew it was inappropriate, and he wanted something to be done,” Drummond said.
“Because this book was freely accessible, many of us parents were forced into a conversation with our 11-year-old children that we were not prepared to have,” she said. “Conversations – and pardon me – about explicit sexual acts, about oral sex, about adult sexual positions because those scenes are in this book.”
“Our kids cannot unread what they read. Their innocence was taken from them literally forever because an adult did not take one moment to see if this book was age-appropriate,” Drummond said.
“We cannot rely on assumptions, personal judgment, or hope that this will be fine,” she said, so other parents don’t have to go through what she and other parents went through this past weekend.
“We do apologize, and we’re all mortified by what happened. We will take the necessary steps to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” board President Andy Maletta said.
Maletta asked Superintendent Amanda Alaniz to investigate the issue and report back to the board.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
