CCPS: Anne Frank memoir will stay

An unabridged edition of Anne Frank’s diary will remain available to students and teachers, Culpeper County Public Schools announced on Friday.

“The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition” is a firsthand account of teenager Anne Frank’s life and experiences during a two-year period where she and her family hid from Nazis in an attic during World War II.

A middle school parent’s concerns about sexual passages — including one where the young girl writes about discovering her vagina — prompted officials to announce that they were withdrawing the book as an academic assignment for eighth-grade English students.

But when the news broke that the school officials were moving to eliminate the book from the school curriculum, Culpeper school officials literally received nationwide and worldwide criticism after the Associated Press and other wire services picked up the story.

On Friday afternoon, CCPS issued the following statement:

“There are two versions of ‘Anne Frank, The Diary of A Young Girl’ available to students in Culpeper County Public Schools. Last November, during instruction using the definitive version in select eighth-grade English classes, concerns were raised over a few explicit passages. The students completed the book study using the definitive version.

“To date, CCPS has not completed a review process of this book. However, the instruction department will convene a committee during the spring of 2010 to review both versions prior to another teaching in the fall of 2010. The definitive version has not been banned nor removed from the middle schools.

“(Bobbi Johnson, CCPS) superintendent, has determined that there is not an agreed upon reading list in middle and high school English courses. She has directed the development of such a list by teachers and English specialists to ensure students are exposed to a wide range of literature and (that will) also enable parents to review the list at the beginning of the course. This will afford parents the opportunity to determine if they wish to have their student seek any alternate assignments before a book is used in instruction.”

In 1995, the Anne Frank Foundation published the definitive edition, an unedited 340-page version of her diary, to mark the 50th anniversary of her death in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The sexual content is not included in earlier editions of the book, which has been translated into dozens of languages.

A phone call and e-mail sent to Johnson seeking further comment for this story were not returned Friday evening.

‘A mistake’
School Board member Bob Beard on Friday characterized the initial comments regarding the status of the book as a mistake.

“I do not know why the statement was made that the book had been removed when it had not gone through the removal process,” said Beard, who repeatedly stressed that he was not speaking for school system or any other school board member.

“In my opinion, somebody made a mistake somewhere along the line in not going through the policy that’s been prescribed by the school board. The definitive edition remains in the school library,” he continued. “I’ve been assured of this … it hasn’t been pulled from any other classes. And right now if any teacher chose to use it, there would be no barring it,” he added.

Beard did not identify any school officials by name. However, earlier this week, Jim Allen, director of instruction for CCPS, told the Star-Exponent that the book had been “pulled.”

Allen also told the Star-Exponent this week that Culpeper’s policy on “public complaints about learning resources” calls for complaints to be submitted in writing and for a review committee to research the materials and deliberate on them. But in a Friday story by the Washington Post, Allen acknowledged that the school division’s own policy was not followed. In this case, Allen said the parent registered the complaint orally, no review committee was created and that an unidentified school administrator made the decision.

A CCPS spokeswoman said that Allen was not in the office Friday afternoon. A message left on his voicemail seeking further comment was not returned.

Criticism continues
Online, professional and amateur bloggers alike continued to weigh in on the school’s initial decision. They overwhelmingly expressed disappointment and frustration that the sensibilities of one person could impact an entire school community. They also expressed almost unilateral condemnation of the decision to withdraw the book over the sexual references. Many online wrote that they felt the passages were age-appropriate for middle school students.

Beard said his daughters have all read the book and that “it didn’t hurt them.” However, he said it is unfair to unequivocally dismiss complaints simply because the dissenting voices are in the minority.

“If one single voice is right, we need to listen to it,” he said. “But this book did not get due process,” he added. “It’s not an issue of whether one complaint should be heard, because just one should, but all the voices should be heard, and that didn’t happen yet.”

“I’ve received a lot of e-mail — people reminding me that the Nazis were book burners,” Beard continued, “And I’m very happy that the superintendent has made it clear that the book has not been removed from the schools. I think we have heard from the community on this book and in a sense, I’m kind of happy that I live in a community where people are saying we want that book back in school.”