May 3, 2013

Mary Kay Gallagher, Superintendent Members, Board of Education Northville School District 501 W Main St. Northville, MI 48167

Dear Ms. Gallagher and Board Members, We understand that your district recently received a request from the parent of a 7th grade student to remove The Diary of a Young Girl (Bantam) by Anne Frank because of an anatomical description in the book. We strongly urge you to retain the book. The Diary of a Young Girl is read and studied in its definitive edition by students in middle schools and high schools around the country. This autobiographical account enables students to confront the reality faced by a Jewish teenager during the Holocaust and, at the same time, encounter someone much like themselves, with familiar questions about family, adolescence and morality. Anne Frank was the same age as your 7th grade students when she wrote her diary, which is both relevant to todays students and pedagogically valuable. As the National Council of Teachers of English (attached) states in its Teaching Rationale for the book: Class discussion of these and other universal themes that Anne keeps returning to in The Diary can convince students that they don't have to wait until they graduate from high school to enter the real world: that as they leaven their own experience with thought, they will increase their understanding of themselves and of others. The passage in question relates to an experience that may be of particular concern to many of your students: physical changes associated with puberty. Anne had no books or friends to answer her questions, so she was forced to rely on her own observations. While parents are free to request an alternative assignment for their children, they have no right to impose their views on others or to demand that otherwise educationally worthy materials be removed, merely because they consider it objectionable, offensive, or inappropriate. The complainants daughter herself selected the book from two possible reading options, but was offered an alternate assignment in response to the

parents concerns. To go further and remove the book potentially violates the constitutional rights of other students and parents. Government officials, including public school administrators, may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable. Texas v. Johnson (1989); see also Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26 v. Pico (1983) (local school boards may not remove books from school libraries simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books) Literature helps prepare students for the future by providing opportunities to explore issues they may encounter in life. A good education depends on protecting the right to read, inquire, question and think for ourselves. We strongly urge you to keep The Diary of a Young Girl in its full, uncensored form, in classrooms in Northville. If we can be of any assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely,

Joan Bertin Executive Director National Coalition Against Censorship

Chris Finan President American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression

Charles Brownstein Executive Director Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

Judith Platt Director, Free Expression Advocacy Association of American Publishers

Gina Centrello President and Publisher Bantam Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group

Kent Williamson Executive Director National Council of Teachers of English

Susanna Reich Chair, Children's and Young Adult Book Committee PEN American Center

Florrie Kichler President The Independent Book Publishers Association

Lin Oliver Executive Director Society of Childrens Book Writers & Illustrators Alexandra Owens Executive Director American Society of Journalists and Authors

CC: Robert Benhke, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction