Censorship, Athletic Regulations On School Board Agenda

By Debra McCown
Reporter / Bristol Herald Courier
Published: August 4, 2008

ABINGDON, Va. – As the start of the school year approaches, the Washington County, Va., School Board is rehashing two system policies that generated controversy during the past school year.

Policies on curriculum complaints and eighth grade participation in high school sports are being rewritten, and the debate is still tinged by last year’s disputes.

“You think about all the big controversies that come up in public school, most of the time it’s either something about a book, inappropriate material in the classroom, or sports,” said Assistant Superintendent Tom Graves.

He said when the board votes to adopt new policies, the situations could change, but currently the schools are operating on existing policies. Both issues are on Monday’s regular meeting agenda.

The curriculum issue created a firestorm of controversy last fall when school board member Dayton Owens requested a review of the book “Fair and Tender Ladies,” about which he had received a complaint of inappropriate content.

The book, which was on the school system’s approved reading list and was being used by an honors-level high school class, generated competing accusations that appeared to pit censorship against moral indecency.

As the review process went forward, those on both sides of the issue questioned the fairness of the review. Ultimately, the book was approved for continued use.

Owens, who took the brunt of the criticism for raising the morality issue with the book, said he wants to ensure the process is fair to all sides and doesn’t force a concerned parent to become the public face of the controversy.

School Board Chairman Tom Musick said he too wants to make sure the curriculum review committee created in the heat of controversy will be selected fairly.

“I think what they’re going to do is they’re going to look at making the committee more diverse and the procedures will stay the same,” said Graves of the board’s work on the policy.

Athletics regulations generated a controversy in the spring when high school parents complained that eighth-graders were taking their sons’ spots on the junior varsity baseball team at John Battle High School.

The issue had the board split on when and whether eighth-graders should be allowed to play, and between those who want to give every child an equal shot at participation and those who want more competitive teams.

The rule allowing eighth-graders to play was initially suspended until school system officials found out not all of the county’s high schools could field teams without them.

The board appears to be in agreement that the policy needs to be more specific but how far it should go in restricting participation by eighth-graders on junior varsity teams and seventh-graders on eighth-grade teams has been an issue of debate.

“The day-to-day decision of athletics needs to be left up to the principal, athletic director and coaches, and the school board just needs to set the parameters within which they operate,” said School Board Member Curtis Burkett, who has in the past served as a coach, athletic director and school principal.

“Each school in our system is different, their needs are different, and what they may need this year may change next year.”

Debate has thus far centered around the idea of allowing eighth-graders to move up to the next level only when junior varsity teams lack the necessary number of players without them. How the necessary number is to be determined has been a point of discussion.

Burkett said even with new policies, the issues of controversy will not be resolved for long; it’s not the first time these issues have surfaced in the school system.

“After we go through all of this, it will only be a matter of time until it comes up again,” Burkett said. “There’ll be something else down the road in the near future that will cause us to need to revisit.”

School Board Member Herschel Stevens lamented the need for constant policy revision.

“We’ve got too many rules,” Stevens said at the board’s last meeting. “We ought to use common sense to start with.”

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