Penguin book back in Charlotte schools as committee considers ban

[BR_Parkway]

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - A picture book based on a true story about two male penguins that raise an adopted hatchling will return to bookshelves in one of the state's largest school districts while a committee considers banning it, officials said.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Superintendent Peter Gorman banned the book, "And Tango Makes Three," after parent inquiries. He later acknowledged his staff failed to follow district policy that requires books to go through a formal complaint and review process before being banned. A committee of district curriculum specialists will meet in January to decide what should happen to the book, Gorman said Wednesday. In the meantime, the book will return to library shelves at the four elementary schools where it had been removed, he said.

The story about presumably gay penguins at New York's Central Park Zoo has been the focus of proposed bans at schools and public libraries in several states. Charlotte-Mecklenburg would be the first school district to ban the book, according to the American Library Association. The ban came in a Nov. 30 memo from district administrators to school principals and library staff. Gorman said parents and a Republican county official had asked him about the book.

A miscommunication between Gorman and his chief of staff, Robert Avossa, led to the book being banned with neither a written complaint nor an advisory committee review at a school as required by district policy, Gorman said. "I screwed this one up," Gorman told The Charlotte Observer. In the memo banning the book, district officials said the book "focuses on homosexuality" and provides no vital information to primary students. "We did not believe the book would stimulate growth in ethical standards, and the book is too controversial," the memo stated.

The American Library Association criticized Charlotte-Mecklenburg school officials for not giving the book an open, balanced review.

"One parent's decision shouldn't dictate whether or not the book is available to all the other families in the community," said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, a deputy director for the association's Freedom to Read Foundation.

"Any challenge to a book is ultimately an attempt to remove an idea from public discourse," she said.

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[hashibabba]

1. How ridiculous. We're going to hide our heads in the sand and

pretend that there aren't homosexuals even in the animal kingdom? Ignoring it isn't going to make it go away. There are plenty of species of animals who practice homosexuality. I guess if we admitted there were animal homosexuals, well, we'd just have to admit that human homosexuality is a normal state.

By the way, did the *gay* penquins actually have sex with each other in this children's book????