Someone complained about a book in a Great Barrington classroom. Then the police showed up (original) (raw)

A police officer searched a classroom at W.E.B. Du Bois Regional Middle School for the coming of age novel, "Gender Queer" after receiving a complaint. The incident has prompted outrage in the school community.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the the School Library Journal's age rating for "Gender Queer." The story also misnamed the the Journal, which rated the book as appropriate for students grades nine and up.

GREAT BARRINGTON — Someone called the police last Friday.

About a book.

What happened next outraged the school community and left them in disbelief.

After the complaint, Great Barrington police and the Berkshire District Attorney's Office began investigating whether the illustrated novel, “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe, was inappropriate content for an eighth grade classroom at W.E.B. Du Bois Regional Middle School.

The book was made available as a resource by an English teacher.

The caller, whose identity had not been released as of Friday morning, told police that the book contained illustrations that could be considered pornographic and obscene.

Here’s what happened next, according to a variety of sources. After the call came in, Police Chief Paul Storti notified Peter Dillon, superintendent of the Berkshire Hills Regional School District, that police were investigating the complaint and referring it to the DA’s Office.

After school let out, Principal Miles Wheat escorted a plainclothed town police officer to the classroom to investigate the potential crime of "obscenity."

The English teacher was present. No one told the teacher in advance that a police officer was coming to the classroom.

The officer then searched for the book and planned to remove the book as part of the investigation.

But the book was nowhere to be found, Wheat said. It's not clear where the book is at this point.

“No one has raised an issue with this book before,” he added.

The award-winning novel, which is written in a cartoon art format, contains sexual visuals and language as part of a memoir about the trials of growing up. It’s a story about coming of age while grappling with confusion about gender and sexuality.

Depending on who you ask, the book’s age recommendations vary. The School Library Journal in 2019, in one of several reviews, said it can be appropriate for students in grades 9 and up — typically ages 14 to 15. Barnes & Noble says it's appropriate for ages 15 and older. Amazon recommends it for ages 18 and older.

“Gender Queer” is considered the “most banned book” in the U.S., having been challenged by schools and libraries in 15 states.

Wheat said he was surprised by both the complaint and the call to police. The teacher is exceptional and that the school plans to fully support the teacher, he said.

An eighth grade English teacher at W.E.B. Du Bois Regional Middle School in Great Barrington was shocked when a plainclothed police officer came to her classroom after school to search for the novel "Gender Queer."

HEATHER BELLOW — THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE

Storti said the department is working with the school and the DA’s Office to “make sure that further investigation isn’t warranted.”

District Attorney Timothy Shugrue, after speaking with Storti and Dillon, said on Friday that his office and the Great Barrington Police Department are no longer investigating the matter. He said the question of the book's appropriateness for eighth graders is one for the school to address.

“The complaint that was filed did not involve criminal activity, therefore, the Great Barrington Police Department and our office have closed the matter and referred any further action back to the Berkshire Hills Regional School District," Shugrue said in a statement.

"The superintendent assured the District Attorney’s Office that the issue will be reviewed according to the Berkshire Hills Regional School District’s policies and shall remain as a school department matter," Shugrue added.

Either way, parents are outraged that police acted on the complaint and the way that they did it.

One parent said it was “wildly unnecessary.”

“Along with why the teacher was allowed to be blindsided in her classroom,” said parent Cristina Markham, who worries that school officials are now "whitewashing" the incident. “The conversation that has most parents fearful honestly is the way that this was handled.”

In a walkout on Friday, more than 100 students and others in the Monument Mountain Regional High School community protested the removal of the book and rallied in support of the teacher and their schoolmates who identify along the LBGTQIA+ spectrum.

The teacher declined to comment and asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation. Earlier, however, she had written about the incident on social media. She noted her robust experience teaching English and curating books for students.

“How on earth is a cop more qualified to decide what books are OK to be in an educational setting for teens?” the teacher wrote.

More than 100 students and others in the Monument Mountain Regional High School community on Friday protested the attempt by police to remove the novel, "Gender Queer" from a classroom at the neighboring middle school.

HEATHER BELLOW — THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE

Book challenges are growing more frequent across the country and in Massachusetts. PEN America, a group that defends free expression in the U.S., says there was book challenges and bans nationwide increased 33 percent this year.

Some conservative groups, like Moms for Liberty, are behind organized challenges against various books, including Kobabe’s. The group has chapters in eastern Massachusetts.

While not all challenges are part of a campaign — some simply stem from a parent's worry their child might be too young for some content — these campaigns are a trend noted by librarians statewide.

“Book challenges are rising in Massachusetts and nationally because extremist political operatives and activists have organized since 2021, creating a playbook for how to drum up outrage over books, curricula, and other programs relating to gender, sexuality and race,” wrote Andrea Fiorillo, co-chair of The Massachusetts Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom/Social Responsibility Committee.

Fiorillo also said that many challenges about Kobabe’s book come from those who haven’t read it, but might have seen parts of it online.

She said the book “doesn’t come close to the definition of pornographic,” in part because it isn’t designed to titillate.

Kobabe’s book was formally challenged twice in the state’s school libraries from the start of the 2022-23 school year, according to Jennifer Varney, past president of the Massachusetts School Library Association.

One of the challenges “fizzled out,” Varney said. The other one failed.

It is one of 14 books for which challenges were reported to the association, Varney said. About 97 percent of those were LBGTQIA+ titles.

A challenge in schools or libraries consists of someone making a complaint that describes what they object to in a book. The complaint then goes through reviews and a determination about whether to pull a book off the shelf.

'It brings you back'

Dillon and Wheat said there have been very few book challenges within the district over the years — and neither can recall a case in which police were involved.

State library associations and local librarians also can’t recall an instance of law enforcement involvement in a dispute over a controversial book.

Schools and libraries, they all said, have a procedure for book challenges and that's the route people usually take.

School districts in Massachusetts have most of the authority over educational and reading content and often heed recommendations by library associations, Dillon noted.

Dillon sent an email to district families on Thursday about the incident, saying the district was also blindsided by the complaint, and described what had happened.

He wrote that the book has been controversial in other districts, as well, for “images that some find offensive.”

“At the same time, many see it as an important story helping build empathy and support for a marginalized group and helping trans or queer students make meaning,” Dillon added.

What baffles and disturbs educators, parents and librarians is that a police officer was allowed into a school to investigate a book. It is also that the teacher was not alerted beforehand.

One librarian said it harkens to something dark.

“It brings you back to 1930s Germany, when law enforcement was behind censorship,” said Wendy Pearson, director of the Stockbridge Library, which has Kobabe’s novel on its shelves.

The teacher whose classroom was searched pointed also to the absurdity of it.

“I will never condone book-banning,” she wrote in another social media post about the incident. “Respect for parental and educational guidance? Absolutely! But a police officer should never, ever search classrooms for award-winning literature to remove. Period.”