Due in a few hours

Robertson: Next item on the agenda is to receive bids for three new school buses.

Bodine: We’ve got kind of a deal here. One bus company, Sierra Busing, has entered a bid of $23,520. Now that’s for a normal bus that can hold 84 students. Another company, Buses Unlimited, offers an 84-seater that runs on diesel for $24,000 even. The Springfield Valley Unified School District has offered one of their used buses for $12,000. Again it holds 84 people, but it’s got 80,000 miles on it and is a ’78 model.

Davis: Is 80,000 too many?

Bodine: No, I don’t think so. I’d recommend that bus.

Santana: Why are they selling it?

Bodine: The district is growing smaller and they don’t need it. And they’re in a budget crunch.

Davis: But why this particular one? Something wrong with it?

Bodine: No. Our district’s mechanic checked it out and said it’s fine. Purrs like a kitten were his exact, if unoriginal, words.

Davis: I move we accept the bid of $12,000 from the Springfield Valley Unified School District for the offered bus.

Robertson: Do I hear a second.

Harold: Second.

Robertson: All in favor say aye. (Board unanimously approves.)

Robertson: Next item on the agenda is the appropriation of funds to put the basketball team up in a hotel for three days. The high school’s team won the division tournament and is going to the state finals in Phoenix. If they continue their winning ways, they will have to stay up there at least three days. The appropriation requests $125 per night so the basketball team can compete in state playoffs for as long as they need to stay in Phoenix.

(The motion is seconded, and the board unanimously approves.)

Robertson: The next request is from the high school librarian for money. Mr. Secretary, will you please read the request?

Bodine: I have a request here from Mrs. Phyllis Laird, head librarian. It reads: “In order to keep our library in tune with modern times, update reference materials, replace damaged and lost books, and add new magazines to our subscription list, we are asking for $543 before the next school year. A well-stocked library is a necessary part of a student’s education, and so I hope you will grant our request.” Mrs. Laird goes on to list how the money would be spent.

Robertson: For a set of new encyclopedias to replace our 1975 versions, a new set of science-oriented encyclopedias, magazine subscriptions to Time, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Boys Life and something called Dragon. I don’t know what that is for sure. Then she’s got an almanac and other reference materials and about 200 books. You all have read the lists, right?

All: Nod and mumble in the affirmative.

Robertson: What do you think of Mrs. Laird’s choices?

Harold: I have no problems with the request, and I move we vote to authorize the appropriation for $543 for the school library.

Robertson: Well, before we take a second on your motion, I think we ought to discuss these books and magazines a little.

Harold: What’s to discuss? They’re all fine books.

Bodine: I’m not so sure I want to agree to this authorization. Some of these books, I think, are questionable. I have no objections to Shakespeare or even books like Megatrends or Lee Iacocca’s autobiography. But some of these bother me. As an example I give this one – Kurt Vonnegut’s book, Slaughterhouse Five. There are some sections in here that deal with sex, others put down the United States. It’s strange fare and I’m not so sure Rockville kids need to read stuff like that.

Robertson: Well, I had some reservations on some of these myself, Mr. Bodine. I’ve heard that this Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, down near the bottom of the list, is about homosexuality. I don’t think our students ought to be educated about such topics.

Harold: Mr. President, am I to assume you don’t want to approve the request for money because of some of the books on the list?

Robertson: No, Mr. Harold. I’m willing to approve the request, just minus some of the books and magazines.

Harold: That sounds like censorship to me.

Bodine: I think it’s censorship, Bill, but it’s good censorship. We’re concerned for these children, and I think that some of these books can only hinder a student’s development. We should be careful here. Would you want students to read a book that perpetuates racial stereotypes? Have you ever read Huckleberry Finn? That novel just reeks with the degradation of blacks.

Robertson: I don’t even think we need to look at some of them. Students don’t need to read trash. Though, I wonder what you’ve got against Huck Finn. I read it as a boy, and I think it’s a fine novel.

Santana: I think I agree with Mr. Bodine. I try to watch my kids. I’ve read reports in newspapers about kids who read comic books or those sword and sorcery books and then go out and play Dungeons and Dragons and then end up committing suicide. Maybe we should look at these things.

Harold: Maria, do you monitor what your kids watch on TV?

Santana: No, not really.

Harold: So you let your kids watch something where people run around shooting 1,000 rounds of ammunition per show. Now, do your kids run out and grab machine guns and start shooting each other? No, so why would books have that effect?

Bodine: I think it’s the potential for that effect. A student who is violent or depressed may be pushed over the edge.

Harold: You can’t protect them from everything. And in the meantime, they could lose something valuable. It’s important that a child reads, and I don’t care if the kid reads cigarette packages or War and Peace. The important thing is that they are learning how words work and how to communicate.

Bodine: OK, then, why don’t we put Playboy in the library? So long as reading is the only thing that’s important.

Harold: Get serious, Peter. You know I’m not advocating that.

Bodine: So you will censor, just to a different degree.

Davis: I’ve been sitting here watching you debate. Twenty-five years ago we had this same type of discussion. But back then we were talking about John Steinbeck. A number of parents were concerned that the subject matter in The Grapes of Wrath would be too shocking to students. They believed it portrayed a world and an attitude of negativism and pessimism. A book is neither good nor bad. It all depends on how it is used and read. I would give students the option. Open our library to different books and let them decide. I don’t believe it is our place to dictate what a student can and cannot read.

Santana: Well, are we going to vote on something? Should have a new motion.

Bodine: I move we set a public hearing two weeks from today to get parents’ reactions to these books.

Santana: I second the motion.

Harold: Mr. President, I wonder exactly what that will accomplish. We have over 200 books on this list. I doubt that the public has read all of them. I doubt we’ve read all of them. You’re still talking as if you intend to censor if parents say it’s all right with them. Are we each going to vote on 200 books? Where do you start and stop?

Davis: I agree with Bill. Even if we decide that the board has the power to censor, I believe it would be too difficult to decide what should be censored. And that is the strongest argument for not censoring. The world is out there, good and bad. We can’t stop it from touching the children. Teach them what’s good and bad and use those books as examples. But don’t close their minds.

Robertson: We have a motion on the floor to schedule a public hearing regarding the book list Mrs. Laird has submitted. I’d like a roll call vote. How do you vote?

Davis: No.

Harold: No.

Santana: Yes.

Bodine: Yes.

Robertson: Aye. The ayes have it. By a vote of 3-2 a public hearing will be scheduled for Friday, April 18, at 7 p.m. here to discuss the book list and appropriation request.

Member of the audience: You’re all nuts. I’ll be back here in two weeks to tell you that. I can’t believe you’re so damn foolish.

Harold: (addressing the audience member) I believe they’re that foolish. I’ll vote against every stupid goddam thing you propose.

Robertson: Do we have a motion to close this meeting?

Santana: So moved.

The board seconded and approved the motion, and the meeting was adjourned.