A. Reject

     An organization known as the Concerned Parents Association two weeks ago presented a petition to the Freeport School Board asking for the removal of several books from the public schools. The association, which includes members of the three major religious groups and various racial and ethnic groups, has in past years confined its activities to submitting material, much of it used to encourage brotherhood studies in the schools. The books it asks to be removed are, according to the list of the group, Manchild in the Promised Land, by Claude Brown; Laughing Boy, by Oliver LaFarge; The Fixer, by Bernard Malamud; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain; Portnoy's Complaint, by Philip Roth; and Down These Mean Streets, by Piri Thomas.
     Five of the seven members of the city school board today issued the following statement at a news conference. The five are Albert Swimmer, Helen Epstein, Charles Thorne, Jean Silver and Salvatore Vincent. The other two board members are Edwin Minteer and John T. Voboril. Thorne, the president of the board, reads this statement:

     We intend to vote against the request when the board discusses the petition by the Concerned Parents Association next Monday. We have been holding meetings with teachers, parents and students, individually, as we promised two weeks ago when the matter was presented to the board.
     Several members of the association have been speaking to us, and although we believe we have heard ample evidence for the association's point of view, we certainly do not intend to prohibit them from speaking at Monday's meeting. It is possible that new arguments will be presented at that time.
     However, we have heard the supporters, read the books, spoken to many of those involved. The argument of the association and its supporters is best summed up by the statement of Mrs. Richard Farrington, who asks, "Why do they have to tell it the way it is? Some of these books print downright filth. As for Jim, in Huck Finn, he is portrayed as simple, superstitious, childlike, no role model for young blacks."
     We agree that some of these books are realistic. Claude Brown's book does use street language, and it goes into detail about heroin use. Huck Finn is a subversive book; it does subvert the values of a society Twain disliked.
     We respect the intention of these concerned citizens. But some arguments are as silly as the parents in a California school who asked that The Red Badge of Courage be removed from schools because they thought it was about a Russian war decoration.
     We are also concerned that should we act as we are requested we would violate the law. The courts have said that a school board violates First Amendment guarantees if it removes books already on the library shelves. One federal court said:
     Here, we are concerned with the right of students to receive information with their teachers desire them to have . . . .
     A library is like a storehouse of knowledge. When created for a public school, it is an important privilege created by the state for the benefit of the students in the school. That privilege is not subject to being withdrawn by succeeding school boards whose members might desire to winnow the library for books the content of which occasioned their displeasure or disapproval.

     In answer to a question, Swimmer, who is black, says:

     These books do denigrate certain groups. But that is only their superficial message. Each of them is written with a passionate regard for the dignity of mankind.
     But what happens when books are censored? Well, the immediate reaction here is that the popularity of these books has increased, school officials tell us. But for precisely the wrong reasons. In the long run, censorship is disastrous, for once censorship begins, it will not stop.

     Epstein is asked if the charge that The Fixer has anti-Semitic stereotypes has some validity. She answers:

     I leafed through the book the other day after a few years, and I can see how someone would object, just as I would understand reactions to The Merchant of Venice and Oliver Twist.
     Clearly, Shylock and Fagin are anti-Semitic stereotypes. There is some debate about Shylock, who at times is a sympathetic character. But there is none about Fagin. Yet what good is served by censoring the books? Perhaps it is true that youngsters who cannot understand that these books reflect certain periods and feeling should not be asked to read them.
     I'd agree that small children have no business reading Manchild, but I read Huckleberry Finn to my 12-year-old daughter and she thought Jim was a wonderful human being.

     She is asked about Portnoy's Complaint: Would you want your daughter to read it?

     Well, I wouldn't want her to have Portnoy for a boyfriend when she grows up. At her age—she's 12—she should not be exposed to that kind of book. But I see nothing wrong with having it on the shelves of the high school library and using it in the class for seniors.

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B. Minors

     The mayor's office distributes the following press release and says he will discuss it tomorrow at his 11 a.m. news conference. Write a precede.

     I am asking the chief of police and our city inspectors to step up their surveillance of the vendors of tobacco products. It has come to my attention that increasing numbers of teen-agers are smoking, despite the health risks, and I have had reports that some merchants are selling to underage buyers.
     Tobacco takes the greatest toll on health of any substance that we are able to control. It is well established that at least a thousand deaths a day can be traced to tobacco. Recently, we have learned that there is even a toll on the unborn and the newly born. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts and at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston found that smoking mothers have 115,000 miscarriages a year and that 5,600 of their babies die each year. Also, they give birth to 53,000 low-weight infants and 22,000 who require intensive care at birth.
     The financial toll is estimated at $43.8 billion a year in federal costs through Medicare, Medicaid and other federal entitlements.
     The time to attack this problem is when potential smokers are young. We must do everything we can to prevent teen-agers from succumbing to tobacco addiction. The city will do its part through stepped-up law enforcement. I intend to ask the city council for more stringent punishments for offenders. I want their retail licenses suspended for the first offense and revoked for the second.