Parents Learn Lesson From Failed Attempt To Ban Book

WEST LINN, Ore. - A couple who failed to get a book banned from their son's school library say they learned some lessons of their own.

"Trying to teach our morals to others probably isn't right," said Larry Dunstan, who runs an insurance office. "But it was just something I felt was right in the situation."

Dunstan and his wife, Jacqueline, asked the West Linn-Wilsonville School District to ban the book "Jumper" from the library at Bolton Middle School.

The Dunstans say they are typical parents who don't monitor everything their five children read. But when Jacqueline Dunstan read a graphic scene about a 17-year-old runaway boy attacked by a group of male truckers who tried to rape him, she felt sick.

"I'm not the kind who would pull a book off a shelf and burn it," she said. "But when I read it, I felt like I'd been kicked in the stomach. I felt like kids should be protected."

The Dunstans' challenge was reviewed by a committee of teachers, parents and school officials. They read the book, examined a list of book reviews and checked national library guidelines on free speech.

The committee decided that although the scene was violent, the book had value and should remain on the school shelves. The School Board agreed.

"We just didn't feel that when we looked at the book as a whole - it's good and bad - that it was appropriate for us to say, `Let's throw this book out," said School Board member Nancy Stuart. "If you're going to start doing that, you're going to have to throw an awful lot of books out."

Even people who disagreed with the Dunstans applaud that they got involved.

Ellen Fader of the Oregon State Library said she's pleased with the high number of challenges because it shows that people express their opinions at schools. But those opinions vary widely, she said.

"No two families or students are alike, and what is offensive to one family may be perfectly acceptable to another family," Fader said. "When books are removed from libraries, no one is able to investigate these ideas."