Tennessee Middle School Bans Memoir About HIV/AIDS

Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir is a pretty celebrated work in the history of books about the HIV/AIDS crisis. Written by Paul Monette, the book chronicles the life of Monette and his partner, Roger Horwitz, who died of AIDS in 1986. Praised at its release as personalizing "the epidemic's appalling statistics with heartbreaking clarity," the book was even a finalist for the 1988 National Book Critics Circle Award.

But if you're a student at Cheatham Middle School in Tennessee and you want to read the book, you might be tough out of luck. That's because Borrowed Time has been removed from the school's library system, after a parent complained about the book's subject matter. It's currently locked in a filing cabinet in the "school's vault" (according to this news report from WSMV.com), and will eventually be removed from the school entirely.

What a message that sends: that books about the history of HIV/AIDS are vulgar and inappropriate for middle school students.

The parent who complained about the book (which her daughter picked up as part of an "advanced" reading program), told WSMV.com that she felt the book was inappropriate for middle school students because there were references to sex, as well as the use of the "f-word." Because we all know that middle school students have never heard the "f-word" or read about sex before...

"I just think that a 12-year-old seventh-grader doesn't need to be reading that type of material. It may be appropriate for older kids," said parent Misty Binkley.

To her credit, Binkley told reporters that she didn't want the book expunged from the library. Yet that's exactly what administrators at the school have done. And not only that, but the entire incident led the Cheatham County School District to enact a new policy regarding complaints about books in school libraries. From this point forward, any time a parent complains about a book, that book will automatically be removed from the library for 48 hours, while a committee reviews whether the book is indeed appropriate or inappropriate for middle school audiences.

Hello censorship, please introduce yourself to Cheatham County School District.

There are loads of issues with this controversy. For starters, how the heck can you talk to anyone about HIV/AIDS without at least referencing sex? Yet the potential standard set here is that if a book talks about sex -- even if that discussion is framed amidst one of the biggest medical and health crises in modern history -- it's inappropriate and should be ripped off the shelves.

And then a second larger issue is really a question of whether the Cheatham County School District's new policy is indeed even constitutional. One parent complains about a book, and automatically that book is removed from the shelves for 48 hours? Talk about heavy-handed policing. The new policy even has one librarian in the school system telling the Tennessean that the school district is squashing the First Amendment.

What a mess, and what a wrong message to send to students. Will The Catcher in the Rye now be banned because it, too, talks about sex? Or The Bridge of San Luis Rey, which has a curse word in it? What about The Color Purple, which not only has profanity but portrays a pretty vivid story of sexual assault?

In the news clip over at WSMV.com, there's a parent in the district challenging this new policy, and the decision to remove Borrowed Time from the library. Her name is Michelle Thompson, and she gets at exactly why this new policy, as well as the decision to remove Monette's book, is bad for students.

"I would like my kids to be able to learn and know what's going on in the world around them," Thompson says.

That sentiment is echoed over here on Facebook, where a community discussion about the decision to remove Monette's book saw a majority of folks questioning Cheatham's policy.

"Ignorance is never the answer. The fact is, dear parents, life is not G-rated," said Matt Davis. "Anything we can do to reach kids and help them make better decisions at a younger age is a positive thing. You just won't see it on the Disney channel."

Alison Windsor Owen added parents do have a role when it comes to monitoring what their kids read. But banning books from a library does a disservice to everyone involved, and sends a message of ignorance.

"As for my children, I don't want their choices of literature taken away from them because of what other people feel is 'offensive' or 'wrong'. Children have reasons for choosing what they want to read. Parents need to step in, monitor what they are reading, offer to discuss material or subject matter that may be 'heavy' or of some concern," Owen writes. "But ultimately, children should have the choice to read what they want. If children are in the library, that is a GOOD thing nowadays!"

Send Cheatham County School District a message that their new policy won't make students any more informed and certainly won't be conducive to an environment of learning. Instead it only fosters ignorance and censorship. And on a topic as urgent as, say, HIV/AIDS, those are the last two things needed.

Photo credit: PlayfulLibrarian