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Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Ideas in Jail: Westmont High School English teacher Richard Ferri's 'Blossom River Drive' novel, which the Campbell Union High School District approved last spring for instruction in the classroom, has been removed from the district's approved reading list because of alleged inappropriate sexual content.
Author, teacher criticizes book ban
Ferri says book helps students; CUHSD district, several parents disagree
By Kate Carter
A controversial book written by a Westmont High School English teacher has been censored by education officials from the Campbell Union High School District.
Members of the CUHSD Board of Education banned Richard Ferri's book Blossom River Drive after a student's parents called the book "pornographic."
Ferri introduced his novel into his sophomore and junior English classes in the spring of 2000 as an alternative to other texts students could also read--Animal Farm by George Orwell and The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.
The district approved the book for supplementary instruction in the spring of 2001, said Bob Lowry, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. Ferri said he discussed the book in his classes equally with the other books he used.
Last fall, however, the parents of one of Ferri's students wrote a letter to Westmont High School Principal Bob Serpa, voicing concerns about the book's content and sexual references and asking that it be removed from the district's list of approved books, effectively banning it from Ferri's classroom or any other in the district.
Following a majority recommendation by a review committee to withdraw the book from the approved list, the district's board voted Jan. 10 to ban the book. But Ferri has since filed a grievance about the decision with the California Teachers Association union representative, Lloyd Gillespie, saying the book was banned without sufficient discussion or research into his instruction, without a definitive mandate and with the sole goal of appeasing the offended parents.
Gillespie was not available for comment and did not return phone calls.
Ferri wants the book, which he says has benefited many of his students who may have problems with abuse and sexual experience before being ready, back on his syllabus, although he isn't confident that will happen.
Ferri's book is a fictionalized memoir set in Southern California during the 1950s and provides a look at how McCarthy-era anti-Communist sentiment and behavior affected those involved in the entertainment industry, through the eyes of a pre-adolescent boy. However, the polarizing material concerns the boy's relationship with an adolescent female neighbor, who initiates mutual explorations of their bodies and sexual activities.
The book implies that the girl is being abused in some way by one or more than one family member and indicates that her behavior with the boy is a way for her to try to understand and deal with what is happening to her. The boy never seems to comprehend this, or the sexual nature of their actions, which never include intercourse or any sort of physical sexual arousal.
The underlying theme is that adults shouldn't force their behavior on children and should allow children to question what they are led to believe, a lesson the author--the boy grown up--seems to learn only when writing his story 50 years later.
The sexual overtones and the message that parents may not always be right is at the crux of the concern with the book, said Ronald Fry, the father who submitted the letter questioning the book's appropriateness for high school.
"We would opt for the conservative side," he said.
Fry and his wife found out about the book at Westmont's Back to School Night last September, when Ferri told the gathered group about his book. As their child was in his class, they decided to read the book, something Fry said they don't always do, as they are familiar with most of the common high school literature texts.
"It piqued our curiosity that the teacher had kind of plugged it, in a way," Fry said.
Fry said he read "about 50 percent" of the book, "enough to form an opinion. It's not my typical reading."
He and his wife found the sexual scenes to be pornographic--of a sufficient sexually explicit nature to cause sexual arousal. They felt the topic, regardless of the motive the teacher had for providing an avenue to discuss topics like sexuality and abuse, was not appropriate for high schoolers.
In addition, they were concerned that, with Ferri being author and teacher, students would be more attracted to the book.
Fry said he believed his child didn't read the book, but that Ferri didn't hold his child to any higher standard or graded him or her any harder for not choosing his book.
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Unread Book: A stack of Westmont English teacher Richard Ferri's book 'Blossom River Drive' sits untouched after the Campbell Union High School District removed the book from its approved reading list due to alleged inappropriate sexual content.
Ferri, who has published two novels and worked for the district for 26 years--25 at Westmont--said that a majority of his students chose to read his book. He said the book is based on some of his own personal experience as well as the content of students' essays written throughout his teaching career.
Ferri said he understands how parents can challenge the book. He said that, when discussing the book in class, he and his students use "vague" language. But he denied the book is pornographic and said it is meant to provide his students a way to think, talk and write about difficult experiences, which he said has been successful.
"It's extraordinary how kids have opened up," Ferri said. "There's a generation of kids who've had a great many of traumatic experiences, sexual and otherwise." He added that students are already exposed to abuse and sexual behavior but rarely have safe opportunities to discuss them. He said that high school students can handle the book, as students understand the material, discuss it in a group and respond to it in writing.
He said he is concerned the Frys challenged the book without reading it in its entirety. He said that, as with any piece of literature, scenes could be taken out of context and their message misunderstood.
"It's an insult and a huge intellectual mistake," Ferri said. "As I taught [the book], even though I wrote it, one thing I kept underscoring is how the [book's female character] is a victim. If I had felt it would do any damage, I wouldn't have used it."
However, the seven-member committee that reviewed the book for high school instruction determined that it would, Lowry said.
"The board has acted," he said. "The book has now been removed."
Lowry said the Frys contacted his office with their concerns about the book last fall. Following district policy, he then sent them a form to fill out and send to Serpa, detailing those concerns. The principal sent the form back to Lowry, who then was directed by CUHSD District Superintendent Rhonda Farber to set up a committee to review the book.
Serpa was required to be on the committee, Lowry said, and he was joined by a special education teacher, two English teachers, one math teacher and one science teacher from the district, and a curriculum specialist from the Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District. The group met twice--once to receive copies of the book and the complaint, and again on Dec. 11 to discuss and ultimately vote to recommend removing the book from the classroom.
The text of the committee's recommendation included the following: "The majority opinion is that the benefits of using the book do not outweigh the drawbacks. The sexual situations and innuendo are dominant elements along with scenes of violence and strong indications of abuse. Getting the themes and symbolism from these aspects is difficult and would be even more so for 16-year-olds. Our students are not naive, but several committee members thought that much of the irony in this novel would go over the heads of these readers, leaving them with unpleasant scenes and implications."
Lowry said any single complaint by a parent is sufficient to begin the review process that could ultimately ban a book and that the district did not violate any rules in doing what it did. He said he didn't know what recourse Ferri has to have the book reinstated.
Fry said he was glad the book was removed from Ferri's and other classes, but Ferri said he worries about what he sees as an increasing trend to limit what can be said and what can be taught, much as it was when he first read the then-banned book The Catcher in the Rye.
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Campbell, California
