The Willow Glen Resident

Board OKs contentious book's use in classes

After a hearing, board approves it for high school juniors, seniors

By Rebecca Wallace

"It'll probably get pretty heated," whispered Sarah Gama before the San Jose Unified School District board began hearing public comment about a controversial book on May 21.

That was the understatement of the evening. After a heated hearing on Always Running; La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. by Luis J. Rodriguez--marked both by angry threats of lawsuits and political reprisals and by firm defenses of the book's educational value--the board voted unanimously to bring the book back to the classroom as part of the district's optional reading list.

The board acted on the recommendation of an ad hoc committee of parents, teachers and administrators, which met to study the matter after Gama said her daughter had been sexually harassed by a male classmate and demanded that the district remove the book from schools.

Both students were reading Always Running for a Lincoln High School English class; the book had also been used in English classes at Broadway High School for several years. A gritty look at the author's experiences with gangs, the book also contains graphic sexual passages.

Now Gama says there is talk of a potential class-action suit against the district; if the suit comes to pass, she wants to be part of it.

The board approved the use of the book in SJUSD high schools under conditions proposed by the committee: that it would only be taught to juniors and seniors, and that a letter would be sent home telling parents that the book had explicit passages but was considered by many to be an important piece of literature, said district spokesperson Maureen Munroe. Students have the option of reading another book if they choose.

"My daughter told me a friend asked her what size and color her nipples were," Gama said after the meeting. "I asked what she did to provoke it. She said, 'It's that book.' Pornography does not belong in school."

Contrary to usual district procedure, the book was pulled from classrooms while the committee was meeting, due to the "high level of concern" expressed by parents, Munroe said.

In contrast to the parents crowding the board room May 21, furious at what they saw as "garbage," were several quiet teachers, parents and students who defended Always Running as a thought-provoking book that educates young people about the dangers of gangs and the consequences of actions.

"This is about censorship and parental rights," said Kris Morrella, head of the English department at Lincoln. "I am a parent and a teacher, and I demand the right to choose. I have fought for 29 years to oppose censorship."

Her son Jason Morrella, a Broadway English teacher who has used the book in class, said, "The majority of parents do not object to this book."

Parent Dionne Hewett and many others disagreed. "Is this how we choose to portray the Latino culture?" Hewett asked. "How are we going to be able to screen who gets to see this book at school? There must be other books about gangs that don't have this sex."

Patrick O'Shea, seated in the front row, alternated between patting his young son on the head and hurling epithets at pro-book speakers and board members, such as "Remove this book, or I will have your jobs."

A representative of the Santa Clara County Taxpayers Association, as well as several speakers, threatened lawsuits if the book was not removed.

Kris Morrella said after the meeting that she knew Always Running might be controversial, but members of the Lincoln English department had decided to teach it anyway "because of the positive impact we saw it have on our kids." She cited as an example her former student Zayra Umana, who raised her grade in Morrella's class from an F to a B.

Umana spoke impassionedly at the meeting, saying, "We are here because of two pages. Yeah, they are graphic pages, but that wasn't the whole message."

She added, "This book has influenced me well. I have values. I'm a Christian."

In response, someone in the audience yelled, "Heathen!"

Published in 1993, Always Running also caught a lot of flack in Rockford, Ill., in 1996, when a school board member pronounced it "filth."

In December 1997, the district board voted to allow teachers to keep assigning Crazy Lady by Jane Leslie Conly in district elementary schools, despite one parent's objection to the book's use of profanity.

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