December 22, 1999
Alpine pastor confronts school over
book he finds inappropriate for teens
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___ALPINE--The pastor of First Baptist Church in Alpine lost his battle to have a controversial non-fiction book that he considers inappropriate for high school students removed from the local curriculum.
___But the school superintendent said the district is making efforts to ensure in the futurethat parents are always notified if potentially offensive material is assigned and that teachers offer alternative assignments.
This book sparked controversy in Alpine
___On Nov. 22, the board of the Alpine Independent School District voted 5-2 to keep "Rain of Gold" on the approved list of high school reading assigments.
___Pastor Philip McCraw never thought he would become embroiled in a dispute between free speech advocates and proponents of age-appropriate materials for youth. He never thought the issue would come up in Alpine, a quiet West Texas town of 5,800.
___But last May, an Alpine high school teacher assigned "Rain of Gold" as required reading for her 11th grade English students. The best-selling book by Victor Villasenor is a family history of Mexican immigrants to the American Southwest in the early 20th century.
___McCraw, who serves on the board of the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission, became involved when he received a call from the parent of a student who was disciplined for using a word in class that appeared in the book.
___"I found that the book contains hundreds of profane words and a dozen incidents of sex and violence," McCraw said.
___He was upset by what he discovered, but he was disturbed more that parents had not been contacted regarding the book's adult themes and language. His daughter was in the class.
___"I had been told school policy required that parents be notified whenever questionable or potentially offensive material was to be assigned and that an alternative assignment would be offered," he said. "The procedure was not followed."
___Ernesto Martinez, superintendent of Alpine ISD, said books for reading assignments must be approved by both the department head and the principal. In this case, the principal was not notified until McCraw brought it to his attention.
___"The process broke down at the campus level. There's just no two ways about it," he said.
___When McCraw protested, bringing the matter to the principal's attention, the principal immediately pulled the book from the classrooms.
___Martinez initially supported the principal's action. However, upon further review, he found school board policy vested that authority in a teacher-led review committee. Five months later, the teacher committee recommended the book remain as an alternative offering.
___Seeing no other option, McCraw appealed to the school board. The author and his publisher also appeared at the public hearing.
___Ironically, the pastor and the author enjoyed lunch together and spent about three hours talking to each other.
___"We became friends. I appreciate the story he had to tell. I just don't think it is age-appropriate for teenagers, the way he chose to write it," McCraw said. When Villasenor told him he wrote the book with 10th graders in mind, the pastor replied, "Then I disagree with you by about three years."
___McCraw told the school board he believes "Rain of Gold" is "an important story, a deeply meaningful story. I've read it. It has been taken into my soul. However, it is a story, as it is written, for adults. ... It is not age-appropriate for teens."
___He urged the board to remove "Rain of Gold" from the list of approved books for high school reading assignments.
___"I suppose somebody is always going to scream 'censorship.' But what we really want is for you to say this evening that we do have some sense of a socially acceptable morality--that the material we use will be age-appropriate. I don't think we need to call it censorship. We can more importantly say that we have moral standards, and this book and this kind of material is just not going to be offered at the public school level to our kids."
___But the board voted more than 2-1 to keep "Rain of Gold" on the high school reading list.
___McCraw has no plans to attempt any further appeals.
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