CBLDF Responds To Challenge Of Gilbert Hernandez’s Palomar At High School In Rio Rancho, NM

There's a fairly thorough article that went last up Friday at the CBLDF about their initial response to Palomar, the well-regarded book by Gilbert Hernandez published by Fantagraphics, being pulled from circulation. A 14-year-old had checked the book out, unaware of its content. The 14-year-old's mother complained to the school and to local media.

I think the Fund has it right here in that the two things that need to be done are to make sure the school's policies are followed and that they and/or someone in the media not a spitting sensationalist develop a counter-narrative to the ludicrous one that has developed, mostly that Gilbert Hernandez's masterful work qualifies under any resonable person's definition as child pornography. That's just asinine. I'm sure that some people out there in comments-land will stretch this into an argument that all high school libraries should carry Beto's work. It'd be a better world if this were so, but I don't think anyone would begrudge the view that maybe a shared community resource that has to meet a lot of family and young-person needs might not be the best place for that particular book. That said, it's in there, and it's really bad policy to throw books out of libraries based on the summary readings of two or three inidividuals. So hopefully the Fund and/or someone in that community supported by the Fund can make this about policy rather than about scare-tactics and sensational journalism.
 
posted 3:35 pm PST | Permalink
 

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