Editor's Note: I've had no change in opinion on this matter. I'm very proud of the protest I organized after the book "Bastard Out of Carolina" was censored and the teacher who used it in her class was fired. My protest made it all the way to the national media and I consider it one of the key learning events of my life in terms of how to effectively protest and create a media firestorm around a specific issue.
-Patrick Carkin
ProActivist.com
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February 1997
The Maine Sunday Telegram (Feb. 2, 1997) reported that a book entitled Bastard Out of Carolina caused a controversy when the school board at Mt. Abram questioned “whether high school students should be exposed to such a graphic book.” What apparent evils lurk in the text that teenagers need to be shielded from? Alcoholism, poverty, and incest. Apparently, school children don’t have real fears of these issues and should therefore not learn how to cope with them.
How ironic. Shortly after the Telegram article was printed it was announced that a young woman was convicted of shaking her own baby to death. Even the prosecution recognized that this woman was a victim herself since she had been sexually abused throughout her childhood.
Born and raised in a rural Maine town, I am quite familiar with the hidden atrocities committed against children. While attending high school in the eighties I discovered that almost 25% of the female students in my graduating class were victims of sexual abuse. One girl was raped in the grave yard near the school grounds. Another was threatened at knife point by a popular school athlete. And another was routinely beaten and molested by her stepfather for several years. Not once did the authorities intervene in a responsible manner. Indeed, some of these girls were wise to the reality of the world. Scream rape and someone will proclaim, “You asked for it.”
I have no idea as to whether or not the males in my class experienced similar crimes against them. The official statistic offered by rape crisis hot lines is that approximately 15% of all boys are raped or molested. If that figure applies to the school I attended, that would mean that 20% of my entire class were victims of sex crimes.
Since graduating ten years ago I have continued to meet people my age, both men and women, who have made me realize that most sex crimes are never reported. And worst of all, these atrocities did not occur in some gang ridden neighborhood of LA. They happened in small towns in states like Maine, Nebraska, or North Dakota.
The residents of Franklin County, where Mt. Abram High School is located, must live in some sort of utopia Are they just blind to the problems in their own community? Or are they too ashamed to admit the terrible reality in their own midst? Or perhaps Mt. Abram truly is a place of tranquility where no such problems exist. I can only imagine that the members of the Mt. Abram school board naively believe that their district is free of the problems depicted in the book. The other alternative for their motives seems almost too sinister to contemplate.
The Telegram reported that Molly Sinclair, the now fired teacher who initially “started” this debate by bringing Bastard Out of Carolina into her classroom, wanted to help students and others in the community who have had to deal with the same problems depicted in the novel. Ms. Sinclair was not alone in her opinion that this book deserved positive attention: Over ten major newspapers, from coast to coast, gave the novel excellent reviews. Bastard is also routinely used by therapists to educate survivors and their families. Indeed, this point was driven home when two of Sinclair's students came forward to receive help after reading the book.
Given the horrifying statistics on sex abuse in this country, the students at Mt. Abram did not need shielding from this book. Indeed, they needed shielding from the over zealous censorship of a school board that would prevent them from learning more about problems that are very likely in their own midst. At the very least, the board is guilty of dereliction of their duty to educate and empower children.
Ms. Sinclair, I salute you for your courageous efforts in attempting to educate people. As for the Mt. Abram school board, I only hope that someday you will all see how wrong your decision was. Let us just hope that you come to this realization before one of your own family members is sexually assaulted and you discover just how little support is out there.
Post Script
January 1998In November of 1997 the Maine Supreme Court upheld the Mt. Abram school board’s decision to place restrictions on the teaching of this book. Many teachers who were using the book in their classrooms immediately stopped. Considering the fate of Molly Sinclair, those fears are understandable. Ms. Sinclair has since moved out of Maine and, as of this writing, no longer teaches. Regardless of the arguments in favor of these restrictions, the result has thus been a de facto censorship due to intimidation.
I personally became involved in this case after the Maine courts made their ruling. Handing out some 150 free copies of Bastard to high school students, I received media coverage throughout the state and was able to openly discuss not just the censorship of this book, but also the lack of resources for sex abuse survivors. As I stood outside several schools I was met with overwhelming support from parents, teachers, and students. It was obvious that most of them strongly disagreed with what the Mt. Abram school board had done.
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