NORTH ATTLEBORO - "Woke: A Young Poet's Call to Justice" is once again available for students to read at the Martin School.
The move was announced in an email from Superintendent of Schools John Atonucci less than 24 hours after members of the town council criticized the school department's decision to remove the book.
Darius Gregory, the only councilor of color, walked out of last night's meeting vowing not to return until the book is returned.
Click the video below to stream highlights of the criticism councilors made of the school department's decision.
The following is the announcement emailed by Antonucci.
To the North Attleborough Community,
As an educator who has spent my career promoting and celebrating the diversity of students and communities, I want to respond to the thoughtful feedback I have received over the past few days and acknowledge the strong emotions and reaction that this situation has elicited in our community.
First and foremost, I wish to apologize and acknowledge that I misspoke in stating to the Sun Chronicle that the decision regarding Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice was made in response to the book’s title. That was incorrect, and I am truly sorry for this misstep in communication, and I ordinarily pride myself on being a strong communicator.
As superintendent, I do not support the outright banning of books, but I do believe that it is wholly appropriate in an educational environment to have a procedure in place to discuss, challenge, consider and reconsider all materials that may be made available to our students. And, certainly, not every book is appropriate for every age/grade level.
I also want to be clear that Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice was not banned or removed from the school, but I would like to explain the process that took place. Upon receiving a formal challenge, the district earnestly followed its procedure, convened a committee of faculty, administrators, a curriculum coordinator, and a parent, to evaluate the challenge. The policy leaves the final decision to me, however. Based upon the committee’s work and my evaluation of the age-appropriateness of the book in a K-5 environment, and on the publisher’s note that the book was geared toward those age 8-12 (our students are as young as five in the Martin Elementary School) I decided that the book was best approached by students in a facilitated or structured manner and ultimately the decision was made to reassign the book to the teachers’ resource library.
I have been in contact with members of our community. I have met with and spoken to residents, town councilors, and members of our school committee. Based on those discussions, it has become evident that we missed the mark, and it is clear that our policy/procedure in these matters needs to be re-evaluated.
This was the first time in my career, spanning over two decades, that I have dealt with a request to reconsider a book selection. Although we followed the established district process, it has since become clear to me that this matter was not approached or communicated properly. Once again, I am sorry for that lapse.
There are many times in life where the consequences of a decision are irreversible, but this is not one of those times. Upon reflection, and in light of the dialogue that remains ongoing within our community, I have determined that the right course of action is to restore the book’s place in our library.
This is the start of an ongoing conversation. As always, I welcome your thoughts and feedback. Our School Committee is already undertaking a comprehensive review of our entire policy manual which includes, re-evaluating and revising our Library Media Center Materials Selection policy, which was last revised in 2004. We pledge to not only be proactive in communicating this process but to ensure that the process is inclusive – involving our faculty, staff, students, families and the community with the goal of modernizing our policies and procedures to reflect the values of North Attleborough.
Thank you for your time, consideration and dialogue.
Sincerely,
John J. Antonucci, Superintendent
North Attleborough Public Schools
