Books removed from the seventh-grade book list for Signal Mountain Middle-High School were intended as high school selections, Executive Principal Shane Harwood said in a new statement to the Times Free Press.
On Sept. 4, parents received an email from a teacher saying two books – “All American Boys” and “Monster” – would be removed from the school’s Finding Perspective book club list for seventh-graders as both “contain mature content that not every student will be comfortable reading.”
Both books address police violence, life in prison and racial discrimination against African Americans.
“As a school, Signal Mountain Middle-High values diversity, inclusion and cultural awareness, and we work each day to enrich our students regarding how life experiences can affect our perspective,” Harwood said by email. “The two books relating the African American experience are an essential part of our school curriculum at more mature grade levels. The decision to make those high school selections optional in the seventh-grade course was based on parent concerns related to profanity and mature content within the books. In our school we value the messages in the literary works, and they still remain an option for students at Signal Mountain Middle-High to study.”
He continued to say in his statement that the campus is “sorry that the recent decision regarding the two books as options from a seventh-grade unit caused some to question the school’s commitment to inclusion.”