The Day They Came to Arrest the Book Read Online Free PDF

some people. Show me a book that offends no one, and I will show you a book that no one, in the whole history of the world, has ever willingly read. Mr. Moore, think of what you are asking of me! I am supposed to throw
Huckleberry Finn
out of my classroom! Have you no shame, sir? At long last, have you no shame?”
    “Miss Baines,” said the principal with a smile, “you are overwrought. Please believe me, I admire your fervor, your outspokenness. But I beseech you, Miss Baines, try to imagine yourself a black child, a black parent—”
    “As if, as if”—she was breathing hard—“all blacksthink alike and act alike. As if all blacks are just dying to suppress books they don’t like! Do you realize what you’re saying? Talk about stereotypes! Oh, what’s the use? I am
not
going to remove this book from my course just because you ask me to. We have a regular procedure, including a review committee, when there is a complaint about a book. I insist we follow that procedure.”
    “And you will abide by the result?”
    “I cannot believe,” Nora Baines said, “that a majority of any review committee will censor this book.”
    “But,” Mr. Moore said gently, “if a majority
should
decide to recommend the book’s removal from your course, you will abide by the result?”
    Nora Baines sighed. “I would have no choice. I helped set up those procedures. But it won’t happen.” She looked at the principal. “Unless there’s some funny business in the selection of the committee.”
    “As you know, Miss Baines,” the principal said coolly, “the school board appoints the review committee. Are you saying the school board would engage in any funny business?”
    “I am going to be watching. Very closely. If need be, Mr. Moore, the American Civil Liberties Union can be asked to come in on behalf of the First Amendment rights of the students—and of the faculty.”
    The principal smiled. “You say that as if I were Dracula and you were advancing on me with a cross in your hand. Miss Baines, I have no fear of the AmericanCivil Liberties Union. My responsibility is not to any outside organization. My responsibility is to the students and to the parents.”
    “You left out the faculty.”
    “Not by intention,” Mr. Moore said smoothly. “We are all linked indivisibly in our common task. And that does lead me back to where we began this absorbing discussion. Since there is going to be a review procedure—though I had hoped to be able to resolve this complaint informally—the book, in all fairness to the complainants, will not be used in your course while it is being reviewed. If the committee does decide the book is appropriate, you can schedule
Huckleberry Finn
later in the year.”
    “No way,” Nora Baines said. “This book is presumed innocent until proven guilty. That’s what our review procedures say, Mr. Moore. Are you going to change them unilaterally?”
    The principal rose. “The test of leadership, Miss Baines, is flexibility. Thoughtful flexibility—rather than rigid adherence to the letter of each rule and regulation. This school has suspension rules, for instance, but on occasion I have slightly reinterpreted those rules to avoid placing a permanent stain on a student’s record. This has only happened under very special circumstances, of course. In fact, I recall your arguing very strenuously with me two years ago not to suspend a boy because of certain very special circumstances. And on reflection, rather than sticking slavishly to the rules, I agreed with you.
    “Similarly, in the present instance, Miss Baines, what harm can it possibly do to be flexible, to show the black parents that we are sensitive to their concerns, and remove the book from your course until the review committee makes its decision? You didn’t object to my bending the suspension rules just a bit? Why are you so rigid now?”
    The history teacher stared at the principal, shaking her head. “You are incredible. You