LATEST UPDATE:
Got off the phone with one of the members of the Textbook Adoption Committee and she laid it all out for me:
This was straight up b*ll$h!t. The Board's use of the excuse "bad vote based on technicality" was the safe way to beat around the bush. They were lobbied to keep it from the reading list because, point-blank, it is a story about gays.
Sadly, counselors/librarians (specifically) who supported the reading material to begin-with are now shying away from defending it because their jobs are on the chopping-block in a devastating up-coming piece of legislation.
There is a growing religious right within Fremont, ever since the spiral of Prop.8, that latch onto any sort of curriculum based on LGBT education. It was this team of parents (and even some Board members) that subscribed to the anti-gay position, but curtailed their argument to: "The play can be offensive to religious children because of its portrayal of a Mormon couple."
Therefore: Following the vote, ALL of the books recommended for the reading list were approved EXCEPT for "Angels in America."
But the fact of the matter is these kids KNOW what lesbian/gay issues look like!!! It's not a secret. They share their locker-rooms and hallways and class-rooms with fellow LGBT students. They watch the news. Hell, they watch GLEE! They're not idiots.
And "Angels in America" was recommended as Eng12 AP reading... a college prep class! Currently on the Eng12 AP reading list are challenging novels like "The Plague" (Camus), "No Exit" (Sartre) and "The Homecoming" (Pinter) and "Hamlet" (Shakespeare)... NO CUP OF TEA! These are SMART kids!
So, I'm going back to the barricades!
I VOW TO GET COPIES OF THIS BOOK INTO EVERY ENG-12 HIGH SCHOOL CLASSROOM IN FREMONT!
And I could use your help!
STEP 1: Buy a new or used (good condition) copy of "Angels in America" both Part 1 and Part 2.
STEP 2: When you get the books, choose 1 of the 6 high schools from list here
http://www.fremont.k12.ca.us/domain/5 STEP 3: Mail the book to the high school's main address but label it "ATTN: English Department Chair" (this will make sure it gets into the right hands)
STEP 4: Include a letter detailing your motivation for sending the gift! Encourage the teacher to have the copy in their Eng-12 classroom as supplemental material & recommendation to any student who wants to read it!
Updated On: 3/12/11 at 08:16 PM
