The following letter has been received for publication in The Newtown Bee:

Dear Newtown Community,

Contrary to what a few would have us believe, our town does not fund the purchase of pornography for our school or public libraries. The first two of many books expected to be banned, Flamer and Blankets, are not pornographic. This term has a legal definition and we can confidently know that no book in our school libraries is pornographic, written with the intent to arouse its reader. Nor would any meet the three requirements of the Miller Test, the standard against which all books have been measured as pornographic/obscene for the last 50 years. However, every book IS meant to be read and evaluated in its entirety.

Despite the recommendation of multiple district experts for these books to remain in the NHS library, public discussion from four BOE members indicates they may choose to ignore this recommendation and the well-established precedent of the Miller Test. Rather, the conversation has moved to 1) what these members are personally uncomfortable with, 2) their (heroic) representation of an evidently underrepresented group of like-minded citizens and 3) the unlikely scenario of an NHS student browsing these books and being traumatized. Those concerns are real, but not expert or professional. All while ignoring the access students have to far more explicit and disturbing material on their own devices.

These novels are semi-autobiographical. Fact: humans mature emotionally, physically and sexually in their teenage years. Teens are acutely aware of this in their own bodies. In part, Flamer reveals the horrible things that bullies tormented the main character with because they thought he was gay. Unusual in any book, Blankets has a main character who cares for her two severely developmentally disabled siblings. And, yes it has a direct reference to sexual pleasure. Additionally, the trauma of an abusive father and molestation by a babysitter is revealed, but there are no illustrations of those specific events.

The reality is that some of our own students face similarly abusive situations. Yes, it is uncomfortable, but that does not make it inappropriate for a student to read about it as part of a bigger storyline, and certainly does not make it inappropriate should a student relate firsthand. Perhaps we should be more concerned with the incidence of this horror in our community than a few black and white non-pornographic illustrations in two multi award-winning books.

Please, visit the websites of some national organizations fueling this book banning obsession. To know intellectually that this movement exists is important, but to see it for yourself is chilling. Visit booklooks.org, courageisahabit.org, or search Laverna in the Library or similar organizations. Oversight, aka censorship, based on book ratings by non-expert, volunteer readers is core to these organizations.

Newtown, please stay vigilant on this issue, continue to write letters and attend meetings, even if the vote on these books is pushed to the summer.

Thank you for reading my personal opinion.

Sarah Beier

Sandy Hook