MERIDIAN, Idaho – Idaho’s Meridian school board voted 2-1 this week to pull an award-winning novel from its 10^th grade reading list after some community members complained the book is too rough and raw for impressionable students to handle.

The school board was responding to angry parents and residents who say the novel – “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie – is offensive because it references masturbation, uses the n- and f-words and contains a good deal of profanity.

The book is also said to espouse anti-Christian views.

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During the recent board meeting, Meridian parent Bonnie Stiles said the book contained 133 “filthy words” that most parents would not want used in their homes, KBOI2.com reports.

Sharon Blair, the Meridian grandmother who made the initial complaint against the book, described the novel as “explicit, filthy (and) racist.”

Other community members spoke in defense of the book, saying it encourages readers to view education as a way of escaping poverty.

“It inspires kids from backgrounds of all kinds to reach for goals that seem unattainable,” school librarian Amy Armstrong said, according to KBOI2.com.

Meridian high school student Brady Kissel said the book’s removal from the district’s reading list amounted to the censoring of students’ education.

This isn’t the first controversy Alexie’s novel has experienced since being published in 2007. “It ranked No. 2 on a list of the most challenged books in the country, according to the American Library Association,” IdahoStatesman.com reports.

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We think critics and supporters of the book need to take a deep breath and look at the big picture.

KBOI2.com reports that “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” is one of five books Meridian’s 10th grade English students can choose to complete a required reading assignment.

Meridian parents have a right to expect the school to use instructional materials that don’t undermine the community’s values. Teachers would not be allowed to show an R-rated film to their students without parental permission, so why should the school include the literary equivalent of an R-rated film on its reading list?

There are more than 300,000 new books (or editions of earlier books) published every year in the U.S. Certainly Meridian and other school districts can find appropriate and compelling reading material for students that doesn’t cross the line of good taste.

On the other hand, communities should be very cautious about banning books. Restricting what students can read and think about seems totalitarian, un-American and can get out of hand. What if every objectionable book was banned from school reading lists? Very little critical thinking – and very little learning – would take place.

A good compromise for the Meridian community might be to remove the book from the school’s reading list (as it has), while making sure it’s available at the local public library. That way students can still read the book if they really want to, and the district can focus on educating students without a lot of unnecessary controversy.