Members of the Seaside School District’s Advisory Committee convened Wednesday to discuss Sherman Alexie’s “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” which has been challenged by two parents who believed the book was inappropriate for the freshman English class where it was being taught.

Present at the meeting were parents and school employees, who delved into conversation about the challenges and the appropriateness of the material, which had been taught before Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird” as part of a unit that focuses on “walking a mile in someone else’s shoes” and explores the idea of personal freedom.

“The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” details the struggles of a 14-year-old Native American boy adjusting to life outside of a reservation.

School district parents Brett Bishop and Hilary Stock submitted formal challenges to the material, citing concerns about passages containing sexually explicit content, violence, alcohol and drugs.

On the form, both parents stated that they had not read the book in its entirety, but either skimmed it online or read a single passage about sexual self-gratification. Bishop and Stock recommended that the material be entirely banned from the district.

“This reading is a waste of time,” Stock wrote. “Educators have an opportunity to mature our students and fill their minds with respect and make a difference and be called to higher standards.”

Bishop and Stock did not attend Wednesday’s meeting.

The committee will reconvene at 6 p.m. on Monday in the Secondary School library. It is charged with making one of three recommendations to the school board: to continue using the material with no reservations, to restrict or modify the material in terms of subject area and grade level, or to ban the material completely from the curriculum and the school library.

The discussion among the committee members, who affirmed that they had read the book in its entirety, focused on how the material relates to instructional objectives, level of difficulty and appropriateness of the material for the designated age group.

Jane Crater, who teaches language arts at the middle school and has a freshman daughter in the district, said she felt the appropriateness of the material for freshman students was “spot-on.”

“The reading complexity is actually lower than what’s needed for freshmen, which gives a lot of room for developing themes and other things that are within the book, which I do as a teacher,” she said. “I take the reading level down so we can have bigger discussions.”

Among the themes in the book are racism, poverty, grief, identity and belonging. Crater, who reviewed some of the assignments submitted based on the material, said she found that students were thoughtful in their writing, and that she was impressed with their analyses.

Susan Baertlein, who teaches junior year English at the high school, said the teacher who assigned the book reads much of it aloud in class, so that students can pause and have discussions throughout the text. She said students are always offered alternative options for reading materials if they or their parents ask for them.

The teacher does not read aloud the various anti-gay and anti-Black slurs that appear throughout the book; those slurs often are used by the book’s main character in a self-deprecating manner rather than against other characters.

“We don’t further that hate by saying those words aloud in class,” she said. “So we’ll just skip the word, or, I mean, we’ll tell the students why ahead of time — that this is hate speech, this is a slur, we don’t say these kinds of things.

“And so the material that the parents objected to, specifically with the alcohol use and the self-pleasure I mentioned was probably read aloud, but it was just part of the chapter.”

Baertlein also said she was surprised that the parents hadn’t objected to a passage in which the main character’s beloved dog is shot after his family finds they can’t afford to take him to a veterinarian for treatment.

“That’s a bigger impact for the kids, of ‘What do you mean they had to shoot the dog?’ I think that’s a bigger reaction from the class versus a teenager saying he does teenager things,” she said.

Baertlain also touched on allegations of sexual harassment against the author, stating that such controversies were addressed in class and that “we’ve got to separate the art from the artist, or we wouldn’t have any art left.”

(In 2018, Alexie published a statement regarding accusations of sexual harassment against him by several women, and apologized.)

Crucial context

Though some parents on the committee said they understood the shock and controversy over certain passages, they found that reading the entire book gave the passages crucial context.

Parents also highlighted the merits of the material, emphasizing that the story of a young Native American boy was topical given Seaside’s proximity to various Native tribes, and that the often-troubling language is an opportunity to teach teenagers about past and present bigotries in an educational context.

“From looking at the assignments, these kids are getting this, they understand it,” said Jashon Mills, whose son was assigned the material. “It’s not the language, it’s not the foul words, it’s not the fighting, it’s not the masturbation. They’re seeing past that, and they’re getting real.

“They’re getting real insight in what they’re reporting back, and nothing that they’re reporting back has anything to do with the language or the sexuality. And so I think the delivery method of it, and the particular book itself, is being used in an appropriate place and appropriate town based off geographical location.”

Anthony Koczenasz-Runkle, a middle school Parent-Teacher Organization member whose students attend seventh grade, said Alexie had done a great job using his own experiences and modernizing them to make them more readable and understandable.

“I think many of us have experienced some sort of difficulty or persecution, and I think that’s important in sticking with the theme, which this book is a part of, of walking a mile in another person’s shoes,” he said. “So you’re getting the experience of someone that is Native and what they’re experiencing, you get an experience of someone that’s been bullied and picked on because of their physical disabilities.

“You’re also getting the human experience of how, like, it can be really hard, and as we all know and remember, sometimes high school has lots of fun memories and not so fun memories.”

Parents also spoke to the persistent theme of hope throughout the book, with the main character navigating through challenges.

Cate Blakesley, the district’s director of curriculum and instruction, thanked committee members for their comments, time and care for the students in the district.

“I know that you’re their parents and teachers, but they are very well cared for, very well loved in this district,” she said. “So I thank you for taking the time and to, you know, really think about what we are presenting them with, how we’re teaching them, how we’re growing them.”