PLANO - Plano ISD has scrapped plans to remove a humanities’ textbook that drew complaints from a parent because it contains photos of ancient nude sculptures, a district official said today.
Students and parents accused Plano ISD of censorship following the school district’s decision to pull “Culture and Values: A Survey of the Humanities, Alternate Volume,” used by Plano ISD freshmen and sophomores in the district’s gifted and talented classes.
In an e-mail, district spokeswoman Lesley Range-Stanton said “the initial decision to remove one of the three humanities textbooks from our high schools has been reversed.”
She said the school district’s curriculum department had first decided to replace the book “after a parent brought an issue to the staff’s attention.” Parents and students said the parent complained that the book contained photos of nude statues.
“The book in question will be re-issued to our five high schools. Any individual concern over the content of the book can now follow the challenge process as provided for under local board policy,” Range-Stanton said.
The sixth edition of the book written by Lawrence S. Cunningham and John J. Reich includes photos of nude statues from ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome as well as the Italian Renaissance.
Plano ISD’s original decision triggered an online campaign by current and former students accusing the district of censorship. In an interview last week, school district officials confirmed Plano ISD was pulling the book from classrooms, but declined to explain the move.
District policy requires the school system's board of trustees to meet before acting on such matters.
Current and former students have created several websites that include the phone numbers and emails of Plano ISD’s board and Superintendent Doug Otto. A Facebook page set up in protest of Plano ISD’s decision had attracted more than 300 followers as of Monday morning.
Students said they planned today to bombard Plano ISD with e-mails and phone calls.
“These works of art are not obscene, lewd, or pornographic. They are completely appropriate for the class and for the curriculum,” Plano ISD graduate Ashley Meyers, one of the founders of the Facebook page, wrote in a post on the page.
Plano ISD parent Beth Goldstein, who has two children who attend Shepton High School and another child who graduated from there, said she disagreed with the district’s initial decision.
“I thought it was totally appropriate that our students were learning about these works of art,” she said. “That’s just something educated people should know about."
Of the short-lived ban, she said, "I thought it was going to reflect very negatively on PISD and for kids applying to high-achieving colleges.”
