[Author’s Note: The following is not a “Saturday Night Live” skit.]
On Friday, December 8, an anonymous person phoned the Great Barrington Police Department to report that a crime was in progress at W.E.B. Du Bois Regional Middle School. Given the repeated horrendous acts of gun violence at our nation’s schools, reports of criminal activity at middle schools are a matter of great concern. Here, fortunately, nothing more worrying than a thought crime was reported to be in progress.
While the Berkshire County Special Response Team (SWAT) failed to deploy, GBPD sent a plainclothes detective to investigate, wisely rolling up to the middle school without lights and sirens. The complaint stated that a copy of a four-year-old illustrated nonbinary person’s memoir, “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” had been spotted on campus. A single detective’s lack of urgency suggests that GBPD senior officers determined that the memoir was unlikely to attempt to avoid apprehension.
It had been reported that the memoir was last seen in the vicinity of an eighth grade English class. Accordingly, Principal Miles Wheat brought the detective to the classroom to question the English teacher concerning reports of the unsanctioned exchange of empathetic ideas. Principal Wheat informed GBPD that there had not been any widespread concern regarding the book’s availability as a school resource. Nonetheless, GBPD sought to seize the book to facilitate the Berkshire County District Attorney’s Office’s consideration of its suitability for eighth graders. District Attorney Timothy Shugrue no doubt wants the community to sleep easy knowing that his office, rather than credentialed English teachers, librarians, and administrators, would step in to be the arbiter of the fitness of reading materials in our schools.
It is not known if a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse, and doghouse in the area was conducted, but reports suggest that GBPD was unable to locate the gender issues memoir, perhaps because the book has been flying off of shelves for years. And when not flying off the shelves, “Gender Queer: A Memoir” has been pulled off of shelves in school districts around the country for years. It was the most banned book in the 2021–2022 school year, dropping to the fifth most banned book last school year. So, progress.
Following the incident, Berkshire Hills Regional School District Superintendent Peter Dillon wrote to parents to assuage concerns of widespread availability of unfettered viewpoints. Superintendent Dillon explained that the book had won several awards but is not without controversy. Still, he wrote, “many see it as an important story helping to build empathy and support for a marginalized group and helping trans or queer students make meaning.” Well, the GBPD and District Attorney’s Office surely need to investigate potential understanding of a marginalized community. If not nipped in the bud, who knows where unfettered empathy and insight and compassion for others may lead.
Superintendent Dillon noted in his message to parents that some school districts maintain the book, some limit access to it by age or with a warning label, and some have excluded it, but most school districts in the Northeast have kept it. Let’s hope the district attorney takes that into consideration before igniting a bonfire which would no doubt create a firestorm of protest.
Following Superintendent Dillon’s note, GBPD Chief Paul Storti issued a news release explaining the department’s actions. Chief Storti stated that because a complaint was made to the police department, it had a duty to investigate. But maybe not? Maybe library books are never crime scenes? Maybe let the school district police its reading lists?
It is plain from his comments that Superintendent Dillon recognizes not all texts are age appropriate. Certainly, school districts should employ review committees on rare occasions to determine if certain adult-themed books should be age restricted. Of course, this thoughtful process is the purview of our school districts, never our police department or the District Attorney’s Office.
One last note for Chief Storti: You may have opened the door for future book- related complaints. Had I known in my youth that it was a thing, I surely would have lodged a complaint upon being assigned “Crime and Punishment.” As I remain aggrieved regarding “Old Man and the Sea,” would you happen to know the statute of limitations on monotony?
