THUGS Among Us

In a time where parents are treated with hostility by entrenched, anti-parent activists in California’s K-12 schools, there are a number of school board trustees trying to do the right thing by students in their stewardship. Yet, for some reason, many school boards are often misinformed of their powers and legal authorities, including their ultimate responsibility over the curricula adopted in their district.

Curation of age-appropriate and academically rigorous books has become one of the latest battlegrounds driven by obnoxious malcontent activists screaming about phantom “book bans.”

In a northern California high school’s ninth grade leadership class, students were required to read The Hate U Give (THUG) by Angie Thomas, a salacious teenage soap opera intentionally using “THUG” as an acronym. When parents and students complained, the teacher and school did everything they could to keep the book in class, hoping to assuage angry families by offering students an opt-out as a way of mitigating the damage already done. However, students – aspiring leaders – did not want to be sidelined during discussions of THUG which was a full quarter of the class curriculum. 

When the school board stepped in to show some leadership and tried to provide suggestions for a superior book alternative, the THUG advocates lost their minds.

As vacuous as it is, no one is arguing that THUG – or any other book – should be banned. The question is why a high school teacher thought that the book with excessive profanity, racism and sexual portrayals was an acceptable selection for any high school class discussion in the first place. Validating inappropriate behavior for young high school students who can barely navigate constantly shifting social norms and mores does not inculcate leadership, it confuses them. 

In the face of increasing pressure, school districts are not immune from the squeaky wheel syndrome and are likely to allow inferior books into their classrooms to avoid dealing with the mob as mature adults. But they do not have to. Trustees are well within their rights and authority to select the best books for their students no matter how badly the activists stretch, justify and misrepresent state law.

A cursory reading of THUG reveals that the content would earn an NC-17 rating if movie censors were not allowed to edit the text. There is simply no need for the gratuitous profanity uttered 236 times in its 464 mind-numbing pages of text that does not even meet grade-level  reading standards. Any school board would violate their own policy if only a few pages of THUG were read during a public hearing, and yet hormone-riddled teenagers are supposed to process this material maturely? If the purpose of the ninth grade leadership class is to provoke thought, render a debate about modern society, and elevate students to a higher intellectual realm (rather than debase them), there are a thousand other reading options from which to choose. Here are a few suggested alternatives:

• East Goes West by Younghill Kang
• Out of this Furnace by Thomas Bell
• My Antonia, O Pioneers, The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather
• Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
• The Emigrants by Vilhelm Moberg
• Okla Hannali by R. A. Lafferty
• A Personal Odyssey by Thomas Sowell

These books are complex and challenging, requiring the reader to engage with timeless themes. All of them are preferable to glorified Gen Z drama and voyeurism. School board trustees who insist on truly great books for students will likely continue to receive pushback and complaining from the usual suspects, but by standing firm with parents, they will be in good company.

Trustees need to remind the voters why they were elected in the first place. And any parent who thinks it is necessary for their child to read THUG and/or related books can find them at any book retailer. 

As districts require texts containing more rigor than rancor, they may be surprised how quickly the reading scores, as well as citizenship, leadership and morale, among the high schoolers in their stewardship improve. 

Bottom line: School officials will accomplish far more for their students by living up to the example that true leadership means having the courage to simply say “No” to the latest intemperate fad.