School books issue hits Hamtramck

Wednesday’s Hamtramck Board of Education meeting was packed with people concerned about reading materials offered to students.

By Charles Sercombe
The American culture war on what kinds of reading material should be available to school kids has now come to Hamtramck.
Last Friday, the Hamtramck Public School District posted a letter to the community, on its Facebook page, saying that a separate posting on a social media site erroneously claimed that the district allows students to access “certain materials for our students that contain inappropriate language, images, and concepts that are inappropriate for our students.”
The district did not provide further details of the material in question, nor the social media site where these posts were made.
The district stressed that it does not have any of the material in question.
“We have investigated these posts and the material they reference in order to respond to them with actual fact,” said HPS Interim Superintendent Nabil Nagi.
“That investigation has revealed that none of the material these posts have complained about and allege been made available to our students have in fact been reviewed or approved.”
The issue blew up Wednesday afternoon when posts were made on Hamtramck-focuses Facebook pages saying that there are such books in the district’s curriculum.
One such books is called “All boys aren’t blue” by George Johnson. The book was on the New York Times Best Seller list, and it recounts the author’s experiences growing up as a gay African-American.
However, some sections of the book explicitly describe sexual acts. According to sources, the book is not required reading, and it has never been checked out from the high school’s library.
The book has been removed.
At Wednesday’s Hamtramck Public School Board meeting several speakers raised objections about what kind of reading materials are available to students.
Hamtramck’s school district is not alone in facing accusations of having inappropriate reading material for students.
Districts locally and nationwide are being accused of having sexually explicit materials, and for material regarding LGBTQ issues.
Local school boards have come under intense pressure to review what they offer to students.
Recently, the Dearborn Public School District faced angry parents who were upset about a number of books. The district has pulled several of the books in question.
In both Hamtramck and Dearborn, the issue of objectionable reading material is being driven by the socially conservative Muslim population.

Posted Nov. 11, 2022