The Galt Joint Union Elementary School District board Monday night decided to ban a young adult novel from classrooms but keep it in middle school libraries.

The district looked at the issue of whether to remove "Don't You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey," a novel that chronicles the problems of a troubled teenager, as supplemental classroom reading after a parent complained. The book had been assigned in a seventh-grade English class.

Trustees voted 4-1 to stop the novel from being used for instructional purposes but will allow it to remain in libraries as long as students get parental permission to check it out. Trustee Susan Richardson cast the dissenting vote.

Superintendent Jeffrey Jennings said he did not feel the book was appropriate for seventh-graders.

"We should be able to have some discretion as to what our kids have to read," he said.

The decision came after trustees voted 3-2 to reject the recommendations of a district committee that found the book appropriate for middle school students.

Trustees Ervin Hatzenbuhler, Donna Fluty and Tina Skinner voted against the committee's recommendations, while Richardson and trustee Donald Nottoli voted in favor.

The district committee made its recommendation at last month's board meeting, along with a recommendation that notices be sent home about the book so parents who objected to it could request an alternative assignment for their children.

Hatzenbuhler's absence left the board deadlocked 2-2 on the issue last month, forcing a return before the board Monday night. About 50 people were at Monday's meeting.

The novel joins "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" and Maya Angelou's "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" on the list of books that have raised concerns among parents in the area in recent years.

In 2002, the American Library Association's (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom recorded 515 reports of challenged books. The group estimates that less than one-fourth of all challenges are reported and that the majority of challenges come from parents.

"Don't You Dare Read This," which is an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, is about a fictional character named Tish Bonner, whose English teacher requires students to keep a journal.

The teacher promises not to read entries that are labeled confidential, and Tish uses the journal to relate parental neglect, sexual harassment at an after-school job and other stresses she deals with. She eventually opens up to her teacher and gets help for herself and her younger brother.

The novel was a supplemental book that middle school teachers had assigned on and off for the past seven years without any parental complaints, Jennings said.

Parent Mark Madison objected to the language and content, including some sexual language.

"This isn't a book that should be force-fed to young children," he said.

But parent Barbara Vanderveen said she was disappointed because she believes it will lead to other books being challenged and removed from classrooms.

"I'm afraid about where it'll stop," she said.

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