Avid Bookshop at Five Points store manager Caleb Huett (right) and Avid Bookshop employee Kristen Carter (left) stand with “The Best Man,” a book by Richard Peck. The book’s content was the cause of a parental complaint at an Athens Academy book fair starting March 5. “The step for me that is too far is that because you are uncomfortable having this conversation with your kid, then no one should get to have that conversation with their kid,” Huett said. “You could have just not picked up the book.” Photo by Ana Aldridge
Avid Bookshop withdrew from an Athens Academy book fair on March 7, following a parental complaint and censorship from AA administration regarding the content of a book on display.
Avid Bookshop withdrew from an annual book fair held at Athens Academy, a local private school on March 7, following complaints from parents regarding the content of a book offered at the fair.
The book that caused the controversy was “The Best Man” by Richard Peck, which revolves around a fifth grade boy who discovers that two of his male role models plan on getting married. “The Best Man” was aimed at readers from the ages of nine to 12, according to the information on the back cover.
“After the book was removed, we were told that it had to be completely hidden from view and placed back in a box so no child could accidentally discover it,” read a March 8 press released on Avid Bookshop’s Facebook page. “Later, the director of the lower school requested that all of our books be reviewed by the administration for more ‘objectionable’ – which we interpreted as ‘queer’ – content and all those books be removed as well.”
Following a parent’s complaint, AA administration asked that the book be removed from the book fair, to which Avid initially complied.
“An administrator came up to me and started talking to me specifically about how we needed to take the book off the floor because they had received a parent complaint,” Avid Bookshop at Five Points manager Caleb Huett said. “They kept repeating they wanted to take the path of least resistance on this one.”
According to Huett, as the day progressed, AA administration requested that all of the books on display be reviewed for any objectionable content and that “The Best Man” be removed from display and made available only upon request by an adult or teacher.
“(Avid Bookshop owner) Janet Geddis responded and said that we would come back on March 8 if they posted an apology about this publicly and let us put the book back on the floor,” Huett said. “(AA Head of School John Thorsen) said that with that information, he thought it would be better if we did not finish the book fair.”
AA Director of Communications Kelley Cuneo offers insight on the administration’s actions as a whole.
“The administration felt that because the book fair was intended for the students in our preschool and lower school (ages three to nine), “The Best Man” was not the most appropriate selection,” Cuneo said. “It is recommended for students age nine and up and is, in fact, in our Middle & Upper School Media Center and has been since 2016.”
Following the incident, AA administration reached out to its community in an attempt to clarify their policies that led to the controversy.
“(The situation was) a deeply regrettable set of circumstances that is not consistent with our welcoming, safe and inclusive environment,” Thorsen said in a statement released to AA parents.
Cuneo believes that the actions taken by the administration align with this statement.
“We never asked that the book be entirely removed from our campus, and we were happy to make it available again. After all, it is in our own library,” Cuneo said.
Following the incident, AA junior Luke Polenezczk criticized the school for its decision.
“I think the whole situation with the book fair shouldn’t have happened, but I’m glad that people are using it as a platform to talk about diversity and sexuality,” Polaneczky said. “I do think that there are a generation of people who are sheltered from diversity.”
While some have criticized the school, AA junior Joseph Mahoney feels that his school was misrepresented.
“This whole ordeal was blown way out of proportion by other newspapers,” Mahoney said. “Athens Academy is a place for everyone to share their opinions no matter what.”
Despite some community pushback against AA on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Huett maintains that the actions of the administration do not represent the entire school.
“I do not think the decisions of the administration or the complaints of a few parents reflect the entire community of the parents and definitely not the students of AA,” Huett said. “I think what it does indicate is a lack of a clear policy on dealing with non-discrimination and queer children.”
Moving forward, Avid Bookshop faculty hopes that their stance regarding issues like these has become clearer. The Five Points location is currently hosting a book fair that donates 10 percent of any children’s book sales to the LGBTQ+ youth group. The group is a part of Athens Pride and seeks to help openly queer or non-binary teens in Athens. Avid Bookshop hopes that this shows their support for the community and encourages the conversation around LBGTQ+ communities to move forward.
“It bodes well that the leader of this institution is open to candid conversations and that he wants to create a more inclusive environment,” Avid Bookshop owner Janet Geddis said in a March 9 Facebook post. “We are still so sad and frustrated about the censorship that took place this week, but I want to reiterate that our relationship with Athens Academy leadership is open and respectful.”
