an American literature class. They charged thatthe book included considerable profanity and "filthy and profane" language that premoted premarital sex, homosexuality, and perversion, aswell as claiming that it was "explicitly pornographic" and "immoral." After months of controversy, the board ruled that the novel could be readin the advanced placement class for its universal message, not for its profanity, but they gave parents the right to decide whether or not theirchildren would read it.' 'In 1978 parents in Issaquah, Washington, became upset with the rebellious views expressed in the novel by Holden Caulfield and with theprofanity he uses. The woman who led the parents' group asserted that she had counted 785 uses of profanity, and she alleged that thephilosophy of the book marked it as part of a Communist plot that was gaining a foothold in the schools, "in which a lot of people are used andmay not even be aware of it." The school board voted to ban the book, but the decision was later reversed when the three members who hadvoted against the book were recalled due to illegal deal-making. In 1979, the Middleville, Michigan, school district removed the novel from therequired reading list after parents objected to the content.' 'Objections in the novel have been numerous throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s. In 1980, the Jacksonville-Milton School libraries in NorthJackson, Ohio, removed the book, as did two high school libraries in Anniston, Alabama. In 1982, school officials removed the book from allschool libraries because it contained "excess vulgar language, sexual scenes, and things concerning moral issues." In 1983, parents in Libby,Montana, challenged the assignment of the book in the high school due to the "book's contents." Deemed "unacceptable" and "obscene," thenovel was banned from use in English classes at Freeport High School in De Funiak Springs, Florida, in 1985, and it was removed from therequired reading list in...
