DAYTONA BEACH -- Rejecting a DeBary mother's claim the novel "Cracking India" is pornographic, a review committee said Thursday that Volusia teachers should be allowed to assign the book to 11th- and 12th-graders.
"It's all nice if we want to read the sugar-coated stories and pretend that's what the world is, but it's not," said Sue Schilsky, a school district language arts specialist who served on the committee.
Vikki Reed filed a complaint against the book in September after it was assigned to her daughter's 11th-grade world literature course in the academically rigorous International Baccalaureate program at DeLand High.
Reed objected to two passages in the 289-page book about a young girl coming of age against the backdrop of violence and terror that marked the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan.
One passage describes an attempt by the girl's young cousin to entice her into performing oral sex; the other deals with her sexual fantasies about men.
Schilsky said she would have preferred not to have those passages included but they weren't enough to ban a book with strong parallels to what's happening today in the Middle East.
Nearly all of the other 24 committee members, who included teachers, parents, school administrators and community representatives, agreed.
Only two -- the Rev. Michael Carroll and DeLand High parent Douglas Gill -- dissented from the panel's finding that the book was not "harmful to minors" as defined by Florida law.
"There's a bunch of evils my kids have to face out there (in the world)," said Gill. "They shouldn't be in the classroom."
Gill, whose daughter is a junior in the DeLand High International Baccalaureate program, got an alternative assignment for her after reading news reports of Reed's objections to "Cracking India."
But saying he didn't want to impose his views on others, Gill voted with the committee to recommend allowing teachers to assign the book to juniors and seniors.
Carroll, associate pastor of First Assembly of God in DeLand, voted against that measure as well. He said there are other books without sexual content that could have conveyed the same information as "Cracking India."
Superintendent Margaret Smith expects to make the final decision about the book's fate in Volusia schools within two weeks.
She'll also decide how to handle the committee's recommendation that school officials do a better job of informing parents of their right to review reading materials and request alternative assignments for those they find offensive.
"I think the district has a responsibility to ensure a high level of education and books that contain oral sex passages are not a higher education," Reed said in a telephone interview Thursday night.
"If this is what Margaret Smith is calling high school reform, we're all in trouble in this county," Reed said.
"Cracking India" author Bapsi Sidhwa hailed the committee decision in a telephone interview from her home in Lahore, Pakistan.
"They're validating the American point of view that there should be open inquiry," she said. "That's what education is all about."
