Georgia mom seeks ban on Harry Potter
Mother of four claims the teen wizard is ‘evil,’ promotes witchcraft
POTTER PROTEST
Laura Mallory, of Loganville, Ga., holds up a brochure for a summer camp for learning the art of witchcraft. Mallory was trying to convince a Gwinnett County board of education officer during an Oct. 3 hearing that Harry Potter should be banned from classrooms and school libraries.
ATLANTA - A suburban county that sparked a public outcry when its libraries temporarily eliminated funding for Spanish-language fiction is now being asked to ban Harry Potter books from its schools.
Laura Mallory, a mother of four, told a hearing officer for the Gwinnett County Board of Education on Tuesday that the popular fiction series is an "evil" attempt to indoctrinate children in the Wicca religion.
Board of Education attorney Victoria Sweeny said that if schools were to remove all books containing reference to witches, they would have to ban "Macbeth" and "Cinderella."
"There's a mountain of evidence for keeping Harry Potter," she said, adding that the books don't support any particular religion but present instead universal themes of friendship and overcoming adversity.
In June, the county's library board eliminated the $3,000 that had been set aside to buy Spanish-language fiction in the coming fiscal year. One board member said the move came after some residents objected to using taxpayer dollars to entertain readers who might be illegal immigrants.
Days later, the board reversed its decision amid accusations that the move was anti-Hispanic.
Mother of four claims the teen wizard is ‘evil,’ promotes witchcraft
POTTER PROTEST
Laura Mallory, of Loganville, Ga., holds up a brochure for a summer camp for learning the art of witchcraft. Mallory was trying to convince a Gwinnett County board of education officer during an Oct. 3 hearing that Harry Potter should be banned from classrooms and school libraries.
ATLANTA - A suburban county that sparked a public outcry when its libraries temporarily eliminated funding for Spanish-language fiction is now being asked to ban Harry Potter books from its schools.
Laura Mallory, a mother of four, told a hearing officer for the Gwinnett County Board of Education on Tuesday that the popular fiction series is an "evil" attempt to indoctrinate children in the Wicca religion.
Board of Education attorney Victoria Sweeny said that if schools were to remove all books containing reference to witches, they would have to ban "Macbeth" and "Cinderella."
"There's a mountain of evidence for keeping Harry Potter," she said, adding that the books don't support any particular religion but present instead universal themes of friendship and overcoming adversity.
In June, the county's library board eliminated the $3,000 that had been set aside to buy Spanish-language fiction in the coming fiscal year. One board member said the move came after some residents objected to using taxpayer dollars to entertain readers who might be illegal immigrants.
Days later, the board reversed its decision amid accusations that the move was anti-Hispanic.
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Cleveland
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Re: Sigh....
Fri, October 27, 2006 - 6:58 AMThis woman is so selfish.... I don't give a rat's butt what she lets her own children read, but let the other parents make that decision for themselves. Harry Potter books are the singly most checked out books in the GA school system. The librarians have stated that even children who never read have checked them out, and read them.
Funny, but I don't remember a bunch of Fundies picketing over BeWitched when I was little. I watched it religiously (pardon the expression) and never once thought it was real. Maybe if parents were trying to teach their kids the difference between fiction and non-fiction, they wouldn't be worried about Harry Potter.
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Re: Sigh....
Fri, October 27, 2006 - 7:00 AMWe can even take it a step further, Judy. If parents were teaching their kids tolerance for other faiths and beliefs, they wouldn't even be afraid that kids were learning witchcraft from a series of fictional novels. -
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Re: Sigh....
Fri, October 27, 2006 - 7:06 AMThat is absolutely true, Azhrde.
I could do a complete discertation on why I believe our educational system is broken and how it benefits the money mongers to keep the fgeneral population ignorant. Intolerance is a product of ignorance. We fear whgat we do not understand. As long as people are preoccupied with petty bullshit like fighting to have books banned, they don't have time to pay to the real issues.
*sigh*
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Re: Sigh....
Fri, October 27, 2006 - 5:31 PMThe Evangelical Christians have been trying to ban Childrens books for over a decade.
Remember the children's book titled: "My Two Dads" about a daughter being raised by two Gay Men in a loving permanent relationship?.
It's time to put "Book Banning" behind us and as a society move beyond that. -
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Re: Sigh....
Sat, October 28, 2006 - 7:43 AMYes they have....
I remember that one... did you see all the hub bub over the "And Tango Makes Three" book? Google it if you didn't.... the book is based on a true story... of penguins.
;o)
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Re: Sigh....
Sat, October 28, 2006 - 11:47 AMThe Fundies will go against ANY children's book that doesn't portray a Family as Man/Woman/Child
Even books about an animal species where polygamy is the normal course of their evolution.
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Re: Sigh....
Fri, October 27, 2006 - 7:02 AMwww.ajc.com/metro/conten...002harry.html
www.ala.org/ala/alonline.../potterga.htm
The decision will come in December. So far she has been completely unsuccessful in having the books banned in 6 previous decisions by what is apparently better educated people than herself.
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Re: Sigh....
Tue, October 31, 2006 - 3:28 AMThe interesting thing is that the books in the Harry Potter series actually encourage children to read.
Children who are initially poor or mediochre readers eagerly devour these tome-like books about the adventures of Harry Potter and his friends! -
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Re: Sigh....
Tue, October 31, 2006 - 9:53 AMEven worse - there was a case in Texas I think , about a week or two ago, where a father -daughter team were trying to get......wait for it.................Ray Bradburys' Farenheit 451 banished. (!!!)(was a required reading for a class the 15 year old was in )Now I could go on until I'm blue in the face about irony, but the book burners are apparently charring themselves into the single-digit IQ pool.
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Re: Sigh....
Sun, November 5, 2006 - 6:14 PMit's embarrasing isnt it?
It is difficult for me to imagine how these people can be this ignorant... and yet... they are here among us!
It reminds me of a line from a movie...
"I see stupid people... I see them everywhere... They don't even KNOW they're stupid!"
or something like that. -
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Re: Sigh....
Wed, November 8, 2006 - 6:41 PMOh! That's paraphrased from a movie about a psychic kid who can see ghosts. It was a really excellent movie, actually.
"I see dead people....I see them everywhere....They don't even know they're dead!"
Substituting 'stupid' works pretty well though.
I recall that someone pointed out once that there was a book which should be banned because it contains violence, genocide, advocates parents killing their children, contains sex and incest, rape, and gruesome executions, among other atrocities.
That book is...THE HOLY BIBLE.
Let's ban the bible, based on it's contents. -
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Re: Sigh....
Fri, February 8, 2008 - 12:00 PMI just moved from a place where, since a church could not obtain a book burning permit, they had a book "cutting" with only the Harry Potter books.
Apparently, the government gives these people one-time tickets to set huge bonfires of books.
I smell Nazis.
Yes, best part of the bible ever!
Some dude has 7 strangers as guests in his household. An angry mob comes for them, saying they will sodomize beat burn and hang the 7 strangers. Rather then let that happen to these strangeres, he threw his 2 DAUGHTERS to the mob instead. And this was considered an incredible act of faith in god, because the 7 people were really angels, although he didn't know that at the time.
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