New Rochelle High School Principal Experiences Difficulty Gathering Intelligence and Character

Or, he just may not be telling the truth about what he knows. Let the readers decide. As a direct response to the the post on New Rochelle Talk of the Sound,
Now Playing in New Rochelle, “Book, Interrupted”! the High School Principal was interviewed by the Journal News.

Aman Ali from the Journal News quoted Donald Conetta as saying:

“We really can’t determine exactly how this came about,” Principal Donald Conetta said. “But it doesn’t matter. The fact is that it came about, and that’s not how we operate. We don’t censor and when any book is tampered with; it creates concern.”

In a separate article The Journal News reported:

High school principal Donald Conetta said the pages were actually removed several years ago – he believes in 2004 – but the matter came to light when another teacher went to use the book in his class this year.

Can’t really determine how this came out? It doesn’t matter? Hmm… School officials were repeatedly contacted by a concerned parent for an explanation.

Ms. Babcock-Deutsch did not respond to repeated requests to explain the actions of the District in censoring the book by tearing out pages. Don Conetta, principal of the school, and Richard Organisciak, schools superintendent, did not respond to requests for comment.

In true City School District of New Rochelle, they ignored the issue until they were pressured to respond with the following statement:

Daily Announcements

A STATEMENT FROM THE BOARD OF EDUCATION ON THE USE OF APPROPRIATE COURSE MATERIALS

December, 2008

It has recently come to the attention of the Board of Education of the City School District of New Rochelle that a particular book used in one high school class, Girl Interrupted, was permitted to be abridged by the removal of certain pages from the text. This action was not authorized by the Board of Education and absolutely is not condoned as sound teaching practice.

The Board has directed that the full text of the book, as originally published, shall be substituted immediately, and that no further modifications of this type, i.e., removal of pages, shall be permitted under any circumstances. It has always been the policy of the City School District of New Rochelle that students be advised in advance if a particular assigned text contains material that might be offensive to some individuals, so that such individuals can “opt out” of the assignment and a different text can be substituted. This policy will continue to be observed in the future. As for Girl Interrupted, the Board of Education does not specifically endorse any of the author’s language or content, but the Board respects the integrity of the complete work and will direct that it be made available to any student who desires to read it.

Board of Education

A STATEMENT FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS ON THE USE OF APPROPRIATE COURSE MATERIALS

December, 2008

As a subject of legitimate public and educational interest, I would like to address the use of a slightly expurgated version of a novel titled Girl, Interrupted in an English class.

As explained to me, one of our former English department faculty members, advocated some years ago for inclusion of this book in a 10th grade course as part of a unit designed to address issues including mental health and conformity, because she felt that it discussed matters of importance to her students. Ninety copies of the book were ordered in 2001, of which approximately 50 copies remain at the High School. In addition, to the initial user of the book, only one other teacher used the book.

When a staff member raised questions about some portions of the book as being inappropriate for students, the decision was made to excise some minor portions of the work which presented sexual content which was deemed not age-appropriate for the students. Accordingly, those pages were removed.

This year, the book, Girl, Interrupted was identified as a supplemental reading assignment for a 12th grade film course and the original expurgated texts were used.

The original decision to excise the pages was made at the building level, and would not have been reviewed either by the central administration or by the Board of Education.

I trust that it is generally understood that decisions as to both literary quality and appropriateness are routinely made in selecting books for our literature curricula. There are books which are appropriate for older students which may present matter with which younger students are not prepared to deal. There are books which we may determine are appropriate to be available for our school libraries which we do not feel should be taught as mandatory reading as part of class syllabi.

I certainly understand that the word “censorship” can arouse strong public feelings, and is an issue to which public schools must be sensitive. At the same time, I think many people will agree that some material should not be endorsed, or made mandatory, in school curricula. I hope we can all recognize the context, namely, how do we expose students to a wide range of ideas, often provocative or disturbing, without exposing them to materials for which they may not be ready, or which their parents may find highly objectionable?

I hope that no one will leap to hasty conclusions regarding the use of this book in its expurgated state. I trust that questions raised by Girl, Interrupted will give us an opportunity for reflection in recognizing the interplay of First Amendment and related interests in our educational selections.

While I understand that this is the only literary text from which pages have been excised, as a District we will undertake a review of our policy and practices as they relate to the selection of materials in all formats.

Richard E. Organisciak

Superintendent of Schools

Many of New Rochelle Talk regular readers may remember that not too long ago Mr. Conetta did not have much information about the situation after the slashing at New Rochelle High School.

Conetta said the high school “hasn’t had a serious incident in a long while.”

He was asked if the high school will strengthen its security measures in response to the incident.

“I don’t see us doing that at this time but we’re continuing our investigation,” Conetta said. “If we feel like we need to, then we won’t hesitate to. But at this time we don’t plan on doing so.”

Why is it that a Public School Principal can continuously fail to provide competent answers about serious situations at New Rochelle High school? A more important question is why the members of the New Rochelle Community have not mobilized to hold public officials like him accountable?

The bad news is once again we have to report that the City School District of New Rochelle Officials are not honest. The good news is that they lack conviction and cave in easily with the right amount of political pressure.