CdA schools adopt permission policy

Parents in the Coeur d’Alene School District will be able to keep their children from participating in school-sponsored activities by denying them written permission under a policy unanimously approved Monday night by the Coeur d’Alene School Board.

The policy does not mean parents must grant permission before a student can participate in an activity – it simply means parents can prohibit their children from participating in specific activities if they so desire.

The forms will be available at the request of a parent or student, and information about the policy and about the form will be written into student handbooks, said Judy Drake, the district’s director of staff relations and community resources.

The policy comes two months after Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene, urged the board to adopt a policy governing parental permission for school clubs.

Nonini tried to pass a bill during the final days of this year’s legislative session that would have required parental permission for students to participate in extracurricular activities, but it stalled in the Senate Education Committee.

Nonini said at the time that he was pushing the bill in response to the Gay-Straight Alliance Club at Lake City High School.

The board also added parental permission requirements for two books – “Fallen Angels” by Walter Dean Myers and “Dancing at the Rascal Fair” by Ivan Doig.

Complaints from parents about both books prompted the district to examine each using separate committees of one administrator, one librarian and two parents, said Rosie Astorquia.

The committee could not reach a consensus on “Fallen Angels,” a novel about a young man fighting in the Vietnam War that contains profanity and other graphic language, but the board voted to place it on the restricted list for middle school students, meaning parental permission is required for middle school students to borrow it from a library.

Astorquia said although two committee members were offended by the book’s language, the other four said they recognized the powerful story and felt no restrictions were needed. But trustee Vernon Newby said he read “Fallen Angels” “cover-to-cover” and concluded that “it’s definitely full of obscenity.”

“The parents should know,” he said.

Trustee Sid Fredrickson agreed.

“I would err on the side of caution,” he said.

Though the committee charged with examining “Dancing at the Rascal Fair,” a novel about life in Montana at the turn of the century that contains graphic sexual passages, did not recommend restricting access through a parental permission requirement, Newby said he found some parts of the books “actually difficult to read to my wife” and the board decided to add the requirement.

“What is the harm of letting parents know?” trustee Christie Wood said.

The book is on the optional reading list for high school juniors and seniors.

Coeur d’Alene resident Jim Hollingsworth questioned why it was in the school in the first place.

“It shouldn’t even have been written, let alone fall into the hands of an adult or child,” he said.

The board postponed approval of the 2006-07 budget until Monday at noon.

A complete budget is available at the school district office.