North Attleborough Public Schools restored a book Tuesday that had been removed from a school library shelf in the wake of a controversy sparked by a Globe report.
The book, “Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice,” by Mahogany L. Browne, Elizabeth Acevedo, and Olivia Gatwood, had been removed from the Martin Elementary School library, although it remained available to teachers. The Globe reported the removal on Jan. 17, as part of a story on book bans across the state, prompting outrage from residents.
A member of the town council, Darius Gregory, walked out of a meeting Monday night, pledging not to return to the council until the book was restored. The next day, Superintendent John Antonucci announced it would be.
“Although we followed the established district process, it has since become clear to me that this matter was not approached or communicated properly,” Antonucci said in an emailed news release sent Tuesday night. “I am sorry for that lapse.”
Antonucci initially said the district’s review committee found the title of the book “unnecessarily divisive,” the Sun Chronicle reported, but he retracted that explanation in the news release, calling it “incorrect.” Instead, he said, he had decided to remove the book from the library based on age-appropriateness.
“As superintendent, I do not support the outright banning of books, but I do believe that it is wholly appropriate in an educational environment to have a procedure in place to discuss, challenge, consider, and reconsider all materials that may be made available to our students,” Antonucci said.
Antonucci declined an interview request Wednesday but answered questions by email.
The book is described by its publisher as “a collection of poems by women that reflects the joy and passion in the fight for social justice, tackling topics from discrimination to empathy, and acceptance to speaking out.” It’s recommended for ages 8 to 12; Martin Elementary serves students in grades kindergarten through fifth.
The book was removed in May 2023 after a parent challenged it, the superintendent said, but it was not until the Globe’s reporting that it became widely known and the district began reconsidering the ban.
Gregory, the sole Black member of the town council, said at Monday’s meeting that he read about the ban over the weekend and felt it “completely undermined” what he had been trying to do on the council.
“It’s disheartening to see one action by a review committee or a couple of folks can ultimately drag us all through the mud and we’re all attached to it,” Gregory said. “I’m sitting here as the only Black face in this room and I’m embarrassed. I know our students in our schools don’t feel supported.”
After reading the news, Gregory said in an interview Wednesday, he read the book himself.
“That even further infuriated me,” he said. ”This is a book that I would want my three children to read.”
The challenge to the book should have been an opportunity to celebrate diversity, Gregory said.
“I can no longer occupy this seat until real change is happening, because with me here, it doesn’t matter anyway,” he said at the meeting. “I’m not going to sit in this chair anymore until we get real change. I can provide a whole list of solutions to make it right. It starts with getting the book back on the shelf.”
Other town councilors also harshly criticized the removal, calling it “un-American.”
“Banning books goes against everything that we stand for,” council Vice President John Simmons said at the meeting.
State Representative Adam Scanlon, a North Attleborough Democrat, also appeared at the meeting to speak against the ban.
“I stand with every student at Martin School in the district who wishes to do a simple thing: read a book about being kind to each other freely,” Scanlon said.
In his statement announcing the book’s restoration Tuesday, Antonucci said he had in recent days spoken to residents and members of the town council and school committee and concluded he had “missed the mark” in removing the book.
“It is clear that our policy/procedure in these matters needs to be re-evaluated,” he added.
Gregory met one-on-one with Antonucci on Tuesday and requested the ban be reversed and that the superintendent take personal responsibility, the councilor said. Both occurred that evening, and Gregory said he will return to the town council.
But Greogry had four other requests for the superintendent and School Committee chair, which he will continue to push for. He declined to share the other requests publicly but said they are about a “commitment to diversity,” which he said he hasn’t seen since he joined the town council in 2019.
“I’ve seen words, I’ve seen press releases, but I haven’t seen action,” Gregory said. “Race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability — all those things are in that bowl of diversity. We have to get the town and the school district to understand that it impacts more people than just a few.”
That commitment could “ensure this will never happen again,” Gregory said.
Out of dozens of Massachusetts districts that received book challenges in the last five years, North Attleborough was one of just five that removed books, alongside Westwood, Marblehead, Melrose, and Wilmington, Globe reporting found. The books removed in other districts were “The Adventures of Tintin,” by Hergé; a group of discontinued Dr. Seuss books; “Red: A Crayon’s Story,” by Michael Hall; “Changing Bodies, Changing Lives,” by Ruth Alexander; and “Gender Queer,” by Maia Kobabe.
The challenge and removal in North Attleborough is part of a statewide wave of attempted book bans. Books by and about people of color and LGBTQ people, like “Woke,” face the brunt of the challenges, according to the data collected by the Globe.
Last month, police were even called to a middle school in Great Barrington to investigate a complaint about “concerning illustrations” in “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” a graphic novel about gender and sexual identity. Police concluded no laws had been broken and the police chief apologized, but the teacher whose room was searched is taking a temporary leave of absence. The town is now investigating its police department over the incident, the Berkshire Eagle reported.
Christopher Huffaker can be reached at christopher.huffaker@globe.com. Follow him @huffakingit.