Revisiting The Prince of Tides

Responding to last year's uproar over assigning Pat Conroy novels in Kanawha County schools, the ed board there has "unanimously agreed to warn parents about materials they might not favor," The Charleston Gazette reports.

The article explains that "textbooks are not affected," but that "teachers will have to flag books, articles, magazines and other materials used to supplement a student's learning if they feature sexual content, violence or profane language."

The policy was proposed "after two Pat Conroy novels, 'The Prince of Tides' and 'Beach Music,' were suspended at Nitro High School last fall after parents complained," the article said.

The complaints prompted a letter to the editor from Conroy. A board-appointed panel later approved the use of both books, but the teacher who had assigned them told The Gazette on Thursday that "his students will miss out and he'll defer AP English to a colleague."

Parents who had spoken out against the novels' content support the new policy, which offers them alternatives to any flagged material they object to, the article said. But the policy falls short of a book rating system that some of them had advocated, The Gazette reports.

"We need to find a way to quit chastising parents that want to be involved," Board member Bill Raglin, who proposed the policy, was quoted as saying.