Glendale School Board OKs Capote's 'In Cold Blood'
After months of debate, Glendale Unified school board members finally reached a decision on whether or not Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" could be added to the curriculum for advanced placement students. District administrators, teachers, students and parents disputed the book for months, wrangling over the nonfiction novel's suitability for teenage readers.
The novel was approved for students in a 4-0 decision this week. "In Cold Blood" became the center of controversy after longtime Glendale High School English teacher Holly Ciotti requested to add it to a list of books approved for AP language last spring. The course enrolls top 11th-grade English students and focuses on rhetoric and debate.
"I think the board did a service to the community by talking about the importance of literature in the public school curriculum," said Ciotti, reports Glendale News Press. "Not only am I looking forward to assigning the book to my AP students, they are chomping at the bit to read it."
Detailing the brutal murder of a Kansas farmer and his family, the novel was deemed too violent for a young audience by some school board members. Jennifer Freemon, a Franklin Elementary School parent and former school board candidate, expressed concern that "all of this that is coming out has really made Glendale look like a sub-par district and not the academically rigorous district that we are."
The board's Vice President Christine Walters noted that she has seen gorier video games and views the read as an opportunity to discuss violence in a mature context. "It humanized everybody that was involved in the whole story," Walters said. "The reader knows a lot about those that were victims, the reader knows a lot about those who committed the crimes. The reader knows a lot about what the reaction was in the community, the fear that was created."
