Everyone has read some questionable content in books that can have them wondering how this book is even allowed. In Hamilton County, there has been a recent realization of “vile content” in books. Rhonda Thurman, the District 1 School Board representative , noticed the content in these books and expressed her concern in an article.

Across Hamilton County schools, there is a high chance that some books featuring ‘vile content’ have slipped passed the eye of many, and are still in the library. Melinda Martin, the librarian at Central, shared her views on this content in high school libraries:

“I think that with the way the media is today, its very rare that a high schooler isn’t already exposed to those things, whether it be in the home or what they see on TV, or the internet.”

It is quite hard to avoid these books in a library because, as Martin states, it is less the book and more the reader. Martin even compares this to The Bible, as it could have questionable content, because it all comes down to who the reader is.

Adam Fletcher, an English teacher at Central, agrees with Martin. He views vile content to be where the reader’s mind is at. Fletcher provides an example of content that can be perceived as ‘vile’ that has yet to be removed from school curriculum:

“Shakespeare and Chaucer have been taught for years in school, but they have not been removed from the curriculum at Central for their questionable content.”

Fletcher also mentions the murder, lying, drunkenness, and dirty jokes that goes on in Macbeth (a play by William Shakespeare) and how it is still in the curriculum. Fletcher’s style of teaching is to be very transparent with his students. He does not hide anything that he teaches, as this creates more safe discussions about literature.

Overall, it does not seem like vile content in books are something educators have to worry about. In fact, they seem to not really mind at all about this type of content being read by high school students. Perhaps, there is no such thing as a book with vile content, but a student with a vile mind will never cease to exist.