Out of Darkness is based on a true-events: In 1937, a natural gas explosion at a school in New London, Texas, killed nearly 300 students and teachers - one of the deadliest school disasters in U.S. She published Out of Darkness in 2015, a year that invoked a national conversation surrounding issues of race, environmental racism, racialized violence and police brutality. Pérez - who is a comparative literature professor at The Ohio State University in addition to having authored three novels - centers her writing on Latin American narratives, making space for young Latino readers to see themselves in her work. Read the full letter to the school district below.This discussion with Ashley Hope Pérez is part of a series of interviews with - and essays by - authors who are finding their books being challenged and banned in the U.S.Īshley Hope Pérez is the author of the award-winning Out of Darkness, a young adult novel that has faced challenges and bans in the U.S. NCAC and its cosigners urge the District to return Out of Darkness to the library shelves until the challenge has been adjudicated, and to clarify to all teachers, administrators and staff that administrative regulations must be followed when challenges are brought to curricular materials. Teachers who fear that books might summarily be removed whenever someone brings a challenge will be reluctant to assign any but the most innocuous and unchallenging books, and hence likely to chill their willingness to select books that they believe best serve students’ needs. Removing a book without following administrative regulations is not only illegal, it also raises serious pedagogical concerns. Thus, it appears that the district has ignored its regulations by removing the book from the school libraries. That is presumably why the District has promulgated very specific policies and regulations governing the selection of materials as well as the adjudication of challenges to those materials.

While it is true that the District is ultimately entitled to determine what materials are used in its classrooms, it is also true that there is a constant risk that such decisions might be influenced by improper factors, such as political considerations or hostility to the viewpoints expressed in curricular materials.

for Teachers, Parents, and School Officials.Resources for Authors of Banned and Challenged Books.

Out of darkness book perez