WSB's Veronica Waters reports Laura Mallory wants the Harry Potter book series banned from school libraries because she believes the books are too dark and are anti-Christian. She contends they encourage children to learn more about witchcraft.

"The Harry Potter books teach children socially unacceptable values opposing traditional values and good morals," Mallory said at Thursday's hearing. "Defying authority, lying, cheating and stealing are rewarded instead of punished."

About 100 people attended the hearing, packing the hearing room itself and sending at least a couple dozen others to an overflow room down the hall which had the audio of the 18 people testifying piped into it. Eleven of those speaking were against a ban.

Mallory first objected to the presence of the books at Magill Elementary in September, but review panels from the school and the district decided to keep the books on the shelves.

Mallory urged the hearing officer to consider her request carefully, pointing out that Wicca or witchcraft is a legally-recognized religion.

"If we tried to force people to read the Bible in schools from cover to cover, there would be an outrage," she said.

Teenager Jordan Fuchs says she became fascinated with witchcraft by reading Harry Potter books at school. Fuchs says she and her friends started to learn more about witchcraft and tried to do spells and hexes the way Harry Potter and other characters did, even conducting a séance in a PE class. By seventh grade, Fuchs says, she was suicidal.

"I became an angry, bitter, depressed and manipulating person," Fuchs testified. "I felt that I could not escape the dark clutches of witchcraft."

Fuchs urged the ban of the books to "prevent another child from going through the trauma that me and my family have endured."

Laura Outler Bowen, a mother of three, objects to the censorship of the Potter series and finds the books "imaginative and funny." She disputes Mallory's contention that the books teach children witchcraft.

"A child who is unable to recognize the difference between fantasy and reality is either too young or immature to read these books, or has issues bigger than removing the Harry Potter books is going to solve," Bowen says.

Other parents testified while they respect any parent's right to keep their own children from reading certain volumes, they take exception to someone trying to control what other people's children read. Elizabeth Friese says her family attends a Christian church weekly and she describes herself as having conservative values. Yet her second-grader, she says, only got excited about reading after finding the Potter books, which she says are about the "universal themes of life and school, friendship, and the triumph of good" in a context which is nothing more than fantasy.

"I respect the right of every parent to decide what their child should and should not be exposed to, but as for my children, I hope that these books will be waiting for them on the shelves of their school library," Friese said.

Jessica Grimes, a 10-year-old Harry Potter fan, told those at the hearing that she started reading the books in third grade and says they are clearly fiction and fantasy.

"The books have never at anytime turned me into a witch or a wizard," Grimes testified. "I go to church every Sunday, go to Sunday School, and never at any time think that the books are true."

The hearing officer will send the board her recommendation and Thursday's transcripts within five days; the board's next meeting is May 11. Its decision could be appealed to the state school board.

Thursday, 20 April 2006