This week was spring break, so, naturally, all the work we’ve been putting of doing finally got done. This week I transcribed two interviews (and am doing another one tonight), contacted and sent interview questions to Lisa Baldwin, the creator of the Buncombe Students First blog, and created half the timeline for the case and and a Story map for different book challenges across the country.  This week the hope is to create a large portion of the pages for our website. Also this week, Cara has contacted Tim Coley via Facebook and hopefully we will hear from him soon.

Photo of Lisa Baldwin

Lisa Baldwin, Asheville Citizen-Times OPINION 9:32 a.m. EDT May 15, 2015, From the Blog of Lisa Baldwin: Buncombe Students First

I contacted Lisa Baldwin at the end of the week before last, and last Wednesday we set up a interview plan. She preferred to answer questions via email, so Cara and I spent about a half hour of our Wednesday meeting discussing questions we had for her.  After our meeting I sent her these questions:

~Your article was primarily about the Kite Runner, but you mentioned The Bluest Eye as well. What is your specific opinion on The Bluest Eye as a book and its use in the classroom. The specific book challenge that we are looking at was in an Honors Junior level class at North Buncombe High School.

~The Media/Technology Advising Committee decided to move The Bluest Eye from the Honors Junior class book list to the Senior level AP Literature class reading list. What is your opinion on this decision?

~What inspired you and motivated you to blog about and speak out in the Kite Runner case?

~What is your advice to parents that are concerned about materials being used in the classroom?

~What is your advice for educators who want to use more modern and controversial works in their classroom? On your blog you recommend teachers do their “due-diligence”, what does that entail?

~Could you please walk us through what the challenge process was like for you when you when you challenged The Kite Runner?

Hopefully she will be able to give us information and understanding in favor of banning books from the classroom. Her blog has been inactive for two years now, so I was pleasantly shocked when she responded to the email attached to it. Because we are continuing to have trouble getting documents and the complainant’s contact information from the school, We reached out to her, though she is not directly involved with this case, to better understand not only the historic context, but also the opinions of a parent who had challenged another book on grounds of sexually explicit content.