Many of the details of this case were discovered through analysis of primary source documents and an interview with Karin Perry, the librarian who initiated Ellen Hopkins’s visit to Whittier Middle School.
There are several components of the case we were unable to identify because of the lack of detail the documents provided. The identity of the parent complainant remains unknown; her name is redacted from the scanned version of the original complaint form sent to us by the school district. Because of this, we were unable to fully secure her voice or her personal account of the case’s story. This is the biggest limitation we faced in understanding the case fully.