Wednesday, November 2, 2005

Marc Fisher's Oct. 20 Metro column, "Views of the Few Send a School Into Retreat," about the Cabin John Middle School English teacher who asked eighth-grade honor students to choose a reading assignment from a list of 100 banned or challenged books, missed the point.

Under Maryland law, only books approved for use by the county school system may be used by teachers. Although the standards for acceptability may be too low in some instances, this assignment contravened clear law.

The public should know that the parents who complained about the assignment had the law on their side and that the teacher who gave out the reading assignment had no lawful right to do so.

SUSAN JAMISON

Poolesville