Tuesday night a group of parents, teachers and media specialists from the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan school district agreed 10-1 that the series, Bone, by Jeff Smith, should not be banned from 12 of the district’s 18 elementary schools.

The issue was raised when a parent complained that the series depicted smoking, drinking and gambling and was inappropriate for young children.

From the Pioneer Press newspaper:

“I do stand strongly against this,” said DeLay, 35, of Apple Valley. “Smoking and drinking is not allowed on our school properties, but can be in our school library. I am advocating that the series of ‘Bone’ novels be pulled from our elementary libraries in our district.”

Disctrict media specialist Melinda Martin had this to say on the subject:

I respect her right to object to the series, but not for her to censor it for the rest. I feel you would be doing a disservice to our district if you remove this book from our elementary schools.

The series creator Jeff Smith has been pretty vocal on his thoughts over the issue.

The district has received 20 requests to ban a books over the last 20 years, the last was in 2006.  The last time a book was removed was in 1997.