School board bans lecture-series flier

Michael Miller

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District has banned a flier

advertising an upcoming lecture by controversial author and

commentator Eric Schlosser.

Jaime Castellanos, assistant superintendent of secondary education

for the district, said he had ordered all middle schools and high

schools not to display a flier promoting Schlosser’s speech this

Friday and Saturday as part of the Newport Beach Public Library’s

Distinguished Speakers Lecture Series. Schlosser, whose presentation

is billed to center around his book “Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side

of the All-American Meal,” has written numerous articles and books

advocating the legalization of marijuana.

Castellanos was alerted to the Schlosser event by a member of the

community who e-mailed him a copy of a flier. The advertisement,

Castellanos said, made reference to another book of Schlosser’s that

contained a drug and sexual reference in its title.

“I told [the schools], if you get one of these fliers, send it

back to the district,” Castellanos said. “Basically, if the flier has

a book on it that talks about sex, marijuana and other things, that’s

not appropriate for our schools.”

Any Newport-Mesa school that wants to publicly display a flier

must pass it by the district for approval. Castellanos said that none

of the Newport-Mesa schools had received the Schlosser flier.

Schlosser’s appearances at the lecture series had already raised

some controversy in the Newport-Mesa area. Traditionally, speakers in

the series meet with local high school students in between talks and

answer questions. Even though Schlosser was officially slated to

discuss “Fast Food Nation,” some feared that his most recent book,

“Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs and Cheap Labor in the American Black

Market,” would factor into the discussion.

“The concern people have is that he’s going to talk about his

previous works,” district spokeswoman Jane Garland said. “If it’s a

controversial issue, we don’t put the flier out.”

At the district board of education meeting Tuesday, a number of

parents rose during the public-comment section to request that the

district not endorse the Schlosser appearance.

Wendy Leece, the mother of a sophomore at Newport Harbor High

School, said she didn’t want taxpayer money going to support a

speaker who advocated legalizing drugs.

“It’s a conservative community,” Leece said before the meeting.

“Maybe if we had a debate where he was against someone with the other

side, that would be different, but to have only the one side is not

good education.

“It’s fine if he wants to do it in his own time with a private

group, but when you talk about tax dollars and a library series, then

the community has to take a stand. The people who don’t agree with

his philosophy have the right to speak out.”

* MICHAEL MILLER covers education and may be reached at (714)

966-4617 or by e-mail at [email protected].