When Tillamook High School’s 10th grade honors English class reconvenes this fall, there will be one notable change to the reading list.
After emotionally charged testimony during a recent school board meeting, Julia Alvarez’s “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents,” a modern coming-of-age classic that traces the complicated journey of four sisters who immigrate to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic, will be off the syllabus.
The book will still be available in the high school’s library, but the tug-of-war over whether to keep it on the list of course materials has prompted a wider review of the coastal school district’s policies on curriculum adoptions and complaints, according to a memo distributed by Superintendent Matt Ellis after the decision.
