When Salisbury resident Joli White learned earlier this month that Merrimack Valley High School had removed a book from the required English curriculum following a parent’s complaint, she thought about her brother, Alec, who died by suicide in 2017.

After growing up attending Merrimack Valley schools, Alec had withdrawn from the high school that fall after an attempt to take his own life in the summer. At the time of his death, he was 16 years old, the same age as many of the students who had previously been assigned the book, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.”

White, 27, said she had to fight to get the high school to acknowledge her brother’s death. The decision to limit access to the book, which discusses suicide and teenage mental health, rekindled that frustration.

“Removing a book that talks about these things is not going to help this problem whatsoever,” she said. “Every single study about suicide says not talking about suicide is not fixing anything.”

White is one of a chorus of current and former students who have criticized the move to restrict how teachers can use the book.

The decision, which was made by a seven-member committee of faculty and administrators, is not a total ban. Students remain able to access the book in the library and can use it for class assignments that involve selecting their own texts.

The parent who objected to the novel took issue with its descriptions of sexual assault, consensual sex, physical abuse, drug use, and suicide. Her child was in one of four classes scheduled to read it this year, the third year the book was offered in some tenth-grade courses.

“We are supposed to keep our children pure and innocent for as long as possible and we just cannot understand why this material is being introduced to him and the rest of the students at this crucial age,” the parent wrote to her child’s teacher, according to an e-mail obtained by the Concord Monitor through a right-to-know request.

Inside the classroom

Three Merrimack Valley seniors who read the book as sophomores said in interviews that they enjoyed it and did not find the topics that the parent objected to unfamiliar to them or inappropriate in a school setting for students their age.

“I felt very connected to the book,” senior Braelyn Crowell said. “I feel like it helps a lot of students who may have mental health issues in finding themselves represented in the media.”

The novel is a well-known 1999 coming-of-age story told from the perspective of Charlie, a freshman at a suburban Pennsylvania high school. Written through letters penned to an anonymous friend, Charlie chronicles his experiences with friendships, romantic relationships, school culture, family challenges and mental health.

Students said they found the book embodied the experiences that people their age navigate.

“It’s relatable as a teen to see that in a book rather than just figuring it out in your life,” senior Annabelle Mattie said.

The students said that their teachers handled the challenging topics in the book with care, giving warnings in advance and offering them the opportunity to step out of the room. They said much of the book was read aloud in class, but they read certain sensitive scenes on their own.

They recalled engaging in discussions while reading the book about who they thought was on the receiving end of Charlie’s anonymous letters and about the literary significance of the novel’s structure. Senior Serena Goodwin said she remembered engaging in small group discussions about Charlie’s mental health challenges.

“I think we might have touched on some topics like drug use and the sexual assault that happens in the book, but it all kind of tied back to the discussions about mental health,” Goodwin said.

The teacher who assigned the book did not respond to a request for comment. However, in emails with the parent who objected to the text, she wrote that it “opens the door to important discussions about choice, consequence, empathy, and resilience, topics that are critical for adolescents to consider as they navigate their own development.”

Opposition to the decision

Six current or former students interviewed said they disapproved of the decision to remove the book from the required curriculum. While many said they understood the parent’s objections, they expressed frustration that the committee had elected to take an action that would affect all students.

“A parent has every right to decide what their child can and can’t read — that’s their child — but I do not think that they should be able to choose for everyone else,” Mattie said.

As is the case for all instructional materials, the parent who submitted the complaint was given the option to opt her own child out of reading the book.

The committee that made the recommendation to remove it from the required curriculum did not provide a basis for its decision.

“It’s hard to articulate a specific reason, but the reality is there are controversial topics in it and it would be better to look at other options,” Principal Shaun St. Onge said in an interview.

Some of the students said they believed the decision demonstrated a lack of understanding of the issues surrounding young adults.

“I do think that it would be beneficial if some of these adults understood more about what teenagers actually know about the real world,” sophomore Oliver Dickinson said. “Everyone in my class knows about sexual violence and physical violence and drugs and alcohol and all that stuff.”

Some current and former students took particular issue with the book’s removal because of its inclusion of same-sex relationships.

“I am open with my sexuality to anyone who asks in the hallways of Merrimack Valley, which leads me to wonder: Should I be removed from the school if parents find the topics I speak about inappropriate?” senior Nathan Baylus asked in an Op-Ed published in the Concord Monitor.

Current students, for their part, said they were satisfied with how the high school handles mental health. Freshmen participate in a six-week mental health unit in health class and the high school has implemented the “Signs of Suicide” program. Merrimack Valley also participates in “Getting to ‘Y,’” a program that facilitates students’ review of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey data.

“I think the high school actually handles mental health pretty well,” Dickinson said. “It was the longest of our units in health class, I think by a pretty wide margin.… They did a really good job at explaining the signs of suicide.”

A concerning precedent?

Students said they worried the decision could prompt other successful book challenges — either at Merrimack Valley or elsewhere.

“If you start with one book, then it’s a waterfall, and then that gives the opportunity for more people to think they can ban more and more books in the state,” Goodwin said.

Merrimack Valley High is the third known school district in New Hampshire to restrict access to a book in response to a complaint, according to PEN America’s database, which began tallying challenges across the country in 2021. Its list is likely incomplete.

Other school districts, including Bow and Dover, have rejected high-profile book challenges in recent years.

Dickinson said he is currently reading “The Things They Carried” in his tenth-grade English class. He noted that the book includes references to suicide and descriptions of war.

“I thought it was a bit silly that ‘Perks of Being a Wallflower’ was being pulled, but ‘The Things They Carried’ could stay,” he said.

While students recognized the school’s decision didn’t amount to a blanket ban, they still believed it carried symbolic and practical weight.

“Although we can still read the books, what if they start doing this to other books?” Goodwin asked. “And then less and less books have serious topics in them.”

If you are in crisis, please call, text or chat with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK  to 741741.

Learn about the Alec J. White Memorial Scholarship here.