Alice Munro books not off-limits for London-area students: School boards

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London-area school boards will not officially oppose students reading books by Nobel Prize-winning author Alice Munro following the bombshell revelation that she stayed with her husband after she knew he had sexually abused her daughter, officials at both boards say.

An official at the Thames Valley District school board said the board “does not ban books.

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“The Thames Valley District school board has developed a resource decision-making tool, to help guide school-level decisions around library book selections,” Purveen Skinner, the board’s superintendent of student achievement, said in an email. “This tool was developed using an anti-oppressive approach (and) focuses on cultural safety.

“We respect teachers’ professional judgment to centre students as they select reading materials.”

At the London District Catholic school board, “reading lists are determined by the individual teacher or department,” spokesperson Mark Adkinson said.

“We have a discernment tool for staff to use when evaluating resources.”

Last month, one of Munro’s daughters detailed the sexual abuse she endured from her stepfather in their home in Clinton, a Huron County town north of London.

Andrea Robin Skinner said Munro, who died in May at age 92, choose to stay in her marriage to second husband Gerald Fremlin despite learning how her daughter had been abused.

Skinner, who lived in British Columbia with her father but visited her mother during the summer months, said she was abused on a night that her mother was away. Fremlin first initiated sexual contact when Skinner was nine.

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After Skinner reported the abuse to police in 2005, Fremlin, then 80, pleaded guilty to a charge of indecent assault. He was given a suspended sentence.

Before the assault was reported to police, Skinner’s family knew about the abuse, including Munro, who had taken her husband’s side.

Megan Walker, an advocate for victims of sexual and domestic violence and former head of the London Abused Women’s Centre, said she would not support a ban on Munro’s books.

“I don’t ever support book bans,” she said. “I think part of reading a book, whether it’s controversy or inappropriate behaviour, provides a learning opportunity for people who read it.

“I don’t support any behaviour that leaves women and girls with long-lasting effects of it, which is, in the case of this situation, probably relevant, but I think everything can be turned into a learning opportunity.”

Last month, Western University paused a position named in honour of Munro.

The Alice Munro chair in creativity, established after the Huron County writer’s 2013 Nobel Prize win, was intended to “lead the creative culture” in the faculty of arts, teach and serve as a link between the university and the local creative community, school officials have said.

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They also cancelled the fall 2024 class the appointee was set to teach.

“We were deeply troubled to learn of Andrea Robin Skinner’s experience of childhood sexual abuse,” Ileana Paul, Western’s acting dean of the faculty of arts and humanities, said in a statement. “Ms. Skinner has our unwavering support and our thoughts are with her.”

Munro received an honorary degree from Western in 1976.

Ontario’s Ministry of Education said in a statement “it allows educators, schools and school boards to choose which learning resources they use to implement the curriculum, to best meet their local students’ needs.”

hrivers@postmedia.com

@HeatheratLFP

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