When someone says “God will hold you in derision” to the Kern High School District’s board of trustees, you know something unusual is going on.

If that doesn’t get your attention, how about the same woman referring to a novel approved for classroom use as the “vile and perverted imagination of a demented mind”?

That’s the kind of passion inspired at the Feb. 2 board meeting in which district trustees were asked to overturn the Jan. 12 recommendation of Superintendent Bill Hatcher to allow the teaching of Toni Morrison’s controversial novel “The Bluest Eye” in junior and senior honors English classes.

Set in 1940s and ’50s America, the book tells the story of Peccola Breedlove, a black girl who yearns for blue eyes as a way of overcoming her low self-esteem. The book includes several explicit descriptions of sexual intercourse, among them a passage depicting Breedlove’s rape by her father, after which she slowly sinks into insanity.

Sue Porter, whose daughter’s English class was reading the book at East Bakersfield High School, brought the matter to the board in December, alleging that the novel was obscene and should not be taught. After hearing her complaint, Hatcher appointed a committee composed of administrators, teachers and community members to review the book. The committee decided unanimously that the book should be restricted to junior and senior honors English classes, provided that parents are notified and alternative assignments are available.

The superintendent then recommended that the board adopt the committee’s conclusions. A challenge to that recommendation by board member Larry Starrh resulted in the Feb. 2 meeting.

Each side had 30 minutes to speak, with those opposed going first.

Rosalyn Strode, the woman who felt the book was the product of a demented mind, wasn’t the only one with strong opinions against it.

Farmer Bill Banderoff, referring to Jesus’ admonition not to harm the innocent, told the board, “There’s some very severe charges about causing harm to his little ones.”

After asserting that certain passages of the book created a “pornographic image,” Bruce Massee, a local dentist, said, “It seems unfair to me to take something that has this toxic and corrosive air to it, and give it to our 16- and 17-year-old sons and daughters.”

Jonathan Moreland, a pastor, felt that the basic philosophy of many teachers was, “There are no absolutes. You decide for yourself. I’m telling you, that’s some horrible thinking permeating our society today.”

Many in favor of the book were equally zealous.

Francis Marion, a self-described “concerned citizen,” felt that restricting the book in any way was to put oneself in the “dubious company” of “Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler and, most notably, Saddam Hussein.”

Holly Mitchell said that Morrison’s writing “must be shared with our children and the population at large,” telling board members “If you ban this book, you continue to set back our progress in the area of cultural tolerance, sexism, quality for women, and the building of strong character and positive self-esteem.”

Social studies teacher Sean Groves told the board that a vote to exclude the book would be “a vote of no confidence in the Constitution of the United States of America. ‘Congress shall make no law (abridging the freedom of the press, or of the press),’ and you should not either.”

Cliona Murphy, a Cal State Bakersfield history professor, implored trustees not to “turn our children into secretive humans who cannot freely read and talk about all topics.”

Hatcher, the last person to speak, strongly defended his recommendation, saying he had read the book and it was “a tough read, but definitely not crap.” He added that excluding it would be “a giant step backward for the students of Kern County.”

Supporters of his recommendation, who had packed the room hours before the meeting, gave him a standing ovation (virtually all the opponents sat in an overflow room). When the vote finally came, the other four board members refused to second Larry Starrh’s motion to overturn Hatcher’s recommendation.

His supporters were understandably pleased.

“The process works,” said East High English teacher Ray Ayala.

For Bruce Massee, it was part of a larger trend.

“Our nation is drifting in more of a post-Christian direction,” he said. “No matter what happens, if this is the standard of literature, we’re going to have a more tawdry society.”