A Williams Field High School teacher in Gilbert has come under fire from a parent for a book assignment in an honors class for potential college credit.
Brittany O’Neill teaches a multicultural literature course that has dual enrollment for students between Williams Field, which is in the Higley Unified School District, and Chandler Gilbert Community College. O'Neill's first assignment of the school year is “Homegoing,” a novel from Ghanian-American author Yaa Gyasi.
The book is one that requires parental consent under state law for a high school student to read.
However, Charles Seal-Villafranca maintains he was not properly warned about the book’s content in a timely manner. Villafranca registered complaints with O’Neill, Williams Field Principal John Dolan, district administration and the governing board, the Gilbert Police Department, Arizona legislators, the Governor’s Office and the U.S. Department of Justice.
The situation came to a head at the HUSD Governing Board meeting Aug. 27 when O’Neill told the board during public comment that she had been harassed as a result of the assignment, including the parent threatening a lawsuit against her and working to have her fired.
“By the end of the first week of school, I had a parent accusing me of disseminating child pornography and being a groomer solely based on the approved literature being offered,” she said. “By the end of the second week of school, this parent had called other parents of students in my class, attempted to have the police open an investigation against me and spread lies about my course in an attempt to irrevocably damage my reputation, not only as an educator but as a human being.”
Villafranca also spoke to the board and said the book went against the teaching values of his home and he was stripped of his parental rights.
“I am not here to ban books,” he said. “I'm here to make sure that I, a parent, have the right that is given to me under the law.”
District administration told the Gilbert Independent by email that O’Neill satisfied the district’s policy, just adopted July 23, to notify parents of any content they might find objectionable and seek the parent’s consent before the assignment.
“In this case, the teacher did post the course syllabus and sent an email communication to parents prior to the start of the year, encouraging them to purchase the first three novels for the book studies, as there were limited copies available in the classroom,” the email stated. “Permission forms were sent out prior to the beginning of the assignment and allowed for a two-week window for parents to respond.”
Neither O'Neill nor Villafranca responded to interview requests from the Independent.
Of the 64 students who are enrolled in the class, 63 had parents or guardians give consent for the student to read the book.
‘Homegoing’
“Homegoing,” published in 2016, won awards the following year, including the National Book Critic Circle’s John Leonard Prize for Best First Book, PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novels, an American Book Award and the Audie Award for Literary Fiction & Classics.
But the literary consensus online is that it is a difficult book to read because of the subject matter.
Gyasi’s book tells the story of seven generations of a family split in two, according to SparkNotes.com: One side remains in Africa while the other is brought to America on a slave ship. For the next six generations, each of their descendants grapple with how where they came from affects who they are and how they can break the cycle of trauma and suffering.
On the consent form O’Neill sent to parents, she checked boxes that content included sexually explicit content as defined in Arizona Revised Statutes 15-120.03, violence, drug/alcohol use and sensitive content to race and ethnicity.
“Sexual content is minimal throughout the novel,” O’Neill then wrote. “Sexual exploitation should not and will not be treated as ‘sex’ in this course. Rape and assault are tools of oppressors and are used to dehumanize victims. Any mention of assault will not focus on details, but on understanding that traumatic events have on the characters.”
One student at the board meeting spoke in defense of Gyasi’s novel, suggesting it expertly delved into cultural events and should not be forbidden.
“It is bizarre to me to think that we can churn out more functional members of society by ignoring classes of human history and shunning different world views, however uncomfortable they might be,” Ashton Churchill said.
Objections
In addition to speaking to the board, Villafranca left for each member packets that included his letter to the board and government officials, the class syllabus, communications he had received from O’Neill, the Arizona House of Representatives bill that put parental-consent law into state statutes, the consent form he received from Dolan and sexually explicit excerpts from some other books assigned for the course.
It concludes with another letter to Travis Grantham, R-Gilbert, the House speaker pro tempore, and Neal Carter, R-Queen Creek, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, asking for their help as he views it as a continuing issue with the board and the district and school administrations.
Charles Seal-Villafranca tells the Higley Unified School District Governing Board that he was not allowed proper parental consent on "Homegoing." (Screen capture from YouTube)
Screen capture from YouTube
Villafranca said he received an email the night of July 25 from O’Neill informing them of the need to purchase the first three books for the course and then reviewed the syllabus.
“The syllabus did not contain any information indicating that these books contain sexually explicit material,” he wrote. “I received no consent form indicating sexually explicit material was contained in these books.”
He said he wrote back asking why he needed to purchase the books. O’Neill responded she would provide Villafranca’s child with a book to get the student started and could continue to make sure the student gets the needed books, believing the request was about affordability, according to the district.
Villafranca said he became aware of the sexually explicit content several days later and tried to get an answer about why his child was given the book by calling the district July 30, then meeting July 31 with David Loutzenheiser, executive director of secondary education, and later Dolan, who gave him a consent form.
“Ultimately, the final issue is that laws were violated, and my parental rights were stripped of me when the book was given on the 25th to my son and I was finally provided with a consent form on the 31st,” he wrote. “I had to reach out days later to let the school know that my son would not be reading this material any further.”
Timeline
Villafranca also questioned why only five of the 14 books listed on the syllabus had been vetted and approved for use within the district.
However, Chandler Gilbert Community College notified the district July 21, the day before school started in the district, that it approved all of the books for use in the course.
Books for advanced-placement and dual-enrollment classes have a slightly different approval process than those for the district’s standard English Language Arts curriculum because of the outside entities involved with those classes, district officials said. All of the course’s books are on the approved novel upload on the district’s website, showing that CGCC approved them.
In a letter to Loutzenheiser, CGCC said it approved the books on the basis that they “were well-known, high-quality texts from a range of cultural contexts” and that the college supports the instructor, as faculty for a college-level course, in having the academic freedom to choose her own reading list.
The syllabus, which included the list of books to be read throughout the year, was uploaded before classes started the next day, according to the district.
The email notifying parents of the first books to be purchased for the semester was sent July 25, according to the district. It was sent before any of the novels were actually assigned to begin reading as a courtesy to give parents time to acquire them.
A consent form was sent July 30 to all parents except Villafranca because he had already informed the district his child would not be participating in the reading and would choose the alternative assignment without sexually explicit material that must be provided when families make that choice.
The consent form lists “When My Name was Keoko” by Linda Sue Park as the alternative assignment offered for “Homegoing.” That book is the story of a Korean family’s life during the Japanese occupation of their homeland at the start of World War II. Villafranca noted that the syllabus did not list an alternative.
Villafranca also wrote that his child was being penalized by having to do extra work as a result of not reading the assigned book.
The district requires that if a discussion on the book takes place or a student asks a question about it, the student whose parents have not consented to their child reading the book must leave the room and do alternative work during that time.
The assignment to read “Homegoing” actually did not start until Aug. 12, district officials said.
In its email to the Independent, the district noted that the course is an optional one for dual enrollment through CGCC.
“District administrators have worked closely with this teacher and others across the district to ensure that communication to parents is proactive and informative regarding permission for select novels,” the email stated.
Supporters speak up
O’Neill, who has a bachelor’s degree in literature and master’s degrees in secondary education and English education, told the governing board she spent the summer creating a comprehensive list of literature for students to get the best education they could in the class in accordance with CGCC’s course description.
At the board meeting, several speakers came to O’Neill’s defense as a teacher, including students, parents and colleagues, but they also stood against removing sensitive literature from the classroom.
Jessica D’Ambrosio said she has been involved in her son’s education since kindergarten, including the literature he reads.
“Books take you places you've never been before to give you diverse perspectives through storytelling and to enrich, enlighten and empower,” she said. “For parents who do not see books the way I see them, by all means, please select a different curriculum to broaden your student’s horizons, but do not infringe upon my student’s rights to educational enrichment by suggesting a ban on books that you don't approve of.”
Brittany O'Neill prepares to address the Higley Unified School District Governing Board.
Screen capture from YouTube
In her comments, O’Neill said she wondered who had been “coaching and encouraging” the parent, but then added he had been vocal that a board member, who O’Neill did not name, had been helping him.
“My students have had to deal with undue stress, not because of me, the board-approved books or my class, but because one parent decided to try and impose his will on them,” she said.
Board member’s comments
At the conclusion of public comment and against the district attorney’s advice on how she could respond, Board Vice President Anna Van Hoek fired back at O’Neill and her student supporters.
“You are teenagers, not adults, to be given adult content to be reading,” she said.
When attorney Jennifer MacLennan interrupted to say Van Hoek only could respond to direct criticism, ask an item be placed on a future agenda or ask the superintendent to review the matter, Van Hoek, though she had not been named by any speaker, said she was responding to criticism.
“She (O’Neill) mentioned that a parent was being coached, and when a board member speaks to a parent, that's not coaching,” Van Hoek said. “That's her job to speak to parents.
“Coaching is having students show up to a board meeting to act like activists on behalf of the teacher, and I find it inappropriate, but I would like to make sure that this is addressed.”
Van Hoek said the district needs to address the books that were possibly previously approved that are creating issues and ensure students aren't given sexually explicit material per state law.
Legal aspects
One grandparent of a Higley student, Bob Parrish, aligned with Villafranca during public comment. He read aloud sexually explicit excerpts from Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye,” a book that is on the syllabus for the fourth quarter of the year.
Parrish had taken a similar tactic last May, reading aloud a sexually explicit portion of the Jodi Picoult novel “19 Minutes.” That at least in part prompted the district to review its novel approval process.
Parrish said Higley has 41 books on its approved list that fall under the sexually explicit content law and recommended to parents whose minor children were exposed to such material without their consent contact Gilbert police to request a report be filed and submitted to the county attorney for charges.
Villafranca did, in fact, contact Gilbert Police on July 30. However, the department member who took the complaint forwarded an email to Williams Field’s student resource officer, Tyler Vancil, about the meeting.
“Charles was concerned the book was ‘pornographic’ in nature and a violation of 13-3506 (furnishing harmful items to minors),” the email read. “I advised that was not the case as that statute was related to more traditional forms of pornography and not literature. I advised him no criminal investigation would be completed.”
The department member said he anticipated that because Villafranca was upset, he might try to “officer shop” the case, possibly to Vancil as the school resource officer.
Matthew Kelley, a First Amendment attorney in the Phoenix office of Ballard Spahr, said the state law, passed in 2022, requires parental consent on a “material by material” basis.
“In a literature class, they would have to get consent for each book that contains sexually explicit material, and the material has to have serious educational value for minors or serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value,” Kelley said. “That phrasing in the statute is taken from the Supreme Court's definition of obscenity, but they're not talking about actual obscenity here. It's talking about materials that are sexually explicit.”
Kelley said one issue with the statute is that it is not a criminal statute, so it has no enforcement mechanism.
“It's a little bit unclear what recourse a parent would have,” he said.
The state does have the power to regulate curricula and educational materials in public schools, Kelley said.
“But this law was controversial when it was passed,” he said. “There were teachers who testified against it saying that it would kind of chill their ability to provide particularly literary materials that have merit, but that have what is defined as sexually explicit content in them.”
Kelley noted that “Homegoing” is a book that has been targeted in book and curriculum bans in other states because of its depictions of rape or sexual assaults.
“It's interesting that it has commonalities with other frequently banned books, such as ‘Beloved’ or ‘The Bluest Eye’ by Toni Morrison, in that its depictions of sexually explicit material are in the context of depicting the horrors of slavery in the United States,” he said.
The law applies to K-12 students but it does not address what happens when the material also is for community-college credit, though Kelly said he thinks it would still apply.
“There doesn't seem to have been any court interpretation of this statute,” he said. “So I think it's kind of up to the school district to determine the extent to which it applies.”
He also said it is unclear if each book would require separate consent or listing all of the books on a course syllabus would be sufficient “material by material” notice to parents.
One thing has not changed through the first six weeks of the course: the student remains enrolled in the class.
“If I can be accused of having an agenda,” O’Neill said, “then I must ask: What is this parent's agenda?”
We would like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org. Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on X.
Meet Tom Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.
Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.
Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism.
Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.
Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).
Brittany O'Neill,
Williams Field High School,
Chandler Gilbert Community College,
Multicultural Literature,
Higley Unified School District,
Charles Seal-Villafranca,
Yaa Gyasi,
Homegoing,
Toni Morrison,
The Bluest Eye,
When Linda Sue Park,
My Name was Keoko,
Jodi Picolut,
19 Minutes,
John Dolan,
David Loutzenheiser,
Ashton Churchill,
Jessica D'Ambrosio,
Bob Parrish,
Travis Grantham,
Neal Carter,
Anna Van Hoek,
Jennifer MacLennan,
Matthew Kelley
By 
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here