Gwinnett Mom Can't Stop Harry Potter

A judge in Gwinnett County denied, on Tuesday, a Loganville woman's request to remove the Harry Potter books from the Gwinnett County Public Schools.

Laura Mallory argued, during the hearing that preceded the ruling, that the books are harmful to children and unconstitutionally promote a religion.

Worse, she said, is that when school children read the books as part of class work, she can provide examples that the books often encourage children, as early as in the Second Grade, to practice witchcraft and convert to the Wicca religion.

"This violates our rights of freedom of religion," Mallory told reporters after the judge ruled against her, because, she said, Judeo Christian religions are banned from the classroom and "because this other religion is being, you know, spoon-fed to our children."

For an hour, Mallory -- the mother of four, school-age children -- tried to convince Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge Ronnie Batchelor to overturn a 2006 ruling by the Georgia Board of Education that supported the Gwinnett County School Board's decision to keep the Harry Potter books in the schools.

She read several passages aloud in court to illustrate her argument that the books are too intense for young children, and serve as a recruiting tool by followers of Wicca and others who engage in the sort of "dark arts" described in the books.

"The level of violence in here is like no other. You don't find it in The Wizard of Oz, you don't find it in Sleeping Beauty. These books have unprecedented amounts of witchcraft and occult practices and, she said, they are marketed to our children because sorcery sells. The money that's made off of these books is enormous. It's astronomical. And it's not right. It's at our children's expense," said Mallory.

One of the passages Mallory read was from page 247 of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (by J. K. Rowling, Copyright 1999 by J. K. Rowling, published by Scholastic Press, a division of Scholastic, Inc.).

"They call it the Dementor's Kiss," Mallory read, verbatim, "it's what dementors do to those they wish to destroy utterly... suck out his soul. There's no chance at all of recovery. You'll just ?- exist. As an empty shell. And your soul is gone forever... lost."

She looked up from the book and told Judge Batchelor, "That's just one example, Your Honor, of the violent, spiritual filth that our children are reading" in the Gwinnett County public school classrooms.

"In these books, it's cool to cast spells and it's cool to do wrong and if you?re not a witch, you're not cool."

Mallory said, "We don't want our children to grow up to be murderers, but we can't teach them that in our schools anymore. 'Thou Shalt Not Kill' was thrown out... I have a dream that God would be welcomed back in our schools again. I think we need Him."

Teachers and parents have praised the Harry Potter books for encouraging children's interest in reading. Mallory disagreed by saying, "Just because children are reading, instead of playing video games, because of Harry Potter, that doesn't justify the end... I'm sure there are many teenagers fascinated by pornography, but that doesn?t make it right."

The attorney for the Gwinnett County School Board, Victoria Sweeny, told the judge that Mallory was reading passages out of context, and that Mallory had not proven any ties to Wicca recruitment.

Sweeny argued that the Harry Potter books do not promote any religion, but do portray worthwhile themes such as Triumph of Good Over Evil, and Behavior Has Consequences.

"This case is a very simple one," Sweeny said, accusing Mallory of trying "to censor materials that are rightfully in the public libraries of this county."

Sweeny said this is a First Amendment case, and a case of local control of schools -- allowing parents and teachers in each public school to decide which books and ideas to permit in that school.

Mallory has lost at the school level, the school system level, and at the state level.

"And we urge the court to heed the words of Thomas Jefferson, who admonished that freedom of speech cannot be limited without being lost."

Judge Batchelor ruled right away, agreeing with the State Board of Education that Gwinnett County's decision to allow the books in the Gwinnett County public schools was made properly.

After the hearing, Gwinnett County Public Schools Spokeswoman Sloan Roach told reporters, "We are pleased, but not surprised?. This was not just an issue about one book. This was actually a First Amendment issue... These books have been in our public school libraries, and will continue to be in our public school libraries" and used as a teaching tool in reading classes if that's what the teachers and parents in each school want.

Mallory said she is not sure what she will do next, but she may take her fight to federal court.

Mallory's crusade against the Harry Potter books began in August, 2005. She objected, at first, to teachers in her children's classrooms including the books in classroom work such reading exercises. She did not, initially, oppose the books being in the public school libraries as long as parents could tell the schools not to allow their own children access to the books.

She had put her children's names on a list of students not allowed to check out the Harry Potter books from the school library. She wasn't sure that system worked. She told her son to see if he could check out a Harry Potter book, and he was able to do so, despite being on the list of children not allowed to check them out.

The American Library Association has said that the Harry Potter books are the most challenged texts, so far, since the year 2000.