LONGMONT SCHOOL PULLS BOOK ON GAY YOUTH'S ORDEAL

Associated Press

The author of a book about a young Hispanic boy's homosexuality is accusing a Longmont middle school of censorship after the school pulled the book out of a classroom.

"It's clearly censorship," said Gloria Velasquez, whose three books have focused on social pressures affecting Hispanic youths. "I'm disgusted - thoroughly disgusted. I believe in social equality and human justice for everyone - gay, lesbian, disabled, anybody."

Heritage Middle School administrators abruptly took the book, "Tommy Stands Alone," from a class of sixth-grade students who were reading it as a project. The book tells the story of a teen who becomes a social outcast after discovering he is gay. He begins to drink and attempts suicide.

Principal Will Masters said the book is recommended for seventh- through 12th-graders, not sixth-graders, and is inappropriate for the younger readers.

"Our attempt is not to censor the book," Masters said. "It was discontinued, not banned, because of the appropriateness of the selection."

He said the book remains available in the school library.

Velasquez, a Loveland native, was scheduled to come to Heritage and speak in just a few days - an engagement scheduled before the book flap began. Velasquez is a professor at California Poly Tech.

She still plans to come, though she said officials at the school have demanded that she not speak about the book, or even use the words homosexual or gay. So Velasquez has other plans for her discussions with students, about 50 percent of whom are Hispanic.

She said she will discuss censorship instead.

"I will talk about censorship because the students were very angry when that book was taken away. I'll say, "I'm being censored - do you know what censorship is?'"