There’s a debate going on in fandom right now about warnings. It’s fairly normal for people that write fanfiction to stick a warning onto a fanfic that features rape, sexual assault, etc. so that people who do not want to read something about their favorite characters undergoing those things (canon or not) can avoid them.
Furthermore, warning creates a safer space for people who have actually gone through those things in that it keeps them from being triggered. To be honest, even without being somebody that can be triggered by those things I appreciate knowing that they are coming so I can avoid reading something that is ooky or depressing–heck, I expect the backs of novels to serve much the same purpose.
But where such warnings don’t occur is in class readings–which has always worried me a bit. We end up talking about hard topics in English classes sometimes. We have our students read about abortion and anorexia and abuse. Our students present to one another about topics that others could find triggering.
I warn my students up front that they should not do paper topics that other students may find triggering when they do presentations. This seems to work pretty well, after all, it gets rid of all those papers about “abortion is bad!” when students have to consider that other people in the class may have had one (and I point out that making another student upset or making them cry will probably lose you all your professional behavior points for that week… if not longer!) So that part is relatively fixable.
But what about me? What about the school? What about their readings? Do we have a responsibility to warn students about material in their text that might be harmful?
Our composition text does this, a bit, with a brief summary in front of each reading. Our literature book does not. In fact, that literature book really doesn’t want the students to know jack about the readings ahead of time (thoguh they do offer a brief author bio) in hopes that they will interpret it on their own. The teachers’ guide lets me know that if I tell them what each piece is about (and some do obscure what characters are discussing) then I am keeping them from forming their own opinion, which might be more interesting.
Furthermore, there seems to be a “no spoilers” policy in effect–that knowing the end or what happens in the middle will make students care less. I’ve always loved spoilers and they make me want to read/watch/play more, but maybe I’m just weird that way.
Do we have a responsibility, regardless of all that, to protect our students from potentially damaging material in their readings?
