AM-Banned Book, Bjt,440
By DANIEL Q. HANEY
Associated Press Writer
     BOSTON (AP) - School officials in a small New England town have decided
that a poem about men ogling women on the street is not fit for high schoolers
to read - even though it was written by a 15-year-old girl.
     The high school's librarian has taken the issue to court, claiming that
officials do not have the right to remove a book from the library after it is
accepted by a librarian.
     And students and parents have been packing the federal district court here
since the trial started Wednesday.
     The controversy began last July, when the School Committee in Chelsea, on
the northern edge of Boston, was informed of the content of a 21-line poem
called ''The City to a Young Girl.'' The poem, part of an anthology of verse by
teen-agers, describes in earthy language the girl's disgust at being appraised
as a ''piece of meat'' by men on the street.
     In one passage, she describes the city as:
     ''One million horny lip-smacking men
     ''Screaming for my body.''
     The committee ordered librarian Sonja Coleman to clip that poem from the
book or remove the entire book, entitled ''Male and Female Under 18.''
     She removed the book, but with some supporters formed a group called the
Right to Read Defense Committee, which asked the federal court to restore the
book to the shelves.
     In August, Judge Joseph L. Tauro ordered the book temporarily put back in
the library. But he said students who wanted to read it would have to show a
note of parental approval.
     The non-jury trial, which began last Wednesday, is expected to end this
week.
     Andrew Quigley, the feisty former mayor who is head of the School
Committee, testified that the poem is ''tasteless, filthy trash.''
     ''A girl reading that without proper instruction could arrive at the
opinion that every man walking down the street is considering her only as a sex
object to be violated,'' he said. ''It is not good education, and it is not
something to be found in the halls of a school.''
     The librarian, however, said, ''It has definite value. It's trying to make
a point - the dehumanizing and humiliating situation of being viewed by some men
as a sex object, a piece of meat.
     ''In order to do that, it has to use strong language to express the outrage
a young woman feels.''
     The poem was written by Jody Caravaglia of New York when she was 15.  The
collection has sold 40,000 copies and is on the shelves of 3,500 libraries,
according to the librarian's supporters.