Which Washington city briefly banned the novel in high schools in 1978? The answer is Issaquah.
The controversy involved The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger's 1951 novel about alienated teenager Holden Caulfield. In Issaquah, Washington, three school-board members alleged that the book was part of an “overall communist plot” and supported removing it from local high-school classrooms. The ban was short-lived rather than a lasting district-wide policy.
The episode became especially notable because the three board members were recalled and removed in a special election. It illustrates how the novel's profanity, sexual references, drinking, and skeptical attitude toward institutions made it a frequent target of censorship, even as many teachers regarded it as an important work about adolescence and grief.
A common mix-up is confusing Issaquah with the many other American communities that challenged the book. The novel was also the most censored book in U.S. high schools and libraries from 1961 to 1982, but the 1978 Washington high-school ban specifically occurred in Issaquah.