After a parent complained about an elementary school student stumbling across "oral sex" in a classroom dictionary, Menifee Union School District officials decided to pull Merriam Webster's 10th edition from all school shelves earlier this week. What a bunch of fucktards.
School officials will review the dictionary to decide if it should be permanently banned because of the "sexually graphic" entry, said a district spokeswoman. Yes, the goddamned dictionary. The books were initially purchased a few years ago for fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms districtwide. Because they are dictionaries.
Meanwhile, some parents are questioning the district's response and some school board members are asking why officials did not consult with them. One member Rita questioned why one parent's complaint would lead the district to pull the dictionaries. "If we're going to pull a book because it has something on oral sex, then every book in the library with that better be pulled," she said. "The standard needs to be consistent ... We don't need parents setting policy."
Then there's other board members who disagree. One, an elementary school teacher and parent to four daughters in Menifee schools, said he supports the initial decision to ban the dictionary temporarily. He added it's "a prestigious dictionary that's used in the Riverside County spelling bee, but I also imagine there are words in there of concern." A dictionary should be a book of concern in the inland, inbred part of Riverside County. Knowledge down there is treated like a toxic element.
The Merriam Webster dictionary joins an illustrious set of books that have been banned or challenged in the US, including Nobel prize winner Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, which last year was suspended from and then reinstated to the curriculum at a Michigan school after complaints from parents about its coverage of graphic sex and violence, and titles by Khaled Hosseini and Philip Pullman, included in the American Library Association's list of books that inspired most complaints last year.
School officials will review the dictionary to decide if it should be permanently banned because of the "sexually graphic" entry, said a district spokeswoman. Yes, the goddamned dictionary. The books were initially purchased a few years ago for fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms districtwide. Because they are dictionaries.Meanwhile, some parents are questioning the district's response and some school board members are asking why officials did not consult with them. One member Rita questioned why one parent's complaint would lead the district to pull the dictionaries. "If we're going to pull a book because it has something on oral sex, then every book in the library with that better be pulled," she said. "The standard needs to be consistent ... We don't need parents setting policy."
Then there's other board members who disagree. One, an elementary school teacher and parent to four daughters in Menifee schools, said he supports the initial decision to ban the dictionary temporarily. He added it's "a prestigious dictionary that's used in the Riverside County spelling bee, but I also imagine there are words in there of concern." A dictionary should be a book of concern in the inland, inbred part of Riverside County. Knowledge down there is treated like a toxic element.
The Merriam Webster dictionary joins an illustrious set of books that have been banned or challenged in the US, including Nobel prize winner Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, which last year was suspended from and then reinstated to the curriculum at a Michigan school after complaints from parents about its coverage of graphic sex and violence, and titles by Khaled Hosseini and Philip Pullman, included in the American Library Association's list of books that inspired most complaints last year.
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