Later this year when Banned Book Week rolls around, there will be a new addition to the list: the dictionary.

When one parent–just one–complained, the Menifee Union School District (a city of about 67,000 people 80 miles southeast of Los Angeles) ordered all copies of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary (10th Edition) removed from the 4th and 5th grade classrooms. Stories differ, but either the mother or her 5th grade child ran across (looked up?) the entry “oral sex” and promptly came unglued. Mom went to the principal, who immediately responded by yanking the book.

The offending definition? “Oral stimulation of the genital.” No picture. No diagram. Just those 5 words. Pretty succinct and untitillating, I’d say. But instead of calmly asking why the student wanted to know and discussing it like a responsible parent, she clutched her pearls and ran to the nearest authority figure who, rather than laugh, panicked right along with her.

Now that the news has gotten out, the school district is in full ass-covering mode. When asked, Assistant Superintendent Karen Valdes acknowledged that the dictionary is a respected resource, but said district officials found that “a number of referenced words are age-inappropriate.”

How much you want to bet that anatomical words, like penis, vagina and anus, are on that list? You know, all those “naughty words” we looked up in grade school and giggled over? I wasn’t scarred for life; were you?

The district says it’s putting together a committee to read the dictionary and make a final decision on its fate. Free speech advocates aren’t rolling over, however. Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition says “common sense seems to be lacking in this school.”

Ya think?

There’s no record of it in the articles, but I’d be willing to wager that this district is a big proponent of Abstinence Only Uneducation, too.

Idjits.

KTLA.Com, Riverside CA
Care2
Digital Journal
South Riverside News Network

6 Comments