Laurie Taylor, a woman in Fayetteville, Arkansas conducted her own personal "audit" of the schools' libraries and found 70 books that she feels are "inappropriate" due to their characters' sexual activity, language, and/or homosexuality. She would like the "offensive" books removed from the libraries, the district to conduct its own audit, and a parent review board formed to perform oversight of future library purchases. The story, and some of the "offending" titles, are here.
At first read, it seemed like a case of an extremist homophobe hoping to impose her ultraconservatism on all local public school students. But the last line of the news article caught my attention: "Taylor said her overall concern has been the availability of explicit books in a public school library without a parent’s consent or knowledge. "
What do you think? Is it wacky for a parent to comb the stacks of the local public school libraries rooting around for books that could possibly offend young readers (or their parents)? Or is it justifiable for a parent to be concerned that the books available to her children at the local public school be appropriate--or, at least, not more sexually explicit than she is comfortable with? I'd be interested to hear others' opinions about the article in particular and the issue in general.
Here is an update on the situation. Anti-censorship groups are taking the matter seriously!
ReplyDeleteAnd here is a related story . . . kinda.
ReplyDeleteHere is another article, this time about a censorship movement (apparently successful) in Kansas.
ReplyDelete