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Kuan · #1 01-25-2010, 09:04 AM

A school district actually banned the dictionary

http://carnalnation.com/content/45976/898/school-district-bans-websters-dictionary-containing-lewd-entries

Quote:

School District Bans Webster's Dictionary For Containing Lewd Entries

For some crazy reason people love to ban books. A lot. Especially if the books are about sex. Rather than being excited that kids might actually want to read a book instead of playing violent video games or shooting heroin or whatever, parents regularly pester both public and school librarians, angrily demanding books be pulled from shelves, refusing to return books they find offensive, and suing towns for emotional damages after being exposed to the cover of a book with a gay character.

So.

Maybe it shouldn't be surprising that a mother in Menifee, California asked the school district to ban the 10th edition of Merriam Webster's Dictionary after seeing that the book--distributed district wide to fourth and fifth-graders--contains an entry on oral sex. But what is surprising, and terrible, is that the school district decided that removing the dictionary would be a good idea. The Press-Enterprise reports:

Randy Freeman, an elementary school teacher who lives in Menifee, says he supports the district's decision to ban the book. He notes that Webster's is "a prestigious dictionary that's used in the Riverside County spelling bee," but adds that "I also imagine there are words in there of concern.""

The lewd entry, incidentally, defines the phrase as "oral stimulation of the genitals," and refers readers to entries on cunnilingus and fellatio.

The district says it will review the dictionary before deciding how to proceed. “It’s hard to sit and read the dictionary," says Betti Cadmus, spokesperson for the district. "But we’ll be looking to find other things of a graphic nature."