Posted on 10/06/2009 3:45:54 AM PDT by Man50D
A father of a high-school student is infuriated after he said a teacher provided "banned books" to her 11th-grade students, including at least one with explicit descriptions of homosexual sex acts, rape, masturbation, profane language and even bestiality.
John Davis, father of an 11th-grade student at William Byrd High School in Vinton, Va., told WND that English teacher Kathleen Renard provided her personal copy of a book called "Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky to one of her English students, and it was passed to his son. The book is published by MTV Books.
Davis found the book in his son's possession, along with a bookmark that said, "Read banned books. They're your ticket to freedom."
"My son was reading the book and stated it was a school assignment," Davis told WND. "He was embarrassed that I began to peruse through the book and discovered its contents. He advised that the book belongs to his English teacher, Mrs. Kathleen Renard."
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
A shower might be necessary after this one
This story is tragic but I am so happy to see the father taking action. The schools bank on no one complaining even if they do not like the materials. My feeling is why did the teacher give this one kid her own private copy? The father’s instincts are probably on the money. When my son was in his first year of college, he took a course called Detective Fiction. I had taken a similar course years before and we read Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie, etc. My son was given none of the classic detective stories instead he was made to read books where the detective is a lesbian . He was so embarrassed, that I skimmed the book myself. There was an entire chapter with literally pornographic activity which had nothing to do with solving crime. I told my son to skip the chapter as he would not miss anything. Of course, I called the school and complained to no avail. Because this was a college and my son was over 18, they said I had no say more or less. I even called the County Executive’s office because the school is a state community college, but they blew me off too. People have to band together to protest if things are to change.
Whatever happened to Of mice and Men; Grapes of Wrath; Animal Farm...? This teacher is sick.
When I was in ed school, my children's literature class was taught by a librarian. She was MOST offended during a discussion of "sensitive" books, when she found that most of us were inclined to alert parents in advance or avoid controversial books. All of her students were to be elementary teachers.
Do they also show the consequences of anonymous sex? HIV, Gonorrhea, chlamydia, Genital warts (they never go away and can cause cancer), Herpes, Hepatitis A, B and C( B and C never goes away and can lead to death), Syphilis, Trichomoniasis?
Most non-textbooks you find in a classroom belong personally to the teacher. There aren't a lot of funds handed out to build classroom libraries for free choice reading.
The schools bank on no one complaining even if they do not like the materials.
I would suggest the schools bank on there being no consequences even if there are complaints. As the article related, the father was basicly blown off.
As long as the schools have the back up of the legal and political wings of a community, you have zero chance of getting their atention. They feel perfectly justified in telling you to shove it and oh by the way we want more of your tax money.
Mrs Kathleen needs a new career, far from our children!
From MTV Books?
What more do you need to know?
Trash Publishes Trash.
Davis found the book in his son's possession, along with a bookmark that said, "Read banned books. They're your ticket to freedom."
My how things have changed.
In my Sr year of HS (1966) it was *rumored* one kid had a copy of 'Lolita'. All us guys wanted to get our hands on it, and the teachers acted like the Gestapo - they suspected everyone.
The book was never found. It prolly didn't even exist. But it made for a couple fun days of intrigue.
(Chicago Public HS)
Each of the books you've mentioned are among the most banned and challenged books in this country.
Sorry to say ,, these slugs are in many of our public schools now promoting the distruction of our culture .
There were no classroom libraries so to speak when I was in 11th grade — only the school library.
So no, I think the teacher giving the student a book like this is very suspicious.
All those nasty diseases associated with the queer lifestyle mean nothing to the schools who are so concerned about your child’s health they have banned bake sales? There is the same disconnect in the healthcare debate. Extra premium fees for health risky overeaters and smokers. But no penalty if you are a gay man even though your HIV treatments are going to cost the system much more than diabetes treatments etc
Wow. My American lit teacher gave me the Studs Lonnigan Trilogy books to read - around 1962. I thought they were racy. Most people thought Miller’s Tropic of Cancer was outright porn. This book is right there with De Sade!
Public schools seem determined to do to themselves what newspapers are doing to themselves, which is to make themselves extinct. It is odd that they don’t perceive it. It is too bad the principal is not as concerned with protecting the students as he is with protecting the adult teacher.
A quote from one of my favorite movies will work here:
“That is a lucid, well thought-out, intelligent objection.”
OVERRULED! (By stupidity on the left)
It is the parents’ duty to protect their children and disciple them in the family’s moral traditions.
Leftists, however, see it as THEIR duty to destroy those traditional values in the children they are teaching.
This is from the student handbook:
http://www.rcs.k12.va.us/wbhs/students/Handbook-student-2009-10.pdf
THE BEHAVIORS LISTED BELOW REPRESENT TYPES OF OFFENSES WHICH
WILL BE HANDLED BY THE DISCIPLINARY PROCEDURE (NOT LIMITED TO):
5. Using obscene or vulgar oral or written language or gestures.
See also:
Virginia Code § 18.2-374 - Production, publication, sale, possession, etc., of obscene items
http://law.justia.com/virginia/codes/toc1802000/18.2-374.html
Possession in public or in a public place of any obscene item as defined in this article shall be deemed prima facie evidence of a violation of this section.
This is from PABBIS, Parents Against Bad Books in School (Virginia), Some of the book selections are okay, I guess, some seem to be downright awful.
http://www.sibbap.org/booksag.htm
I don’t know how successful parents were in getting some of these books tossed, not very, I imagine.
When a parent in MA tried to enlist the help of a district attorney because she thought the book her son was required to read was pornographic, the DA told her that in MA schools, libraries, and museums were exempt from pornography laws.
I believe people are trying to enact a law to change that.
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I just don’t get it.
When will people begin to understand that we have only one chance with our kids.
Once that innocence is destroyed, it’s gone.
Public education is beyond hope. I don’t really care what consenting adults do behind closed doors, but when a government agency distributes this to minors, it’s time for that agency to be shut down.
The FR Homeschool Forum would be a good place for that link.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2346553/posts
Link, please.
Basically anyone who sends their kids to public school is risking having them ruined.
I joined two days ago. I’m still looking around but am really enjoying it!
Am afraid that the schools will prove the very gates of hell, unless they diligently labour in explaining the Holy Scriptures and engraving them in the heart of the youth.
Martin Luther
I hear ya. :-) When I was in high school (early 1980’s), we girls were passing around “Wifey” by Judy Blume. By that point, the teachers didn’t care what we were reading, but at least they weren’t giving us the book and telling us to read it. ;-)
One of the books we were required to read, however, was “Catcher in the Rye”. It was considered a significant book because the story was written in the first person point of view. We were told it set the tone for more stories to be written in that point of view. I can’t even remember the controversy about it; all I remember is that it was a depressing book.
My Cousin Vinny. Am I right?
Welcome to FR.
I have a son in his early teens who’s homeschooled. I’d like for him to start college early, but my fear is that the professors will assign and cover the controversial topics I remember professors assigning and covering back when I was in college. And what was controversial back then would be considered tame by today’s standards.
Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner. Yes, that is correct.
Read the posted reviews over at Simon and Schuster for this book. Reading the comments of Parents who read the book and how they think it is great and important for teenage kids to read. Stands in stark contrast to the comments in the article.
Maybe we all should concider first perusing the book and the context of what is in it before casting summary judgement based upon others snippets.
Leviticus 20:13 If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
Colossians 3:8 But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
I student taught English back in the 1970s, and I recall I gave a student my copy of Fahrenheit 451, the Ray Bradbury book, because the kid was interested in the subject and he was not much of a reader. The current scenario seems a bit different since the material is so objectionable. I understand that many non text books are the teacher’s, but a teacher should not be encouraging students to read garbage.
“It is the parents’ duty to protect their children and disciple them in the family’s moral traditions.
Leftists, however, see it as THEIR duty to destroy those traditional values in the children they are teaching”
You are right on the money. The hallmark of a socialist is that he thinks he is more intelligent and certainly more intellectual than the average parent. Historically the very first leftists, the Bolsheviks, were a bunch of intellectuals who despised those outside their milieu and ever since socialists have attempted to engage the culture with their lies and destruction. The family, indeed, is the only bastion against this heresy and it has a mighty job to face today.
“One of the books we were required to read, however, was “Catcher in the Rye”. It was considered a significant book because the story was written in the first person point of view. We were told it set the tone for more stories to be written in that point of view. I can’t even remember the controversy about it; all I remember is that it was a depressing book”
“Catcher in the Rye” is a favorite book of students because it isolates them from the adult world and panders to their self absorption. The book is an existential bout with a teenager’s coming of age, and takes a swipe at everything traditional. Its use of foul language, sexual scenarios, etc. was initially disapproved of by the educational community but now is widely embraced. Books like this one set the stage for the kind of pandering literature kids now read in school.
If you look with a discerning eye, with a mindset of the “cosmic battle”, you’ll see the War on the Family in almost every policy of the left.
Homosexual “rights”, environmentalism, safety seats, “carbon footprint”, welfare replacing fathers, abortion, you name it - it has an impact on the integrity of the family and/or the size thereof.
Certain Stigmas actually exist for a reason, yes Virginia it is true.
While some old stigmas from the early 20th century deserved to be placed in the dustbin of history, the other stigmas certainly did not.
Most Stigmas exist for pretty good reason, this idea that removing all social stigmas “is a good thing for liberty” is a bad thing, as the social contract doesn’t take constant tampering that well.
“If you look with a discerning eye, with a mindset of the “cosmic battle”, you’ll see the War on the Family in almost every policy of the left.
Homosexual “rights”, environmentalism, safety seats, “carbon footprint”, welfare replacing fathers, abortion, you name it - it has an impact on the integrity of the family and/or the size thereof.”
Yes, you are right. The family is the foundation of the Christian world view. If it is destroyed, then the leftists believe they can destroy the bedrock of faith in God. They are mistaken, of course, but they will never stop trying. People are naive to ignore that the main thrust of every socialist’s agenda is to denounce God.
Another possibility is that the book is as bad as reported, but some parents still want their children to read it.
I've noticed there are many books that shock some parents but that other parents want their children to read. I've checked several, just to find out if some parents were overreacting. It turns out, the content of the books really was as bad as those parents were saying. But, other parents expect their children to be sexually active, etc., and they don't mind that their children are reading pornographic material, for example.
Salinger despised religious and all other kinds of hypocrisy. Read onward past this one book, if you haven't, and you will see more.
And there it is folks-the truth, homosexuality sex ok, fried chicken bad.
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