Modesto Mom fights to rid classrooms of X-rated literature

[Gopher Broke]

Modesto Mom Fights to Rid Classrooms of X-Rated Literature

By Jim Brown August 1, 2003

(AgapePress) - One California parent is refusing to abandon her campaign to have sexually explicit books removed from classrooms in her school district. Pamela LaChappell has been calling on the Modesto City School Board to drop the offensive literature from its required reading list.

For months now, LaChappell has been warning parents, grandparents, and taxpayers in Modesto that some of the literature being used in the city schools' advanced English classes is sexually explicit and so offensive as to be considered X-rated. She has taken her concerns to the school board, which so far has refused to drop books containing graphic details of child rape, incest, and necrophilia. Instead, the board has released an annotated list providing brief summaries of each required reading selection.

LaChappell is dissatisfied. "The lip service is that the school board wants parents to know what's in these books," she says. However, the California parent believes the real message the administration is sending, albeit in a whisper, is that they want parents to know as little as possible.

"When you look at the list and the cover letter, you really do get the impression that the administration is doing what they can to keep parents placated and to lure them into a false security," Lachappell says.

Two of the works in question are novelist Isabel Allende's House of the Spirits and David Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars. Since LaChappell went public with her concerns, several students have opted out of reading one of the controversial books.

LaChappell is concerned with making other parents and citizens in her community aware of the explicit literature, but she does not want the issue to end there. "Although these books are assigned in our Modesto school system, we are learning that they are assigned all across the country," she says.

LaChappell says she has learned that the reading list is based on recommendations from the International Baccalaureate Program, an educational program out of Sweden, which was designed to provide a challenging curriculum for gifted students.

LaChappell has three children in college and a fifth-grader that she is home-schooling. Earlier this year in a Modesto Bee newspaper article, she noted that many parents operate under the mistaken assumption that their children's schools are teaching wholesome literature.

[MineralMan]

"If you want to get rid of them, read the X-rated parts at school board meetings. Smart. Very good suggestion.


"

Problem is that there is nothing X-rated in either book.

[Okies love Dubya 2]

We are using Seton for our 5-year-old--it cost $175 to enroll ($25 of which was the new family enrollment fee) and includes books and record keeping. We started early because she got short-changed last year when our baby arrived. She is already zooming through the math! If she finishes that early, we can enroll her in first grade math. Same goes for other subjects. I buy as many books as I can used or on eBay to save $--the school credits the books you already have when you enroll. It cost us under $100 to enroll her this year because I managed to get a lot of books from elsewhere.

[Tax-chick]

And if you have a baby every couple of years, you can reuse everything, year after year ... "-)

[MD_Willington_1976]

Secondary school reading: The Hobbit, The Outsiders, Brave New World, & 1984. Othello, MacBeth & Hamlet. We even watched the movie 1984...

[savedbygrace]

So far, you've had three people tell you that it doesn't cost $4,000 a year to homeschool. I know hundreds of homeschool families in several states, and none of them is paying anywhere near $4,000 a year to homeschool.

I suspect the source of your research has given you some incorrect information.

Is it possible to spend $4,000 in a year for homeschooling? I suppose, but only if you don't know what you're doing.

What was your source for that figure? Let us check it out.

[Zavien Doombringer]

I am not saying that I know everything about home schooling, only what I experienced. The research that my wife and I did came up with this rounded figure, give or take a few hundred. with books and extra curricular activities, we found that leaving the two older in public school and the two younger in private was the best financialy for us.

Here in Virginia, we figured it was less of a hassle to send them to private school than trying to convince the School board that we were qualitfied to home school because of religious convictions. Niether of us had a degree, and I know, you don't need one, but it helps.

As for us homeschooling, we are all for it, but because of being in outside schools, my wife has started her own business (small one) with my mom http://www.marycarterdolls.com, she doesn't have the time to designate to homeschool. We are comfortable with the Private School and the kids are doing great on the A Beka Curriculum!

[Gopher Broke]

I am surprised by how many porn supporters we have here on FR...my kids are both in public school but I am a STRONG SUPPORTER of private and home schools.

Public Schools need the competition and are too strongly controlled by the teachers unions.

ANYBODY who is a taxpayer has the right to speak out about some of the garbage (fed to us as knowledge) our kids get in public schools.

[Zavien Doombringer]

I haven't read the books in question. I do read the books my kids bring home. I found one such book offensive and I notified the School Administration, the School Board and the head of the Curriculum. within 3 days the book was removed from the class required reading.

[HiTech RedNeck]

and to lure them into a false security

lull

[savedbygrace]

If you've decided that private school is better for your family than homeschool, that's fine, but I didn't ask you about that. I asked for the source of the $4,000 figure.

It is wrong. You don't need to spend $4,000 a year to homeschool. The vast majority of homeschool families are spending considerably less than that.

[Zeroisanumber]

I've read both of those books, and yeah they have some sex in them, but I wouldn't call them "X-Rated". Now if you were teaching Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer or something similar I could see where you might be concerned but as it stands she just sounds like a hyperventilating hausfrau.

[Darksheare]

Sex educatiion consisted of showing a small clip of a couple actually 'going at it', and then the woman later giving birth in the hospital.
Along with a sappy voice over read in a mind numbing monotone.
That did nothing to drown out the 'love talk' of the filmed exhibitionists.
Rather gross for fifth graders to see, but it was mandated at the time.

[Zavien Doombringer]

To try to get that source is going to be very hard. I wasn't a member of FR, nor did I have a computer back then (5 years ago). I am sure things have changed, but I wouldn't have expected the cost of education to go down. Especially since, most private schools and book costs are going up.

[Zavien Doombringer]

You saw a clip? I had flip charts...man talk about deprived. I guess my school district wasn't as liberal.

[MotherofTen]

>>You can spend a lot of money homeschooling, but $4000, unless you have 10 kids,>>

Well, I DO have ten kids! LOL And I have yet to spend more than $400.00 on ALL of them in a school year! We do use Abeka science, language, and history, and Saxon math. Perhaps they meant Abeka video - that would cost around $1,000 per student per school year, give or take a little. We've been homeschooling for 15 years, and our oldest two are now in college. :)

[Darksheare]

Well, it was the best sex ed porno that progressive an woefully overfunded Sussex County New Jersey schools could provide circa 1986.
But, the area was a rural 'resort town' at the time, and had more money than brains.
Now, it's largely economically depressed, has a lower class of people living there and has too many houses and too many children for the school system.
And now apparently not enough funding to go around.

[Redwood71]

The additional problem, one I'm concerned about, is what are they going to do about the, now accepted, gay sex. It is obvious they have done a lousy job with heterosexuality, they will have a field day mispresenting homosexuality.

[Arthalion]

When I first heard of this, I had some sympathy for LaChappelle and her cause because the descriptions given of the books. With small children of my own enrolled in Modesto City Schools (which were very conservative when I attended them) I took a look at the materials and decided that she's trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. In context, the passages are relatively harmless, and are no more than kids see on TV or hear from their friends. If these passages cause children to "go astray", I'd rather point my finger at the parent for not imposing a strong moral foundation in their child which would allow them to read these materials without "temptation".

What really cinched it for me, however, was hearing this woman interviewed on the local radio. She's a nutball who won't be happy until HER worldview is imposed on the rest of us, and until the public schools spend their first hour doing Bible study and performing chastity checks on the students. After listening to her speak for 20 minutes, I found it impossible to take her seriously.

[Darksheare]

Didn't need a video for that, we had a few teachers who were gay.
Not that they ever came out and said so.
The term in school used whenever they came around was: Watch your backs.
Rather sad when fifth graders pass that kind of comment among themselves.
No, I never found out how or why that started, but it makes you wonder if there was a reason for it.

[agrace]

My husband and I just bought A Beka for our first grader - first of 3 kids - and it cost us just over 300.00 for the basic 1st grade package. We are not enrolled in their actual A Beka Academy - much more expensive - which keeps track of testing and transcripts etc. We were also under the original impression that A Beka was about a thousand bucks a year too, til we discovered the difference in programs.

We also then supplimented her curriculum with an introductory audio/video Spanish program, should be fun for all of us. That was about a hundred, then plus miscellaneous stuff, I've probably spent about 500 to prep for the year. I don't expect much more costs in supplies, just extra-curricular stuff like field trips and projects.

With regard to transcripts, we have found you can do your own quite effectively, and it really doesn't matter to have official documents until the high school years - although we ARE choosing to keep meticulous and professional-looking documentation from day one for all 3 of ours. At our recent state homeschool convention, we found a software program that we are planning to get for our record-keeping. There are also co-op groups that you can join which will monitor testing and produce transcripts also, seemingly for much cheaper.

Granted, with 4 kids for whom to buy curriculum, I'm sure it adds up. I'd give A Beka a call and talk to someone about your situation to see what they recommend, or check the website to see if there is a motel meeting somewhere close to you soon.

Also, just for reference, while I haven't technically used it yet, I'm pleased with what we got from A Beka - you get tons of resources, the teacher guides are detailed and very organized (all classes synchronized by lesson number and they provide scheduling suggestions, sample progress reports etc) and I'm feeling pretty good about going into my first "official" year of homeschooling (we kind of winged it for kindergarten, taught her to read, some basic math and had fun).