NOT ABOUT BANNING BOOKS...
During a board meeting on May 25, 2006, hundreds of parents, citizens and students attended to voice their opinions regarding several books that were planned as "Required Reading" for students aged 14-18 in District 214. Many parents voiced concerns about the lewdness and vulgarity of certain required reading materials such as "Perks of Being a Wallflower", a book that has liberal use of unnecessary profanity and scenes containing graphic descriptions of date rape and graphic descriptions of teen male homosexual intercourse. It also mentions a boy having sex with a dog and a girl needing to go to the emergency room for using a food item on herself in sexual manner.
Click here to read the District 214 Controversial Issues Policy.
Many parents asked the D214 School Board and Superintendent David Schuler, "Why must this district use these books when there are other more qualified, and challenging materials that can accomplish high-powered learning?" Several students and parents described how difficult it was to "opt out" from reading or watching offensive materials in D214 schools.
It was also mentioned how there is no uniform standard in D214 for students desiring to not experience offensive materials. Some past students even described how they were given 'punitive' assignments when asking to opt out... a graduated student with "high honors" cited how instead of watching an 'R' movie his teacher assigned him a 12 page paper to write.
Subsequent to the May Board meeting it has been learned that D214 has NO 'opt out' policy, only a controversial materials policy that has no clear guidelines for teachers to implement uniformly. CQE believes that D214 staff should not be punishing students with required reading or materials that are offensive to them, but rather providing an 'OPT IN' policy where these types of materials cannot be used unless parents give permission for participation... similar to the requirements for field trips or athletes' events... no parental approval, no travel. |
