Schools

Letter: 'Perks' Has No Business in Junior High Classroom

Parent applauds District 41 board members who voted to remove the book, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" from classroom shelves because of its mature content.

Letter to the Editor:

Ok...time to make a statement. Some parents in District 41 are up in arms because the school board has decided that a book, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" should not be available at Hadley Jr. High, and I applaud those on the board, namely Andrew Ellis, for voting this way.

This all began when this book was available for student 'consumption' in an English teacher's classroom library. There is now a 'witch hunt' for school board members who voted to have the book removed, and some are calling it censorship and infringement of freedom of speech. The vote to remove the book from the Jr. High is simply that. There is no infringement here folks! Have you read the book? Did you not get to page 34 (on an iPad version) and realize that this book has NO business being in a Jr. High PUBLIC school classroom?!

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I, for one, do not want my 14 year old son reading this. This is what is wrong with our country...our society...our world. Too much tolerance and acceptance of things that are wrong. Not all kids of this age can handle this, and if it is in the classroom for one, it is there for all. I guarantee that if a teacher showed R-rated movies in the classroom, that teacher would be taken to the woodshed, and rightly so.

The tolerance for allowing our minds to become "used to" and conditioned to these topics without flinching is a tragedy. We are numb to injustice, hatred, greed, pain, killing, you name it...we are numb, and we are in trouble. That teacher should be taken to the woodshed for having that book in her classroom!

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I have some suggestions for you parents who feel violated by the board decision: Read the book out loud over dinner with your children and see how comfortable you are with that.

Or maybe you'd like to buy a few Playboy magazines to share with your children. I know, take your 12- and 13-year-olds to an 'R' rated movie marathon. Go ahead and engage in whatever developmentally inappropriate activities you want with your kids, but leave mine out of it!

This world is a cruel place, but I'd like to help my son through it in as delicate and private a fashion as I can. If it's in the classroom for one, it's there for all, and I don't approve. I applaud the board members who voted to keep this out of our classrooms.

Jennifer Mitton-Cox

Related:

  • District 41 Bans 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower'
  • Comments: Is 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' Appropriate in 8th Grade?
  • Students Ask D41 Officials to Reconsider 'Perks of Being a Wallflower' Removal


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