Board member Randy Freeman, an elementary school teacher and parent to four daughters in Menifee schools, said he supports the initial decision to ban the dictionary temporarily.After a parent complained about an elementary school student stumbling across “oral sex” in a classroom dictionary, Menifee Union School District in California, officials decided to pull Merriam Webster’s 10th edition from all school shelves earlier this week.
School officials will review the dictionary to decide if it should be permanently banned because of the “sexually graphic” entry, said district spokeswoman Betti Cadmus.
“It’s just not age appropriate,” said Cadmus, adding that this is the first time a book has been removed from classrooms throughout the district.
Meanwhile, some parents are questioning the district’s response.
“If we’re going to pull a book because it has something on oral sex, then every book in the library with that better be pulled,” she said. “The standard needs to be consistent ….”
Freeman said it’s “a prestigious dictionary that’s used in the Riverside County spelling bee, but I also imagine there are words in there of concern.”
Let’s get real. With all of the things that schools have to deal with, one parent’s complaint has started the ball rolling. I looked at the dictionary and words like, “kill”, “murder” and “war” which to me, are more offensive and obscene are still in the dictionary.