Re: [LM_NET] book "tolerance" - NOT!!

[Dorothy Scanlan <dgscanlan02@YAHOO.COM>]

Would you have this book (Training Grounds by Sarah Veitch) in your school library? 
 I doubt if even a public library would waste their money.  Based on the 
description on Amazon, this is a pornographic book, one that is part of a 
pornographic S&M series.  If this book were a movie, I doubt that that student 
would be of legal age to view it as surely it would receive a minimum of an “X” 
rating.  The last I heard, minors could not legally possess pornography.   
Therefore, giving the book back to the student is akin to giving alcohol to a 
student.  Both acts are illegal.  At the very least, when a student makes a poor 
choice it is our responsibility as adults to correct that student!  Why are we so 
afraid to do that anymore?!
   
  And speaking as a woman, this is definitely not the kind of book I would be o.k. 
with a boy reading.   What kind of opinions about women is this student forming?
   
  In my home county, where my husband is a high school teacher, if a student is 
caught with pornographic material, he/she is taken to see an administrator, a 
conference with a parent is called, and the student is suspended.
   
  Yes, we want our students to read, but what’s wrong with having standards for 
what they read?  The word “censorship” has become so twisted and perverted!  It is 
NOT censorship to tell a student that a particular book is inappropriate for 
him/her to read!  I am the librarian in a boys’ middle school.  I’m sure if I had a 
subscription to Playboy, the library would be the most popular place in the school! 
 (Duh!)  But it really isn’t appropriate for me to do that, is it?
   
  Dorothy Scanlan
  Librarian
  St. Paul's Middle School
  dscanlan@stpaulsschool.org 

       
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