Tuesday, July 26, 2005

NY City Schools Yank Same Book That Fayetteville Parents Now Fighting!

By Debbie Pelley (click "comments" for article).

6 Comments:

Blogger Debbie Pelley said...

New York City Schools Yanked Same Book in Fayetteville Library
from 371 Schools in 2003

The book in Fayetteville School Library that was yanked from New York city schools is "Deal with It! A Whole New Approach to Your Body, Brain and Life as a Gurl" (Pocket Books) See article from New York Post below.

In the Fayetteville Library it comes under the subject Teenage girls -- Life skills guides. These life skills include specific instructions for different sex acts that you will find unbelievable! Note: New York removed the book before school started. Fayetteville School District is refusing to consider Laurie's request to take action before school starts even though they have had the list for weeks now.

If you want to sign a petition opposing this type of material in school libraries, go to top of home page at this link www.wpaag.org. It is very simple to sign it. There is a link there also to pictures and excerpts from 55 other books that have been challenged by a mom at Fayetteville.

CITY'S ED. BOOBS
By CARL CAMPANILE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

October 13, 2003 -- EXCLUSIVE

The three R's in education were almost racy, raunchy and risqué.

Embarrassed city Department of Education officials yanked an eye-popping book from 371 middle and high schools because it contains sexually graphic material - including crude street language - that somehow landed on the recommended reading list for students.

The 300-page book - "Deal with It! A Whole New Approach to Your Body, Brain and Life as a Gurl" (Pocket Books) - has chapters called "The Boob Files," "What's Up Down There" and "Mystery in Your Panties."

Department spokeswoman Margie Feinberg said the sexual primer was mistakenly put on the list of suggested classroom library books and was delivered to schools. But she emphasized that the book was ordered removed before classes started last month because it was deemed inappropriate for adolescents to read.

Among the specific topics discussed include: "Sex is Play," "To Lose it or Not to Lose It," "The First Time," "Why Do Girls Like Girls" and "Coming Out."

Topics also include how to perform anal sex, oral sex and group sex.

The book also discusses how to prevent being a victim of rape, incest and molestation. There's cartoon-like presentation of breasts, the vagina and the penis

Some of the advice about girls' breasts: "Boobs get a lot of attention . . . When boobs start popping up left and right, they can be hard to ignore."

The authors call masturbation the "ultimate safe sex" and say while it's not talked about as much, girls play with their private parts as much as boys. There's also discussion of sex toys.

It tweaks the "double standard" in society that it's OK for boys to have premarital sex, but not girls.

Parents were outraged.

"Who was the genius who purchased this book? Didn't they look at the book before they ordered? This shows they don't know what the hell they're doing," said Queens parent Carmen Santana, whose 12-year-old attends middle school.

"It's disgusting. It's so insulting. It uses ghetto language."

Even students were surprised that the popular teen book made the public school reading list.

"Some of it is X-rated. Only mature people should read it," said Christina Rosario, 17, a senior at Stevenson HS in The Bronx who bought her own personal copy at a bookstore.

"It talks about sex and all the positions."

Frank Wang, a student at the HS for Environmental Studies, said the book was OK for high-school kids, but not middle-schoolers. "They tend to be immature with these things," he said.

The authors of "Deal with It!," Esther Drill, Heather McDonald and Rebecca Odes, are creators of the gurl.com Web site that discusses many of the same issues.

The book also has tips about dealing with family, money and drugs, and "sucky emotions."

http://www.plan2succeed.org/nypost-citys_ed_boobs13oct03by_carl_campanile.htm Article above found at this link and other places.

This book was in the second list Laurie Taylor sent out as books she was challenging. For excerpts and reviews on 55 books she is trying to get removed to a parental section, see http://www.wpaag.org/Books2%20-%2020%20Bad%20books%20at%20Fayetteville%20Sch.%20Library.htm

"Deal with It! A Whole New Approach to Your Body, Brain and Life as a Gurl" (Pocket Books).

- The book describes oral sex, anal sex, group sex, masturbation, orgasms, sex toys including dildos and vibrators, homosexuality, bisexuality, and other sex topics. The book has specific instructions for different sex acts along with cartoon images and "advice" from girls taken from the website describing their own sexual experiences and viewpoints.

9:19 PM, July 26, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The mainstream Arkansas media continues to report that Laurie Taylor is trying to "ban" books.

It is the journalists ethical obligation to report the facts in a way that will be properly understood without misinterpretation. By reporting that Laurie Taylor is trying to "ban" books, the general public understands that to mean something very different than what she is actually trying to accomplish. I believe that they (the media) know that very well, but are seeking to shape the debate by perpetrating a kind of deception. By doing so, they undermine their own credibility with those who take the time to investigate the issue further.

I think all agree that we all should be able to restrict our children from reading whatever kind of racist material that Hillbilly Goat Roper and the White Revolution scumbags might place in a library. Indeed, I would be willing to bet that most everyone would be completely comfortable completely BANNING such materials from the library altogether. I know I would! It is not censorship or a violation of free speech to limit the materials to which our children are exposed at a time when they may not be mature enough to properly discern rhetoric from fact.

I think that what Laurie Taylor is attempting is reasonable and quite moderate in nature, it is those who so radically oppose her that are extremist. Indeed, there may be certain texts in the library that a Wiccan mother may not want her child to be able to access without her permission. This is reasonable and something I would also support.

It is amazing how closed-minded and bigoted that otherwise reasonable liberals become when it comes to a Christian parent seeking to raise their children in the Christian tradition. It makes me wonder if there isn't an intentional effort to indoctrinate school children with liberal propaganda.

This street runs two ways, and the political sands shift very quickly. There may be a time when liberal mothers wish to limit their childrens access to materials deemed appropriate by conservatives.

11:46 PM, July 26, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It would be interesting to know if the Fayetteville (AR) school libraries have available copies of the Bible. Liberals, you know, would never condider the exclusion of the Bible as a "banning."

And yes, "anonymous coward," there is "an intentional effort to indoctrinate school children with liberal propaganda." It began when our Supreme Court banned prayer and Bible reading in our schools.

7:45 AM, July 27, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Is it inevitable? Once it was not so, when communities had true local control. Now local administrators use the fact that control comes from elsewhere as an excuse as to why they can't listen to parents. "State law won't let us do that. The courts won't let us do that." Perhaps the local communities should be given more latitude as to what can be done in their schools, instead of less and less each year.

Have we swept the opposition on this thread and this topic? The "smut for your kids on your dime" folks have been absent, even as anonymous posters.

8:04 PM, July 30, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

smut is good! Now are you happy?

11:21 AM, August 04, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"It is the journalists ethical obligation to report the facts in a way that will be properly understood without misinterpretation"

What planet you from? It is a journalists obligation to keep those inflated paychecks flowing into their bank account. By selling their soul to their corporate master. It would be a better world if journalist had that kind of ethics.

As far as The "smut for your kids on your dime" folks . which is more dangerous (A) getting between a bear and her cubs or (B) getting between a evangelical mama on a mission from "God" and her cubs. I'll take the bear any day.

11:41 AM, August 04, 2005  

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