Parental Rights Discarded, Again
In an article from GOPUSA Tuesday, Steve Crampton tells the story of Laurie Taylor. Laurie is the mother of two children who attend public school in Fayetteville, Arkansas. She has been trying to get several books promoting sex and drugs (aimed at elementary school children) put into a separate section of the school library. A child would need parental permission in order to check out books from this section.At first, school system leaders seemed to agree with Taylor, and placed the books in a "parent library" section with other books geared more to parents than to children. But when Taylor found dozens more books with sexually explicit content, and asked that they not be made available to students without parental approval, the school reneged. It overturned its earlier decision and voted to leave all of the books on the shelves with unrestricted access by the students.
Some of the books include graphic descriptions of incest, homosexuality, masturbation, bestiality, and child molestation. For instance, Push is the story of a young girl who is pregnant with her father's child. The local newspaper, the Northwest Arkansas Times, which opposed the effort to limit access to the book, admitted that it contained "materials that are patently offensive."
Another book is advertised as being "the most controversial young adult novel ever," and describes an adolescent boy's love affair with a teacher, and two teens who become addicted to heroin. Oh, and by the way, the book won an award as "an outstanding book for children."
Yet another book proudly displayed on the Fayetteville library shelves was once featured in Playboy magazine. Its vile and sexually explicit content is interspersed with dialogue such as this: "Just keep asking yourself: 'What would Jesus not do?”
Of course local liberals from nearby colleges are protesting, screaming about censorship, and denouncing Taylor’s attempts to choose what her own children are exposed to. It seems funny that these liberal types aren’t saying anything about the suggested censorship in New Jersey, where two state reps are trying to get a ban on Ann Coulter’s new book ‘Godless’
Isn’t it the rights of the parents to monitor what their own kids are reading and being taught in school. Taylor isn’t even asking for a ban, though I believe she has every right to. All she and the other parents are asking for is to keep the books inappropriate for kids in a separate section.
Apparently Arkansas isn’t the only school with this problem right now.
In Overland Park, Kansas, parents are organizing to protest the Blue Valley School District's inclusion in its curriculum of numerous books containing explicit material. One parent, Janet Harmon, objected to a book her freshman son was reading, which contained "references to oral sex and homosexuality," she said.
In Maine, Orono High School has reaffirmed its commitment to allow the use of the sexually explicit book, Girl Interrupted, as part of the ninth-grade English curriculum. The novel, written by Susanna Kaysen, is not fit reading for high school students, argued many parents and local residents. "It's a book about an 18-year-old who ends up in a mental asylum and has a number of conversations with mentally disturbed people -- conversations of the most graphic sort, especially sexually," said Michael Heath, head of the Christian Civic League of Maine. "The f-word [appears] 30 times on one page, and this is being given to freshmen in high school as literature. It's absolutely horrifying."
Now I saw this movie, I thought it was a good movie, as an adult I can make that choice. This is not what our kids should be reading in school. Is this the best curriculum the school could find? Isn’t there something else, Shakespeare, Mark Twain...I can think of hundreds of great classic literature books that these kids could be taught from.
Librarians do everything possible to obscure the reading habits of students -- who are required by law to attend school -- from any attempt by parents to learn what their children are reading.
Here is another point I disagree with. Children are required to be educated, but they are not “required by law to attend school”. Homeschooling is legal in all 50 states. Parents who are so obviously upset by what is going on in the public schools always have this choice. More parents need to remove their kids from public schools and start giving them a better education.
A federal judge in Fayetteville has recently ruled in a similar case that restricting access of library books only to students who have obtained parental permission infringes upon the First Amendment rights of the students.
Okay, now here is the first amendment:
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Do you see anything in there restricting parents from choosing appropriate reading material for their children? Asking for parental permission in no way violates Freedom of Speech laws. Tell me whose Freedom of Speech is supposedly being violated here? The books aren’t being banned, simply separated. The children aren’t being silenced. The protestors were allowed their demonstrations. The school has had their say. It seems to me the rights of the parents, the most important voice in these kids’ lives, are the only ones being squelched.
Arkansas Attorney General Mike Beebe has said that any determination as to whether these books violate the harmful to minors law must be left "for a court or properly instructed jury."
When did the right of parents to choose what their kids are taught and exposed to get thrown to the judicial branch? What exactly is a “properly instructed jury” anyway? Who is instructing them?
As I stated earlier, there is always choice. Homeschooling would eliminate this problem immediately. Hopefully, common sense will prevail in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It seems to me that with five minutes, and a short conversation this could be easily solved. It is simply a waste of everyone’s time and lots of taxpayers’ money to take this to court.
posted by Rebecca @ 6/15/2006 09:11:00 AM
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