In Virginia: Opting your child out of reading sexually explicit books

Washingtonpost.com:

RICHMOND — Lawmakers in Virginia moved forward Thursday with legislation that could make it the first state in the country to allow parents to block their children from reading books in school that contain sexually explicit material.

The bill would require K-12 teachers to identify classroom materials with “sexually explicit content” and notify parents, who would have the right to “opt out” their children and request that the teacher give them something less objectionable to study.

Opponents call it a slippery slope toward book banning; advocates say it is a parent’s right to control their children’s exposure, even if the books are considered classics.

It all started with Laura Murphy, a Fairfax County woman who said she was horrified to discover that one of her sons, a high school senior, had been assigned to read the 1988 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “Beloved.”

The seminal work of fiction, by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, is about a former slave after the Civil War, and it contains scenes of bestiality and gang rape and an infant’s gruesome murder.

Murphy said that makes the book inappropriate for young readers, and she ticked off other critically acclaimed works in the same category: “The Bluest Eye,” also by Morrison, “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison and “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy.

Schools in Virginia follow a similar procedure that allows parents to withdraw children from sex-education class. “It just stands to reason when walking across the hall to English class, to be consistent, the same policies should apply,” Murphy said.

About half of Virginia school districts already require teachers to give parents advanced warning of “potentially sensitive or controversial materials in the classroom,”according to a 2013 survey by the state Department of Education.

After a spirited debate in a Senate committee Thursday, lawmakers approved the bill 9 to 6, along party lines, except for Lynwood W. Lewis Jr. (D-Accomack), who voted yes with the Republicans.

Sen. Charles “Bill” Carrico (R-Grayson) said he had not read “Beloved” but based his opinion on excerpts, which he said could poison the minds of young people.

Currently parents have the right to withdraw their children from what they consider objectionable material.  The kids go to the library and do their own thing, generally with some half-baked assignment.  The Fairfax mother, in this case, must be raising a real sissy.  The kid is 17 years old.  What is he going to do when he goes to college and has to read adult literature?

I would have more sympathy  for the parent if the kid were a middle school age kid.  But, then again, I can’t think of a middle school teacher who would assign the novel, Beloved.  

Do we need a law?  I say no.  Let’s continue on trusting our professionals and allowing that small minority of kids to be allowed to opt out.  Kids opt out of birthday parties, learning about the Constitution, and Dr. Suess.  No one really much cares at the end of the day.

I went to private school decades ago.  I had some fairly adult type books as required reading my senior year:  The Bible (as literature), Lord of the Flies, Catcher in the Rye.  You should have seen the supplemental list!  It was far racier.  My mother took one of the books out to the garbage can in a brown bag so the garbage men didn’t “see what trash I was reading.”  The difference between my mother and this lady is that my mother didn’t want it on the book shelf in her living room.  I think it was an Erskin Caldwell novel…perhaps God’s Little Acre.

I survived.