[Infowarrior] - U.S. school bans the dictionary

[Richard Forno]

Paging Mrs. Lovejoy....  ---rf

U.S. school bans the dictionary

Published On Tue Jan 26 2010
Cathal Kelly
Staff Reporter

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/755936--u-s-school-bans-the-dictionary
A Southern California school board has pulled the Merriam-Webster  
dictionary off its shelves after a parent complained about the entry  
“oral sex.”

The collegiate-level dictionary was being used in grade four and five  
classrooms. The school now promises to begin a thorough scouring of  
the dictionary for other offensive entries.

“It’s hard to sit and read the dictionary, but we’ll be looking to  
find other things of a graphic nature,” Menifee Union School District  
spokesperson Betti Cadmus told the local The Press-Enterprise newspaper.

Merriam-Webster defines oral sex as “oral stimulation of the genitals.”

The dictionaries were originally intended for use by children working  
at advanced reading levels. Now the California town, pop. 70,000,  
looks like the staging ground for a First Amendment battle.

“If a public school were to remove every book because it contains one  
word deemed objectionable to some parent, then there would be no books  
at all in our public libraries,” said Peter Scheer, executive director  
of the California First Amendment Coalition, told The Press- 
Enterprise. “I think common sense seems to be lacking in this school.”

A spokesperson for Merriam-Webster pointed out that they also publish  
dictionaries for elementary- and intermediate-level readers,  
dictionaries that don’t include sexually explicit explanations.

“We are a bit surprised to hear about the controversy,” Merriam- 
Webster spokesperson Meghan Lieberwirth told thestar.com Tuesday. “The  
job of the dictionary is to reflect language. Unfortunately, some of  
those words are going to be the sort you don’t want grade-school kids  
using ... We don’t recommend the use of our college-level dictionary  
at the grade-school level.”

Nonetheless, the decision has divided parents. While some supported  
the idea of an “age appropriate” reference book, others saw the  
decision in terms of free speech.

“Censorship in the schools, really?” Emanuel Chavez, the parent of  
second- and sixth-grade students, said to the Press Enterprise.  
“Pretty soon the only dictionary in the school library will be the  
Bert and Ernie dictionary.”