Menifee USD pulls dictionaries due to explicit word
School officials in the Menifee Union School District pulled all copies of the book from its fourth and fifth grade classrooms last week.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
A parent complaint that a dictionary in her son’s classroom at Oak Meadows Elementary contained the term and definition for “oral sex” prompted school officials in the Menifee Union School District to pull all copies of the book from its fourth and fifth grade classrooms last week.
Copies of Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition (published in 1994), were taken from a recommended reading list and put into use in district classrooms a few years ago to accommodate higher level readers, said Betti Cadmus, spokeswoman for the district.
“The reason behind buying a college-level dictionary is that we have students who are reading at much higher levels,” Cadmus said.
However, Cadmus said that when the parent — who was volunteering in her son’s classroom when she came across the word — complained to the school’s principal about the explicit language, curriculum officials with the district made a decision to temporarily remove the books.
Next, according to school board’s policy, a committee consisting of site and district representatives will be formed to “determine the extent to which the challenged material supports the curriculum, the educational appropriateness of the material, and its suitability for the age level of the student.”
The policy goes on to state that within 30 days of being convened, the review committee shall summarize its findings, and the superintendent or designee shall notify the complainant within 15 days of receiving the committee’s written report.
As for whether the dictionary will be replaced with one that some may deem more age-appropriate for fourth and fifth graders, Jason Rogers, a father of three children aged 5, 7 and 9 who attend school in the district, said the dictionary is not the problem.
“You want to dumb down the kids? You don’t create lifelong learners by sticking them in a box and telling them what books they can read,” Rogers said. “That is not the worst word in the dictionary. Kids are going to be exposed to things, and it is the parents’ job to explain it to them, not the teachers’ or the school district’s (job).”
“It is not such a bad thing for a kid to have the wherewithal to go and look up a word he may have even heard on the playground. To me it is brilliant,” he said.
“You have to draw the line somewhere. What are they going to do next, pull encyclopedias because they list parts of the human anatomy like the penis and vagina?” Rogers said.
Rogers said it is not uncommon for his 9-year-old son to come home and ask him what a word means, and that he regularly has his son look up terms in the dictionary.
“He is reading at a level two to three times above where he should be,” Rogers said. “I really don’t want this to affect my kids’ learning abilities, by ‘dumbing’ down the books they can access at school.”
But Cadmus said the parent took the right steps in reporting the word to the site’s principal, who in turn contacted the district’s curriculum director.
“There is a certain order of steps a parent can take, and due to the sensitive nature, the concern was given to temporary pull the books from each class,” Cadmus said. “We are grateful that the parent who saw something sexually graphic brought it to our attention.”
UPDATE: Menifee USD will provide ‘alternative’ dictionary, committee decides
Update: Controversy growing over Menifee district decision to remove dictionary
Maggie Avants is the education editor at SWRNN.com. Reach her at maggie.avants@swrnn.com. Follow SWRNNedu on Twitter.
Tags: Betti Cadmus, Jason Rogers, Maggie Avants, menifee union school district, Merriam's Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Oak Meadows Elementary, SWRNN
Email
Bookmark
READER COMMENTS
25 comments
POST A COMMENT
* Required to comment
-
- Honest to God
15 - UPDATE: Fire in Wildomar at 15 acres; homes no longer threatened 11
- UPDATE: Valle Vista neighborhoods still closed after reports of gunfire; some residents stranded 10
- Look who's turning 1! SWRNN celebrates one-year anniversary 10
- 17-year-old Canyon Lake girl reported missing 8
- Prop 8 struck down by U.S. District judge in San Francisco today 6
- Local photographer will display work at MSJC Menifee campus Sept. 8 6
- Palm Desert DUI checkpoint nabs five drivers 5
- Police: Man uses bodily fluids to taint female co-worker's water bottle 5
- 'Ground Zero Mosque' furor not unlike debate over Temecula Islamic center 5
- Honest to God
-
- Temecula apartment fire confined to room; no injuries reported The fire was reported at 11:49 a.m. at the Morning Ridge Apartments in the 30660 Milky Way Drive.
- Man's cut-short prison sentence for 1983 killing of mother could be renewed Bruce Lisker, 45, was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 16 years to life in prison for the 1983 of fatally beating and stabbing his 66-year-old mother, Dorka, at her Sherman Oaks home. He was 17 years old at the time and using drugs.
- Brush fire near Campo by Pacific Crest Trail spreads to 300 acres The blaze created highly visible black smoke as it spread to the edge of Star Ranch, a working horse and cattle ranch and historical attraction.
- Los Angeles Unified votes to overhaul teacher evaluation process UTLA officials have been critical of a decision by the Los Angeles Times to post report cards for thousands of teachers, based on their students' scores on standardized tests.
- Menifee boy walks to save hearts after surviving rare heart condition In his short life, he has found something bigger to participate in each year -- the American Heart Association’s San Diego Heart Walk. Michael, along with Team Beat It members made up of family, friends and his past and present teachers, plans to walk in this year’s event on Sept. 19.
- Student who threatened community college professor in SD County arrested Oscar Torres, 22, also allegedly threatened the college community.
Comment by: Hall Monitor Posted: January 24, 2010, 11:37 am
This story made http://detentionslip.org ! Check it out for all the crazy headlines from our schools.
Comment by: Go Jason Rogers Posted: January 25, 2010, 10:29 am
Kudos Jason. Every parent needs to take this page out of Jason’s parenting playbook and use it. If you don’t agree take the one from the complaining parents’, roll it up and knock yourself across the head with it.
People wake up, there are worse things in life that your kid will face. Talk to them about it don’t try and hid them from it. It’s the kids that are sheltered for “their protection” that rebel and end up doing the things you tried to keep them from.
As for the lady that is “protecting” little Johnny, relax and let your kid skin their knee and drink out of a water hose even worse look up words in the dictionary that they are going to get grossed out by. They are going to be just fine I promise.
Comment by: PAG Posted: January 25, 2010, 12:20 pm
The American Taliban at work. Great. Can we not ban books in this country please?
Comment by: Mike Posted: January 25, 2010, 1:04 pm
Just how many types of stupid are the school administrators?
Comment by: Jeff Posted: January 25, 2010, 1:11 pm
This is a joke, right? Like, a story in The Onion? Man, there are some dumb people in the word.
Coming up next: ban the alphabet, since you can arrange the letters in it to spell all sorts of bad words!
Comment by: Waltz Posted: January 25, 2010, 1:35 pm
This is insane. What’s next? No biology at all. Certainly no math since there is a certain number with sexual connotations.
Comment by: Cassandra Posted: January 25, 2010, 3:20 pm
Perhaps the concerned parent thinks THIS is a more “age appropriate” dictionary for fifth graders:
http://www.amazon.ca/Best-Word-Book-Richard-Scarry/dp/0307155102/
*eyeroll*
Comment by: Bob Posted: January 25, 2010, 5:49 pm
Why not ban the entire English language as well, both written and spoken? After all, it too contains words (even, dare I say, complete phrases) that some may find racist, sexist, blasphemous, or some other form of offensiveness.
In the mean time, they should totally ban public schools because I’m sure there are some fundamentalist Christians who think that any sort of education from somewhere other than a religious source is somehow an affront to God or something…
Comment by: Justin Posted: January 25, 2010, 5:49 pm
I fully support this. Kids are learning the meaning of words describing ungodly acts. Also we should have calculators removed. I saw my son type in 8008135 in his school calculator. Somebody needs to protect these children from the world.
Comment by: Jared Posted: January 25, 2010, 6:30 pm
Do these dumb ass parents not realize there are online dictionaries and that if their children don’t have access to the internet at home they most certainly do at school?
**Slaps hand to forehead**
Comment by: jcolwell Posted: January 25, 2010, 6:48 pm
Why is it that one moron can ruin it for the rest of us? Going to censor me now? WHY DO WE CATER TO THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR? ARE WE TRYING TO MAKE AMERICA DUMBER?
Comment by: blackstar Posted: January 25, 2010, 8:12 pm
Its quite terrifying that the parent thinks that a dictionary is going to corrupt children. Does she expect them to read the entire dictionary, learn new words in there, and be corrupted?
Far better for them to look it up on Google, right?
Yea, that’ll go down well…
Comment by: Melanie Posted: January 25, 2010, 8:16 pm
This doesn’t make sense to me. I mean, if a kid really paged through the dictionary to find this word, and the dictionaries got banned, do you really think he WOULDN’T find the definition else where. Like, the internet maybe? And the dictionary probably provides the most “friendly” definition of this word possible. And, as stated, there are worse words in there. Kids will find this stuff out eventually. Adults need to step back, stop condescending to anyone under 18’s capability of comprehension, and let us push the boundaries a bit. Otherwise it would be like keeping every kid and teen in a limited, padded, box. Is there really a need for this. A Bob stated so well, “Why not ban the entire English language as well, both written and spoken? After all, it too contains words (even, dare I say, complete phrases) that some may find racist, sexist, blasphemous, or some other form of offensiveness.”
Gosh, we live in the United States of America. And the first amendment states our rights to freedom of speech and of press. This seems to violate that to me.
And one more last thing. It is a SCHOOL. School’s need dictionaries. Why ban them? Why?
Comment by: Garth Sender Posted: January 25, 2010, 8:20 pm
How did these parents create these kids? How do we end up with so many cats and dogs? Reproduction should not be a taboo or secret. Its part of life. If you can’t deal with it, please stop BEFORE you have kids.
Comment by: Allison Trembley Posted: January 25, 2010, 9:07 pm
I hardly think that a clinical, educational description of oral sex can be described as “graphic”. Children need access to this kind of material so they can learn the truth about these sorts of things.
Or are we going to let an entire generation of teens think you can’t get pregnant if you have sex standing up?
My mother taught me all of these things when I was that age so I could be prepared for the future, and I think it helped me make the right decisions when it came to sex, because I was well-educated. We can’t keep censoring these things from children. There’s nothing wrong with teaching them this information from a purely educational point of view.
Comment by: Koen Posted: January 26, 2010, 12:30 am
I’m from Belgium so I’m not entirely sure why people on the other side of the Atlantic have such an issue with “bad words”. It’s rather hypocritical that TV has beeps for every other word used that might be even slightly improper, while everyone actually knows what is supposed to be in that spot. This makes no sense to me. (And yes there is swearing on public television here when appropriate)
Now, if you want some explicit scenes, you should read the Bible, especially the Old Testament is littered with very unsettling, even sexually explicit content, although it is always presented in ‘proper’ language.
The point I’m trying to make is: you cannot shield your child from this sort of thing, nor should you. Knowledge always makes you stronger against the dangers out there. If I do not know what fascism or racism is, how can I arm myself against them, or how can I recognize them when they happen around me and identify them as something unacceptable ? The same goes for sexuality.
Comment by: Amber Posted: January 26, 2010, 6:35 am
When I was a kid, we would purposefully find these types of words and giggle about them. We already knew what they meant, so why cover it up? My first sex ed class was in 3rd grade. We studied anatomy in 6th. Who’s to measure the maturity of a kid in 5th grade vs 6th? We’re always going to have kids who are too immature to handle the things going on around. Don’t throw the rest in a cage.
Comment by: Marie Posted: January 26, 2010, 10:12 am
How idiotic.
Comment by: Peyton Farquhar Posted: January 26, 2010, 11:56 am
If the parent in question wants to dumb down her son’s education, then she should be home schooling him with the rest of the home-schooled children who are locked in a closet and shielded from reality by their fanatical parents.
Comment by: Richard C. Mongler Posted: January 26, 2010, 12:28 pm
I don’t get it. Were they mad because of an omission of terms for anal sex? I mean, that’s why I don’t own that particular dictionary..
Comment by: Sarah Posted: January 26, 2010, 2:28 pm
I don’t understand — it sounds as though the parent was looking up the term herself, and not her child?
>> However, Cadmus said that when the parent — who was volunteering in her son’s classroom when she came across the word — complained to the school’s principal about the explicit language, curriculum officials with the district made a decision to temporarily remove the books.
Comment by: Taylor Posted: January 26, 2010, 3:04 pm
….They’re pulling dictionaries…for defining a dirty word. What have we come to??
And what was the parent doing looking the word up??
Comment by: Andrew Brackenbury Posted: January 30, 2010, 6:37 pm
Isn’t that a dictionary’s job? Defining words?
Comment by: Jennifer Hathaway Posted: January 31, 2010, 8:52 am
Congratulations, America. You have finally come to the ultimate shining moment: DICTIONARIES have been banned from schools.
Awesome.
Comment by: Jessica Posted: February 3, 2010, 7:31 am
Why was she looking that kind of stuff up when she was volunteering in her child’s class? I’m sure if she needed to know the definition, there would have been a more appropriate time to find it.