Controversy growing over Riverside school district decision to ban dictionary

Students in some Riverside County schools are now without certain dictionaries, as the district banned them.

Officials with the Menifee Union School District say the growing controversy over the removal of a dictionary from the classroom has led to the misconception that all dictionaries have been pulled.

The district is responding to the controversy that is attracting national and international media coverage after officials temporarily removed copies of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary Tenth Edition for containing graphic terms like “oral sex.”

A parent volunteer working in her son’s classroom came across the term, according to Betti Cadmus, and submitted a written complaint to the school’s principal, who contacted the assistant superintendent of curriculum.

The complaint resulted in the district removing the dictionaries from the fourth- and fifth-grade reference section at Oak Meadows Elementary School, which Cadmus said Monday was the only district school to be using that dictionary.

“One of the misconceptions is that all dictionaries are being banned from our district,” Cadmus said. “That could not be farther from the truth. There are dictionaries available for use at all school sites; the dictionaries (in question) are still on site, but are temporarily not in use.”

Cadmus said it was not just one parent that complained, but that there was a growing parent concern at Oak Meadows Elementary over the explicit term, which it turns out was not contained in the dictionary; though other words that might be considered age-inappropriate were found.

Joan Bertin, executive director for the New York-based National Coalition against Censorship — an organization that offers education and advocacy around free speech issues — said this is precisely what the First Amendment is supposed to prevent.

“Removing a book should be based solely on its educational value, not on whether a few parents think it is a good or bad thing,” Bertin said. “On that theory, you would only have ‘Dick and Jane’ left in the library.”

“We don’t think it is a good idea to remove dictionaries,” Bertin said. “It is a dictionary; its value is neutral. This just boggles my mind.”

The term “oral sex,” which the initial parent complaint was about, is not a term that is never heard or written, Bertin said.

“What are we going to do, remove the word ‘intercourse’?” Bertin said.

“Pre-teens and teenagers are very curious, as that is what coming up for them,” she said. “But reading about undesirable things gives them a way to find out what it is without actually doing it.”

A committee to review the dictionary and decide if it should be permanently removed is expected to begin meeting within the week, Cadmus said. According to board policy, the committee may take up to 30 days to review the complaint and decide on its educational appropriateness and its suitably for fourth and fifth grade readers.

The Menifee Union School District is holding a regularly scheduled board meeting at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at Hans Christensen Middle School, located at 27625 Sherman Rd. in Menifee. Though the dictionary in question is not on the board’s agenda, a public comment time will occur near the start of the meeting.

“We always welcome the public’s comments,” Cadmus said.

Related story: Menifee USD pulls dictionaries due to explicit word

Maggie Avants is the education editor at SWRNN.com. Follow her @SWRNNedu.

Tags: Betti Cadmus, First Amendment, Joan Bertin, menifee union school district, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary Tenth Edition, National Coalition against Censorship, Oak Meadows Elementary School, oral sex, SDNN, SWRNN

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