Riverside County School Districts Pull Dictionaries, may ban.

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After a parent complained about an elementary school student stumbling across "oral sex" in a classroom dictionary, Menifee Union School District officials decided to pull Merriam Webster's 10th edition from all school shelves earlier this week.

School officials will review the dictionary to decide if it should be permanently banned because of the "sexually graphic" entry, said district spokeswoman Betti Cadmus. The dictionaries were initially purchased a few years ago for fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms districtwide, according to a memo to the superintendent.

"It's just not age appropriate," said Cadmus, adding that this is the first time a book has been removed from classrooms throughout the district.

"It's hard to sit and read the dictionary, but we'll be looking to find other things of a graphic nature," Cadmus said. She explained that other dictionary entries defining human anatomy would probably not be cause for alarm.

Meanwhile, some parents are questioning the district's response and some school board members are asking why officials did not consult with them.

"Censorship in the schools, really? Pretty soon the only dictionary in the school library will be the Bert and Ernie dictionary," said Emanuel Chavez, the parent of second- and sixth-grade students. "If the kids are exposed to it, it's up to the parents to explain it to them at their level."

Board member Rita Peters questioned why one parent's complaint would lead the district to pull the dictionaries.

"If we're going to pull a book because it has something on oral sex, then every book in the library with that better be pulled," she said. "The standard needs to be consistent ... We don't need parents setting policy."

Peters said if the dictionary quarantine is setting a precedent, a committee should be formed to review all school books for age-appropriateness.

Board member Randy Freeman, an elementary school teacher and parent to four daughters in Menifee schools, said he supports the initial decision to ban the dictionary temporarily.

Freeman said it's "a prestigious dictionary that's used in the Riverside County spelling bee, but I also imagine there are words in there of concern."
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http://www.pe.com/localnews/menifee/stories/PE_News_Local_W_sdictionary22.414bdf0.html


more wonderful news from my great state. at least not buying dictionaries will save a little money.
 
But we are the most progressive state in the country. Maybe even the world! Arnold said so.

Someone call child services on that mother for being a horrible parent.
 
Man. Good times were getting into Spanish in middle school. We'd keep looking up penis and butt and poop and all that in our multilanguage dictionaries.

Hell, I remember when we were once given an assembly on good behavior at the beginning of the school year, and were given a big packet that had a list of things that were punishable, and we were asked to get parents to sign them. My friends and I actually bothered to skim through it, which included things like "calling a girl a whore or a slut," and the practice of sharking, which was biting someone on the ass.

We thought it was hilarious.

Edit: Here you go. I'll let you Califurnya types feel a bit better about yourselves.
 
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[quote name='SpazX']Well I guess dictionaries are supposed to have, ya know, all the words in the language.[/QUOTE]

Playing Devils Advocate here but I doubt elementary school kids need anything but the most basic dictionary.

They using the words otiose and pleonastic on the playground nowadays?
 
[quote name='Msut77']Playing Devils Advocate here but I doubt elementary school kids need anything but the most basic dictionary.

They using the words otiose and pleonastic on the playground nowadays?[/QUOTE]

I'm sure they make a children's dictionary or some shit if they don't want kids to be flipping through and finding some vulgar word or reading what "penis" means. But they should know that an everyday mirriam webster dictionary is going to have vulgar words and/or definitions for words they don't want kids to be using or seeing. It doesn't seem like it should be some big surprise.

"Hey Bill, do you think this dictionary might have objectionable words for children in it?"
"I dunno Bob, is it a dictionary?"
 
The schools in my town, which is in Riverside County, are freaking terrible. Before tons of new housing went up in the mid 90s, Lake Elsinore was riddled with gangs and meth (still is a problem, but thankfully not quite as bad). Because of this, it was much cheaper to live in Lake Elsinore as opposed to neighboring cities like Murrieta, Temecula, Corona, and Riverside (it's why my parents moved here, and still typically is true today), other commuter towns that families populated because they worked in LA or Orange County, and couldn't afford to live in those areas. LE also has many kids who speak very little English, or speak English and can't read it well or at all. It's not surprising that children coming from this environment are generally not going to be successful in school.

I actually read dictionaries while in school when we got to read as a class. I kid you not, when the class would read a book out loud one person at a time, about half of the class sounded like they were six years old. It wasn't just ESL kids (which is kind of understandable), either. I didn't understand why kids who spoke English as their first language couldn't read - I actually said some fairly mean things from time to time. I figured out later that it wasn't normal for kids to have their mother at home to read to them constantly from birth until they were reading on their own, or that parents didn't take their children to the library every week to rent as many books as the child wanted, or purchased math books for the child to learn basic math before kindergarten. I don't see how pulling dictionaries is going to help the kids who don't have that advantage in any way.
 
knowing how to use a reference book is a valuable skill, but honestly, dictionaries really aren't all that important

the only time i can ever recall dictionaries being used when at school when i was young was to look up curse words.. not even to learn what they mean, just to see them written, they'd look up "damn" or whatever for no reason

edit: i should add, i don't think they should be banned... but it's like... if it really bothers some parents that much, then i wouldn't mind pulling this particular book to appease them. more-so than accessibility of information i'd be concerned about the financial cost of replacing all the dictionaries.
 
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[quote name='Feeding the Abscess']The schools in my town, which is in Riverside County, are freaking terrible. Before tons of new housing went up in the mid 90s, Lake Elsinore was riddled with gangs and meth (still is a problem, but thankfully not quite as bad). Because of this, it was much cheaper to live in Lake Elsinore as opposed to neighboring cities like Murrieta, Temecula, Corona, and Riverside (it's why my parents moved here, and still typically is true today), other commuter towns that families populated because they worked in LA or Orange County, and couldn't afford to live in those areas. LE also has many kids who speak very little English, or speak English and can't read it well or at all. It's not surprising that children coming from this environment are generally not going to be successful in school.

I actually read dictionaries while in school when we got to read as a class. I kid you not, when the class would read a book out loud one person at a time, about half of the class sounded like they were six years old. It wasn't just ESL kids (which is kind of understandable), either. I didn't understand why kids who spoke English as their first language couldn't read - I actually said some fairly mean things from time to time. I figured out later that it wasn't normal for kids to have their mother at home to read to them constantly from birth until they were reading on their own, or that parents didn't take their children to the library every week to rent as many books as the child wanted, or purchased math books for the child to learn basic math before kindergarten. I don't see how pulling dictionaries is going to help the kids who don't have that advantage in any way.[/QUOTE]

Environment is a large part of it, yet is also English a bitch to learn compared to some languages.

It is such a bastard when it comes to spelling and pronunciation, my jr. high had an old, old oxford dictionary which was ridiculously detailed when it came to word origins even going back to Proto Indo- European.
 
[quote name='SpazX']Well I guess dictionaries are supposed to have, ya know, all the words in the language.[/QUOTE]

They are, but oral sex is not a word - its two. Why not also include "Go fuck yourself fuckface," too, if they start adding phrases. I think looking up oral and sex seperately is enough to comprehend what oral sex is, no?
 
[quote name='Ruined']They are, but oral sex is not a word - its two. Why not also include "Go fuck yourself fuckface," too, if they start adding phrases. I think looking up oral and sex seperately is enough to comprehend what oral sex is, no?[/QUOTE]

Also common short two-word phrases (not random phrases you make up)? If you look up sex they might also define sex appeal, sex chromosome, sex hormone, sex kitten, etc. Then you can also find things like sexual harassment, sexual orientation, seventh heaven (close in the dictionary, yet also somehow relevant).

I'm sorry? Next time I'll make all my dictionaries single words only?

EDIT: Also, I don't know if the print version is significantly more graphic, but the online mirriam-webster dictionary defines oral sex as "oral stimulation of the genitals." Dictionary.com has "sexual contact between the mouth and the genitals or anus; fellatio, cunnilingus, or anilingus" and "Sexual activity involving oral stimulation of one's partner's sex organs."

I would define graphic as somethings a bit more....graphic. I guess I don't know their standards though.
 
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