Monroe Township School Disctrict in Williamstown, New Jersey has pulled books off the required reading list for high school honors students because of content depicting lesbian and gay sex. Representives for the district have apologized to parents whose kids read the material, Fox News reports.
“There were some words and language that seemed to be inappropriate as far as the parents and some of the kids were concerned,” said Chuck Earling, superintendent of Monroe Township Schools. “We were not trying to create controversy. We were just trying to get students to read.”
One of the books causing concern is Norwegian Wood, which was included on a list for incoming sophomores in an honors English class. The Glouchester County Times reported on the “graphic depiction of a lesbian sex scene between a 31-year-old woman and a 13-year-old girl,” and the concerns parents had once they discovered the passage.
“I don’t think that’s relevant for any teenager,” said Robin Myers, whose daughter was assigned the book. “I was just kind of in shock.”
An honors English course for incoming seniors required students to read Tweak (Growing up on Methamphetamines), which “describes a drug-fueled, homosexual orgy," according to Fox News.
“That has created a controversy,” Earling told Fox, referring to the drug usage and lesbian and gay sex scenes. “We’ve pulled them from our summer reading list.”
Fox also spoke with Peter Sprigg, from the Family Research Council, who was “not surprised by the controversy surrounding the books.”
“Here we see the intersection of parental values being offended, the hyper-sexualization of our youth and the homosexual agenda being pushed,” Sprigg said. “This just illustrates why a lot of American parents are not willing to entrust their children to the public schools anymore.”
As for whose idea it was to include the books on a summer reading list for teens, Earling said the district’s reading list was put together by a committee of teachers, librarians and school administrators. The list was then approved by the board of education before being distributed to students.
“They read the books,” Earling said. “They didn’t feel it was inappropriate based on the language that’s used, common language used on the street.” The superintendent noted that students have seen more graphic things on television or in the movies, and added that the number of actual complaints was less than a dozen.
Earling said that in the future the summer reading committee will include parents.
Fox also included Sprigg’s call out to parents to pay close attention to what their kids are being told to read.
“To a large extent the educational community and the library community have come under the control of very radical liberal ideology with regard to sexuality and they view anything that might remotely be called censorship as the ultimate evil,” Sprigg said. “Exposing children to graphic sexual content – that is not as evil as censorship in the minds of some left-wing activists.”
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