VA School district pulls Anne Frank’s diary over ‘vagina’ passage

[babylonsister]

School district pulls Anne Frank’s diary over ‘vagina’ passage

By Daniel Tencer
Thursday, January 28th, 2010 -- 11:08 pm


Anne Frank's adolescent curiosity about sexuality is too much for a Virginia school district that has pulled the complete version of the young Jewish girl's diary off its curriculum and off its shelves over a parent's complaint about sexually explicit passages.

Culpeper County Public Schools has pulled Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition off the shelves because parents complained "over the sexual nature of the vagina passage in the definitive edition," reports the Culpeper, Virginia, Star-Exponent.

The complaint has to do specifically with an expanded version of the diary published in 1995. Frank's father, Otto, had excised large parts of his daughter's diary prior to publication in the late 1940s. Anne was killed at the Auschwitz concentration camp in March, 1945. Her diary has made her arguably the most famous Holocaust victim.

more...

http://rawstory.com/2010/01/school-district-pulls-anne-franks-diary/

[nickinSTL]

1. WTF is wrong with this country?

I mean really. Is it so horrible that kids realize that other kids actually think about this stuff?

:eyes:

[Orsino]

47. I wanna know who let the school purchase books by women with vaginas. n/t

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

2. And people wonder why private/charter schools are becoming wildly popular.

Public school boards and districts are a fucking joke.

[donco6]

4. They did it because parents complained.

You don't think parents complain at charter schools?

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

11. Not about shit like this.

Parents that send their kids to charter and private schools do, partly or wholly, believe that the small independent structure of the school lends itself to a better learning environment - that sending thier kids to these selective schools is better for them. Despite the reality of that belief, they nevertheless believe it and this shows they concerned with the quality of education and environment.

Given that insight to many of the charter school parents' valuation of a good education, they would likely not complain about "oral sex" in the dictionary, "vagina" in Anne Frank, "Nigger Jim" in Huck Finn, Holden Caulfield picking up hookers... these are all powerful books with raw powerful topics - intelligent people can see past the taboo and value the lessons to be taught by them. Intelligent people also value a quality education for their child.

I'm sure they complain about some things, but I doubt they complain about useful teaching subjects like these.
And a few probably do complain about some class material like this, but I'd bet those parents are a minority.

[donco6]

23. I've worked for public schools for many years.

We've never had a book *challenged* in the entire time I've been here. In reviewing the book banning statistics, there have been about 268 challenges in 2008. Out of 100,000 public schools, I'd say this is a rare occurrence. Of these some are supported and some are denied.

To imply that public schools are particularly succeptible to book banning is incorrect. The fact is, public schools are where most of the books and parents *are*. Most of the bans appear to be due to offending religious sensitivities. These groups then appeal to the Board of Education. Depending on that board's makeup, the appeal is granted or denied. From what I can read, it's about 50/50.

I'm certainly not saying that public schools are all comprised of brave groundbreakers who always stand up for academic freedom. Obviously not. But to denigrate them with the implication that charters are more "free" is not supportable by the facts. Just give it time. Charters will catch up to the rest of us. They're run by parent boards, too. They'll find something to offend someone soon enough.

[Neurotica]

36. Just a note - challenges often don't get publicized or reported

For instance, in response to a parent's challenge, a librarian at the elementary or middle school level will sometimes elect to move the book up to the next school level. This is not something that is reported to parents and citizens, but the information is often tracked by the director of library services for the school system. Likewise, the ALA doesn't necessarily find out about book challenges unless they become widely publicized community issues.

As you remarked, people are people and some will find cause to complain whether they are associated with public schools, charter schools or private schools.

The good news is that book banning seems to be one area where most parents in a community are in agreement -- most do not want their intellectual freedom to be infringed. When parents find out about books being challenged or removed, they usually unite to oppose such actions.

I speak from personal experience. There's nothing like book banning to bring lots of people to a school board meeting!

[donco6]

39. On that I totally agree.

I'd bet our community would be up in arms about any challenge to a book. Maybe that's why it's never happened. At least, not that I've ever heard about.

[jmowreader]

Let Arne Duncan finish his chartering of the American education system, and they will

Right now charters are chosen by parents who believe in this "better" education. Pretty soon now you're going to see people who send their kids to these schools because it's fashionable, or it's the "cool" thing to do, or there's no choice in the matter because the only school in town has been charterized. Not having read a lot of books in their time, they will walk in on their kids reading Huckleberry Finn out loud...

"Young lady, where did you ever learn that word?"
'It's in this book Ms. Jones assigned us.'
"Well, we'll just SEE about that! No child of MINE is going to read a book like that!"

And next thing you know, all the children in town will be deprived of one of the great American novels--because it's got a certain word that has fallen out of favor in it.

I lived through the era when a fundamentalist moran decided "An Underground Education" and "History Laid Bare" were porn and tried to get them pulled from the city library. (The librarians finally had to put them in the back and not allow them to be checked out--this man had announced his intention to find them on the shelves and deface them, or check them out and burn them on the library steps.) I've seen the evil that men do in the name of Jesus.

[jmowreader]

40. Let Arne Duncan finish his chartering of the American education system, and they will

Right now charters are chosen by parents who believe in this "better" education. Pretty soon now you're going to see people who send their kids to these schools because it's fashionable, or it's the "cool" thing to do, or there's no choice in the matter because the only school in town has been charterized. Not having read a lot of books in their time, they will walk in on their kids reading Huckleberry Finn out loud...

"Young lady, where did you ever learn that word?"
'It's in this book Ms. Jones assigned us.'
"Well, we'll just SEE about that! No child of MINE is going to read a book like that!"

And next thing you know, all the children in town will be deprived of one of the great American novels--because it's got a certain word that has fallen out of favor in it.

I lived through the era when a fundamentalist moran decided "An Underground Education" and "History Laid Bare" were porn and tried to get them pulled from the city library. (The librarians finally had to put them in the back and not allow them to be checked out--this man had announced his intention to find them on the shelves and deface them, or check them out and burn them on the library steps.) I've seen the evil that men do in the name of Jesus.

[Fumesucker]

10. Where I am private schools are almost invariably "Christian"..

The main reason being that the public schools have those nasty non-white people in them.

The secondary reason being that the public schools don't allow beating the Bible as hard as most of the fundies want.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

16. Same here...

Why heck, I even attended those catholic schools... grade school and high school.
Went to a public middel school though. Believe it or not, I had many black classmates too.

The difference is the parents, no contest. Hell, even as a student that was obvious.

[Fumesucker]

33. The folks I'm talking about don't even think Catholics are Christian..

There are a few Catholic schools here but the great majority are fundie Protestant of one flavor or another and non-white kids have a hippie's chance in Waco of getting into them..

[LWolf]

54. Ignorance is bliss.

Charter schools are a privatization tool. Privatizers want MORE control over curriculum and materials available to students, not less.

School boards are elected, and accountable to the voters and parents of the district. When a school board serves a conservative community, they are more likely to be conservative themselves, and to be open to book banning. Representative Democracy works that way.

As a former school librarian, I can assure you that attacks on books in public schools are relentless. Most districts have a process in place to "approve" books for school libraries (less stringent) and for instruction (more stringent.)

The process provides support when the inevitable challenges come.

During my years as a school librarian, we successfully fought yearly challenges trying to remove "The Martian Chronicles," "Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret," "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark," and a whole host of books about dinosaurs, among many others.

[peekaloo]

3. vagina passage?

you'd think those prudes would've come up with a more kid friendly term.

:sarcasm:

[Stinky The Clown]

5. A little tidbit about Culpepper County, Virginia

From the latest governor's race:

Deeds (D-Boring)
7,251 70.36%

McDonnell (R-Liberty University)
3,055 29.64%

http://hamptonroads.com/newsdata/election/2009/results/locality/culpeper-county/race/governor

[lynne]

29. Don't you have those figures backwards? McDonnell took Culpeper -

- based on the link you attached.

Wish the article indicated the age of the child who's parents complained. I could understand it if she was 9, it is rather explicit for elementary students. High school students are another matter.

I don't see where the removal of that passage takes away or negatively impacts the story. As the complete version was only printed in 1995, the majority of us grew up on Ann Frank's diary without that particular portion available.

[Stinky The Clown]

59. Arrrrgh! You're absolutely correct. My figures are backwards. I cut and pasted wrong.

Mea Maxima Culpa!

[Jamastiene]

6. OMFG

I wish I lived in a country that wasn't so anti-education/anti-human-anatomy/anti-sex/anti-gay/anti-Jewish/anti-women/anti-racial-harmony/anti-history. :mad: :banghead:

[peekaloo]

8. fight back

start a "Vagina is for lovers" state motto campaign. :-)

:hug:

[njlib]

12. I've got one thing to say to this....

funniest response I've read all week!!

:rofl:

[Ishoutandscream2]

27. Bwaaaa!

[Jamastiene]

41. ...

:spray:

[ThatsMyBarack]

50. K&R....

Just for the great bumper sticker idea! :thumbsup:

[Obamanaut]

7. Especially strange for a district with 'virgin' as the base for the state name. nt

[marshall]

9. Anne Frank's wide vagina and a dog's rattlesnake bit scrotum

Either one can get your book banned in some schools!

[MrScorpio]

13. God forbid that some of the students were to find out that they had vaginas

As well as a few historical figures.

[GreenStormCloud]

14. Then they need to yank "Gulliver's Travels" in a hurry.

In the section where he visits Brobdingnag (For readers not familiar with the work, Gulliver is the little one and the people are giants.)he spends a couple of pages describing the bodies, including the genitals, of the lady giants. He tells how they would put him on their breasts and bounce him.

From Chapter 13: http://www.online-literature.com/view.php/gulliver/13?term=packthread

The maids of honour often invited Glumdalclitch to their apartments, and desired she would bring me along with her, on purpose to have the pleasure of seeing and touching me. They would often strip me naked from top to toe, and lay me at full length in their bosoms;

SNIP

That which gave me most uneasiness among these maids of honour (when my nurse carried me to visit then) was, to see them use me without any manner of ceremony, like a creature who had no sort of consequence: for they would strip themselves to the skin, and put on their smocks in my presence, while I was placed on their toilet, directly before their naked bodies, which I am sure to me was very far from being a tempting sight, or from giving me any other emotions than those of horror and disgust: their skins appeared so coarse and uneven, so variously coloured, when I saw them near, with a mole here and there as broad as a trencher, and hairs hanging from it thicker than packthreads, to say nothing farther concerning the rest of their persons. Neither did they at all scruple, while I was by, to discharge what they had drank, to the quantity of at least two hogsheads, in a vessel that held above three tuns. The handsomest among these maids of honour, a pleasant, frolicsome girl of sixteen, would sometimes set me astride upon one of her nipples, with many other tricks, wherein the reader will excuse me for not being over particular.

Censors disgust me. They would rob us of much of our great literature. I remember some years ago there was a flap over Huckleberry Finn being on somebody's ban list.

[a la izquierda]

15. i'd like to smack the crap out of the ONE parent who...

complained. it wasn't many parents, according to the article-it was ONE PARENT.
If I ever have children, I don't want them around idiotic people like this.

[Neurotica]

17. What's particularly disturbing is that the school system didn't follow its policy

in removing the book. They supposedly have a process, and instead of following that process, they removed the book the same day the complaint was lodged orally by the parent.

James Allen, director of instruction for Culpeper schools, basically throws up his hands and says oh well, we're just glad parents are getting involved. HUH?!

The parents in Culpeper should demand that the decision be rescinded because proper process was not followed.

[donco6]

24. Yes, they should follow their process

And someone should contact the Children's Right to Read project. They're amazing from what I can see.

[Neurotica]

31. That is a great organization, as is the National Coalition Against Censorship

We dealt with the removal of the children's storybook "And Tango Makes Three" several years ago. Proper process was not followed and the book was restored to school library shelves.

Unfortunately, even when there is a process, school administrators sometimes pull books because they are afraid of creating a controversy. What usually happens, however, as is the case in Culpeper, the actions taken to calm a vocal parent cause a much bigger controversy that makes the school system a laughingstock and the object of much scorn.

[donco6]

37. Yes. And individual administrators should be held accountable when they do that.

Determining the appropriateness of books is almost always (from what I can see) the purview of the Board of Education. Unfortunately, boards can be pretty conservative, too. But that's the way it's supposed to work. Boards are elected to reflect the values of the community. Thankfully, they don't have to deal with this very often. I think the Right to Read project provides good info for any board facing a ban request.

[Neurotica]

46. Here, principals make initial decisions in consultation with a school committee

If the decision goes against the complaining parent, that parent can appeal to the superintendent, and then to the School Board.

However, if the initial decision is in favor of the complaining parent, how can other parents appeal because it's likely no one will find out...? That is something that I don't believe was addressed following our well-publicized book debacle (although I would have to look more closely at the policy manual to be sure). The only way to know then would be to submit FOIA requests at regular intervals to ask for information related to any and all book challenges.

Once again, Culpeper provides an excellent example of why process must be followed because in that particular case, the school system removed a book based on an oral request. There may not even be a paper trail for other parents to review.

[donco6]

55. I agree - that process is bad.

No one would ever know when a book was challenged or not.

Interesting. I wonder how many places are like that? It's not that way here. However, there's a danger that a principal won't know or won't follow the process. I think if it were me, I would ALWAYS deny the challenge just to kick it up to the next level. Why not? It gets more time for others to challenge the challenge and gets you out of the way as a principal.

[shadowknows69]

18. Somehow I feel lucky for going to school when I did.

I read my first five Stephen King novels from our school library. Now, I doubt I could find a Harry Potter book.

[Bosso 63]

19. Someone reads a book about a child's experience

during the Holocaust, and they find the word "vagina" is offensive. I would have guessed that the offensive part was the HOLOCAUST!

[shadowknows69]

38. You forgot. Death-ok. Sexuality-bad.

Such is the sad fucking state of our "civilization"

[Lyric]

20. I read that passage. I'd imagine that every young girl

has similar thoughts. I know that *I* did. It seems to me that allowing young girls to feel a little more human empathy with Anne would be a *good* thing--well-developed empathy helps guard against future thoughtlessness and cruelty, after all, and it's comforting to know that girls have had these questions for a very long time. It helps you to not feel so alone in all those scary changes. But noooo--vaginas are dirty and evil! Babies come from storks and cabbage patches! LALALALALALALA! *holds fingers in ears*

Way to teach your daughters that their bodies are immoral and gross. Morons.

[shadowknows69]

58. Well said Lyric.

[w8liftinglady]

21. a quote

“The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame.”
– Oscar Wilde,

[Blue_Tires]

22. wow...i didn't even know that was in there...

I guess my class read the G-rated version years ago....

[donco6]

25. This unedited version was published in 1995.

So, yeah, you probably had a different version.

[Blue_Tires]

51. yeah, it was '89 or '90

[MineralMan]

26. Would it be OK, then, if Anne Frank referred to her "hoohoo"

I wonder strange things, sometimes.

[Ishoutandscream2]

28. LOL!! My family calls it "po-po"

This thread is starting to crack me up!

[Lyric]

30. It's really no wonder that teen pregnancy rates are going up.

When girls are told that referencing their reproductive parts is immoral and dirty, they're less likely to ask important questions. We all know where THAT leads. *sigh*

[MineralMan]

32. Or, perhaps, her "cooter?"

Would that be OK with these morons? Some folks think, I suppose that never referring to those "naughty bits" means that adolescents won't figure out what they're for...morons abound!

[Javaman]

34. I agree...

because you know it's so much more important that kids don't read about someone talking about their sexuality than it is reading about the suffering of someone who died along with 6 million other people during the Holocaust.

:sarcasm:

These people are fucking morons.

[concerned1]

35. It's more important to learn about constitutional rights of corporations

and God-given rights of multinationals to rape and pillage

[yellowcanine]

42. Have these idiots ever read the BIBLE? It mentions Breasts and Masturbating

Not to mention circumcision and probably oral sex - what was all that feeding among the lilies about in Song of Solomon if not oral sex?

[peekaloo]

44. Yeah but it's not called 'The Holey Bible'.

:D

all that begetting in the beginning, too.

[pipi_k]

52. All that begetting...just a way to spice up the truth...

Which is that people were found under leaves in the Garden of Eden.

Like Cabbage Patch Kids.


:7

[yellowcanine]

53. Not to mention "going in and knowing people", "uncovering feet" etc. Ruth did the

latter to Boaz in the middle of the night and then expected him to take care of her. What kind of slutty behavior was that? What will we tell the children? "Mom what does it mean to uncover his feet?"

[spanone]

43. god's little army is forever viglilant..the book burners exist thru every generation

[SoCalDem]

45. If she'd only called it by its acceptable terminology

hoo-hah,,, or girlie-bits...or "down there"..

such prudes.. is it any wonder why so many 14 & 15 yr olds end up pregnant?

[peekaloo]

60. The "No No Square"

:rofl:

[The Backlash Cometh]

48. That's just got to be a lame excuse.

[pipi_k]

49. Somehow I don't think it's the terminology that's the problem...

I think it's the fact that parents don't even want their kids knowing that such a place even EXISTS.

As I've mentioned a couple of times before...a friend of mine, who, at the age of nearly 68, did not know that the female urethra and the vagina were two separate orifices.

And yes, she is heavily into her religion...

very very sad.

[Enrique]

56. omg, she might have grown up to be a GYNECOLOGIST!

:scared:

[Lex]

57. Over THIS passage?

"There are little folds of skin all over the place, you can hardly find it. The little hole underneath is so terribly small that I simply can't imagine how a man can get in there, let alone how a whole baby can get out!"

Seriously, this is what they want to ban the book over? OMG.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

62. And these are the pro-fetus fetishists.

:rofl:

[alp227]

61. Washington Post report:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/28/AR2010012804001.html

Censoring reality hampers education. I'm sorry, but there's a really good reason why the anti-sexuality movement has been a 45-year-old epic failure. When the numbnuts make Anne Frank's natural anatomical curiosity just as harmful to children as those booty-shaking ho's in rap music videos, something's really wrong with "traditional values".

[Sabriel]

63. They should have a town-hall meeting about it right away

They could call it The Virginia Dialogues.