79.9

Earlier this week, schools in Southern California’s Menifee Union school district have had all Merriam Webster dictionaries removed from classrooms because a 5th-grade student found the definition for “oral sex” within the book.

The board has formed a panel that will determine whether or not this ban on dictionaries will be made permanent. “It’s hard to sit and read the dictionary, but we’ll be looking to find other things of a graphic nature,” district spokeswoman Betti Cadmus told the local paper, The Press-Enterprise.

As of a few days ago, the panel came to the conclusion that the dictionaries will indeed remain within the classroom, but children will only have access to it if the parents sign permission slips.

This mindless censorship is ridiculous and needs to be curbed immediately. My bet is that they ban the encyclopedia for anatomical references next.

- Sarah Wilkinson

Sources:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dictionary27-2010jan27,0,5566022.story

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jan/25/oral-sex-dictionary-ban-us-schools

http://www.pe.com/localnews/menifee/stories/PE_News_Local_W_sdictionary22.414bdf0.html