http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_14256926

Quote :

"MENIFEE, Calif.—A Southern California school district has pulled dictionaries from classrooms because a parent complained when a child came across the term "oral sex." District officials said Friday that the Menifee Union School District—which serves 9,000 kindergartners through eight graders in Riverside County—is forming a committee to consider a permanent classroom ban of the Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. A memo from Assistant Superintendent Karen Valdes acknowledged it is a respected resource but district officials found that "a number of referenced words are age-inappropriate." "

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/01/oral-sex-defininition-prompts-school-district-to-pull-dictionaries.html

Quote :

""It's just not age-appropriate," said school spokeswoman Betti Cadmus told the newspaper. "It's hard to sit and read the dictionary, but we'll be looking to find other things of a graphic nature." The school board will decide later whether to return the dictionaries to the classrooms. One board member told the Press-Enterprise that there are probably more objectionable terms in the dictionary."

Absolute stupidity. This is especially amusing if they're anything like the schools I went to and health classes start in 5th grade.

1/25/2010 9:35:50 PM

oh god... that is so sad.

1/25/2010 9:37:17 PM

I hope that mom walks in on her son (I'm guessing) blowing a load on a classmate's face when he's 11 years old.

AGE APPROPRIATE THAT, BITCH!

No, seriously, I want her to be traumatized for the fact that she is completely worthless and doesn't deserve to be a part of the human race any more. If my kid is adventurous enough to look up ridiculous shit in the dictionary, then more power to them.

1/25/2010 9:42:06 PM

Quote :

"One board member told the Press-Enterprise that there are probably more objectionable terms in the dictionary.""

1/25/2010 9:45:38 PM

probably

1/25/2010 10:23:25 PM

WTF!

The dictionary is the last remaining place that a child can go to get the least biased information available about anything.

And I love the way this kid just "came across" the term.

1/25/2010 10:23:34 PM

Lets hope that those same kids never stumble across the internet.

1/25/2010 10:43:05 PM

yep, that's pretty much rock bottom.


on a side note, i have a friend at work known as Rock Bottom. It stems from drunken escapades too revolting and deviant for me to even talk about on here, haha.

1/25/2010 10:50:57 PM

omg i bet clitoris is in it also

HIDE YOUR CHILDREN

MERRIAM WEBSTER IS A PERVERT

1/25/2010 11:18:52 PM

i think we should show the movie 'antichrist' to all 1st graders.

1/25/2010 11:48:22 PM

Parenting at its best right here.

Jesus tittyfuckinchrist it's sad when this is what it has come to

1/25/2010 11:51:13 PM

don't worry, they can just find definitions on the internet. there is nothing bad on the internet.

1/26/2010 12:22:30 AM

Not if they can still browse smut sites like m-w.com

1/26/2010 12:50:42 AM

This reads like something from The Onion.

I still don’t feel like it’s real...

1/26/2010 12:53:38 AM

I remember checking cnn.com during the Clinton-Lewinski scandal and seeing that they had a special section on how to explain things like "oral sex" that your kids might accidently hear on tv after the Starr report came out. As I recall you're supposed to tell your kids that oral sex is "kissing in special places".

1/26/2010 1:20:32 AM

I'm just glad this didn't happen in the South (not saying it wouldn't, but I just like the world to know that we're not all ignorant, and not all ignorant people live here )

1/26/2010 1:36:39 AM

I don't know about you guys, but the only time I was caught reading a dictionary was when I was LOOKING for the dirty words.

1/26/2010 1:40:12 AM

We've moved on to the dictionary? I guess we fixed that whole "Teachers Having Sex with the Kids" problem... right?

1/26/2010 2:00:50 AM

^ If bad words didn't exist, there would be no sex in the world, and if there is no sex, there would be no teachers having sex with kids.

Removing dictionaries is the way to remove perversions and sex from the human race.

1/26/2010 1:05:13 PM

Wow. A soap box thread where everyone agrees with each other.

1/26/2010 1:07:11 PM

^ haha I was thinking the same thing

1/26/2010 1:30:49 PM

We probably disagree on an appropriate punishment. Maybe the parent and school board should all be hit forcefully in the head WITH dictionaries. Certainly some non-violent types would disagree with that.

Or more accurately, we can disagree on the solution to this problem: if all schools were private schools, then some schools could ban the dictionary while most would not, and then students/parents would be free to send their children to the school of their choice. Once the schools that banned dictionaries found themselves with only one student (the one from the article) and went bankrupt, we would promptly return to a universal dictionary possessing education system. Then, anyone in the future that suggests a stupid idea such as this would promptly be shouted down with "are in insane? Do you want us all to lose our customers/jobs/investment? Go away with that shit!"

Which brings us to the cause of these idiotic problems: school boards have a monopoly, they do not face the threat of bankruptcy for such behavior, so they will happily engage in stupid behavior just to get on television.

[Edited on January 26, 2010 at 1:44 PM. Reason : ,.,]

1/26/2010 1:42:00 PM

Quote :

"I love the way this kid just "came across" the term."

i am sure their kid did not JUST stumble onto the word "oral sex"

1/26/2010 2:05:13 PM

Well, she has a point. Kids look up dirty stuff in the dictionary.

I remember looking up dirty words and sexual terms in the dictionary as an elementary schooler. Hell, I'd be willing to bet that kids learn more from the dictionary than they would from whatever crappy ass avoidance talk their parents give them about sex.

But banning the damned dictionaries because they do their jobs? That's just stupid.

1/26/2010 4:40:12 PM

1/26/2010 7:47:54 PM

^^ For that matter, does anyone have a current copy of the MW? Admittedly, it has been a long time since I opened a dictionary, but from what I remember, there were only definitions for single words, not phrases. Is "Oral Sex" actually in the dictionary, or did mommy overhear precious angel talking to some friends, flip out and demand to know where he heard such a word and the kid just lied and said he saw it in the dictionary?

1/26/2010 7:49:08 PM

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/oralsex

Quote :

"Main Entry: oral sex Function: noun Date: 1973 : oral stimulation of the genitals : cunnilingus, fellatio"

how could the schools possibly let little johnny read such a thing!?

1/26/2010 11:06:26 PM

one of my fav places in uptown charlotte

1/26/2010 11:21:54 PM

wait, wat? the term "oral sex" wasn't defined for general use before 1973?

1/26/2010 11:40:18 PM

ahahaha. fucking classic. way to go California. Keep up the good work

1/27/2010 12:24:30 AM

HUR, you are the captain of dumb.

1/27/2010 2:46:32 AM

actually, i think he's the Chief Boatswain's Mate.

but sometimes they let him steer the boat.

1/27/2010 2:53:58 AM