Letter to the Editor: Concerns raised about books for eighth-graders

To the editor:

District 206 taxpayers need to be informed of curriculum content that was recently introduced into the eighth grade English classroom under the title of "Social Issues Book Club."

Some of the suggested novels have content that is essentially pornographic in nature and unnecessarily offensive. According to the book sites, commonsensemedia.org and Amazon reviews, six of the eighteen books either contain "graphic descriptions of prostitution with violent rape; masturbation and oral sex; the fondling of girls' privates; multiple episodes of underage drinking, drunkenness, and drug use; violent school shootings; young children getting violently murdered; demonic imagery; graphic descriptions of violence including rape and induced abortion; and/or lots of foul language and derogatory words."

One of the books, "Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda," includes more than 75 uses of the F word including O my f*** God, f*** up, Le f***, f*****g awesome, holy f*****g H***, monkey's a**hole, multiple uses of the words, s***, a**hole, G**d***, H***, and b****. It also includes many sexual innuendos, a sexual fantasy scene, "getting close (to orgasm)", and "getting hard" is portrayed; a gay bar scene where the underage protagonist, Simon, gets very drunk and is propositioned by a college student; and a scene in his bedroom with his new boyfriend in which they make out and both get "hard," and scores of other offensive elements.

Why were these books recommended to any student, much less to the boys and girls in eighth grade?

If vulgarity and insults aren't tolerated in the hallways, why is it OK to read it?

We followed the district's chain of command. The administration has agreed to look into making policy changes. Although painful to expose publicly, we hope that this letter will spur our school to better live out its stated core values.

Glenn and Lori Downing

Larry and Dee Novotny

Dave and Angie Wegner

Todd and Brenda Vinje

Ryan and Hannah Rooney

Alexandria, MN

(Editor's note: This letter included 13 more names; the newspaper has a policy limiting the number of names attached to letters to five.)

The school district offered the following response to the above letter:

Eighth grade classrooms are currently teaching to the MN 6-12 Academic English Language Arts (ELA) Standards. The unit is called Social Issues and the learning strand is around multiple perspectives taught through empathy. The structure of the learning unit is small book group format which under the guidance and supervision of the teacher within the classroom, students choose the book they wish to study from a list of book titles. The book in question is currently being read by 18 students (out of 333 8th graders) with parent permission.

Within the ELA standards there is a wide range of literary works and content. We share your concerns that some may contain graphic material.

Our desire is to continue working in partnership with parents and staff to provide a safe environment to learn and discuss difficult topics. We acknowledge the process needs improving. We will revise processes and ensure parent involvement in the approval process, including parent consent when discussing sensitive topics.

We appreciate the issues brought forth from concerned citizens. We are committed to ensuring policy guidelines and appropriate processes moving forward.

Julie Critz

Superintendent

Alexandria School District 206