... from school shelves ...

After a parent complained about an elementary school student
stumbling across "oral sex" in a classroom dictionary, Menifee
Union School District officials decided to pull Merriam Webster's
10th edition from all school shelves earlier this week.

School officials will review the dictionary to decide if it should be
permanently banned because of the "sexually graphic" entry, said
district spokeswoman Betti Cadmus. The dictionaries were initially
purchased a few years ago for fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms
districtwide, according to a memo to the superintendent.

[...]
Board member Rita Peters questioned why one parent's complaint
would lead the district to pull the dictionaries.

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

This is not the waste of are tax payer money. I say get the sharpies out and edit it themselves.

The kids probably already know of oral sex, which is why they went and looked it up. Shakes head.

Welcome to the " Nanny State ".

It's working out PERFECTLY for Great Britain. All my British friends tell me so.

have heard nothing so scary since they pulled prayer out of school, I guess we cant decided on morals OR english in this country

Prayer never left school. I remember plenty of kids praying over tests and what-not. And the Catholic kids were constantly transferring in and out of the local private school depending on who they were boinking at any given point in time.

It's the sheer lack of parental responsibility that is what is missing. Basic sex education won't kill anyone, at any age.

I guess they can still bring in their own dictionaries too, but it would be nice if the schools didnt DISCOURAGE it by banning it.

The English say we quit speaking Proper English a long, long time ago.

Exactly ... I'm curious how the parent found out - it states that
the child stumbled on the term "in a classroom dictionary". I can
assume this child went home and asked the parent about it or
to elaborate.

The online Webster's shows the definition as, "oral stimulation of the genitals".
(Can't say if the print edition elaborates on the definition). My guess is the
child asked something about it and the parent was too embarrassed or
insecure in discussing the subject with their child ... rather, they shifted the
focus on the school as being "irresponsible" (my words).

Don't you know that parents would rather have kids being dumb about sex...

I guess it goes from generation to generation, only problem is, the generations get worse with each one.

Don't you all know that a child that knows of such things will innately want to do them??

That is why noone is supposed to mention gays or gay sex.

The ignorance of parents are showing here.

The parents don't want to explain these things to the kids except to say how wrong they are.

Of course, the kids are going to find out anyway and probably not in the way the parent would approve of.

I admit these talks with my kids were uncomfortable but I had to answer them honestly and positively.

When my son wanted to know if he was gay after talking with some gay guys, that one was difficult for me because I did not want him to feel uncomfortable with whatever he may be. I told him that from what I had noticed he seemed to like girls but that did not mean that I know for sure. I told him he will have to discover for himself if he is gay or bi or hetero. None of them were wrong.

My son is hetero or at least has been so far.

That would be my guess as to how they found it, though with as much as kids know, they may have been looking through the dictionary to see what kind of "dirty" words were in there, anyways.

And that's exactly what would happen with most of the parents around here. To chicken to discuss it. You only have to get into as much detail as to what the kid appears interested in without overdoing it. Sheesh, it's not that hard.

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
What do you think kinder garden IS THAT A GOOD STARTING POINT, ok . I heard the pedophiles were complaining about there lack of training . I read that teachers were working hard to change that .What they need is picture dictionaries .The parents are very very wrong not having them trained before the start school .They just won't support us . Dam them .

lol, I agree grade school is a bit young for them to be concerned with or need knowledge about oral sex. I dont feel a dictionary is an appropriate target though. The way I see the issue is as a combination of things. Sex ed has been in schools since what? the forties? but it was the basic Biology of where babies come from and the media wasnt SWARMING with images of all types of casual sexual relations. Now we have a combination of meaningless sex on television, meaningless sex amongst adults , and schools teaching all about meaningless sex as well,,,what else can those kids learn if meaningless sex constitutes the MAJORITY of what they see as example and learn in school?

When I was in grade school we never used the term oral sex. Sounded too sterile.
Preferred terms like BJ, lickin' th' bowl, eating the box out of the frame, she could suck the chrome off a bumper, carpet munching, eating at the Y and other terms you won't find in the dictionary.

We didn't get quite that graphic lol, but I agree we used our own terminology. And I can tell you form personal experience that in the fourth and fifth grade I, myself was looking in the dictionary and encyclopedias for anything I could find just for the sheer thrill of it. I was also like your average kid looking at the sears catalogue in the women's section to see women in their "underwear" etc. Not too mention National Geographic magazines, lol.

I happen to like how my children's current school handles it which is to designate age appropriate sections. It is definitely to be expected that a ten year old (your average fourth grade student) is going to be curious about sex, and trying to find ways to learn more about it. We did it as kids, our parents did it as kids (anyone remember reading about the 60's, or even living them for the generation prior to me?).

The problem is not in the schools themselves (generally speaking) but in the fact that parents don't want to discus the issue with their kids. Sex is ok for the media, ok for the newspapers, ok for for the general public, but it is taboo to discuss it or teach HEALTHY sexual behavior to children when they are asking for the information themselves. very simple fact of life is, if the child is old enough to ask you about it, they are old enough to learn about it, because they WILL learn about it, either in school, from their parents, or out on the streets from their peers.

that's all fine with me

it's California what do you expect?

their kids are over protected and coddled and shielded from any challenges or trials that might build a person's character

and I say that's fine

when it comes to competing with Texas kids for jobs or status or position they are gonna lose miserably

so I say have at it you weird azz California parents

It's not just California doing this, but the entire country over all. Some places are better than others (as in cities and local areas), but overall it's this way across the entire country.