Making waves with teachers is intimidating.” Standing Up For Kids Makes You a Cuss Word “Parents didn’t know what was in the book, but once they knew, they assumed if a teacher was putting their signature on it, the teacher knew best, instead of saying it’s my kid, it’s my choice. “They didn’t want to make waves because they didn’t want their kids to be singled out,” Heinecke said. She also made as many parents aware of the situation as she could, even creating a form letter they could send to the superintendent and board on their behalf, but found few parents would use it. Assef’s buttock muscles clenching and unclenching, his hips thrusting back and forth. Me, peering around the corner in the alley. My mind flashed to that winter day six years ago. Erma, still on her knees, twisted around and glared at me, ‘Why, you little bitch!’ she said. Brian, his cheeks wet with tears, was holding his hands protectively between his legs. I went into Grandpa’s bedroom and saw Erma kneeling on the floor in front of Brian, grabbing at the crotch of his pants, squeezing and kneading while mumbling to herself and telling Brian to hold still, goddammit. She then wrote a letter to the Superintendent of Edmond Public Schools and to the Edmond School Board, detailing her concerns about the books, along with excerpts such as these They made me feel stupid,” Heinecke said. I felt as though I didn’t have a right to tell them I didn’t want my kid to read it. “He talked to the teachers and the English teacher’s response to him was that it was an award-winning book and kids hear this kind of thing all the time. After her son, a public school sophomore, was assigned the books “The Kite Runner” and “The Glass Castle” as required reading for English II and Pre-AP English II, Heinecke went to the principal and asked for a conference.
Kim Heinecke, also a mother of four with two teenaged sons, is an Edmond, Oklahoma, mother who can relate to Murphy’s battle. In February, the bill passed unanimously out of the House of Delegates (98-0) and the Senate Education and Health Subcommittee (3-2). “They have been extremely supportive, but there was just delay after delay.”įinally, Murphy sought help from the Virginia legislature, where she was able to advance legislation requiring public schools to notify parents of sexually explicit material, allow them to review that content, and grant them an opt-out. “At that point, some eyebrows were raised,” said Murphy.
When she attempted to email direct quotes from “Beloved” to members, the agency firewall prevented her communications from being delivered. Murphy chose to challenge “Beloved,” losing each of three appeals.ĭissatisfied with the outcome, Murphy took her case to the Virginia Board of Education.
“The principal said he didn’t feel he needed to make a change, and that I needed to go to the county level where my only recourse was to challenge a single book,” Murphy said. When she attempted to email direct quotes from ‘Beloved’ to members, the agency firewall prevented her communications from being delivered. If Parents Know, They Won’t Like Itĭuring a meeting with the principal and assistant principal, teachers, librarians, and the English Department chair, an English teacher told Murphy it was important to assign literary material written by best-selling, award-winning authors and if teachers publicly identified books containing sexually explicit material, parents won’t want their kids to read them. It was clear why neither one wanted to read their assigned books any more.”Īfter becoming familiar with the high school reading list that not only included “Beloved” and “Obasan” (a book about Japanese internment that contains descriptions of a little girl being repeatedly molested by a much older neighbor), but “The Bluest Eye,” another Morrison book, Murphy decided to make her concerns known to the school’s administration. “Both my boys had complained for a long time about the books they had been told to read in school. As Murphy continued to read, she discovered other graphic scenes depicting gang rape and bestiality.
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