Banned Dictionary Returned to Shelves
RSSBy Rocco Staino -- School Library Journal, 01/31/2010
Copies of the Merriam-Webster's 10th Collegiate Edition dictionary (Merriam Webster, 2000) are back on classroom and library shelves at Oak Meadows Elementary School in Riverside County, CA, after being temporarily removed.
Officials at the Manifee Union School District, which serves close to 9,000 Pre-K to eighth grade students, pulled the books following objections from a parent that they contained the definitions of inappropriate sexual terms. But a panel of parents, teachers, and administrators decided last week to return copies of the dictionary to fourth and fifth grade students, along with a letter to parents asking for signed permission to allow their children to use them. Teachers will maintain a list of those students allowed to use the dictionary.
"I think it’s absurd that we will remove dictionaries from our library especially because these dictionaries are the same ones we use in our spelling bees," Rita Peters, school board president, said. “I think we are approaching censorship with this.”
Peters’ views echoed cries of censorship among many, including the president of the local school board, who warned that banning one book would inevitably lead to the banning of more books.
Emanuel Chavez, the parent of second- and sixth-grade students told the Press Enterprise, “Pretty soon the only dictionary in the school library will be the Bert and Ernie dictionary."
Although several news organizations, including the LA Times and The Guardian, said one of the objectionable phrases was “oral sex,” the term does not appear in the 10th edition of the dictionary. It does, however, appear in the 11th edition, which is not owned by the school district.
School librarian Paula Davis says her library copy of the dictionary was also removed, in clear violation of district policy, which states, “the challenged material may remain in use until a final decision has been reached.”
It was unclear whether a formal written complaint was ever received from the parent because names were never released to the media. Betti Cadmus, public information officer for the district, told School Library Journal that according to district policy, a panel of parents, teachers and administrators was formed by to “review the criteria specified in board policy. “In no way do we think of this as a joke,” Cadmus says of the review process.
The Merriam-Webster's Collegiate dictionary has been published since 1898 by a company founded in 1843. It also publishes a number of school references, written specifically for elementary and middle school students. Merriam-Webster's Elementary Dictionary (Merriam-Webster,) is aimed at children in grades three to five, and the Merriam-Webster's Intermediate Dictionary (Merriam-Webster) is aimed at children in grades six to eight. “We do not restrict sales of our products or limit what schools or teachers choose to use in their classrooms,” says Meghan Lieberwirth, marketing and publicity manager for Merriam Webster. “However we do not recommend the Collegiate Dictionary for elementary school use.”
