The book "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" has been removed from Roanoke County school libraries after a parent publicly complained, resulting in a flood of citizen complaints.
-- From "Teachers tense after book complaint" by Courtney Cutright, Roanoke Times 10/15/09
The review of "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" is under way but school spokesman Chuck Lionberger did not specify when it will be done.
Two copies of the novel were removed from William Byrd High and a third was taken off the shelves at Hidden Valley High School. A third county school library, Cave Spring High School, also had the book until last school year when it was reported missing. Per the division's policy, the ruling on the challenged book applies to only the school where the complaint originated.
John Davis, the parent who complained, said in an interview last week he awaited the panel's decision. "It's not really anything I was looking for except making folks aware," he said. "I was hoping to get the Gospel out some more. We need repentance in the land."
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From "Gulf High IB student gets reprieve on book she objected to" St. Petersburg Times 9/17/09
It appears Marí Mercado won't have to read "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" after all. And she won't have to take a reduced score on her required International Baccalaureate program world literature essay, either.
Marí's father, Rafael, told the Gradebook that he sat with officials from Gulf High School this afternoon, and they agreed to give his daughter a new novel for her assignment.
Marí, a 16-year-old junior, had objected to the required reading of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, saying she was offended by the graphic sexual content in the book's early pages. Initially, school officials stated that they could not change the assignment. After additional review directed by the Pasco school district's curriculum department, the position seems to have softened.
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