So It Goes: Missouri High School Bans Slaughterhouse-Five

As Mississippi has the lowest literacy rate in the U.S., schools might want to focus on THAT instead of on book banning.

Then again, maybe there is a connection between being illiterate and banning books.

I am a librarian and I only hope that the librarian at this school fought tooth and nail to prevent this from happening. I thought there was a separation of church and state in this country, not to mention freedom of information. Just because this professor feels that a book offends his personal beliefs, does not mean he has the right to determine who else should and should not be allowed to read it. That approach sounds a little too much like something I would expect from a group such as the Taliban, not a supposedly educated college professor. Shame on him and shame on the board of education for bowing to such right-wing idiocy!

The U.S. Supreme Court decided in Island Trees School District v. Pico (1982) that a school board in New York that banned Slaughterhouse Five was in violation of student’s 1st Amendment rights. Thus it should be trivial to win a court case against this school district as well.

I am also appalled that a professor is the one who first filed the complaints to have these titles banned! Too much information is always preferable to too little. Ignoring issues doesn’t make them go away! Better to be exposed to inconvenient truths within the pages of a book than to get curious and experience these things firsthand.

Ahhhh Religion the Opiate of the Masses.

When did parents give up the responsibility of raising their own children? Why does associate professor Wesley Scroggins think that it is his job to tell parents what their children should be able to read?

The children that Scroggins should most concerned about are his own. It is amazing how much sex, violence and drug abuse children can be exposed to and still be good Christian children when they have their parents spending time with them. My parents discussed with me every book I read, they explained that life on the outside of school and home could be like the pictures portrayed in books like Slaughterhouse Five.

Children emulate their parents more often than the disturbing images in popular fiction. It is sad to think that the Republic High School Board can be led bya narrow minded individuals and even more upsetting to believe that there were fewer parents and teachers who cared enough to stand up for these books.

Once you start going down the slippery slope of book banning, it is tough to turn around.

This is terrible. And a college professor was the one to challenge the text? Appalling. And as if school educators and admins don’t have enough to do, now they have to completely change the standards to comply with the opinions of a few, while ignoring the potential for student learning possible with these books. Ignorance is dangerous.