Utah Bans 13 books from state schools

[DiapDealer]

The phrase "basically pornographic" is just another way of saying "not actually porn pornographic".

[cfrizz]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

"pornographic crap" is in the eye of the beholder.

Parents have the right to dictate what their children can access. They do NOT have the right to dictate what other children can access.

Thank you Tubemonkey! Rcentros, I was almost agreeing with you until you posted the "pornographic crap" label. What you consider crap, I consider Mature reading material.

It is absolutely fine if what this author writes is something that you are not interested in reading, but others might be very interested in reading it and they don't regard it as crap.

But it might not necessarily belong in a childrens library.

The problem is that "Children" grow up, mature and get curious and hormonal when puberty strikes. Removing these books will NOT stop this process, and the now teenagers will find another way to explore the world they are living in and the urges that they are getting. They always have and they always will.

Parents do and should have the right to decide what their children have access to, but it won't stop the "children" from getting what they want

This is simply an all or nothing scheme that is trying to excuse the parents from actually being parents and sitting down and explaining to their kids what they want and expect from said kids.

What these fools don't realize is that it won't work. Kids will be kids and do what they want outside of their parents view and the parents won't be any the wiser.

I'm sure all of us did the same thing when we were kids!

[mrscoach]

School libraries have limited funds, so I think those funds need to be funneled to less controversial books for the most part. I'm torn on a statewide ban on books, I'm for a more locally controlled collection.

I didn't buy the whole 'they grow up and need exposure or they'll get it on their own' because I've heard the same argument for both alcohol and drugs.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jackm8

I really like Oryx, my favourite Atwood book by far. But it's not children's book, it's very far from it. If censorship is needed for it to be removed for school libraries, then perhaps the problem is not censorship, but those that put it into school libraries in the first place.

When I was a kid, I was reading above my age. At age 13 I know I was reading some books rated for 18+.

I see no need at all to ban any of those books and if someone finds books incorrectly filed and they really are, don't ban them and correctly file them.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by rcentros

Parents have the right to decide what books they believe are inappropriate for their children.

You do realize that these kids can go online and buy these banned books if they want? The problem is that a ban like this gives these book much more attention then they would ever get otherwise and it might make kids want to read them when they otherwise would have nothing to do with them.

If I had a high-school age teen, I would not mind any of those books being read.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Just out of curiosity: when do they become adolescents, or young adults, if they remain "children" until after secondary school?

The term "young adult" is meaningless. You are either an adult or not.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by PeterT

I'm not sure who Sarah J. Mass is; I do find though an author with similarly titled books Sarah J. Maas.

Mass is a type. Her last name is Maas.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by rcentros

And many of those parents have parental controls on the Internet. Or they limit their child's access to it. But even if they didn't why should they accept this pornographic crap in their children's school libraries?

So how old would your kids have to be before they could read something like this?

My parents never censored what I read. I had free reign to choose what I read. While I didn't read a lot of things with sex, I did read a lot of books with violence back before I was 18 and a legal adult. It never did me any harm. I was easily able to tell the difference between reality and fiction.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by rcentros

Not in Idaho now. But even if what you say is true, why should this crap be promoted and provided in school libraries? It's unlawful for children to buy liquor and drugs, but they manage to get around the laws. Does that mean the schools should provide it for them to save them the trouble of finding it elsewhere?

These books were not promoted until the ban. The ban is what is promoting these books.

[hildea]

Several posters here have written that parents have a right to decide what their children can read. In my opinion, children have a right to information, and their right should weigh heavier than the parents' right to restrict information.

We should trust schools and librarians to determine which books are suitable for which ages. The damage if some kids read books that's too advanced for them is minimal compared to the damage kids suffer from being kept in ignorance about how bodies work, what sex is, and other topics that typically get targeted by bans.

[JSWolf]

A Court of Thorns and Roses has 2,885,884 ratings & 228,243 reviews on Goodreads. And that's a pittance compared to how many have read it.

At at least one of the libraries I have access to, I can get the GraphicAudio version of this book.

I may read this book just to see what the fuss is about.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by mrscoach

School libraries have limited funds, so I think those funds need to be funneled to less controversial books for the most part. I'm torn on a statewide ban on books, I'm for a more locally controlled collection.

I didn't buy the whole 'they grow up and need exposure or they'll get it on their own' because I've heard the same argument for both alcohol and drugs.

Kids these days are not stupid. They'll know when parents are trying to block them from doing something and find a way to do it anyway. However, if it's not blocked, they may not want to do it.

When I was a child, my parents kept the liqueur cabinet in the basement unlocked. I have plenty of access to it if I wanted. I didn't want to. My parents never said no you cannot do that. When parents ban something fromt heir kids, kids will find a way.

[jackm8]

Question yourself what would they have done if they noticed someone taking a sip from time to time.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I have read 9 of those books. I would not describe any of them as smut. That you would use smut and sexually explicit to describe them suggests you have not read them.

As mentioned, I've scanned one of Maas' books. I've seen examples of the explicit material in it — and a quick search showed that it was the book was infested with it. I'm not going to quote passages here, but if it's not smut, smut doesn't exist. Definitely not something I would want my 14 year old child to read.

Originally Posted by DNSB

Dating yourself with that choice of magazines. So now we have jumped to conflating those books with magazines with nekkid wimmin. Might I ask why you left Playgirl and it's ilk out? Have you actually read any of those books?

So what? I don't keep up on current smut magazines. Sue me. But I see you avoided the real question. Would you condone placing smut magazines (whatever the current ones happen to be) in school libraries? Yes or no? Because I sure wouldn't.

Originally Posted by DNSB

I ran into quite a few homeschooled children who had transferred into the public school system. Many of those experiences were enough to make me regret my career.

I've run into a lot of kids who have gone through the public school system who are a confused and drug-addled mess, and who can barely read. It's enough to make me very happy that my kids never went to public school. But I guess not reading may have been a plus since their school library was probably filled with smut.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

And no, I haven't read any of these books. Have you?

As mentioned I scanned one. I even hinted at what was included in the book. Did you miss that post?