In July through August 2004, and for several weeks after the start of the 2004-2005 Blue Valley school year, Blue Valley West posted a reading list for Communication Arts IV on their school Web site that included the following books. As you will see by clicking the links for each book, this reading list contains a tremendous amount of profane, sexually stimulating, and otherwise inappropriately adult content when used as a required reading assignment for a minor child. In September, classkc.org was told that this reading list was not used at West. We are grateful for that decision.
Unfortunately, however, in multiple conversations with Blue Valley administrators over the development and intent of this reading list, the practice by which this book list was developed has been repeatedly defended and supported. Blue Valley administrators have repeatedly stated that "if a student has a choice" (between 2 or more books to read for a particular required reading assignment), the books do not have to go through the formal selection policies (as outlined by Blue Valley curriculum selection policy 4600). Selection policy 4600 states that curriculum used within the school district shall be age-appropriate as well as devoid of gratuitous sex, profanity, and violence.
We find this practice to be completely unacceptable for obvious reasons which are even more blatantly evident when reviewing the vulgar books promoted as "choices" by Blue Valley as shown below. The practice of circumventing the formal selection policy by giving kids a choice of several books to use for a required reading assignment negates the purpose for a formal curriculum selection policy in the first place. The practice is not only hypocritical when compared to the intent of the selection policy, it also hides offensive content from the unsuspecting student and family. Finally, we find the practice of providing "choices" as a means to avoid facing selection standards potentially very harmful, in that it gives teachers the green light to assign any number of profane books such as those shown below without accountability for their choices. Surely the current Blue Valley curriculum selection policy 4600 which states that books shall be absent of gratuitous sex, violence, and profanity was not approved by the Board of Education only to be subverted by clever instructional tricks in the classroom?
Would you want your minor children to be required to read any of the following books for a grade? Are these examples of high quality literature? Does this represent the quality education you assume is being delivered in the Blue Valley school system? As a parent, does this represent the words, values, or thoughts you want your children to be actively studying without prior parental consent? Is this what the Blue Valley BOE curriculum selection policy promises to parents? What do you think of these "choices"?
| Title | Author | A small sampling of the words and thoughts your child will study if they "choose" this book |
|---|---|---|
| Friday Night Lights | Bissinger, H.G. | motherfucker, pussy, fuck, fucking field, bullshit, assholes, drunk, drinking excessively, Dumb ol’ nigger. Cocky nigger. New Jersey nigger. Smartaleck nigger. Talk nigger. Blame it on the niggers. Afraid of the niggers. Nigger lady. Let the nigger girl do it. Nigger ball. Run, you nigger...Some people looked tall, some looked short, and some looked nigger, I’m gonna drive your dick in the dirt, fuckheads, cocksuckers |
| The Hot Zone | Preston | bitch, shit, fuck, Goddamn, fucking, Mr. Bat Shit, pissing, assholes |
| Lords of Discipline | Conroy | motherfucker/fucker/fuck/fuckstick, pussy, cunt, douchebag, poontang, slut, suck my dick, shit, piss, asswipe, bastard. All of Conroy's books contain a great deal of vulgarity. Blue Valley loves this author, however, at times assigning other Conroy books including My Losing Season, The Great Santini, and The Water is Wide. |
| My Losing Season | Conroy | All of Conroy's books contain a great deal of vulgarity. Blue Valley loves this author, however, at times assigning other Conroy books including Lords of Discipline, The Great Santini, and The Water is Wide. |
| The Great Santini | Conroy | All of Conroy's books contain a great deal of vulgarity. Blue Valley loves this author, however, at times assigning other Conroy books including Lords of Discipline, My Losing Season, and The Water is Wide. |
| Going After Cacciato | O'Brien, Tim | bitch, shit, Jesus Christ, fuckin’, bastard, for Christ sake, Jesus, son of a bitch, shitting, fucking, good shit, shit, sorry ass, happy-assed, bad shit, piss tube, shitter, shithead, fucker, dink, gook. Also, for depressed teens, this book sends a deadly message: Life and choice are meaningless anyway; go ahead and end it. |
| Things They Carried | O'Brien, Tim | fucker, bastard, flat-fuck fell, shit, pisser, At the girl’s throat was a necklace of human tongues. Note that Blue Valley loves this author, recommending two of O'Brien's Viet Nam books to the kids: Things They Carried, and Going After Cacciato. |
| Fallen Angels | Myers | asshole, go fuck yourself, try to have sex with a Vietnamese girl, what the fuck, fucking medic, fag, damn, nigger, fucking kid, fucking solider, fucking trained for, fucking each other up, dudes were collecting ears from dead Congs and wearing them around their necks |
| Song of Solomon | Morrison | fucking small children, convicts, boys, sheep, dogs, goats, liver, each other, and even certain species of plants; fuck, fucking, motherfucker, drive that knife smack in your cunt, cocksucker, smacking my lips over another man’s dick. Blue Valley loves this author, at times assigning other Morrison books including Beloved and The Bluest Eye. |
| Beloved | Morrison | fucking, fucking cows, dreaming of rape, the men abused cows, fucked cows. Blue Valley loves this author, at times assigning other Morrison books including Song of Solomon and Bluest Eye. |
| Bluest Eye | Morrison | Language includes fuck, shit, ass, tit, bastard, whore, nigger, bitch, coon lots of incest and other types of sex. Blue Valley loves this author, at times assigning other Morrison books including Beloved and Song of Solomon. |
| Power of One | Courtenay | fuck, fucker, fucking, shit, piss, Christ, Jesus, bastard, bitch, dick, prick, bullshit, whore, jewboy, kraut, snotnose, you're so fucking smart, pack-raped, gang-raped |
| I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings | Angelou | incest is a major topic. put his hand between my legs, my introduction to lesbianism, hermaphrodite, crabs, nigger, jigs, dinges, blackbirds, crows, boots and spooks, shit, shit-color |
| Me Talk Pretty One Day | Sedaris | Me Talk Pretty One Day won a Lambda Literary Foundation (LLF) Award in 2000. LLF is "devoted to the recognition and promotion of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender writing". |
| Slaughterhouse Five | Vonnegut | motherfucker, fucked, fucking, fuck, fucking, God-damned, Jesus, Jesus Christ, cocksucker, shit, piss, balls, pecker, whore, bastard, son of a bitch, hard-on, hell, damn |
| One Hundred Years of Solitude | Garcia Marquez | This book has graphic descriptions of incest such as the following Oh, little sister, little sister.. cyclonic power lifted her up by the waist and despoiled her.. with 3 slashes of its claws and quartered her like a little bird... the inconceivable pleasure of that unbearable pain, splashing... hammock absorbed the blood like a blotter. 3 days later they were married... she’s your sister. I don’t care... It’s against nature... fuck nature 2 times over.. scandalous honeymoon.... cries that woke up the whole district as many as 8 times in a single night and 3 times during siesta. |
| One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest | Kesey | - 12 uses of “fuck/fucking/motherfucker”, 9 of “shit/bullshit”, 12 of “bitch/son of a bitch”, 4 of “asshole/ass", 10 of “goddamn”, 10 of “bastard”, 6 of “ball-cutter”, 4 of “coon”, plus dago, tarbabies, black-ass, nigger and cocksucker |
| All the Pretty Horses | McCarthy | shit, goddam, bullshit, dogshit, ass, dipshit, asshole, rat's ass, whores |
| Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned | Mosely | shit, what the fuck, motherfucker, pressing his erection, here you are callin’ me a niggah an’ really it’s you the one playin’ the niggah on yo’ own wife an’ kids. Here you are, out here pushin’ up against some teenage girl, Who the fuck are you?..I might have to fuck you up. Fuck wit’ me an’ you ain’t never gonna fuck that li’l girl again...Fuck you, man. Fuck you...out in these streets dry humpin’ some girl, sexual fever, mothafuckah |
| Bastard Out of Carolina | Allison | Lots of incest! motherfucker, fucked, Jesus, shit, piss, dick, prick, goddam, Jesus Christ, jackshit, scared shitless, son of a bitch, hell, shitting, nigger, Goddammit, hardass, shitfire, bullshit, shit for brains, sack of shit, shit-faced, turd-eating, cunt. |
| Ragtime | Doctorow | Sample pornographic content: "a rampant penis which... whipped him about the floor, launching to his cries of ecstasy or despair, great filamented spurts of jism that traced the air like bullets and then settled slowly over E. in her bed like falling ticker tape" |