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Sandpiper Caged in AlabamaAn Alabama girl is refusing to return Ellen Wittlinger’s Sandpiper to her school library, claiming that the novel goes into too much detail about sex for high school students. Brookwood (Ala.) High School sophomore Lysa Harding recently picked out the book at random for a book report, the Tuscaloosa News reported September 11. “I honestly believe that it should not be at school, because at my school they teach abstinence and no sex before marriage, but then all the book is teaching is how to do those things,” Harding said. Harding’s grandmother, Pam Pennington, has filed a complaint with the school and will argue her case before a review committee. “It’s a cautionary tale for teenagers that oral sex is sex,” countered Jane Smith, library media specialist for the Tuscaloosa County School System. “You serve a wide range of people in a library and you have to have something for all of them.” If she does not return the book, Harding faces late fees or a $25 replacement charge, and she cannot check another book out of the school library until she returns Sandpiper. She planned to pick another book from the Eunice Kelly Washington Library in Green Pond for her assignment. Posted September 14, 2007; revised December 17, 2007. |
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