Schools
Wallingford Removes Controversial Coming-of-Age Book from Curriculum
A parent complained that the book was inappropriate for high school students.
Wallingford Superintendent of Schools Dr. Salvatore Menzo recently removed a controversial coming-of-age book, which was later made into a movie starring Harry Potter’s Emma Watson, from the freshman high school English curriculum, according to the Meriden Record-Journal.
The Record-Journal reports the book “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” which was written by Stephen Chbosky, was selected by teachers for freshmen English classes this school year.
The book’s narrator is an introverted teenager, who describes his experiences in a series of letters to an anonymous stranger. According to its description on Amazon.com, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a story about what it’s like to travel that strange course through the uncharted territory of high school. The world of first dates, family dramas, and new friends. Of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Of those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.”
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The book was adapted into a movie, which is rated PG-13, in 2012.
A parent, Jean Pierre Bolat, filed a complaint in November that the book included references to homosexuality, date rape, sex, masturbation, a glorification of drug and alcohol use and was inappropriate for the curriculum, according to the Record-Journal. Bolat is currently a member of the Board of Education but filed the complaint three months before he was sworn in.
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Bolat told the Record-Journal that he doesn’t believe in censorship, but believes in appropriateness and the book is “inappropriate for children.”
Menzo removed the book from the curriculum in February but said it will be available in the school library and to students for independent reading, according to the Record-Journal.
Read the full story at the Meriden Record-Journal here.
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