Report: Book Pulled From Reading List After Parents Object To Sexual Content
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Sixth graders at a New York City school no longer have to read a book on their summer reading list after parents objected to its sexual content.
Public School/Middle School 114 in Rockaway Park pulled "The Absolutely True Diary of Part-Time Indian'' from the list.
The Daily News reported parents objected to passages about masturbation as inappropriate for 11-year-olds.
Report: Book Pulled From Reading List After Parents Object To Sexual Content
The reference to masturbation was not the only subject that drew the ire of parents, 1010 WINS reporter Eileen Lehpamer reported.
"There are racial slurs against African-Americans in the book, profanity, references to female genitalia," a parent named Kelly said.
Author Sherman Alexie pulled no punches, calling the efforts of the parents "tiny" and "sad," and added that his own son read the book in fourth grade.
A Department of Education spokesman said selected texts are school-based decisions.
Alexie's book is about a Native American who transfers into an all-white high school. It won the 2007 National Book Foundation award for Young People's Literature.
The author defended the book after it was pulled from an Oregon classroom in 2008. He said every child deals with the kind of issues presented in the book.
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