David Rothman spotted This Associated Press piece on a parent whose 15-year-old learned from a school library book how to sniff nail polish remover wants books with such specific drug information removed.
At the very least, Sherri Walter and her mother, Stephanie Kelly, say certain books should be flagged and require parental permission before they can be checked out by their children.
“This information is too much,” Kelly said.
“They cave pretty fast at that age.”
half-measures
We should just throw in the towel and cover all the books with black construction paper so none of the bad ideas jump out and hurt our precious, precious children.
The book is probably not teaching
her kid how to do this. If a normal 15 y.o. doesn’t know that sniffing substances such as nail polish remover is harmful, then the parent is at fault, IMHO. If she has a 15 y.o. who likes to test the boundaries big time, this is not the fault of the schools or the library–it’s either how the kid is wired or something occurred early on that makes this kid think he/she can ignore what mom and dad say. My $.02.