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Challenged Book ‘Perks Of Being A Wallflower’ Removed From Escambia Schools For Sexual Content
November 2, 2022
The Escambia County School Board voted 4-1 to remove a book challenged by a Northview High teacher from school libraries.
“The Perks of Being a Wallflower” is a 1999 novel by American writer Stephen Chbosky. According to publisher Simon & Schuster it is a “bestselling coming-of-age story that takes a sometimes heartbreaking, often hysterical, and always honest look at high school in all its glory.” It was a #1 New York Times bestseller for over a year and named an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults.
It was challenged by Vicki Baggett, chair of the Language Arts Department chair at Northview High School with over 30 years in the classroom.
In her challenge, Baggett said the book contains “extreme sexual content descriptions, bestiality and a language alert, using a “shock effect to engage teenage minds”. A committee at Northview High School voted during the summer to keep the book available as an optional twelfth grade study novel, and Baggett appealed.
About a month ago, School Superintendent Dr. Smith implemented a “Restricted Section” in school libraries for “Perks of Being a Wallflower” and over 100 other books until they can be reviewed by the school board. Students must have parental permission to access any of the books in the section.
Tuesday night, the school board voted 4-1, with Patty Hightower dissenting, to remove “Perks fo Being a Wallfllower” due to sexual content not allowed in schools by Florida law.
“What is our standard for ensuring good conduct and manners for our students when I can’t even when I can’t even repeat some of the stuff that is here into this mic, or I wouldn’t, because of the values I have,” Board Chair Kevin Adams said.. “Our decency standards are not high when we allow this type of inappropriate material, content in our district.
“I wondered why so many students have mental health issues, bad disciplinary problems. I believe they are being poisoned by what they hear and what they read. We need parents to be parents. We can do a better job protecting children with those that choose not to be exposed to adult knowledge and materials. Period. We as a school district must do a better job to ensure that we are not purchasing age inappropriate materials for our media centers and classrooms. The parents trust us to do what is right for their children.”
One challenged book, the Bible, has been returned to the shelves in Escambia Schools. State law says the Bible is allowed in schools and has a place in education in Florida.
Comments
59 Responses to “Challenged Book ‘Perks Of Being A Wallflower’ Removed From Escambia Schools For Sexual Content”
Love seeing the anti-freedom of speech hypocrisy in action.
At the rate the republicans and gov degenerate are going – THERE WILL BE NO LIBRARY —but you will vote these things back in anyway because of the price of groceries gas THAT WILL COME DOWN but FREEDOM WON’T COME BACK
Where in the heck is CRT being taught? It’s not. Teachers have to be certified in the subjects they teach. CRT isn’t one of those subjects. It’s not a class that would even have been offered except in law school. The state DOE site has descriptions, requirements, learning objectives, pacing guides, etc. for every course taught, for every grade level. Teachers are strapped to get through it all, much less interject more material. Stop listening to fear mongers. They have their own agendas. Sadly, the success of our students isn’t one of them.
@Citizen
“Ralph is trying to conflate CT with CRT and other faulty reasoning AKA logical fallacy.”
…because Critical Race Theory is a subset of Critical Theory.
For real, if you’re interested in this topic, I would strongly recommend learning about it before commenting.
Ralph is trying to conflate CT with CRT and other faulty reasoning AKA logical fallacy.
Done.
Funny stuff just joining in for clicks.
I’ll depart with my white fragile tears rolling down my cheeks./s
Citizen clearly does not understand what CRT actually is. That is the damage that folks like Tucker Carlson do to our country.
@Citizen
Thanks for confirming that you never studied Critical Theory.
I would strongly recommend taking an actual, college-level class that teaches Critical Theory instead of just parroting the talking points you heard from one of the fear-mongers at Fox News.
Critical Theory is the study of how laws can be applied differently across different groups, regardless of the biases of the people who create or enforce those laws. For example, if the punishment for a crime is a $500 fine, that crime will punish poor people more severely than rich people. If we pass a law that offers tax breaks to families with children, that law will benefit parents more than people without kids. The point of Critical Theory isn’t to determine if a group of people is good or bad, it is a litmus test to determine whether a law is just or not and how it can be improved.
But again, that is a very advanced topic that is typically not covered until you are several years into law school or a criminal justice degree. I can guarantee you that Critical Theory isn’t being taught in any elementary schools.
Ralph
I think you are incorrect about CRT. That propaganda will be next on the list of books and curriculum that will not be taught in Escambia in schools going forward.
That is why I mentioned it. To say it is only taught in university is questionable.
It is designed to stereotype people by race and collectively categorize all white people in America as systemically racist and that our rule of law, constitutional republic is a faulty system.
It pits the black race against white race categorizes them as oppressed and categorizes all white people as the oppressors. It sets up a duality and conflict that is toxic and unnecessary in K-12 school curriculum in Florida. It is Marxist for that purpose. It undermines the universal tenants of our constitutional republic.
Although some truth of our history will be there, it is beyond the scope of teenagers.
Even Hitler’s insane Aryan ideals kept changing. It was absolute insanity.
If K-12 can read, do basic math, science, English, try to get some history straight, learn civics, maybe another language, PE. Not be failing F and D schools, maybe we will be getting somewhere. Maybe rather than point fingers and make excuses blamed on some Kampman drama triangle continual conflict mode, they should point the finger at parents and if their child can’t read label it child neglect on the part of the parent.
The long term questions about ideologies, politics, and propaganda may be suitable for further study in advanced education.
Keep FFA, bring back, industrial arts, even home ec.
Maybe read, All I ever Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.
@Citizen
I would highly recommend reading the book before calling for it to be banned. This is a book that has brought millions of kids comfort and taught them that they aren’t alone.
I’m not sure why you brought up CRT, but that is an subsection of Critical Theory. That’s a topic that isn’t taught until college, and doesn’t have anything to do with being “Anti-american” or “Anti-White”.
The problem is that a bunch of far-right white supremacists have relabeled anything that teaches kids “slavery existed” or “black people are humans too” as “Critical Race Theory” and convinced their followers that it is a threat to our country.
Unrelated, but “The Left” didn’t ban Song of the South. Disney elected to stop producing the movie. It doesn’t get much more free market capitalism than a company choosing to stop producing a product that is no longer profitable and hurting their bottom line.
No problem, I’ll just buy my kid a copy from Amazon. lol
Pathetic, the school board/system.
Ralph, wel by the true definition it was banned for K-12 in Escambia School library after being challenged.. It just isn’t burned and illegal in the extreme sense comparing book banning NAZI. burning for the entire country.
I just read over exerpts, I don’t think it is truly objectionable and pushing the definition of obscene may be a bit over the top. Actually it’s probably a moving book touching on some topics that may really be good to address. It talks about masturbation, suicide, homosexuality and child molestation depression, mental health, repression and such. It is a deep subject. Is is proper curriculum for our youth in school. Guess not.
I still think its ok, for the parents and teachers to have their eyes on this and others.
I actually don’t think the CRT nor 1619 should be in the curriculum either. I also think the left went overboard removing zippidy do da and I don’t know nothing bout birthin no babies from our consumption.
The CRT and 1619 is anti American and Anti white propaganda.
The school board is to follow state law as they interpret it. They are our representatives. They voted. It is done.
Citizen,
The book has been removed (aka, “banned”) from school libraries.
What obscene material did you see when you read the book? It’s been a few years since I read it, but I don’t remember seeing anything objectionable.
@Citizen
It wasn’t banned. The school decided to not provide it to minors to follow the law of not providing obscene material to children.
True, it is readily available elsewhere.
H
Book Banning will have the opposite effect that the Banners want. I’m sure after this “horrible” book was banned, there was a huge increase in orders of it on Amazon.com. Look around. Most kids don’t have their nose in a book. It’s in their cell phones and video games.
Any of you ever watch Footloose? Where they’re burning books at the library and the preacher comes up and tells them the devil’s not in these books he’s in their heart. Just saying.
The Southern Baptist Convention uses the Bible as their main textbook but now is dealing with widespread sexual abuse allegations. If the SBC were another group that was reading Perks of Being a Wallflower some of you would blame the book for this deviant behavior. The point is,,,, the Bible didn’t make the pastors in the SBC abuse their victims, they abused their positions of authority to manipulate, coerce and completely take advantage of people who trusted them absolutely. Again, reading any book, obviously including the Bible, does not do much to stop abusers. Just read the news everyday. Another “man of God” arrested for molesting a child and he literally can quote the whole Bible.
I am pleasantly surprised at the number of literate, thoughtful posters on this thread.
Ultimately, banning books is a loser move, because it merely makes the subject more attractive to seek out.
And as many have pointed out, kids aren’t getting information from the library when they have the internet available on their babysitter device.
It’s a FL state law that noone is to provide obscene material to a minor. Obscenity is further define by statute. The school board found this to be obscene and inappropriate.
Simple as that.
By some people’s logic there should be copies of gay hustler magazines by the potty chair or you are a Nazi. Hardly.
If parents disagree, get it for your kids.
The challenge on the Bible has already been decided by a higher court. The School Board must follow that precedent. No where in the Bible, however, is there page after page of masturbation , extreme sexual excitement, and the use if the “f” word . Read it and you will see that.
A school library does not have to.offer any book that is available or printed.. On the contrary, a public school must follow educational material guidelines and that includes denying obscene material to minors. It is a federal offense to do so.
@Bobby
The Bible contains a lot more inappropriate content than Perks of Being a Wallflower.
The fact that the school board has chosen to ban one book for explicit content while making an exception for a MUCH more graphic book shows that this was never about “protecting kids”, it was about making sure that school libraries only contained material that promoted an Evangelical agenda.
How many kids know what a library is, much less what is in it?
We need to keep this dissenter’s name in mind when it comes time to vote. I’m glad they came to their senses on the Bible! Who won the right mind would think that was inappropriate. Need some serious mental health work for some folks!
@JDR, it is spelled piquing
@BlessedFloridaHoly man.. obviously sarcasm, however myths, legends, ancient storytelling and even religions of the world are a wonderful tapestry of the human experience trying to make sense of the wold they live in.
There is no separation of church and state in the constitution.
Atheist aren’t smarter than everyone else. They are in the reject mode and haven’t come out the other side yet.
I think Ms. Bagget means well in the time warp of Northescambia and hitting the brakes on the degenerate policies thust upon us in the last few years takes courage.
Seriously men in women sports and in the bathrooms with little girls?
Teaching people to hate their country..?
Whoa.
@Bob
The Nazi did purge any free thinkers and of course committed atrocities. They used the labels and propaganda and somehow many were affected, it went too far. However I think to compare people who love their country and who respect the flag and want secure borders to Nazi Germany is a stretch. Power struggles.
Nazi did use the socialist label but went toward fascism immediately.
People throw those terms around loosely because that is how the mind works, first impressions, categorize, group, mock, fight…
However we do have a representive republic and these boards can make these decisions.
So just what are the perks of being a wallflower?
And what about the movie American Pie? What happened the pie? Haha.
Robert Bruner, you must not read the Bible because if you did, you’d know that everywhere sin is mentioned, it also tells the consequences for sinning. It describes the lives sin ruined and Jesus told of His loving sacrifice, so us sinners can be saved from the penalty of sin. Just because the newspaper reports about a murder, does not make murder acceptable. It’s just common sense.
Good, need to remove the bible too though, and I say that as a Christian. Any book that has inappropriate content for children shouldn’t be in a school in the first place and the bible has a few moments where it goes too far for schools. There was a comment about parents not teaching these things to their kids so they need access to it, but if the parent didn’t see fit to teach them that is not your place to say the kids need to learn it at all. Everyone can look up any bit of info they need, so if the schools just teach them to do their research then the problem is non existent and schools aren’t directly violating parental rights.
You are all idiots if you think removing a book from a library at school is going to make any difference. They can find this book on the internet and read if for free. And now that you brought it to everyone’s attention I am sure this is just what they are going to do…go and read it, and good for them, please keep banning books from the school library all you are doing is peeking their interest and getting them interested in reading.
@Citizen
I agree. Schools should keep age appropriate books on hand. Elementary libraries should have things like “One Fish Two Fish” and “Green Eggs and Ham”, high school libraries should have things like “Finding Alaska” and “Perks of Being a Wallflower”.
The Nazis called themselves a Socialist party, but the first thing they did after becoming the dominant party was purge the Socialist and Communist parties from Germany. Heck, Hitler even modeled his party structure off of the new, far-right authoritarian government “fascismo” created by Mussolini in Italy.
Websites like Facebook, Twitter, and even northescambia.com use moderation to control what content is and isn’t allowed on their private platforms. If you violate the terms and conditions of the site, the site owner is more than welcome to delete your comment off of their site, just like I am free to kick someone out of my business if they act inappropriately.
Part of learning is being exposed to different ideas and perspectives that you hadn’t previously considered. If you genuinely don’t want your child to learn, then maybe school isn’t the right place for them.
Great to see the Escambia County School Board taking action to remove pornographic and degenerate material from the school libraries. Board Members reading passages from the book out loud in a public forum without being redfaced or arrested is a pretty good decency test.
Let me say this: I read books like Pig Farm, 1984, Aspen, etc. Books that challenged my mind & reasoning. I read books that included “gay” characters & all other things I know about because in my day, we read lots of books.National Geo with nudity & men rolling up their private parts. To which I say: NONE of them made me gay. NONE of them influenced my decisions about my body including when to be grown enough to be intimate. But I was sexually abused: in my home, in a relatives home, in my workplace. You think kids can’t reason for themselves? I think these books should go into the parental approval section and get on with life. You can’t read an autobiography & then say it has bad stuff in it so they shouldn’t write the truth. Maybe the problem is kids having to worry about home issues cause mom & dad both working for $10 an hour won’t feed them. Banning books is one step closer to pushing us back another 100 years.
extreme sexual content descriptions, bestiality and a language alert, using a “shock effect to engage teenage minds. Sounds like religion?
I applaud our local school board for doing the the right thing. The book, mentioned, is far from being burned. A quick look on Amazon shows this book is readily available to anyone who thinks this book would enhance their child’s education.
It’s bad enough that our kids don’t even read books except when forced to so let’s just burn everything else not on the curriculum. Have I read the book? Nope and not going to, but then again how many opposed have read any of those books?
I hope all the parents happy with the book witch hunt have all parental controls turned on for everything: Phones, Tablets, Computers, Game Systems, TV Ratings, etc, etc. Gotta make sure poor little Sally and Johnny don’t see or read anything that might corrupt their poor little minds.
Farenheit 451 and 1984 used to be fiction. If you don’t know what I’m saying, maybe you should read more, not jump on the ban-wagon.
I think it’s probably available at the regular library, so I think, it’s OK for the school library to try to keep age appropriate materials available.
People comparing this to Nazi book burnings are not thinking critically. Those were university students and true, the Nazis were trying to force a totalitarian national SOCIALIST party agenda on Germany. Very similar to the censorship on Twitter, Facebook, and big tech platforms and the media by the socialist in the democratic party today for power and control.
Even the pedophile programs fostering children from Berlin were studied after the fall of fascism by the boomerang pendulum of the far left in Berlin, not the Nazi. People need to getvtheir facts straight.
Free Speech is the right to redress government. Not say whatever you like, any where any time.
However with social media and readily available information it’s noisy and confusing out there.
With that said, kids can get on the internet if parents provide it and see most anything probably listen to WAP in their ear buds.walking down the halls.
I don’t really think the content is beyond what a coming of age person is exposed to and parents need to be more open minded their children are curious and exposed to these things.
I think Kevin may be a little naive.
The problem, I wonder about is can Escambia children even READ? Perhaps if the parents are charged with child neglect, if a 4th grader can’t read may be more appropriate. Can the parents read?
I bet now everyone wants to read this book or watch the movie. If parents are willing to discuss those things, it’s probably OK.
Stick to the basics in school. At this level.
For all of the DeSantis loving, right wing media followers that want to believe that it’s a book or Disney’s fault for “indoctrinating” kids or the school board member concerned about kids’ mental health because of reading a book: How many times in one week do we read about a LOCAL case of sexual abuse of a minor by someone in our community? It’s every week. There’s a horrific story in today’s paper. Or a child living in filth? Unfortunately, that’s reality and the daily lives of some children. This push to “ban” books is just the latest boogeyman. Be concerned about the real issues kids are facing, not that schools are “teaching your kids to be woke”.
This isn’t the sort of book that EVER would have caught my child’s eye in among all the other books in the library. Until now. Now that it’s been banned, it “must be really interesting, mom!” and kiddo is dying to read it. I sure hope they don’t ban TOO many books, because it’s going to start to hurt my budget to have to buy them all myself. At least we still have a free and open public library system!
And just yesterday the governor was here at the Fish House campaigning and asking “Are you going to vote to keep Florida free?”
But here is the Escambia County School Board removing one of our freedoms. Parents have ALWAYS had a say in what their children can and cannot do. We don’t need our government restricting access to library books. You know that’s what they did in 1930s Nazi Germany.
So we’re back to book burning again?
And you wonder why this generation is so soft!!
The Bible has beastiality, murder, sexual assault amongst other things, but I’m sure Miss Vicki thinks it’s perfectly suitable for children.
HYPOCRITE!!!!
@StraightShooter You have got it right! Same parents complaining about literature are the very ones that will hand their child a cell phone, laptop, pc, tablet with unfettered access to a world of smut and violence without a second thought because it’s convenient.
Why do we need sexually explicit material in schools? That’s what we have Public Libraries for. Don’t tell me kids can’t get there the city bus goes right by it multiple times a day, if it was good enough for me it’s good enough for them.
The only reason for this to be available to children is to brainwash them into believing they should feel bad about not feeling different because the people writing and pushing it were brainwashed into believing they should feel bad for not feeling “normal”. While we are at it the bible should go it is certainly not age appropriate.
All of you who are applauding this book’s removal, have you read it? There’s way less in this book than many of the TV shows on prime time every night.
Do you realize that most parents don’t discuss any of these things with their kids? We have kids graduating high school who still think a girl can’t get pregnant her first time! We don’t talk about drugs with them. We don’t talk about mental health issues. We don’t talk about ANYTHING that they need to know before they go out into “the real world”, and then we wonder why they are so screwed up. It’s because we didn’t prepare them for ANYTHING!
Censorship is NOT the answer. Parents bring parents and teaching their kids what is right and wrong is the first step. Discussing these issues that so many of you are wanting to ban is another step. Parents have to teach their kids how to think for themselves, and part of that is by educating then on issues that you guys are wanting to ban. Smdh
What differeence does it make as to what is in the library because kids don’t read books anymore.
@Blessed Holy Florida Man
Amen!
great move. keep trash out of our schools.
I grew up on the South side of Chicago and have seen a lot but this is pure filth. People railing against the Bible have never read the Bible, the Bible points out that these indecent sexual acts are wrong, it doesn’t go into any detail of the actual acts. These books go into vivid descriptions of the acts and promote the use of them. I am surprised that they even made it to the school library shelves. I question the school leadership’s performance of their job. There’s precious little time in a day to prepare our children for the basics that they need to provide a living for themselves and their future families as it is. Kids today cannot balance a checkbook, cook for themselves, administer basic first aid, change a tire, plan for their future. But they sure can color their hair green, vape, pierce, tattoo, and explore alternative sexual lifestyles all in elementary school.
Parents: Quit giving your little children unsupervised tablets to keep them quiet! In a restaurant I saw a 6 yr old with a tablet playing a “Spiderman” game and he had “Spiderman” killing the police, destroying school buses full of children and killing innocent people walking down the street! He kept telling his oblivious parents “I got them with my RPG!!!” His parents said “That’s nice and went back on their phones” (RPG is a rocket propelled grenade)
What the heck are these kids learning????
Take all the trash out of the schools and only put the basic essentials that children need to be successful and provide for themselves in the future.
There’s plenty of time after they graduate to learn other non essential things.
Good for them for FINALLY putting some parental control over what the kids have access to! Even as we encourage kids to read, we need to encourage them to read subject matter that enriches their minds, not subject matter that perverts.
Thank you Ron Desantis and Republicans for making the culture wars a priority. We need less critical thinking and more religious indoctrination. Thank you!
Thank you, Ms. Hightower, for being brave enough to be the only dissenter. I’m sure it wasn’t easy with so much pressure during these heightened emotionally driven times on these stupid witch hunts for books that would surely benefit numerous kids going through similar situations (mental health).
First all of you who find it amusing to point out a missed comma or misspelling or any other rule for written communication, please save it.
Schools must remove internet access. “sexual content not allowed in schools by Florida law” there is absolutely no way to prevent sexual content being reached on any school or government computer. There is always a way around filters and “my beliefs are better than your beliefs” censorship.
Board Chair Kevin Adams is way out of line in making a statement that this book is inappropriate. Who decides what is inappropriate? This is a public school and the board should not be pushing their Values or anyone else’s values. The school is there to “educate not mandate” values, morals or religious beliefs. Ever heard of separation of church and state. There are plenty of private schools that one can attend that focus on a specific set of beliefs, that mandate how students will think, how they dress, what they read, what they wear….Iran has a few as well….think about it.
The entire purpose of a library is to allow people to freely read on any subject they choose. It should not be used as an indoctrination tool by religious fanatics who only see their “values I have” as stated by the Board chair, to be mandated.
Free our people, Free our minds, Open our minds to dialog and discussion and we will grow.
Just Asking wrote “is it possible to find out who the lone dissenting vote was?”
Sure is. Read this story. It’s right there.
Just curious and maybe I could find it on the internet, but is it possible to find out who the lone dissenting vote was?
I read the book and watched the film starring Emma Watson. This book/movie mainly teenagers, one in particular has to face going through puberty while also suffering a mental health issue (Bi-Polar Disorder). These are high school students that would be reading this book..The same 17-18 year olds who watch R-Rated movies and surf the web unsupervised via there smartphones. I mean jeez I think they just might be mature enough for sexual content these days. Banning books no matter your opinion just leaves another student who actually might want to read it, unable too. What a disgrace. But of course the Bible remains on all book shelves which describes things similar. At the rate they are banning books we won’t need a library just an in school chapel.
I woke up and realized I had gone back in time and in another country – Germany
Students are bombarded by outside influence these days. Anywhere they turn they are hit with bad influence, and if they go looking for it, it’s on their phone. So not having it in schools does not prevent them from being exposed to it if they want it
The one place it should not be provided is by the school.
The Bible has beastiality, rape etc but I guess that’s OK. Hypocritcal?
If they won’t remove the bible as well, it’s not about protecting young kids minds or whatever they say. It’s about stopping them from having easy access to anything that might make them think critically. Extremely foolish but unfortunately, not surprising for this area.
Graduated from So. Cal, who lived in PA and New York, wrote for Disney and a few other adult-centered films like Jericho, plus works with Hollywood. So yeah, Mr. Chbosky is about as far left-leaning as you can get. He’s only interested in money and the sexualization of kids, just like Disney. It was a #1 Best Seller because adults were reading it, not kids.
Just ban all the books already. The only book anybody needs is the Bible. History? Check. Science? Double Check. Sex education? Heavens yeah we got that too, my fellowship friends. All you ever need to know to live prosperously is in there. So far I’ve learned how to part oceans like Aquaman and that my favorite personal property, my wife, has immaculately conceived our first child while she was away on her business trip to Cancun, Mexico. Here’s to another 2000 awesome years! Preach.