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A little background: Recently, a sixth grade teacher read a book with a gay character to her class in the Pleasant Valley, Iowa school district. The book, entitled "The Misfits" is a story of young people who are different from their peers, one of whom is a gay kid, and is an anti-bullying story.
An excerpt from the article-"A book with a gay character cannot be read aloud at Pleasant Valley elementary schools, but can be read to older students and will remain in the district's libraries. "The Misfits", by James Howe, will be restricted after a split vote of the Pleasant Valley School Board on Monday night. The vote was 4-3. The district's elementary schools include kindergarten through sixth grade." Say what you will, this is no victory, as the teacher has been reading the book to her classes for two years and was quoted as saying that she was "very disappointed". One guy was quoted as saying that if she is allowed to continue reading the book in question then "the bible and the ten commandents should be read aloud too". This whole thing makes me very sad, as I attended school in that district since third grade and it was at one time considered one of the best public systems in the United States. For the complete article, go to www.qctimes.com and click on local news. scroll down a couple of stories to the headline which I used in the subject line. I am pissed off about this to think that my hometown has deteriorated to this.
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