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Fahrenheit 214

Written on Wednesday, May 17th, 2006

Leslie herselfWhat gets me about the story of High School District 214 School Board member Leslie Pinney is not that she is using her position of power to opine about her sense of morality, and to attempt to enforce these right-of-mainstream sensibilities onto the students of this northwest suburban Chicago school district.

Leslie Pinney wants to ban books at the district she helps to oversee. She isn’t the first school board member in the history of school boards to try and do this.

Some of the titles she cites as being “littered with lewd language and graphic sexual references inappropriate for teens” have been cited before. They will be cited again. Reasonable parents, teachers, and school board members will argue that these books are actually quite beneficial, and ultimately the overall mores of the community will prevail.

What is most striking about this story is the second paragraph of the Daily Herald article that brought this story to my attention.

Leslie Pinney, who compares some of these titles to pornography, hasn’t actually read a single book on her list.

Why?

“I don’t know if I would want to,” she told the Daily Herald reporter.

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So far, there are 2 comments.

  1. A comment by Sandy that was written on:
    June 4, 2006 at about 7:31 am.

    Problem solved. Books will not be banned. See Buffalo Grove Countryside week of June 1.

  2. A comment by Erin N. that was written on:
    June 14, 2006 at about 11:17 am.

    I wonder if Leslie has ever read ANY book.

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