I Know What's Best for You

Many of us look for our 15 minutes of fame, and right now two Leesburg, Florida, mothers want theirs, too. A daughter of one of the mothers found sexual content in a Gossip Girl book that she found in her local library’s young adult (YA) section, and the mommies decided that it was time to take action to save the public from the bad S-E-X word.

Two Leesburg mothers are asking the Leesburg Library Advisory Board today to remove books from the youth-adult section of the Leesburg Library.

Dixie Fechtel said she became outraged after reading passages depicting sexual content and drug use in two young-adult books her 13-year-old daughter borrowed from the library.

“A parent or student walking into the youth section should not have to get something off the shelf as shocking as this,” said Fechtel. “There needs to be some sort of system to enable parents to check out those kind of materials for their children.”

Notice that Fechtel deliberately referred to the young adult section as the “youth section,” but the story continues:

The books could be placed in a separate section and labels attached to the cover of the book to let parents know that it contains objectionable material they may not want their child to read, Fechtel said.

[...]

Fechtel has been corresponding with city commissioners and Library Director Barbara Morse since last August without any luck in getting the books removed. She submitted a request in January to the advisory board to hear her case.

Morse told Fechtel and Diane Venetta, who has joined Fechtel in her cause, that the books would not be removed from the shelves of the youth-adult section.

I only watch Fox News if I happen to be in the need for something humorous or fictional, but this morning I was running errands and one of the televisions near me was tuned to Fox. The three stooges who anchor their weekday morning show were in a tizzy because the book mentioned that one of the characters said that he/she used his/her bed for sex. (Graphic, isn’t it?)

Here’s a tip to the two mommies who want to be heroines of Salem...er...um...I mean Leesburg: Tell your kids to avoid the YA section until they’re at least eligible for Medicare. For the other mommies and daddies who let their kids go to the library, it’s up to them to decide what their kids read.

That’s the same rule that applies to the two of you, also.

ReferenceDonald, David. “Gossip Girl Book at Center of Library Debate.” Daily Commercial. 10 June 2009.

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