Wow! Interesting class... Probably unique to a senior government class. According to what was understood in class have the girls constitutional rights been violated? Should schools be a haven of free speech or do school administrators need to consider the concerns of the public they are paid to serve? Should the school be scrutinized by the same democratic republic that keeps watch over the rest of the country? Are schools exempt from censorship? Are schools exempt from upholding constitutional rights? Whose stage were the three girls in Cross River standing on?
Below are letters written to the editor by other readers like yourself.
To the Editor:
Re “ ‘Monologues’ Spurs Dialogue on Taste and Speech” (news article, March 8):
The controversy over the word “vagina” and its use in a reading by high school students of a selection from “The Vagina Monologues” calls to mind the current widespread censorship of the “The Higher Power of Lucky,” a Newbery Medal-winning children’s book, for its use of the word “scrotum.”
Re “ ‘Monologues’ Spurs Dialogue on Taste and Speech” (news article, March 8):
The controversy over the word “vagina” and its use in a reading by high school students of a selection from “The Vagina Monologues” calls to mind the current widespread censorship of the “The Higher Power of Lucky,” a Newbery Medal-winning children’s book, for its use of the word “scrotum.”
I understand the impulse that parents and school authorities have to “protect” children. As a parent, I certainly wish I could keep my son young and innocent for as long as possible, especially now when children are forced to grow up and confront adult issues and matters much earlier than before.
Still, if we, as adults, put forward the correct words for our body parts for even the youngest children, that may help lessen the use of the much more vulgar slang terms kids are more apt to use.
If we used the correct terminology to demystify and talk about our bodies, that could help defuse our hypersexualized society, which is much more harmful to our children than any particular anatomical term.
Beth Kneller Brooklyn, March 8, 2007
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To the Editor:
The events leading to the suspension of three high school girls for saying the word “vagina” in a reading from a play that a New York Times reviewer called “probably the most important piece of political theater of the last decade” are beyond appalling.
Let’s be clear about this. This is not about insubordination, but about heavy-handed censorship. Whether the girls did (or, as they maintain, did not) agree to avoid the word, the principal’s actions before and after the reading were unconscionable.
Publishers take prior restraint very seriously, and when that prior restraint is to prevent the utterance of a medically correct term for a female body part, we say, “Enough!”
We would be delighted to send the principal some excellent books about free speech — including the First Amendment rights of students — as well as books on human anatomy, all published by our members.
Pat Schroeder Washington, March 9, 2007
The writer, a former Democratic representative from Colorado, is president and chief executive of the Association of American Publishers.
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To the Editor:
A few weeks ago it was “scrotum” that was causing an uproar in the world of children’s librarians. Now, in Westchester County, 16-year-old girls face punishment for uttering the word “vagina” when told not to.
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To the Editor:
A few weeks ago it was “scrotum” that was causing an uproar in the world of children’s librarians. Now, in Westchester County, 16-year-old girls face punishment for uttering the word “vagina” when told not to.
Perhaps this culture’s sad hang-ups over sex can be traced to its refusal to call a penis a penis, a scrotum a scrotum, a vagina a vagina.
And perhaps other problems can similarly be linked to its fear of plain speaking, whereby failure is “success that hasn’t occurred yet,” catastrophe is “a heckuva job” and a lie is a “plan for victory.”
Too many adults are in deep denial. Maybe listening to our children isn’t such a bad idea.
Mark Hussey
