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Questioned
book was in discard pile
By RAY WYCHE
Staff Writer
The book a 12-year-old student checked out of the Cerro Gordo Elementary School library and that her step-father said contained language generally considered unprintable was not supposed to be circulated and was in a group of books that the school was preparing for disposal.
Columbus County Schools Superintendent Dr. Dan Strickland said, “The book was never on the shelves” but was on a table with other volumes that were not for circulation when the child picked it up, he said.
The student took the book from the table and asked to take it home to work on a project on words that she had been assigned, and probably was not aware that the volume contained words inappropriate for her age group, Strickland said.
“There was no bar code on the book,” Strickland said, indicating that the book was not for circulation among students. County schools began electronic check-out of library books about five years ago, he added.
A committee that decides the suitability of books in schools that can be checked out by students agreed that “the book was not appropriate for elementary school students.”
The regular librarian at Cerro Gordo Elementary recently resigned and a substitute was filling in when the incident took place.
The book, “Dictionary of American Slang,” contained words and statements relating to sexual activities in language that most publications would not print, and also used derogatory words when referring to African-Americans.