By Lauren Wanko
Correspondent
“Cal” and “Death and the Maiden” are the two books became the center of the Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School Board of Education Meeting last night.
“They contain sexually explicit and vulgar language throughout, such as “Death in the Maiden” has the ‘F word’ within it 14 times,” parent Elise Lawless said.
Lawless and others say although the books are required reading for students, the works are not age appropriate.
“We are not looking to ban books! We are simply requesting that when required reading of this explicit nature is mandatory that there be another choice for the entire class,” said parent Siobhan Fallon Hogan.
The controversial issue led to hours of public discussion, even though the power went out during a heavy rainstorm.
“It is time the uncomfortable content in these books and a multitude of other issues of the world be discovered by our teenagers and discussed with trusted adults in a safe, unbiased, controlled and educational setting,” said parent Maria Maita.
“Removing these books will teach our children that difficult topics can be ignored just because someone else doesn’t like the topic, but this does not make the topic go away,” said parent Pam Mancuso.
Two different petitions have been circulating on the matter. Throughout the night, parents cited the curse words and sexual content in the books.
“I believe that the parent should be the one that is responsible to talk about rape,” said parent Michael Dolan.
Fair Haven resident Pat Drummond recalled reading adult books as a young girl.
“I can assure you I didn’t turn out to be a derelict porn star!” Drummond said.
Lawless says there are a couple reasons why parents are now publicly discussing their concerns about the books.
“One, they’ve been shoed away and told that it’s been on the list and we’ve been doing this for years. The other is many parents have a fear of retaliation and don’t want to speak up,” she said.
The superintendent declined our request for an interview. Alumni Mackenzie Hartung says she didn’t read the two books in high school, but backs the curriculum.
“They’re discussed in a classroom. They’re not being given to these students to go read on their own and then make their own interpretations as to what those books are,” Hartung said.
Lisa Kreutzberg’s son is a Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School student.
“I think kids are exposed to so much sexual and violent images in the media in general that sheltering them from literature that talks about these things that they’re exposed to all the time seems like a mistake to me,” she said.
“I think they can choose classics that we’ve all read and they can get the same great education by reading those classics,” another parent said.
The Board of Education says they’ll continue to discuss the works and curriculum in the Education Committee.