John Green's Paper Towns described as "soft porn", removed from summer reading list.

No challenge committee, no process, just one complaint, and ZAP.

From the Tampa Bay Times:

District officials received her email early June 20, a Friday when their offices were closed for summer hours. Even so, by midday Saturday, the curriculum department had put together some basic information about the novel for leaders to look at.

By Monday morning, the title no longer appeared on the school's summer reading list, in apparent violation of the district's own policy regarding objections to books.

"It is racy," assistant superintendent Amelia Larson said after reviewing the book. "I was concerned that book had been assigned for eighth grade. I don't think I would have done that as a teacher."

Note: The book was NOT required reading. I checked the assignment, and it was one of a few options for the assignment.

Also note: The parent didn't ask for the book to be removed from the list. She was upset that there wasn't any sort of content warning, she wasn't comfortable with her daughter reading it, but according to the article, she didn't ask for the school to change the assignment or suggest that other peoples' kids shouldn't be allowed to read it.

So. It looks like, rather than following their very own challenge procedure, someone at the school totally jumped the gun and simply pulled the book off the list. EXCELLENT PRECEDENT TO SET, GUYS.

(via @catagator)