The Courier-Record

SEXUALLY-EXPLICIT BOOKS IN NOTTOWAY

All items at high school, educators continue to review materials

Seventeen works containing “possible sexually-explicit” text — several of them American classics — have been identified publicly by Nottoway County Public Schools.

Supt. of Instruction, Dr. Marcia Martin, said all 17 books are at the high school. “We are continuing to review other texts and will add to the list if necessary…We have not identified any materials to date at the middle, intermediate, or primary schools.”

The list of works has been posted on the high school’s website. “We are continuing to review other texts and will add to the list if necessary,” said Dr. Martin.

The General Assembly last year adopted a law requiring public school divisions to adopt a policy ensuring that parents receive notification of any instructional materials with sexually-explicit content.

The Nottoway School Board adopted its policy in December. Supt. Dr. Tameshia Grimes told officials that students whose parents opt them out of having to read those materials won’t be penalized.

Nottoway’s list of such works currently includes:

• A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry;

•Night by Elie Wiesel;

•To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee;

•Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare;

•Letter From Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr.

•The Absolutely True Diary of a Part- Time Indian by Sherman Alexie;

•The Color Purple by Alice Walker;

•The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne;

•Of Mice and Men by Robert Frost;

•The Crucible by Arthur Miller;

•Native American Creation Myths by Iroquois;

•Beowulf by The Beowulf Poet;

•The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer;

•Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs;

•Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury;

•The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare;

•The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde.

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