An Anchorage (Alaska) School District materials reconsideration committee is scheduled to begin evaluating the sex-education book It’s Perfectly Normal September 18 in response to complaints filed by two families whose children attend Oceanview Elementary School. Topping the American Library Association’s 1998 Banned Books list, the illustrated Robie H. Harris book deals frankly with topics such as birth control, masturbation, giving birth, and homosexuality.
In separate complaints, Rick Steele and Joan Egeland asked officials to limit library borrowing privileges for the book to students given parental permission. Steele objected to the book’s “value statements,” which he contended “should come from parents.” Egeland wrote that elementary-school students “need basic information about sex. They don’t need pictures of different positions,” adding, “marriage is mentioned once in the whole book, while homosexual relationships are allocated an entire section.”
“Because our society has so many hesitations or taboos about openly discussing sexual topics, kids who have questions or fears may not have anywhere to go,” Sharon Vaissiere, district health and physical education curriculum coordinator, countered in the August 30 Anchorage Daily News. “This book provides an excellent resource.”
Posted September 3, 2001.