Rolling Stone Kicked Out
of Montana School
The board of the Livingston (Montana) school board voted 5–3 October 22 to have Rolling Stone magazine removed from the Park High School library. The action came some six weeks after a review committee recommended requiring that students obtain written parental permission to read Rolling Stone at school.
Park High School Principal Woody Jundt had objected to the magazine because, he said, it glorifies violence, illicit sex, and illegal drug use, according to an October 24 Associated Press report.
The board’s decision to remove the magazine altogether came at the second of two public hearings about its appropriateness for the high-school collection. At both meetings, attendees were almost equally divided on the issue. “The school should complement, not supersede me. Requiring parental permission allows me to teach my children what I want,” parent Tim Gable testified October 22.
“You’re hearing from a majority of the people that they don’t find this [magazine] acceptable,” stated local minister Kelvin Hoover.
“Many of the articles are contrary to the curriculum,” concluded district trustee Jim Braley. Dissenting trustee Storrs Bishop Jr. declared that the schools should teach students “how to think, not what to think.”
Posted October 28, 2002.
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