Letter to the Editor | Examples of sexualized content in WBSD book club titles | By Carol Heger

July 22, 2024 – West Bend, Wi – Dear Editor:  I believe that many of the titles included on book club lists at West Bend School District (WBSD) include far too much profanity, violence, and sexual content.  The school board is currently looking at guidelines regarding sexual content in these books, which are part of the English curriculum.

For example, on the English 3 (11^th grade) Injustice book club list is A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.  This is the same author of The Kite Runner, the book that Jody Geenen and I described at numerous meetings and formally challenged it, asking it to be removed from the junior English book club (which was finally accomplished in January by the administration).  Similar to The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns contains many violent scenes, this time husband-on-wife assaults and rapes.  In fact, the Graphic Violence content column on the parent permission form states that this book EXCEEDS the district guidelines and lists war violence, domestic violence/torture, and execution.  Despite the fact that this book, according to the district, exceeds its own guidelines for violence, A Thousand Splendid Suns remains on the book club list.  In addition, there is no mention of the sexual assaults or rapes on the parental permission form.

Although challenged by Jody and me last summer, The 57 Bus has remained on the English 3 Injustice book club list.  I must remind the public and the school board that this book includes sex-related obscenities and a great emphasis on gender dysphoria and pronouns.  The pronouns “they/them” are used when referring to the main character, Sasha.  (From page 32:  “Who did Sasha want to sleep with?  After Sasha announced they were genderqueer, she asked for clarification…. But that wasn’t the issue for Sasha.  They weren’t all that interested in having sex with anyone, actually.”)

There is also a chapter where definitions of so-called words such as agender, cupiosexual, graysexual, pansexual and genderqueer are described.  The profanity count (Booklooks.org) includes: 12 F-bombs, Ass 8, Shit 8, N-word 5, and other words such as Bitch, Prick, Suck, and Pussy.  Believe it or not The 57 Bus, according to the school board’s curriculum committee, does not exceed the district guidelines on sexual content!

The English 3 Injustice book club list also includes In the Time of Butterflies.  The Rationale for this book choice, found on the parent permission form, suggests that our students need to be exposed to the sexual and graphic violence because the dictatorship of a Dominican Republic (DR) leader is a “vital record of the under-reported abuses against females under this dictatorship.”

Instead of protecting our minors, the district believes our students are to bear the brunt of the sexual and graphic violence in this book in order to understand the history of a DR dictator.  I suggest another book without the sex and violence might be found and substituted for In the Time of Butterflies.

Dear Evan Hansen, from the English 1 (9^th grade) Coming of Age list, might sound familiar because it was made into a movie, but the book includes a huge amount of profanity and sexual conversations and situations.  The profanity includes f-word, bitch, dick, MILF (Mothers I would Like to F***), “jerking off,” and “sucking dick.”

Speak, another title from the English 1 (9^th grade) Coming of Age list, was awarded a #3 (5 being the worst) by Booklooks.org, a book review organization.  It was ranked  #25 by the American Library Association on the list of most challenged books (2010-2019).  The main character is sexually assaulted/raped and threatened a second time by the same boy.  I suggest that Speak and Dear Evan Hansen should be reconsidered and removed from the list of freshman book choices because of extremely mature themes.

At least one of the titles on the 5^th grade book club list (Influence of the Author) should be reconsidered as well.  This is BenBee and the Teacher Griefer.  Like The 57 Bus this book has a major character who is non-binary.  BenY prefers gender neutral phrases and emojis. The they/them pronoun is even used in the book for BenY:  “Ms. J. was reluctant to call BenY by their new name for fear Ron DeSantis would come after her.”  (Notice the biased remark about Governor DeSantis, which suggests the author’s point of view.)

Furthermore, the parent permission slip sent by the teachers does not have a disclaimer about non-binary characters in BenBee and the Teacher Griefer.  I understand that WBSD does not even discuss gender dysphoria with 5^th graders in Human Growth and Development (what used to be known as sex education), so why is this a subject in a 5^th grade English class book club?

Defenders of many of these books state that we need to talk about race, gender, or violence in the classroom.  Then let’s also talk about sexualizing children as well.  No one will learn of the sexual content of these books if we stay silent.  If we don’t call out the sexualization of children, it won’t be noticed and nothing will be done to protect our youth and our society.  The inappropriate words and sexualized situations of these books will remain in the minds of students for the rest of their lives.  Is this the “West Bend Way”?

Carol Heger

West Bend, WI

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