School District Bans Dictionary After Student Finds Definition of Oral Sex

Via Alex Tabarrok, who comments, "words fail me—and now apparently also the students in Menifee."

The Menifee Union School District is forming a committee to review whether dictionaries containing the definitions for sexual terms should be permanently banned from the district's classrooms, a district official said Friday.

The 9,000-student K-8 district this week pulled all copies of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary after an Oak Meadows Elementary School parent complained about a child stumbling across definitions for "oral sex."

The decision was made without consultation with the district's school board and has raised concerns among First Amendment experts and some parents.

Other parents and Menifee residents, though, have praised the district's decision, saying a collegiate-level dictionary is inappropriate for younger children.

Since no child will ever think to look up anything on the Internet, this will definitely work.

(Update: Speed-blogger Radley Balko previously noted this story on Monday.)