Queens Mom Angry Over Rules Of Attraction

Rules of Attraction: movie and book

Guess not all high school kids spend their extra time sexting! Over in Queens, 16-year-old Giavanna Grasso was recently given a passage to read from Bret Easton Ellis's The Rules of Attraction for her digital arts English class, and was shocked at what she found on the pages. The student told CBS 2, “It was saying that hoe the only way the rat will do something for the elephant is if he does sexual favors for him and as I’m reading on there are words like ‘diaphragm.' I told my mom because I didn’t know what else to do. Should I continue to read this? Because I don’t know how much further it was going to get."

Her mother, Melissa Napraw, said when she picked the book up she felt like she was "reading porn," and "there’s nothing that can be taken away from this except for disgustedness." But what are the chances that these kids are allowed to watch movies like... The Rules of Attraction?

The Department of Education says that the book isn't part of the curriculum and will not longer be used, and that the teacher who assigned it was a substitute.

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By Jen Carlson in News on October 5, 2010 2:15 PM

Comments [rss]

random transplant

...So one mom complains, the school district rolls over and bans the book, and the substitute teacher & her on-going lesson plan are left out in the cold.

WOW its easy to get out of a book report!

John L

There's plenty of good, educational books for kids to read. There's no need to subject them to this filth in an English class that's not set up to handle topics like these, if this was Sex-Ed I could see it but not in an English class. These poor kids are subjected to sexual imagery everywhere they go let's balance it out a little be keeping as much sex as possible out of classrooms. Keep it where it belongs, only in Sex Ed classes.

tom9d

I wish I got to read BEE in high school. If more professors incorporated quality, contemporary lit into their syllabi, I suspect we'd see an increase in voluntary reading among teenagers.

...and I'd hate to see what her reaction would have been if she read American Psycho. It's one of my favorite books, but that scene with the hooker and the rat made me queasy.

JenChungsBaby

The mother is getting little precious and frail Giavanna fitted with a chastity belt that fits over her eyes.

But seriously, when I was in high school we read Deliverance in English class.

schadenfreudian mensch

ah there's nothing that warms the cockles of a teenager's heart than reading the joys of butt f'ing in English class.

homerone200

apparently, the English class ain't doing the girl much good: "Because I don’t know how much further it was going to get."

Dogsbody

"Digital arts English class"?

Pah, schools nowadays....

schadenfreudian mensch

They're reading it off a Kindle.

Stevennnn

Prudes, nothing more. Props to the teacher for giving the students an interesting book to read instead of the regular literature most students find boring.

At 16 one already knows about sex.