The Judson school district superintendent has pulled “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood from the school’s in his system, as “a parent complained it was sexually explicit and offensive to Christians” (source). The article goes on to say that, “In doing so, he overruled the recommendation of a committee of teachers, students and a parent. The committee is appealing the decision to the school board, which is scheduled to meet tonight.”
I’ve not actually read the novel, although it is on my reading list (wishlist), but a blurb in the story says the novel “is a story of an environmentally blighted United States after a coup. Civil war rages as a fundamentalist Christian regime revokes all women’s rights and presses the few who remain fertile into sexual slavery.” Sounds more like truth, rather than fiction.
Update: March 24, 2006 The school board overruled the superintendent at their meeting on Thursday night.