# SoCal schools ban dictionary: hoax?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socal-schools-ban-dictionary-hoax/526407
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [January 25, 2010, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socal-schools-ban-dictionary-hoax/526407 "2010-01-25T19:40:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2010, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socal-schools-ban-dictionary-hoax/526407/1 "2010-01-25T19:40:42Z")
There was a news item I saw on Fark, corroborated by a few Google News sources, that Merriam Webster’s 10th edition has been removed from schools because some kid’s parents saw it had “oral sex” defined in the book. [Here’s a version of the story from The Guardian](http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jan/25/oral-sex-dictionary-ban-us-schools?DSF).
Surely this is a hoax, right? ETA: Or it’s an Onion article that got absorbed into real news feeds. Please tell me this is a hoax.
---
### Author:  [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2010, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socal-schools-ban-dictionary-hoax/526407/2 "2010-01-25T21:11:19Z")
It appears to be true. However, it’s not “SoCal schools”, it’s one small school district in southern California.
---
### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2010, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socal-schools-ban-dictionary-hoax/526407/3 "2010-01-25T21:22:33Z")
Menifee? I believe it. They’re loco down there.
---
### Author:  [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2010, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socal-schools-ban-dictionary-hoax/526407/4 "2010-01-25T21:24:24Z")
> [@suranyi](#):
>
> It appears to be true. However, it’s not “SoCal schools”, it’s one small school district in southern California.
From its website:
> [@](#):
>
> Today, the Menifee Union School District: serves approximately 9000 students from preschool age through grade eight at 8 elementary schools, 3 middle schools and one preschool campus.
---
### Author:  [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2010, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socal-schools-ban-dictionary-hoax/526407/5 "2010-01-25T21:24:52Z")
“It’s hard to sit and read the dictionary, but we’ll be looking to find other things of a graphic nature,” district spokeswoman Betti Cadmus told the paper.
I have no response to that.
---
### Author:  [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2010, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socal-schools-ban-dictionary-hoax/526407/6 "2010-01-25T21:28:55Z")
Maybe Ms Cadmus should examine graph paper. And graphic arts. And graphing calculators. And the Bible (Song of Songs). &c.
---
### Author:  [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2010, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socal-schools-ban-dictionary-hoax/526407/7 "2010-01-25T21:30:16Z")
I read this earlier, and the only thing I could think of was that Menifee’s clocks all must have stopped right around 1950, and I picture Ms. Cadmus looking exactly like you’d expect a school marm to look.
---
### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2010, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socal-schools-ban-dictionary-hoax/526407/8 "2010-01-25T21:30:37Z")
Tomorrow’s Headline: **Menifee USD bans TI-84 calculators!**.
---
### Author:  [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2010, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socal-schools-ban-dictionary-hoax/526407/9 "2010-01-25T21:31:34Z")
Man, looking up words like “intercourse” and “vagina” was what we all did for kicks in the pre-internet days.
---
### Author:  [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2010, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socal-schools-ban-dictionary-hoax/526407/10 "2010-01-25T21:32:08Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#):
>
> “It’s hard to sit and read the dictionary, but we’ll be looking to find other things of a graphic nature,” district spokeswoman Betti Cadmus told the paper.
>
> I have no response to that.
It would relieve some of the boredom of reading the dictionary if she had someone give her oral sex at the same time.
---
### Author:  [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2010, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socal-schools-ban-dictionary-hoax/526407/11 "2010-01-25T21:37:49Z")
Can we start a drive to get as many batshit crazy fundies as possible, to go over as many books as possible (the thicker the better) and screen them for “language”? Thus taking away from their obviously over-abundant spare time in which they wreak havoc with the rest of society…?
Pretty please? With sugar on top…?
---
### Author:  [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2010, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socal-schools-ban-dictionary-hoax/526407/12 "2010-01-25T21:40:00Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#):
>
> “It’s hard to sit and read the dictionary, but we’ll be looking to find other things of a graphic nature,” district spokeswoman Betti Cadmus told the paper.
>
> I have no response to that.
That’s why I thought it might be a hoax or wayward Onion riff.
And sorry about the “SoCal”, I didn’t mean _all_ of southern California, but figured I needed some kind of geographic reference in the thread title.
---
### Author:  [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2010, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socal-schools-ban-dictionary-hoax/526407/13 "2010-01-25T21:47:26Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#):
>
> Man, looking up words like “intercourse” and “vagina” was what we all did for kicks in the pre-internet days.
Hell, I did _research_ in our home encyclopedias before my first, uh, experiments, to figure out what exactly was supposed to happen.
---
### Author:  [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2010, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socal-schools-ban-dictionary-hoax/526407/14 "2010-01-25T22:45:24Z")
Doesn’t sound like a hoax to me. You wouldn’t _believe_ some of the books that have been [challenged or banned](http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/21stcenturychallenged/index.cfm) lately. They even (especially?) go after the [classics](http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedclassics/reasonsbanned/index.cfm).
---
### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2010, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socal-schools-ban-dictionary-hoax/526407/15 "2010-01-25T22:52:17Z")
They banned alphabet soup in the cafeteria because it contained the letters O, R, A, L, S, E, and X.
---
### Author:  [@Girl\_From\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_From_Mars)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2010, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socal-schools-ban-dictionary-hoax/526407/16 "2010-01-25T23:13:19Z")
Next they’ll ban calculators since you can type the word boobies on them (5318008). Not that we did that when we were kids, of course.
---
### Author:  [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2010, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socal-schools-ban-dictionary-hoax/526407/17 "2010-01-25T23:15:57Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> They banned alphabet soup in the cafeteria because it contained the letters O, R, A, L, S, E, and X.
And you were expected to swallow it!
---
### Author:  [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2010, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socal-schools-ban-dictionary-hoax/526407/18 "2010-01-26T15:09:28Z")
Ban alphabet soup? Bah! They should just ban the alphabet in schools altogether! No telling what those kids will try to spell.
---
### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2010, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socal-schools-ban-dictionary-hoax/526407/19 "2010-01-26T15:36:36Z")
I was suspicious when I read that one person involved is Betti _Cadmus_ – Cadmus is the founder of Thebes in greek mythology, and I’ve never heard it used as a last name. And one father is named _Jason_.
But the story’s running in other newspapers, including LA Times
> **[Dictionary definition raises ruckus at Menifee school](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-jan-25-la-me-dictionary26-2010jan26-story.html)**
>
> Dictionary definition raises ruckus at Menifee school
So it looks as if it’s legit. Utterly Amazing.
Does anyone know what this shockingly explicit definition for “Oral Sex” is that’s causing all the ruckus?
---
### Author:  [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2010, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socal-schools-ban-dictionary-hoax/526407/20 "2010-01-26T15:44:37Z")
According to the link, the dictionary’s “online definition” of the term is “oral stimulation of the genitals”. So if it’s on line, does that mean the little ones are banned from the internet??? Good luck with that.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/socal-schools-ban-dictionary-hoax/526407.md?page=2)