Call me cynical . . . .

Click on the title for the full article . . . . I hope.

The short of it is that some parent's group has gone nuts over a book included on the suggested summer reading list for high schoolers. Apparently, the book "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" is a speed read and already popular with teens. The school officials put the book on the list because it was already popular and they thought it would help encourage youth to be life long readers. (In the interest of full disclosure, I've not read the book. I heard of it for the first time in this article. However, I also remember trying to read "As I Lay Dying" as a teen and applaud the school officials for realizing that often the "classics" aren't going to encourage kids to read if they can't wade through them.)

Anyway, the parents are all up in arms because apparently there is a description of a date rape in the book. The young man who witnesses the date rape is, according to the article, upset by it and later wishes he'd done something to prevent or intervene.

As someone who struggles to create or find prevention programming that boys and all teens will absorb and take seriously, I have to applaud the author of the book for having a male character react this way to a date rape. Frankly, I'm going to go out and find the book SIMPLY BECAUSE OF THIS ISSUE. We need to teach boys that rape is bad - we need to validate their feelings of confusion and wanting to change the paradigm too many kids think is just "normal" dating.

I have to wonder if the character reacting to the rape were female, or if the young man were not repulsed/bothered by it - if the parents would have even noticed?