Homeroom is a place for doing homework. Those who are not actively writing things down have the option of reading. Sometimes reading is homework. Frequently, reading is required before taking notes on the contents of the book.

Students are required to have a book for SSR, or Sustained Silent Reading (called Sit down, Shut up and Read by the kids), which they are to use if not occupied in some other classroom activity. These books are not subject to teacher approval. They just have to be books.

So I don't know what the title of the book was, because I didn't ask the 13-year-old. But it shouldn't matter.

Also, a while back, we had a very nasty incident in this school district in which the school board passed a resolution forbidding the mention of even the existence of homosexuality in the school by any member of the staff, including the counsellors. None of those directors are still on the board. The resolution was repealed. But the cachet remains in the community.

Reading the Bible? Students can and do read the Bible. Why would that bother anyone? It meets the basic criterion: it is a book. Students may not read it aloud during SSR, however, but neither can they read any other book aloud. My daughter's classmate was not reading hers aloud, either.

Making wrong calls in sports is inconsequential. Singling out a student for reading something and forbidding her to continue is censorship. Not inconsequential.

On the other hand, things like that happening in school contributed to my being a liberal today. Maybe we should have more of it, so that people can understand at first hand what censorship is.