An Unbalanced Complaint about Speak

Laurie Halse Anderson reports on an attempt to ban her acclaimed young-adult novel Speak from a public high school’s curriculum. Evidently business professor Wesley Scroggins found that the novel’s description of date rapes aroused him enough to brand the book as “soft pornography.”

Revealing what perspective he’s coming from, in June Scroggins spoke at an event devoted to “the role of fundamental, Biblical Christianity in the establishment and function of our legal, legislative, and educational system, and…the successful reestablishment of these values in our society” (PDF download).

Among the sad ironies of this all-too-familiar situation is that the professor’s employer, Missouri State University, is promoting his services by declaring:

As an educator, Wes Scroggins is all about balance – balance in his teaching, balance in his research and balance in his service.