Melissa McDonald was surprised, and not in a good way, when her 12 years old daughter brought home a book that she deemed as ‘inappropriate’ for children, the Manchester Evening News reports.
McDonald, who’s from Manchester, was aghast when he daughter came home from her school, Manchester Health Academy, carrying a book titled, ‘This Book is Gay.’ The book contained terms and information regarding sex education.
The school was holding a book signing by a young-adult author Juno Dawson for her book titled ‘Margot and Me.’ Dawson’s other book contained a ‘cheat sheet’ of LGBT slangs and other stuff.
McDonald told Manchester Evening News, “My daughter loves books so I gave her the money to buy the book. But instead of “Margot and Me” she’s been sold this book. There’s an A to Z of everything mentioned in the book – it’s meant for 18-year-olds.
McDonald continued, “This could scar a child for life. What’s in this book is absolutely disgusting. I’m absolutely shook up.”
The school had apologized to McDonald and also to the other parents whose kids had bought the book.
McDonald said, “I’m disgusted. It’s really explicit.’ Juno was visiting the Wythenshawe school on Tuesday to speak to Year 7 pupils and sign copies of her latest book, ‘Margot and Me.’”
According to Manchester Evening News, Dawson said, “I get letters of thanks every day from young people who feel the book has helped them to come to terms with their identity and to come out to loved ones. I think we have to question why sex education is suitable for 10-year-olds but same-sex sex education is ‘inappropriate.’”
Juno Dawson came out as trans in 2015. Dawson is a young-adult author and LGBT advocate. Her newest book, Margot and Me, involves a relationship between a grandmother and her granddaughter during the World War II in South Wales.
Dawson told BuzzFeed, “It’s a perfectly appropriate book for that audience. All week I’ve been speaking to year sevens and eights with no problems – in a mixture of grammar schools, private schools, faith schools, all sorts of different schools.”
She continued, “I went through stages – the first was I felt personally attacked and quite mortified. But then I became angry as I very quickly realized that you can’t do that – you can’t discriminate against people on the basis of their gender.”
A spokesperson for Manchester Health Academy said, “Following an author visit, a very small number of age-inappropriate books were sold without our authorization.”
The spokesperson continued, “We took immediate action to retrieve the books. Parents were also informed and our apologies offered. We have been in touch with the company who arranged the visit to express our displeasure and seek assurance that no other school will be put in this position.”
