ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, May 22, 1996 TAG: 9605220056
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JENNIFER MILLER STAFF WRITER
Below
THE MONTVALE FOURTH-GRADER'S FATHER says he wants the teacher who took the book from his son to give it back to the boy.
In at least one Bedford County school, "condom bungee-jumping" is not the way things ought to be, a principal has decided.
That's why last Thursday a Montvale Elementary School teacher confiscated a book by radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh from a 9-year-old boy.
Limbaugh, his fans and the boy's father are screaming censorship. The school says the material the boy was reading - a parody of a radio commercial promoting the distribution of condoms in public schools - was inappropriate for a fourth-grader.
The parody - played out in three commercials in which bungee jumpers use condoms as their cords - comes from Limbaugh's national best seller, "The Way Things Ought to Be," a collection of his writings and radio witticisms.
On Tuesday, the matter played itself out on Limbaugh's nationally syndicated radio show, drawing callers from around the nation eager to comment on what happened at Montvale Elementary.
The story began when Montvale resident Thomas Gardner allowed his son to take the book to school after noticing that the boy had been reading it. After realizing its content, the boy's teacher confiscated the book and turned it in to the principal's office.
"I don't understand what the problem is. I thought it was appropriate," Gardner said in an interview Tuesday. Children "are bringing home books about destroying the planet.
"I believe in the Bill of Rights for both adults and children."
The boy's mother, Maureen Knave, agrees.
"We have a right to decide what our son reads," she said. "Even somebody in the fourth grade can have his own political beliefs."
Gardner and his wife asked that their son not be identified by name.
Thomas Gardner was invited to talk about the incident Tuesday morning on Craig Wright's talk show on Roanoke's WFIR-AM radio station. Limbaugh responded to the story during his regular noon-to-3 p.m. radio program.
"It's censorship," Limbaugh told listeners. "These are educators. They are supposed to be citadels of information."
According to Limbaugh, the condom bungee-jumping advertisements were intended to show the foolishness of distributing free condoms in public schools.
"The clear fact remains in many cases in this country that ideology has everything to do with it," Limbaugh said about the confiscation of his book, suggesting that Montvale school officials were censoring his book because they don't agree with its ideas.
Most of the callers to the show agreed with Limbaugh.
"Dave from Roanoke" told Limbaugh that the school principal had admitted to WFIR that condoms weren't the issue; instead, it was the book's author.
"Roanoke, Virginia, is a town I thought I owned," Limbaugh told his listeners.
The principal at Montvale Elementary, Ronald Mason, told the newspaper that the school reserves the right to determine what is allowed in the classroom.
"I am not a book banner," Mason said. "I have to consider the grade level of a student and the entire school.
"Parents have rights, too. But as principal, I must decide what is best for all students."
Mason said the confiscated book has been sitting on his desk since Thursday, waiting to be picked up by the boy's parents. Mason said he would even mail it to them.
Gardner said he would like the teacher who took the book from his son to also give it back. It is not right for his son to feel he has done something wrong by reading the book, Gardner said.
Gardner said he was pleased with the reaction he has received from people in Bedford County and throughout the country, even though he never expected his story to turn into a national event.
"If it takes national headlines to bring this behavior [by school officials] to the forefront, then that is what it takes," he said.
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