I'm not much on censorship either when it comes to something like this. I don't know, maybe the school could send home a letter and give parents the heads up and the choice of whether or not they want the child to read it? I don't think there's an easy answer. I know personally, I would'nt have a problem with my 13 year old reading it. Unfortuantely, the word, no matter how ugly, was a part of our vocabulary, especially back then. I think educate the child on the word and why folks think it's offensive, then move on. I tend to think, the more fuss you make over something, the more the child "reads" into it. We had a discussion with a family member not too long ago about us allowing Emily to have the original version of "Little Lion Man" by Mumford and Sons on her MP3 player. For those who have'nt heard it, it's a FABULOUS song with an almost Celtic/Folk sound to it and is actually one of my favorites at the moment. The radio plays the cleaned up version, but on YouTube and the CD, they use the F-word in the chorus. Not in the sick way if you will(not refering to sex), but in the sense of messing something up-he says " I really F-ed it up this time..."Well the old fashioned Great Grandmother was horrified we would let her baby ears hear such a thing. We have raised both of our girls to know what is vulgar, and offensive, and that it's ok sometimes when used in art(music, paintings, poetry etc.) We've never made a big deal about it, and funny enough, they alwys knew when something was inappropriate without us having to tell them. For instance, both girls despised wrap music that had nasty references in it, without us saying a word. So I think sometimes, we need to give kids more credit and let them think for themselves. There's WAY too much politically correctness crap in the world today-one of many things that is wrong with it lol! But, that's just my opinion....

Jennifer