Censorship Fears Resurrected After Round Rock Superintendant Pulls Spicy Teen Novel

Parents in Round Rock are in a huff after area Superintendent Jesus Chavez decided to pull a steamy young-adult novel from all district middle school libraries.

The book in question is written as a series of instant-message exchanges between a gaggle of teenage girls, and titled "TTYL"—internet shorthand for what-a-total-beating.

The editorial review on Amazon sums it up best:

Far from being precious, the format proves perfect for accurately capturing the sweet histrionics and intimate intricacies of teenage girls. Grownups (and even teenage boys) might feel as if they've intercepted a raw feed from Girl Secret Headquarters, as the book's three protagonists--identified by their screen names "SnowAngel," "zoegirl," and "mad maddie"--tough their way through a rough-and-tumble time in high school. Conversations range from the predictable (clothes, the delicate high-school popularity ecosystem, boys, boys in French class, boys in Old Navy commercials, etc.) to the the jarringly explicit (the girls discuss female ejaculation: "some girls really do, tho. i read it in our bodies, ourselves") and the unintentionally hilarious (Maddie's IM reduction of the Christian poem "Footprints"--"oh, no, my son. no, no, no. i was carrying u, don't u c?").

Yikes.

Chavez decided to pull the novel after Sherry Jennings, a parent of a student at one of the district schools, spearheaded a petition effort to ban the book over its "sexual content" and "vulgar language." The petition managed to drum up some 1,600 signatures.

Several weeks ago, a committee consisting of officials and parents voted 5 to 4 in favor of retaining TTYL on the shelves after an earlier school panel reached a similar recommendation. Chavez, who appointed the committee in the first place, evidently overruled both verdicts and pulled the book before the matter could be escalated to the school trustees. His letter to Jennings appears to the right.