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Allen student reveals textbook nudity
By Stephanie Flemmons, Staff Writer
An upper-level German textbook with a photo containing nudity has left area school districts wondering what to do.
Plano and Allen school districts are just two of the 3,000 nationwide who provide the Deutsch Aktuell 3 textbook to their students.
While the photo shows a person asking for a train ticket, the vendor is a small bookstore in a German city.
Tim Carroll, Allen ISD Public Information director said the district has used this particular textbook for two years, but the image was brought to their attention just two days ago.
“We will make a decision what to do with the textbook before the next school year,” Carroll said. “We do not feel we should make a sudden curriculum decision based on that one photo. It’s considered the best textbook with a wrong picture.”
Carroll believes the photographer’s intention was not to reveal nudity.
“It’s a typical cultural textbook photo,” Carroll said. “It’s a city scene in Germany displaying a rack of adult magazines that is not considered offensive in that country, but is in our country. It should have been more thoroughly screened before coming here.
In a letter from the textbook’s publisher, EMC Publishing, President and CEO Steve VanThournout said the editors intended for the magazine covers to be cut out of the final digital version sent to the printer.
“We are both embarrassed and sorry that the image was not properly cropped,” VanThournout. “The entire program has been thoroughly re-examined to confirm that no other image of this nature appears.”
He said since the publication of the 2005 edition of Deutsch Aktuell 3, EMC has come under new ownership and has instituted new editorial controls that should prevent this from happening again.
Carroll said only 15 students district-wide are enrolled in the upper-level German class.
“The book has been in circulation for two years, but no one had noticed,” Carroll said. “It’s a picture within a picture and not very noticeable.”
Nancy Long, Plano ISD communications coordinator, said as a precautionary measure, the secondary curriculum department is recommending to the German teachers that the page be removed from the books.
“While the textbook is used as a resource in German, the curriculum is not textbook-based,” Long said. “The topics contained in chapter seven are not ones that are taught in Plano ISD’s level three curriculum, and so it is highly likely that this page is not one that has been ever used with Plano students.”
Long said Deutsch Aktuell has been in circulation for four years, but this issue never surfaced.
“Most probably because the textbook is used in such a limited way in Plano,” Long said.
Carroll said since the book belongs to the state, Allen will not place a sticker or remove the page. He said the district does ensure the exact textbook will not be used next year.
VanThournout said EMC will work with every district to remedy the situation.
School district’s can contact EMC’s Customer Service Department at 1-800-328-1452 or email at educate@emcp.com.
The following are comments from the readers.
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
John wrote on May 14, 2008 11:45 PM:
" That this is even an issue is utterly ridiculous. Oh no! A nude person! What are we going to do? I wish our society reacted like this toward the prevalence of violence in our media. "
Peter wrote on May 15, 2008 12:01 AM:
" waste of time to worry about this. we are becoming a national, if not international, embarassment. If they showed an honest picture from our reckless war in Irag, that might be pornographic. "
school uniform proponent wrote on May 15, 2008 2:31 PM:
" Talk about making a mountain out of a molehill...students go to school every day dressed more obscenely than that photograph! Focus on that! "
Bara wrote on May 19, 2008 12:28 PM:
" Get a grip!!! These kids have seen worse on the Internet or in the back seat of their cars. Have they not studied anatomy? Looked in a mirror? If these 'advanced' students are so sheltered and/or stupid to have never seen the human body this country is truely raising a bunch of IDIOTS!!! "
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