Student stands up to school board over explicit reading material

On September 17, a young student raised her concerns to the Wake County Board of Education about sexually explicit and incestual material found in her required reading.  

Lorena Benson, a 15-year-old student, left Athens Drive High School after feeling, “... deeply bothered and deeply disappointed” over her curriculum.  

In a board of education meeting, Benson read excerpts from the material which detailed an inappropriate interaction between cousins. When this was read during class, Benson recounts her and several students being uncomfortable with what was depicted.   

Although not specifying the title, it can be ascertained from the scenes depicted that the short story is “Tomorrow is Too Far,” which is authored by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.  

Materials like this are unacceptable and detrimental to the development of children. As Benson notes from another honors course she took, “I was taught that the teenage brains, like mine, are not fully developed yet and that we must be careful about what we engage [in] during these years. Based on this logic, I am a teenager, my brain is not fully developed, and I should not have graphic, incestual, sexual content taught to me in my classes...” Parents should encourage legislators to uphold their rights to protect their children against dangerous content, such as this.

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