UPDATE
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Feb. 3: The Sora app will be reinstated Feb. 6. In a written announcement, Interim Superintendent Edward Velasquez said that the books in question have been reassigned to the correct grade levels. He added that no books or categories have been removed from the app, and that the app will now default to the lowest grade level as a safeguard.
Students at Orange Unified School District no longer have access to a digital library after parents complained that some books available through the app were inappropriate for children.
The district’s newly appointed interim superintendent, Edward Velasquez, suspended the Sora library app earlier this week, prompting outrage among some parents and praise from others.
“This isn’t book banning or censorship,” wrote one man on the public Facebook group OUSD Buzz. “This is ensuring age appropriate materials remain where they should be.”
Not everyone agreed. Eugene Fields, whose daughter attends first grade at Crescent Elementary School in the district, said he “found it disturbing” that the superintendent would suspend student access to the entire Sora library because of complaints about two books.
“That’s the equivalent of finding a spider in your basement and taking a flamethrower to your entire home,” he said.
Two books at center of OC debate
Orange Unified School District is the latest O.C. battleground in a contentious nationwide debate over what’s taught in public schools. Conservatives have also taken aim at what they consider…
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