Part 2 of 3
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     Reprinted with written permission of the author, Piers Anthony.
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Excerpt from the Author's Note of CHAOS MODE written by Piers Anthony.
   "So this time, with VIRTUAL MODE, I would have recommended caution, 
because that is a novel of a different nature. It is, in its way, an expose
of the reality of too many public schools, where drugs abound and girls get
raped in stairwells while the administration covers up."
   "However, I was not there, and it is the parent's prerogative to 
determine what type of reading is appropriate for the child. Jessica had
read the novel, and knew her daughter, and judged that Samantha could 
handle it. Samantha was a bright girl, with advanced reading ability and
maturity. If the school disagreed, there are procedures to clarify such
things, even if they aren't always honored. So Samantha took the book to
school. And--how did you guess?--she got in trouble. The principal sent
Samantha home three hours early, and suspended her for a week, because she
had been caught reading "such immoral trash." Jessica went to the principal
and--I see you're ahead of me, here!--got lectured herself. In fact, the 
principal suggested that her daughter should not be allowed to read any 
more Piers Anthony books. Because, he said, they contained such things as 
rape, suicide, bodily functions, and sex. Perhaps it was incidental that 
this novel also poked fun at stuffy principals. A child, he explained, 
might be harmed by such material, because at that age they can not 
distinguish fantasy from reality."
   "I have to say that the man did have a case. VIRTUAL MODE does contain
such elements, and some children might indeed be harmed by such exposure.
I would question whether children are not more likely to be harmed by the
endless violence they watch on television, but that does not justify 
harming them in school. Yet the principal hardly buttressed his case by 
condemning all my work outright, attributing elements to it which are not
found, for example, in my Xanth series. He should have informed himself,
before making a statement which could be regarded as slanderous. 
Unfortunately, ignorance of this type abounds in the school system and in 
communities at large, with even classic works of literature getting banned 
for spurious reasons. The principal also erred when he attempted to preempt 
the parent's authority, and to dictate what a child might read in her free 
time--and indeed, to punish the child for what was as worst an error in 
judgement by her mother. The moment any person outside the family or legal 
guardian attempts to ban certain books from being read within the family, 
that is censorship, and I beleive unconstitutional. The principal had far 
overstepped his authority."
   "But the principal did not stop there. He filed a report with the local
Social Services, charging Jessica with negligence for giving questionable
reading material to a minor. Because Jessica was a single parent with 
little formal education, he questioned whether she was capable of raising
a child with above average intelligence. Never mind that she was obviously
doing so, for Samantha was doing well in school. It was evident that the
man had a private agenda, and was determined to punish mother and daughter
yet more for the nominal crime of bringing VIRTUAL MODE to school.
   "You might think that such a vendetta would be laughed out of existance,
the moment the basis of it was discovered. Not so. An investigation was
made. This led to court proceedings. In the preliminary hearing, the judge
decided that there were sufficient grounds to remove both Samantha and her
five-year-old brother Joshua from Jessica's custody. They were placed in a
foster home and Jessica was forbidden to visit them. How could this happen? 
Well, Jessica had to work to support her family, so she had a full-time 
job. But she was also trying to improve herself, so she was taking classes 
three nights a week. She couldn't afford a day-care center, so a neighbor 
took care of the children before and after school, until Jessica got home 
from work in the afternoon. She couldn't afford a car, so time was also 
lost with the bus schedule. The Social Services folk make six surprise
visits. Four times Jessica wasn't home, being at work or school. Once they
came on a Saturday, which was her cleaning day. So the beds were apart, the
children's room had toys scattered across it, the kitchen sink was piled 
with dishes, and the living room was turned upside down so the children
could play and watch TV there while Jessica did the other rooms. Her 
clothes dryer wasn't working, so she had strung a rope up in the bathroom
and hung the wet things there. That was when what looked like southern
dowagers, complete with white gloves, walked in unannounced. There was
Jessica in this mess, wearing a T-shirt and cut-off shorts, and her 
children still in their pajamas. She was horribly embarrassed."
   
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