New Jersey School Bans Book With Lesbian, Gay Scenes

Turns out high school students in one New Jersey district won't be reading Norwegian Wood this fall. Japanese author Haruki Murakami's celebrated novel about Tokyo college life in the 1960s was banned by the Monroe Township Schools in Williamstown after a public outcry over its supposed inappropriateness.

According to Fox News, school administrators apologized to parents for having initially required sophomores to read Wood, which reportedly contains a lesbian scene, in their English class.

"Some of the language is inappropriate," said Chuck Earling, superintendent of Monroe Township Schools. "We were not trying to create controversy. We were just trying to get students to read."

Also taken off the book list: Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines, Nic Sheff's young adult memoir that often serves as a companion to his father David's memoir, Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Meth Addiction. Parents wanted the schools to ban Sheff's book because it reportedly includes "depictions of drug usage and a homosexual orgy."

Peter Sprigg of the antigay Family Research Council told Fox News Radio the hysteria over the books was warranted.

"Here we see the intersection of parental values being offended, the hypersexualization of our youth and the homosexual agenda being pushed," Sprigg said. "This just illustrates why a lot of American parents are not willing to entrust their children to the public schools anymore."