Mom Says Homework Assignment is Porn!

Mom Says Homework Assignment is Porn! 

Pornographic material surely doesn't belong on a high school reading list, but what about a best-selling biography about a woman who changed the course of medical history? According to Tennessee mom Jackie Sims, the two are one and the same. Sims is appealing to Knox County Schools to ban The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks after she says her son, a 15-year-old student at L & N STEM Academy, was assigned the book for summer reading and disturbed by certain passages. The 2010 book tells the story of Henrietta Lacks, a poor black woman diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1951. Without her consent, scientists took Lacks' cells, which have allowed for "such innovations as the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, and more." However, one particular passage graphically describes how Lacks found a lump on her cervix. The book also contains accounts of infidelity. "I was shocked that there was so much graphic information in the book," Sims says, calling it "pornographic." L & N's assistant principal has apparently offered his support, telling Sims that students will next read Fahrenheit 451, which, ironically, covers book burnings. (WBIR)