ASBURY PARK PRESS :: MONMOUTH EDITION

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THURSDAY 10.08.15

Middletown North
graduate returns
Shilique Calhoun and his Michigan State
teammates coming to face Rutgers. 1C

RUSSIA LAUNCHES CRUISE MISSILES TO AID SYRIAN GOVERNMENT PAGE 1B

Required-reading novels
about sex and rape questioned
by parents at Rumson-Fair Haven

SHOULD THESE BOOKS BE

AP

Maroon 5 performs during a beach concert in Atlantic City in

August that reportedly drew more than 50,000 people.

Tax cut
possible
for A-list
entertainers
Bill touted as incentive
to lure acts to play A.C.
MICHAEL SYMONS @MICHAELSYMONS_

TOM SPADER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Cal by Bernard MacLaverty and Death and the Maiden by Ariel Dorfman are the two books that some parents want
removed from required-reading lists for students at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School.

SUSANNE CERVENKA @SCERVENKA

Cal is not
Hamlet. There
are other books
about oppression.
There comes a
time when its
time to make a
better choice.
SIOBHAN FALLON
HOGAN,
THE MOTHER WHO DISCOVERED

RUMSON How many obscenities should a senior

be given to read for English class in public school? Is
reading about dusting off a diaphragm too much
for juniors?
Or are explicit passages simply small parts of
complex literary works that help expand how students in one of the states elite school districts think
critically?
Those are the questions being debated in the
Rumson-Fair Haven Regional School District,
where there are competing petitions over the required reading lists for students. Some say the passages are too sexually explicit for high school teens.
Others say striking these books from required-reading lists is censorship.
At the center of the discussion is the 1983 novel
Cal by Bernard MacLaverty, described by USA Today as a love story as affecting and tragic as you
could want, and the Ariel Dorfman play Death and

You need
challenging

be challenged. At
what point does
that start? High
school? College?
When?
NORM DANNEN,
2005 RUMSON-FAIR HAVEN
GRADUATE

KATHLEEN HOPKINS @KHOPKINSAPP

NUMBER 241
SINCE 1879

See SEXTING, Page 8A

Fast, casual &

Mediterranean
Greek Eats restaurant prepares to open in Shrewsbury.
Your Money, 16A

9A
17A
1C
10C
16A

Marlboro counselor
faces sentence Fri.
for sexting children
FREEHOLD A former Marlboro camp counselor is
seeking to avoid a criminal record when he is sentenced Friday for sending sexually explicit messages
to children in the townships summer recreation program.
Meanwhile, a lawsuit filed on behalf of one of the
campers alleges that township officials permitted
counselor Matthew J. Kleinstein to remain in his post
for weeks after they discovered he sent lewd photographs and messages to pre-adolescent girls.
After the discovery, the 20-year-old was transferred to supervise younger children in the second and
third grades, according to the lawsuit.
Kleinstein, who lives in Marlboro, admitted in the
criminal case that he sent the materials to four girls
around June 28, 2014, while he was working as a camp
counselor for the Marlboro Township Recreation Department, said Charles Webster, a spokesman for the
Monmouth County Prosecutors Office.
Kleinstein, however, applied for entry into the
courts pretrial intervention program, which would enable him to avoid a criminal record if he is accepted and
successfully completes the program, according to
Webster.
The ex-counselor is scheduled to be sentenced by

Whats Going There?

OBITUARIES
OPINION
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WEATHER
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New Jersey has the highest average property tax in the nation.
It rises $540 million a year each year. Who is profiting from
your misery, and why cant this tax be fixed? Read our exclusive investigation, starting Sunday.

ideas. You need to

See BANNED, Page 4A

5D
1E
4D
3A
1D

See A-LIST, Page 14A

Coming Sunday

THE PASSAGES

ADVICE
CLASSIFIED
COMICS
LOCAL
LUXURY LIVING

TRENTON State lawmakers are pushing a big tax

cut but you have to be a crowd-drawing, A-list entertainer and be willing to play a string of performances in
Atlantic City to qualify.
Under the plan, qualifying performers would be eligible for a 100 percent credit on any income taxes owed
to the state if they play four shows in Atlantic City in a
calendar year.
That break would apply to income from any shows
that year in New Jersey, such as at the PNC Bank Arts
Center in Holmdel, the Susquehanna Bank Center in
Camden or the Prudential Center or MetLife Stadium in
East Rutherford.
The bill was approved by the Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation
Committee.
Senate Minority Leader Thomas Kean Jr., R-Union,
said concerts create retail, restaurant and hospitality
business far beyond what an entertainer is paid and

VOLUME 136