A recent reading assignment at New Trier High School has raised eyebrows and prompted swift action after a concerned parent brought the matter to light.
The controversy centers around the reading of "The Victory Lap," a short story by George Saunders, by sophomore students at the school.
The assigned short story, "The Victory Lap," revolves around a disturbing plot involving a man attempting to kidnap a 15-year-old girl with the intent of sexually assaulting and potentially murdering her.
The story contains explicit and vulgar language, including derogatory terms, making it a topic of concern for parents.
“It's a story about a man attempting to kidnap a 15 year old girl so he can rape and perhaps murder her,” Chicago’s Morning Answer host Dan Proft said on his Nov. 2 show.
“And it contains a lot of choice words. The C word. All sorts of other things that I can't even euphemistically describe. I'm not creative enough to describe the vulgarity in this novel.”
According to Proft, a parent discovered the nature of the assignment and reached out to the teacher and school administrators to express their concerns. However, the parent's email reportedly upset the teacher, who responded by directing the parent to contact the English department chair with future concerns.
After going to the school’s administration the story assignment was revealed as a mistake.
“The teacher assigned the wrong 'Victory Lap' instead of 'Victory Lap' by George Saunders and (were) reading about anal *** S*** rectum fritz.”
“Instead of that the sophomores were supposed to read 'Victory Lap' by Julian Winters. Which is about a gay black teen with a non-binary friend who's trying to figure out who to ask to a school dance. That is so much better! Oh, well, finally, finally, we're getting to literature.”
Proft noted the incident on X as well.
“Not that ‘Victory Lap,’ the other one,” Proft said on X.
“New Trier HS, reputedly the best government school in IL. A microcosm of government K-12 in America.”
“Victory Lap” by George Saunders was published in The New Yorker in 2009 and later published in his book the “Tenth of December.”
“Victory Lap” by Julian Winters was published in the anthology “Out Now: Queer We Go Again!.”
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