PRINT5 Things: Banned in Missouri
May 10, 2012 | 12:00 a.m. CST
WADING AWAY
Last September, the Missouri Department of Conservation banned felt-soled waders. The
department said the waders can bring algae that damages rivers and hurts fish, like Nemo
or trout. And no one wants to hurt Nemo.
FREEDOM FOR FERRETS!
Mid-Missouri must have a beef with ferrets. Boone County was the only county in Missouri
where the pet was banned from 1988 until 2005, when Boone County began allowing the
furry friends as pets if they received a rabies vaccination from a veterinarian.
I'M BLOCKED FROM TEACHER
Enacted in August 2011, the Amy Hestir Student Protection Act aims to protect students
from sexual misconduct by educators. Buried in section 162.069, the bill forbids teachers
to communicate on nonwork-related websites with current or former students. Sorry,
Mrs. Jones; we’ll miss your FarmVille game requests.
SPLAT GOES CICADA ICE CREAM
For five days last summer, Sparky’s sold a popular ice-cream flavor that sold out the first
day — cicada ice cream. Boone County and Columbia Public Health food codes do not
say how to prepare cicadas. Health advisors suggested the store stop selling the chirping
cream, so Sparky’s did even though there were still plenty of cicadas to go around.
WHAT THE BOOK?
Parents challenged more than 300 books in 2011 for being in U.S. public libraries. In 2010,
the southwestern Missouri town of Republic’s school board eliminated three books from
its schools for being “soft-pornography:” Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Twenty
Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler and Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. So it goes.
