Heroin Diaries appropriate for high school?

[Krystal Gregory]

I just bought the Heroin Diaries by Nikki Sixx thinking it would be a great resource for health class book reports. I had no idea it was so graphic but I hate to take it off the shelves because it's so good. My temporary solution has been permission slips but I don't want to have permission slips for every questionable book. I also recently bought the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo but I've just been warning kids that it has a violent rape scene in it and if their parents wouldn't approve of them reading it they shouldn't check it out. This probably wouldn't be such a problem in a larger city but I live in a tiny super-conservative town. Any ideas?

[Krystal Gregory]

I like that idea of taking the responsibility off me and putting it on the student. Is your "red dot" section separate from the rest of the books?

[Julie Hooper]

I put red dots on of the spines  my books with "mature content". It is part of my "intro to the library" talk. I tell the kids red dots are like an M rating on a video game. I tell the students I cannot possibly know their family values, but they do, and it is their responsibility to respect them. So if student X'smother calls me upset about content of the book he or she checked out, the responsibility is on the student, for they have been warned of mature content by the red dot. Of course all the freshmen boys want to know where the "red dot" section is!