Who should decide what our kids read?

This is something I actually meant to post a few nights ago but I ended up getting distracted by a couple of things (most people realize I have the attention span of a fruit fly) so I'm going to post it now while procrastinating at work.

We were talking about the scandal surrounding the most recent Newbury medal winner "The Higher Power of Lucky" (something about the word "scrotum" being used in it...if you haven't read the article go here) in one of my classes on Wednesday and we got into this discussion about banned books and who gets to choose what our children read. While under the first amendment, it's illegal to ban any book, many schools/teachers/parents find ways to take books off of library shelves. Schools can argue that the book doesn't fit within their curriculum thus they have no need for it. Teachers are able to decide what books they keep in their classrooms and which ones they leave out. Parents can opt their children out of reading certain assigned books if they find the material offensive. In some cases, people have been known to either check out "offensive" books from the library and never return them or simply steal them to prevent others from having access to them. And that's not even the most extreme of cases. A few years ago, in the Massachusetts area, a case was filed by a parent over the reading of a children's book some deem "controversial" called "King and King" (basically there's a prince who can't seem to fall in love with any princesses and ends up falling in love with a prince instead). This parent basically sued the teacher and school district for violating his rights or something. It was pretty ridiculous but those are the levels many people will go to to get books taken out of classrooms or off the shelves.

Other books that have been "banned" or deemed "controversial" in the past include: "The Giver", "Bridge to Teribithia", and "Halloween ABC". I personally loved "Bridge to Teribithia" and I don't understand AT ALL what's so controversial about it...I mean, it's sad but a lot of books are sad. (To see a list of some of the banned books go here.)

But anyway, my question is, who should get the final say as to what our children read? Not for leisure but in schools. Should it be the parents? The teacher? The principal? Whose job is it to decide?