The Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary is returning to classrooms at a southern California school after it was briefly removed because some parents complained there was age-inappropriate content in the reference text.

The dictionary will be back on school bookshelves, and it will be up to parents to decide whether they want their children to have access to it, said a statement issued Tuesday by the Menifee Union School District, located between Los Angeles and San Diego.

The controversy began last week when a parent complained to the principal of Oak Meadows Elementary School in Murrieta, Calif., about "explicit sexual content" in the dictionary's 10th edition.

The complaint originated from a student's accidental discovery that the dictionary contains an entry for oral sex (described as "oral stimulation of the genitals").

Copies of the dictionary in fourth and fifth grade classrooms at Oak Meadows were temporarily pulled from shelves while a panel of parents, teachers and school administrators met to discuss the matter.

On Tuesday, the panel decided to return the books to the classrooms but send students home with permission slips enabling parents to request that their child use a McGraw-Hill student dictionary instead.

According to the school board, administrators had purchased the Merriam-Webster Collegiate dictionaries years ago to allow more advanced readers to research unfamiliar words.