It seems like the debate over inappropriate books in schools will never end. And that's partially because there are so many adults on school boards who are unable or unwilling to use good judgment and just say that some stuff is seriously corrupting for any child to read and should never be offered at school in the first place.
What has happened to our culture when people are unable to do that?
A raging controversy is underway in Penfield, New York. In Penfield Central School District, parents learned that a book called The Rainbow Parade was available to grade school children. The story features two lesbians who take their daughter to a pride parade and in the book are illustrations of nude adults. Two pages read, “Everyone is wearing what makes them feel most like themselves. Even if that means wearing hardly anything at all.”
And the illustration shows a nude person from the back. One reviewer on Amazon was very upset and wrote, “Bondage outfits, nudity both male and female….you’ve got to be kidding me!” Another labeled it “grooming material” and wrote “Do Not Purchase!”
One mom addressed the school board in January, showed the book and told the board, “All of you should be brought up on charges.”
So what did the Penfield school board do? At the next meeting, the superintendent presented a tedious reading of the library materials’ policy, which unjustly defends inclusion of “sexual orientation” and “gender identity“ topics as if they are unobjectionable “global” issues of “diversity” (See her discussion beginning at 49:17 ). The book policy is to set up a review committee.
Sorry, but no “committee” replaces the sound judgment of the person responsible for purchasing the book. If the librarian is a hard-core “LGBTQ” activist, as many of them are, this is where the problem lies. And sympathetic or cowardly administrators and board members won’t challenge the position that homosexual obscenity is justified by DEI. We’ve seen this time and again in these book issues, where school staff/boards erroneously maintain these obscene materials meet a “racial” or DEI goal.
How did parents at that meeting react? They were not fooled. They erupted with booing and verbal objections, and then the chairman shut the meeting down.
The local NPR affiliate published a thoroughly biased piece on the controversy claiming that “misinformation” was being shared, and even linked to the professional page of one of the objectors. Doxxing should be against high journalistic standards and maybe against the law. Can someone remove the federal funding from leftist drones like NPR?
The only misinformation we can detect is that Libs of TikTok (re-tweeted by Elon Musk) originally claimed that a kindergartener had checked out the book. A fifth- grade girl actually did, yet her mom stated that the book is available to kindergarteners. She is correct. NPR was also incensed that a man showed up at the February meeting in a gorilla suit and a MAGA hat. NPR was convinced this was an expression of racial prejudice, even though the man claimed it was only an attention-getting tactic.
Here's another recent book situation. In the town of Columbus IN, some parents wanted to remove a book from a high school called Push that has been the subject of controversies elsewhere. It features numerous vulgarities, the rape of a young girl by her father, being impregnated by him twice, abuse by her mother, and so on. It’s a heartbreaking story and yes, these things do happen. But do children have to read about them in explicit detail? Is this supposed to be therapy? Don’t people understand that children are very suggestible/impressionable?
The board chose to keep the book and even rejected a motion to require parental consent.
A good question to ask a school board candidate would be, “Do you see anything objectionable about books like this?” If you get an answer like, “Well, I’m not for book banning,” that tells you what you need to know.
This isn’t book banning. It’s selecting material to educate your child’s mind and heart. Schools routinely choose and also reject material, so don’t listen to the con job they try to pull. Material is not selected all the time.
If the librarians don’t have good sense, it’s time for parents to have a much larger voice.
