How can they ensure that at all? It hear it is readily available on the interwebs for free and in HD if that is what they are interested in.
We might as well outsource America's public schools to Red China
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How can they ensure that at all? It hear it is readily available on the interwebs for free and in HD if that is what they are interested in.
They can't. But it's not taxpayer funded on the "interwebs for free".
These titles aren't beneficial, AFAIK.
My mother had no right nor capability to control what I read. She is an uber-Christian too... I never even had her try to limit what I read.. seriously, never.
How can an Atheist ensure that their kid doesn't learn about Christmas? How can a Buddhist ensure they are not exposed to stupid beliefs in sky daddies?
Sounds a bit like the government trying to control which of the moral codes gets to pick the books in the library... possibly a violation of 1st Amendment. I mean, we all had to read that gay fiction called The Great Gatsby... (if you don't think that the main character was gay, read it now that I've said that, you'll see it).
T. A. Gardner
Serial Thread Killer
A Buddhist wouldn't care. Exposure to other religions and ideas is just fine with us, not that we're going to buy into it, but listening to others and their ideas is something a Buddhist would do.
The left has a moral code? Who knew?
Stacy Langton is incensed. She stood at the podium during the September 23 school board meeting to testify about two books in her child’s school library, when she was interrupted by School Board Chair Stella Pekarsky.
Those books she spoke about that night contain explicit pornographic content. In addition to the graphic language in the books, there are also illustrations including fellatio, sex toys, masturbation and nudity.
As Pekarsky interrupted Langton, stopping her from finishing her remarks, Springfield District Member Laura Jane Cohen claimed there were children in the audience. This was not true.
Many members of the community have since questioned how it’s apparently acceptable for the book to be in school libraries, yet it should not be read aloud when children may be in the audience.
“Do not interrupt my time,” Langton emphatically told the board. “I will stand here until my time is restored and my time is finished.”
According to school board policy, a community member will receive two minutes of uninterrupted time when they are chosen to speak before the board. Before Langton’s time was up, Pekarsky spoke over her and tried to introduce the next speaker.
“This is not the reception you should be getting when this is the topic,” Langton said in an interview.
Even after Pekarsky cut her microphone, Langton began reading from Virginia Code 18.2-376, which she said the school board was violating. “It shall be unlawful for any person knowingly to … circulate … any notice or advertisement of any obscene item …” she read. Amid jeers from the audience, several members of the board immediately got up and left the dais for a 5-minute recess.
Providence District School Board Member Karl Frisch, a gay man who has no children, took the recess time to post to Twitter, “It’s not every week the School Board receives two exorcisms during public comment. To be clear, nothing will disrupt our Board’s commitment to LGBTQIA+ students, families and staff. Nothing.”
Last year, Frisch participated in a panel discussing his school board victory as an “agnostic” over “religious extremists” in Virginia.
This type of controversy is not new.
In 2016, the Virginia General Assembly attempted to pass HB 516, which would require the Board of Education to write a policy on explicit instructional material requiring parents be notified and have an opportunity to review the material and find an alternative if the parent did not approve.
That bill passed with bipartisan support only to have then Governor Terry McAuliffe veto it. The House voted to override McAuliffe’s veto, but was one vote shy of the required number.
In March 2017 McAuliffe vetoed HB 2191 which would have required schools to notify parents if their child is enrolled in a course in which the materials or related academic activities include sexually explicit content or the potential for it.
In fact, in the gubernatorial debate with opponent Glenn Youngkin, McAuliffe attempted to defend his stance. “I’m not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decisions,” he said. “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”
McAuliffe has apparently forgotten about Virginia Code 1-240.1 which addresses the rights of parents. It reads, “A parent has a fundamental right to make decisions concerning the upbringing, education, and care of the parent’s child.”
According to a 2013 Washington Post article, only one of McAuliffe’s children went to a public high school – Langley High School. His other children attended Potomac School, a private school in McLean and Gonzaga College High School, a Catholic college prep school in Washington, D.C.
Langton said the characterization that she’s unhappy because there is gay pornography in our children’s schools is not factually correct. “This is pornography full stop. Straight up,” she said. “It doesn’t matter at all to me what the gender is of the people depicted engaging in the pornography. It doesn’t matter to me at all what the sexual orientation is of the people engaging in the pornography. If this had been a normal heterosexual situation – a man and a woman engaging in it, or whatever, I would have said exactly every single word the same way I said it at that meeting. This is about the environment that our children go to school in.”
The books in question are “Lawn Boy” by Jonathan Evison and “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe.
They are available in many high school libraries and some middle school libraries across the county.
A Fairfax County Public Schools spokesman explained that librarians must follow selection criteria found in Instructional Services Regulation 3013.2 dated August 2018.
https://www.fairfaxtimes.com/articles/fairfax_county/mother-exposes-sexually-graphic-books-available-in-fcps-libraries/article_42cdbfee-220e-11ec-acfa-8f17e3ad96b6.html
That was not the point. I used these two because neither will care that they were mentioned and we wouldn't get sidetracked by nonsense like this. My point is trying to control the non-fiction offered in a library at a public school is allowing the government to have way too much control over stuff we have a constitution that says they have no control whatsoever over.
I get they don't like that their kid might read a book entitled Gender Queer, I can even understand why they may be upset about it, but the reality is kids almost never grab a book like that in their school library. Those that actually check out books from their school library get books that are fun to read, not boring AF books like Gender Queer..
Anyway, we shouldn't be trying to control what is available for them to read, we should simply know it is there and give them guidance if you find out that is what they are reading... rather than an attempt at control which almost invariably would make them actually want to read the books you didn't want them to...
Was gay pedo porn available in your school's library, and if so, did she know about it?
That is good, but some states and school districts are now objecting to and removing books from school libraries due to parental objections.
Do you think parents should allow young children to view pornography on the internet?
I think parents should understand that if they want to get to it they will, and pretending otherwise is just ignoring reality.
Prepare them for what they will see, don't try to control it, the tighter that grip goes the more sand slips through the fingers and the more the child will simply do it and then keep it secret.
How is it "reality"? Do you have statistical evidence regarding the number of times those titles were checked out by kids?
If not, how do you know kids think those kinds of books are "boring AF"?
We don't fundamentally disagree, BTW.
I believe that taxpayer-funded education is indefensible, unacceptable and undesirable at any level because it is a state-sponsored and controlled apparatus that government has no right to be involved in.
There were fictional books that some folks even found that described sex in their various forms available in the school library. Would you consider it porn? I don't know. But yeah, curious kids could find that subject in the library even in the late 80s... Shoot in Junior High we had Billy who had an incredible capacity for finding it, he would mark the pages with paper clips... frickin' weird kid he was.
Do you have statistical information on that, you demand what you have not provided and expect that to mean something special?
Do you have any memory of the books you checked out of the library at that time? Do you even think kids check out books from their libraries at the same level we did when books were about the only way we had to get reading material?
Seriously, do you pay any attention to the advance of technology in the world today?
You didn't answer the questions that you were asked.
"They're going to do it anyway"?
That isn't what I said, so this is a simple straw man argument. While I get why you go there, it simply means that I am getting to you, I know, it's frustrating when a civil libertarian gets into a conversation about the 1st Amendment and why you don't get to control what books go in a government library... because you know they are right.
No, I did. I implied that I do not have those statistics, and then asked you if you happened to have them since you seem to deem it important. Do not expect from others what you are unwilling to provide. If you don't have the statistics yourself you are simply an idiot asking a question for which you do not have the answer and have not proven any point whatsoever other than you are unprepared to let the constitution stand when talking about what books a government allows in a library.
Since your life experience leads you to believe that every kid will check out Gender Queer and read it voraciously, I need some backup stats that show you have a point.
I don't need to statistical evidence for my opinion, do I?
I'll be glad to discuss that, if you wish.
You made two declarative statements, and want me to accept them as valid facts when we both know that you have no idea how many times those titles have been read by kids whose tastes in reading you couldn't possibly know.
Whatever I might tell you is unverifiable, so I won't insult your intelligence by posting personal anecdotes on the forum. You have my email address if you want to talk about it offline, although the same issue with verification applies.
Seriously? Are you arguing that it's OK to make gay pedo porn books available to kids in taxpayer-funded schools because you don't think they will bother to read them?
I said nothing of the sort.
This is what you said.
If you didn't mean to imply that "they're going to do it anyway", what did you mean? That's why I asked.