Why won’t the school board just ask for parental consent before disseminating sexually explicit materials to our kids? Why opt instead for a “Materials Reconsideration Guide?
We know the schools have purchased sexually explicit and completely inappropriate soft porn library books for kids as young as 5th and 6th grades in Ghaps. We also know the White Pines librarian, when pressed, suggested the book “One Man Guy” was appropriate for 6th graders , and proclaimed that books like that “Save kids lives”. Kids in 6th grade evidently need to imagine themselves at 14, skipping school, making out with sexually experienced 17 year old’s to the near point of oral and/or anal sex; that is vital to their well being and safety according to your kids librarian. (Book currently moved to Lakeshore Middle School).
Why does the school shy away from requiring parental consent when they have free reign to disseminate sexually explicit materials to minors? Why opt for a “Materials Reconsideration Guide” instead?
Lets think through this together.
You’re a parent of multiple kids in GHAPS schools. You’re not real keen on your 6th grader reading soft porn, or your highschooler checking out books on kink and erotic BDSM. So you’re told to check the destiny website to see what books your kids have checked out. What if they never check them out and just decide to read them during media hour? I guess you’ll never know about it. What if each of your kids checks out 4 books per week. Now you have to read four books a week before they can read them. If you have multiple kids, multiply the number of books each kid gets by the number of kids you have. God help you if your kid is a bookworm like mine are, you’re going to be busy.
Once you find one, it never gets flagged of course, the parent last year who went through this same exercise with her kids books can’t add to the flagging system, because ....NONE EXISTS…and THEY DON”T WANT IT TO….because “They save lives”...they don't want you to know the secret life saving work they’re doing with these sexually explicit books.
The ownership is on you, and every parent, every school year, to recreate the wheel and figure out which sexually explicit books the school stacks its shelves with because there’s ZERO notification. They have ZERO responsibility to notify you, or ask permission from you, after disseminating sexually explicit materials to your child. It is YOU who must to the hard detective work of knowing what every book they order in the library contains.
“But, you can tell us what genre your kids can’t read” they tell you. “Is there a genre for sexually explicit books?” you ask. No, they can be hidden as dramas, thrillers, fantasy, comics, adventure or more you come to realize.
Okay, so you’re three months into the school year and you’ve read 30 books so far, trying to keep up on the content your kids are reading to make sure they haven’t taken in some sexually explicit content (because the school refuses to tell you, notify you, or ask your permission if they do). You come across a book that is appalling, you can’t believe some adult would actually order a book like this for a kids school library. You ask the librarian about it. She looks at you like you’re backwoods Betty and tells you “Books like these save kids lives”. Next thing you know, you’re getting a call from Mary Jane Evink, the director of curriculum…she assures you that your parental instincts concerning your own child are wrong and that her librarians “ are all highly credentialed, therefore should be blindly trusted”.
Your parental instinct tells you this book is not something that will benefit your child and could actually harm their psyche. So you ask what can be done. You’re offered the “Materials Reconsideration Guide”. You sift through the first six pages of this guide that displays “The Library Bill of Rights” and “The Freedom To Read Statement” all telling you that people have a right to read what they want! Except, they're talking about your child. Hmmm, that’s an odd way to start this you think.
Next, you start reading the formal process and see that Mary Jane Evink, the curriculum director herself, hand picks the committee of five. Very interesting! Could she be biased in whom she chooses. ? How many people think sexually explicit books save kids lives in this school anyways? You’re filling out the several pages of questions in the guide to assure them you’re not an idiot, that you do understand the context of the book, and yes you still don’t find literary value in it. Don’t forget while you’re filling this out, to read all the other books your kids are checking out this week. Lastly, you read that a committee, handpicked by Mary Jane Evink, will make a determination and notify you, the complainant. Their decision will be FINAL for FIVE YEARS and no reconsideration of that item can be entertained.
What???!!!!!
You finally turn it in. Your action sets in motion a convening of a handpicked committee of “highly credentialed people”, you know, people much smarter than you.
They determine this book “saves kids lives” and on the shelf it remains, for the next parent to discover and be appalled by…but now they have no recourse, they have to wait out the five year clock.
So you keep plugging away reading all the books in the library, trying to figure out what else you can do. Really, all you ever wanted was for the school to ask for your parental consent before giving your kids sexually explicate materials. Wouldn’t every parent expect to be notified and give consent? Isn’t it illegal to disseminate sexually explicit materials to minors? (YES) And you just can’t add up, why in the world, they believe they don’t have the responsibility to do so.