Step up to the plate Clay County Florida. A school board member in Clay County thinks that "disciplinary action" should be taken against people who allow books deemed "inappropriate". She goes on to blame librarians for allowing these books into schools. Umm, excuse me ma'am but are you under the impression that the librarian is superhuman. Do you think that they can magically read all of the books in the library and know which ones will offend some random person, at some random time, in the future?
This school board member goes on to explain that she has already identified 75 books containing "pornographic material" that should not be on shelves. They don't provide the list, that would encourage people to think for themselves and that is definitely not the goal. They do however offer some examples, three to be exact. I would have to assume that she choose the most egregious examples to prove her point. The first book is called "Julian is a Mermaid". The book tells the story of a boy who wants to be a mermaid. He eventually gets his wish when his parents take him to a NYC Mermaid parade. The member sees this book as inappropriate because it encourages "gender fluidity". The two other books are inappropriate because they describe sexual acts. These books are targeted towards high school students. High schools students are dealing with the issues set forth in these books. Maybe they want to turn to a book for help. Maybe we should let them.
The offended official asserts that someone needs to be punished. Who are the someones? Well let's start with the medial specialist, the principal and possibly the superintendent. Once again the people who we trust with our kids education, the people who have been trained for this, the people we used to respect, are the people that get blamed for the woes of the world.
Let me add that I am not against anyone making a decision about what their child can and cannot read. Involved parents make my life easier. But I would like to say this one more time really loud for the people in the back. YOU DO NOT GET TO DECIDE WHAT EVERYONE'S CHILD READS!!!!
I don't think they should have blamed the librarians. Let the kids read what they want to read! I'm a little embarrassed by the romantic vampire books I used to read as a teen. They were on another level than Twilight. Pretty sure the ones I read would have been banned by that lady.
ReplyDelete