School Board Business Meeting and Presentations 5_30 p.m. 8-28-23

001order the time is 5 30 p.m I would like to recognize the superintendent for a series of awards and presentations all right everybody don't get too comfortable we're going to be very very brief and our Awards and the presentations our first presentation is going to be pushed under the individual coming to present from cognia was stuck in traffic so we are going to reschedule that our second presentation in order to have something we are going to do a presentation kind of highlighting the opening of school so the alternative our public information officer evening everyone thank you for being here with us tonight we have a short video that we compiled during the first week of school and now we are approaching almost two full weeks in school and what a wonderful opening of schools it

002has been so we hope you enjoy this video [Music] foreign [Music] I don't know [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you one more time at our last board meeting we recognized our newly hired principals and assistant principals and we have a couple more here with us tonight right now at 5 30. we would like to recognize one of our newest assistant principals from Glendale Elementary Carmen Dr Carmen tontillo come on up to the front please foreign now we're going to get a photo of you with the board but if you'd like to say a few words about your experience at Glendale so far in the past couple of weeks that was that was not planned I apologize nobody told me I was giving a speech um Glendale has been amazing the staff

003is amazing amazing the students are amazing I have an excellent Mentor with Mrs Flores so I could not be happier right now [Applause] thank you welcome right [Applause] I told you all right that concludes our Awards and presentations we will begin our business meeting at 6 PM adjourning the awards and presentation time at this time at 5 34. thank you and I would like to call this meeting to order the time is 6 p.m the chair asks out of respect for everyone please silence all electronic devices if you have any handouts for board members please give them to our executive assistant Mrs Moray please stand for the pledge presented by Dispatch River High School neighbor Junior ROTC under the direction of Master Sergeant Michael Hussey free event s yeah one nation under God indivisible with

004liberty and justice for all foreign um much colors and salute ready so colors March 14 days thank you Sebastian River High School at this time board members we have adoption of the orders of the day or members are there any items you wish to move from the consent agenda to action items please let me know the item number and topic yes ma'am Miss barenborg 5e strategic plan and 6e10 it will be short I'm sure yes doctor um if it pleases the board I'd like to move item 7B the collective bargaining agreement with school district in River County and ircea as well as item 7D the mou on salary with CWA uh to immediately proceed the report of the superintendent which is item 2A thank you Miss Rosario an adoption of new and revised policies yes

005a policy I wanted to speak to is the one that's this okay strategic plan under that same item thank you anything else Miss Rosario um yes I'd like to add um Heroes day 911 Heroes day to discussion here all day thank you Mr Barefoot I'm just checking that you can hear us any items you'd like to add no thank you all right thank you I would like to add for a discussion item African African-American standards okay so we have 5e specifically strategic plan 5e the public hearing and new revised policies and 6E tan and two discussion items added hero days in the African-American standards okay the chair now calls I'm sorry and Dr Moore's Proclamation right after that contract approval and the mou so chair now calls for a proper motion to adopt the order

006of the orders of the day as amended I'll call for the motion Mr bear I'm Sorry Miss barenborg and then seconded second Dr posca any discussion all right all in favor please say aye aye anyone thank you anyone opposed okay the vote is 5-0 okay Dr Moore I would like to recognize you now for your superintendent's report the proclamation and then the two items you moved thank you madam chair um we're gonna pick up with acknowledging our assistant principles for our report I'll turn it over mismatics to highlight that acknowledgment and thanks for being here with us tonight we have another new assistant principal who we would like to acknowledge tonight and that person is Mrs Jennifer lomascolo from Rosewood magnet school come on up please [Applause] hello everyone I'm Jennifer lamascolo I'm super proud

007to be part of the sdirc community and I'm looking forward to an amazing year I love Rosewood and principal Faust and I are looking forward to a great year [Applause] just put a big panther head on with it thank you thank you nice to meet you thank you good job sweetie congratulations the next item members of the board is the item 7B which I requested to move up that is the collective bargaining agreement between the school district of Indian River County and ircea and we are pleased to be able to come to an agreement for our upcoming school year uh Mr Bass will highlight some of the work that we've done uh but to miss Friedland and the bargaining team I just wanted to thank you personally for your unwavering commitment to our students uh

008pushing us to have great conversations regarding an environment that we can create to ensure every single student our district receives quality instruction and that we continue to problem solve to ensure each and every single day not only are our students learning but we are learning as adults and improving what we do for our students so so thank you for this new way of work this new way of bargaining uh and allowing us to be an example for all the districts and look like to look at in terms of how you bargain to make sure a you respect those who stand in front of our teachers every single day which means you listen and you learn and you react and I'll have Mr Bass come and set that up and follow him Mr Bass Ms Friedland

009if you'd like to come up prior to the board approving say a few words after the board approves the contract we'd like to ask the board chair to come down sign myself and you and we will have a contract is the best thank you Dr Moore through the chair um yeah as I mentioned today in the workshop a new practice procedure that we went through interest-based bargaining for those who are not familiar with it it is very um different from your normal bargaining session it is everyone's sitting around the table and working out our problems collectively and and together it's not a contentious and adversarial type situation um you know I have had the Good Fortune maybe bad fortune of working with uh contract negotiations for over 21 years in school districts and this is

010by far one of the most efficient and productive sessions that I've ever gone through we were able to agree on 11 different items and made some huge strides that are going that is going to improve the the education for our students I'm really excited about that and I can't say enough about uh miss freeland's leadership ircea and their executive board that was on the negotiating team just very open great conversations and let's get this thing signed so just really would you like to make comments before we I know right [Music] so I'm not allowed to speak off the cuff just use my teacher voice thank you okay good evening to the board Dr Moore and the cabinet um I just want to say that negotiations was possibly for the first time a pleasure um it

011was hard work by all but when you are working with a group of people that all respect the profession of teaching the art of teaching and the individuals that do that work it's a pleasure and as as Mr Bass said we are doing a different form of bargaining it's not adversarial it's called interspace and thank you for your words but if you weren't open to doing that it's new it wouldn't have happened so I have to thank you and your team for being open to that kind of work um and and I agree we got a lot of things done rapidly and for the better of all and ultimately when teachers working conditions are good student learning environments are great so I just want to say thank you to everybody and I can't wait to

012start on the 24-25. that is [Applause] all right this was on our consent agenda item but we moved it so we need approval now a motion for the approval of the collective bargaining agreement between the school district and the Indian River County Education Association Mr Dr posca motions to approve second second miss beringborg any discussion all in favor say aye aye aye anyone opposed aye he was he was on he was on the front end delay all right okay so motion passes thank you [Applause] the more the next one is memorandum of understanding all right our next item is a mou um is focused specifically on salary uh with our CWA union uh once again these employees came to us as there was a criteria in their contract which allowed us to reopen the contract

013specifically around salary uh they've had the opportunity a through a number of meetings to come in and express to you uh what we could possibly do to increase their pay we were very Innovative we were very creative the board set a clear expectation to me to see what we can do to maximize funds for these individuals this work unit uh and we are glad we were able to get that done once again thank you Maureen and team you guys drive a hard bargain but you know that uh Mr Bass Miss christopholi um for spending the time Mr fagin for working with us to determine how we were going to get this done in a non-contract year but still honoring those who do absolutely wonderful work so Mr Bass if you could please present the item

014yes sir thank you Dr Moore uh through the chair uh we're signing off on if you're if it's been ratified if you all approve it's a salary increase for this fiscal year for uh CWA employees of 4.5 percent uh really thrilled to be able to offer this to them uh we know Economic Times are difficult on everyone right now and uh just grateful for uh Miss Weisberg and her team and working with them in the great relationship we have with them also so before we approve Maureen if I want to provide you the same opportunity to say a few words yes good evening Dr Moore Mr Bass Steam School Board member parents teachers co-workers Dr Moore is correct 4.5 is the highest increase we've had in over 10 years so this will be very beneficial

015to a lot of your support staff thank you very much okay board members we need a motion for approval of the memorandum understanding motion by Miss barenborg second second by Dr posca any discussion all in favor of the approval of memorandum of understanding for the CWA union health insurance okay thank you I thank you hi Madam chair thank you Mr Bass everybody [Applause] also is that do we need to do it okay um and now the the next item is a proclamation uh for the attendance awareness month and Dr Lewis Dr Moore sorry point of order Madam chair you I didn't hear at the end and I just want to make sure legally that we are sound the number of votes for that last one we didn't hear 5-0 that past 5-0 or 4-0 and

016I know Mr Barefoot said I but it was very very low so I want to make sure that we change that for the minutes okay let's vote again approval of the memorandum of understanding between the school district of Indian River County and the CWA all in favor say aye aye aye aye okay new discussion 5-0 thank you okay now the proclamation Dr Moore Dr Lewis you're up we are moving into September in just a couple of days and we would like to recognize September as attendance awareness month and tonight we have a very special attendance awareness Proclamation from some of our students who will be reading that who have excellent attendance in our schools and I will allow Dr Paula Lewis the director of student services and her staff members Sarah Ainge coordinator of Mental

017Health and Social Services Ashley dowdell program specialists in student services and Melissa Wiles program specialist in student services to come up and tell us a little bit more about that Proclamation Dr Lewis good evening Madam chair the board the cabinet and all our guests I will definitely love to introduce our candidates that we have tonight September is attendance Awareness Month regular attendance is vital for Student Success when students attend regularly starting in kindergarten they are they have an opportunity to achieve academically and Thrive tonight we are honored to have some very special students here to read our attendance Proclamation each of these students had perfect attendance last school year this is an incredible accomplishment allow me to introduce our perfect attendance Representatives first I have to call up Olivia Suarez from Sebastian Elementary [Applause] we

018have jazaria farmer from Vero Beach High School we have Jalen Taylor from Sebastian River High School we have Catherine Buxton a 10th grader from Sebastian River High School okay now we will read our attendance Proclamation [Music] worse chronic absences misses 10 or more of school for a reason including and excluding absences or just two or three days a month is proven predicted or of academic trouble and Dropout rates and whereas improving attendance and engagement takes commitment collaboration and tailored approaches to challenge strength in each community and whereas taking attendance daily and a caring consistent manner is essential to identifying when students begin to miss too much school and for engaging students and families as early as possible with needed support and resources and now therefore be it proclaimed by The District School Board of Indian

019River County Florida that the district school board designates the month of September 2023 as attendance Awareness Month The District School Board urges the community to commit to focusing on reducing chronic absenteeism something like that to give our children uh an opportunity to learn grow and thrive all right okay board members we need a motion to accept this Proclamation make a motion thank you Miss Rosario motion by Miss Rosario second MS berenborg any discussion all in favor of the Proclamation of attendance awareness Awareness Month please signify by saying aye aye aye anyone to post passes 5-0 thank you very much [Applause] I've never had perfect attendance there you go and hold for your family picture over there we'll send it to you thank you guys thank you oh wait one more [Applause] that's so cool [Applause]

020that brings us to the citizen input yes sir thank you now we will I will read the guidelines for citizen input according to our school board policy 0169.1 each statement made by a member of the public she'll be limited to three minutes duration person will be recognizing the order in which a requests were received the time shall start when the speaker is at the podium and the school board attorney will be official time keeper as you will see the time clock is visible to your left on the Deus you will hear a beep at the end of your three minutes a person may speak for up to three minutes at the beginning of a business meeting during citizen input as indicated on the order of the business and for up to three minutes to each

021action agenda item during the action agenda and each board member discussion item as indicated on the order of business if a consent item is moved to an action item when you come to the podium you may speak at that time or defer to speak during the presentation of the action item people may only speak once about any given item the time period may be extended by the presiding officer only the individual submitting a speaker's form is allowed to address the bore Thai may not be yielded to other speakers during the meeting please refrain from clapping or outbursts of any sort so that we can proceed with dignity and with decorum by not infringing on any individual's First Amendment rights I need to remind everyone to direct all comments to the chair not to individual board

022members or the superintendent board members may or may not address any citizen input statements at the end of all the citizen input comments as board members listen to citizens without interruption citizens are asked to give board members the same request as per Florida statute 1001 372 subsection 3 the presiding officer of any District School Board May order the removal from a public meeting held by The District School Board of any person interfering with the expeditious or orderly process of such meeting provided such officer has first issued a warning that continued interference with the orderly process of the meeting will result in removal I will be calling you up two at a time the first person will be called to the podium to speak and the second person will be in line to speak ERS shall

023not engage in personal attacks or abusive language the chair has a right to terminate any speaker's privilege to address the board if this rule is violated if you have anything to give to board members or the superintendent please do this through our executive assistant Mrs Mori and just a reminder we have a big crowd here tonight so make sure we give everyone the dignity they deserve while speaking thank you our first speaker is Stan bowling followed by Lamar sorry thank you thank you thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight I ask that you all do two things first that you help doe with respect to African-American history standards I have looked at the standards all 216 Pages covers a lot of material but good scholarship before pushing out a final product make sure that

024it's out there it's critiqued it's corrected if need be and what I would ask that you all do is that you stay alert and that you scrutinize the standards on African-American history to guard against a false narrative which has historically been out there for many times in many ways and it goes something like this slavery wasn't all that bad and its cousin there are worse things in slavery those are false narratives they have no place in Teaching Standards for middle schoolers and high schoolers they can be said those arguments can be made but that's not the way it should be taught other forms of abuse that are talked about discussed in middle school or High School classrooms such as sexual abuse or child abuse we don't say during the period of abuse someone got a

025personal benefit we don't say during the period of abuse somebody you know there was worse things that could have happened no we are supportive we tell them we teach them corrective action needs to be taken the abuse needs to stop there needs to be no furthering of the abuse or any form of the abuse and we help them we support them we look for reconciliation we teach standards for that type of thing to make the situation better to be supportive even Rehabilitation of the abuser with that kind of abuse that's the kind of approach we have in our standards the same thing should apply to the abuse of slavery you all need to help Doe be alert scrutinize that police the second thing I would ask that you do is do something positive use our

026local African-American history to know it yourself and to have it taught or available to be taught in our Middle School and High School classrooms earlier today I sent you all a document the history of Gifford it's only four and a half pages long but it's interesting did I say it's only four and a half pages long sure it's short it's interesting it's disturbing it's inspiring just like most human history I would ask that each of you read that document I would ask also then that you have it vetted and approved for use in the district's Middle School and High School classrooms to be read and to be discussed it's a good document with local expertise and residents of Gifford that put it together I hope actually it would be read in private schools and homeschool

027groups as well it's our local history please put it in our classrooms thank you thank you thank you all right please please no clapping we have uh Miss Lamar and then Philip rogerio thank you very much um my issue my topic is um my topic is the content of books in our favorited okay thank you Lamar go ahead all right most parents um I assume send their children to school to get a quality education to prepare them for life and um I don't know why Graphics sexual content how that fits into um into that preparing them for their future so I would like to read some excerpts from books that are currently available Sebastian River High School and Vero Beach High School and I'm not going to say the actual words because they're very graphic

028but I will say the first letter of the word I hate lights out now because my D has a mind of its own and my brain has a mind of its own my D gets hard and my brain thinks about T and d and I don't want to touch it but then I do anyway and then I'm hotter than anything burning up and I hate myself and I wish I was dead last night wit goes couldn't you hear his bed squeak like MF Lisa she's got a D and it's hot and I want to F her with the D and all and then she turns into Dr V and he's reading Ernie's letters and he reads I know you're a good person and then he turned into Liza without a d and it's not hot

029and I don't want to F and she's hugging me and then we're not on the whale but we're at Everest and it's cold and clean and white and bright and Liza and Dr B and Ernie in Brooklyn and Ty and and fish are all there smiling it's safe it's good they're pointing to some s and it's Mrs Harper in an ice wheelchair and she's smiling and going America America so um this is another book The handmaid Tale by Margaret Atwood which is currently available at that Sebastian River Heist I just interrupt just a moment tomorrow and stop the clock so have these been brought to the principal yet for because that's the first step with any challenge book have they been brought to the principal um well I would just like for the public to

030know what's in them okay all right I understand that but you I just want to make sure there is a Content War morning because even with that just saying the first letter I just want to make children I think the question that every parent would like to know is how this prepares kids to have a better successful future right so understood all right just a moment thank you don't let's not start that I understand that and okay yes ma'am point of order citizens can speak to any item that they want up here it's not for us to be right there's no indication that she is um in the process of objecting to this book right now understood it also just want to make sure we give a Content warning for the students who may be

031too uh would not be appropriate for the students that's all so if someone is watching on TV that's why I'm not saying the words okay that's fine all right go ahead yes that's fine that's fine citizen input go ahead I just want to make sure the children are out of the room that's all thank you my red skirt is hitched up to my waist though no higher below it the commander is effing what he is effing is the lower part of my body I did not say make love because this is not what he's doing Madam chair I I need to I need to point of order please Madam chair um this is this is even with the first letter this is really graphic right and we have we have a rule here that says

032nothing obscene so we haven't heard the actual words but I think I think we've got we've heard enough okay that's fine then all right okay so I do have a minute left and I would I would like to just um to uh ensure parents that these books really do exist they really are in the school libraries now these are these are for high school but how does this help prepare students to have a successful future and that is the question that every parent would like the answer to thank you thank you Phillip rogerio and then David Flint thank you Lamar good evening good evening my name is Phil forgerio and uh like Lamar I also have some issues with regarding to some contents with some books and uh generally speaking over the years my interest

033in school issues was essentially looking at or were focused on budget transparency but recently I experienced a number of disturbing instances motivating me to address you tonight one instance occurred driving on Route 60 a car drove by with a sticker that read stop fascists burden books now as a 10 year old immigrant from Italy my family actually experienced the consequences of fascism Nazism and communism the second instance occurred as I read articles appearing to attack and censor mothers concerned about their children's education what I found was both distressing and offensive by moral standards as well as common sense I so I'll be sharing with you my experiences with a book named Go Ask Alice that is in our high schools The Freshman Learning Center as well as Storm Grove Middle School I quote excerpts Alice

034speaking on page 35 all the things I've heard about LSD were obviously written by uninformed ignorant people like my parents who obviously don't know what they are talking about page 36 he introduced me to Torpedoes Torpedoes is uh essentially a drug culture language for crack and marijuana on Friday and then on speed on Sunday there are both like shooting stars through the Milky Way only a million trillion times better the speed was a little scary at first because Bill had to inject my right arm on page 108 all the speaking and when Doris had just turned 11 her current stepfather started started having sex with her but good and the poor little bastard didn't even know what to do about it because he threatened to kill her as she ever told her mother or anyone

035else so she put up with the son of a balling her until she was 12. then one day when he had heard her pretty bad she told the gym teacher why she couldn't do the exercises but even that wasn't much better because both teenage brothers gave it to her a later older teenage girls turned her on to drugs then took her the homo route since then she's pulled down her pants and hopped into bed with anyone who had turned down the covers or part the bushes we also have a book identical found in Storm Grove and freshman Middle School quoting on page 150. I want you to see that I want you to see something that proves how much I love you this is only for you something that proves how much I love you

036he lifted her gently set her down on the bed beside him then opened the snaps of his pajamas it stood up stiff as a stagler might see how much Daddy loves you show me how you love me too touch it you close their hand around it thank you very much thank you Mr I asked how how this can be educational content we have any benefit to our kids all right thank you thank you all right David flint and Mary Louise variety that's a tough one to follow hello good evening my name is David Flynn I'm a father of three African-American children currently enrolled here in Indian River County Schools I'm also a business owner I'm a voter I'm currently the Indian River chapter chair for defense of democracy a group of allies Advocates and Americans

037I'm here today to lend my voice to the cause brought forth by the local NAACP and to stand in unity with them as somebody in the community are here to do against these newly adopted African-American history standards specifically the standard whose Benchmark clarification states that blacks receive potential benefit from slavery there are errors throughout the standards and they don't just end with that one it's not just that one issue the state do we ignored its own task force and multiple issues including the starting place of African-American history which did not start with slavery but rather before that when these individuals were stolen from their Homeland as mathematicians metal workers and Architects they built the Golden Age of Africa and then they became slaves they were beaten Chained and forced to do hard labor in unbearable

038conditions while the Bedrock of American Wealth was built on their backs I assure you the benefit was not to the slaves as we see hostility continue towards African-Americans to people of color and the lgbtq community we need to remember that these are our brothers and sisters our sons and our daughters our friends and our neighbors and we need to take a stand it was 60 years ago today that Martin Luther King marched on Washington for jobs and freedom and he declared in his speech I Have a Dream we stand here now 60 years later with teachers being instructed to teach inaccurate lessons that push false narratives about African-American history the NAACP is calling on state local governments to act to protect our children and as a community and representatives of our children in this community

039we need to stand United and make our voice be heard I'd like to thank Dr Jones for her leadership and work already done I'm bringing light to the harm of the standard and I call on each of you the board members elected to this school board to join her in unity in sending a statement from this board to the State Department of Education rejecting the standard and calling for a review of new standards also on another topic book challenges since I see that's a topic tonight I encourage that you look at the rulings in Lake County that recently happened with the doe the doe has clarified that house bill 7 does not apply to library books but rather classroom instruction the attack on African-American history is being played out in our libraries as they claim

040CRT it's an invalid claim and it's time for the nonsense to stand to stop I thank you all very much for your time have a wonderful evening thank you sir thank you and the next speaker is Mary Louise verardi and then sue Lyons thank you hi good evening I'm here because I'm very concerned for our children and students book title Drama by Rayna telomere I'm just you know do we need to do a Content warning if the case any students are listening or watching sure okay I'm just saying that do you need to do a Content warning okay because if you're going to read it aloud and I find it that should be a Content warning I'm going to do it just so in case somebody's watching that wants to leave the room so go

041ahead thank you that's right give her a time back I'm sorry go ahead Miss Lyons currently in Sebastian River Middle School Vero Beach Elementary Storm Grove Middle School Oslo Middle School Pelican Island Elementary Indian River Academy Beachland Elementary original challenge November 4th 2021 page 188 the illustrations on the bottom of the page depicts young men performing in a play one of them is wearing a soldier outfit while the other one is wearing a red dress they are kissing on stage page 20 222 a young man and woman are talking the young man says West still doesn't know if he's really gay or I don't know bi or whatever book title Dying by E.R Frank currently in Sebastian River High School original challenge 1-4 2022 page 70. he took a long long time peeling off my

042jeans and t-shirt pink bra and panties and a longer time stroking and kissing me even quietly and over everywhere everywhere making me feel so good so so good that when his body finally eased into mine it felt like we were flying I couldn't believe I wasn't a virgin anymore I couldn't believe how lucky I was that was my first time had been with Daddy who loved me and knew how to make me feel good book title fade by Lisa McMahon currently in Storm Grove Middle School Vero Beach High School original challenge 12 30 2021 page 180 stumbling Janie bumps against the door trying to push it finally try tries pulling it it opens and Mr Durbin is on the bed there are three girls from class with him and he's taken their clothes off as

043they lie there oh cool do you have that porn magazine in there Janie hesitates to lay wondering if she was supposed to say that but she can't remember why she couldn't shouldn't lots of them he says not that I need them with you here huh she follows them through the days in half naked crowd he stops to grab another glass of punch and gives her another one too on the way to Mr Durbin's bedroom Janie waves at coach crater hey she says turning back to Mr Durbin wasn't Stacy here before she's still here Janie his words are deliberate like he's concentrating she's Chris and the other bedroom that is not appropriate no the content warning I give him but that is not appropriate to read aloud now I have the decision to make if there's

044a Content warning and if I cut you off that means the book comes right off the shelf we have a process right now and I've talked to the superintendent about this we have a process first you go to the principal then you go to the the challenge book committee you can read anything you want up here too but we are adults yeah and if there could be children out there reading or listening you know you're right I understand that I understand that but we don't want to read aloud so they could have it now we will be checking every board member on these books that is a given so I just want to make sure that anyone coming up to read anything like this Please be aware do we want those books on the Shelf

045everybody up here I'm sure would say no but we want to make sure that we do the process and that's what we're going to continue to do so if you have anything else you have 27 seconds that is the process all right thank you very much and do you have any more hon no I'm okay all right thank you very much thank you Ms Jones thank you all right next speaker Sue Lyons and then Angela only did I do that right here thank you thank you the science uh the Assassins played by Sarah Moss currently in Storm Grove Middle School page 362. [Music] saying I'm short yeah give her back her time to three minutes thank you Miss Lyons girls trained until they are 17 when their virginity was sold to the highest bidder Sam's

046mouth found hers again and he eased her farther onto the bed down down his clever hands exploring every inch of her until she was on her back do you want okay besides my Interruption do you want to give a Content warning do you want to give one in case children are watching or listening there's no cuss words okay but that do you want to give a Content warning that's inappropriate even there stop or we're just going to take the room and we'll just do it individually we need to listen and I have the right to speak if you are not going to give one just from what you're reading I'm going to give one so if there's anyone watching or listening parents please get your children out of the room so go ahead thank you

047Miss Lyons okay and he eased her father onto the bed down down his clever hands exploring every inch of her and so she was on her back and he braced himself on his forearms to hover over her he kissed her neck and she arched up into him as he ran his hand down the plane of her torso unbuttoning her tunic as he went she didn't want to know where he had learned to do these things her breath hitched as he reached the last button and pulled her out of the jacket he looked down at her body his breathing ragged Storm Grove Middle School thank you very much our next speaker is Angela bowling and then we have Susan Baldwin thank you hi everybody 60 years ago today on the 100 year anniversary of the Emancipation

048Proclamation 250 000 Marchers attended the March on Washington for jobs and freedom and Dr King said we have come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now I'm feeling the fierce urgency of now there is a standard in the sixth through eighth grade Holocaust Education strand that says examine the Holocaust as the planned and systematic state-sponsored persecution and murder of European Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators there are no clarifications about how those who survived at the concentration camps learned survival skills and strategies that they were able to apply for their personal benefit later in life the standard admits that there was systematic persecution and murder of European Jews by Nazi Germany but nowhere do we find in the six through eight African-American history strand that in the United

049States we did likewise to African Americans their systematic and systemic persecution and subjugation were sanctioned with state and federal laws and endured long beyond the end of formal slavery and yet these standards at every Point seem to be trying to excuse the white governmental Powers by comparing other instances of slavery or types of forced labor and using cold sterile language that doesn't convey the horror of the chattel slavery system in the U.S they require identifying political figures who strove to abolish the institution of slavery like Lincoln but don't mention his many efforts to maintain slavery the standards mention Pleasant sounding duties like domestic service but don't have a clarification that those often included submitting to rape by the master and bearing his children who then be slaves or that it was acceptable and legal to

050whip Mame and kill the enslamed let's work together and hold Tallahassee responsible for producing decent standards that allow a true telling of our history so that we can correct our wrongs do you feel the fierce urgency of now then join the growing NAACP Grassroots effort to do the right thing for students and Educators and let's all as an aside community board district office and superintendent support and encourage our teachers they're trying to teach under very oppressive conditions thanks thank you Miss bowling all right that's good Susan Baldwin please please please Susan Baldwin then May ascencio well good evening [Music] I'll be reading the excerpt from Fallout by Ellen Hopkins and this is currently in Storm Grove Middle School okay you need to give a Content warning ma'am it's uh there's nothing super explicit okay go

051ahead it's yeah still just the same page 338 off go my panties now everything moves slow motion finally I find my voice wait I'm not sure it doesn't let me push him away but it does let me say I'm a virgin that slows him down I'm going to give a Content warning just because children may be listening and I'll say that every time we're the adults you know again these board members will all replay at the end about these books but I'm going to give a Content warning because you as a parent would also want that if you were watching this with your children so go ahead but he doesn't want to stop instead he becomes gentle you want to don't you I want to say maybe not but it maintains control kisses him yes

052I want to I won't hurt you he promises let me make you ready he touches that place kisses that place it moans no Autumn moans no I moan I see it's really me really here with really me here with Bryce wanting to give him all of me I'm scared but he has made me ready I love you the words spill for my mouth just before a bright flash of pain breathe he's in me when he promises again and I love you does it hurt can I keep going I'm chair all right okay again that would be another content warning so I'm just going to ask you if you don't think it's appropriate please don't read it that's what I'm going to ask you you can mention the book to us and we can follow up

053just shut it down Miss Rosario I'm running the meeting not you don't interrupt me but what's your what's your interrupt me it's enough enough that's enough no stop it this is Citizens okay no I'm not sent for your citizen I am telling them if there's a Content warning we're going to give it for our children we will all make a decision at the end of this looking at this how long is that book button on the Shelf when was it ordered interrupt me nobody's talking nobody's interrupting if you're talking to me I'm talking back okay last year okay the next one is May ascencio and then we go to Bonnie McDougall thank you [Music] um I will have a make a Content warning but for elementary school children only since these books are in our

054middle school and Freshman Learning Center thank you uh collateral by Ellen Hopkins currently in the Freshman Learning Center Page 77 when he finally slipped inside me if I hadn't been so wet it would have been uncomfortable as it was he filled me up completely a sensation I had never known he flipped onto his back pulled me on top of him his eyes never left my face as he lifted my hips slid me backward against his critically hard erection a gentle push and when my own eyes jumped wide he smiled another one Glass by Ellen Hopkins currently in Storm Grove Middle School and the Freshman Learning Center Page 540. some of them are really gross I always make them shower first no way will I let them some something dirty up inside me condoms yeah they're

055supposed to wear them but they pay a lot extra if it don't make them they also pay extra for oral sex and unusual sex including threesomes with other girls point of order this is too obscene I'm sorry okay do you want to continue reading or not because we just said that we don't want to shut you down do you want to continue reading mrsencio okay that's up to you but again content warning this is something the board will talk about at the end when we look at all the books how long they've been on the Shelf checked out and so forth well all these books have been challenged and honestly I don't even know why a Content warning is necessary unless you have one printed on the book itself in the library this book is

056about prostitution for crystal meth the next one a court of wings and ruin currently in the Storm Grove Middle School page 138 no playing no delaying I wanted him on me in me I needed to feel him hold him share breath with him he heard the edge of desperation felt it through the mating Bond flowing between us his eyes did not leave mine as he provided over me every movement graceful as a stalking planes cat interlacing our fingers his breathing uneven Rhys used a need to nudge my legs apart and settle between them carefully lovingly he laid our joined hand are you going to allow this to control I want to allow this but I'm not going to shut her down the minute I shut her down that book comes off the shelf so we

057have to go through the process maybe you should disgusting you know I stood up here in February and I asked all of you how is it justifiable ethical or moral to have books in our schools that are so offensive that they're prohibited to be spoken in a public meeting why do we have them available for underage children is a Content warning on these books in the library what has happened to protecting our children's innocence and why are we purposely trying to accelerate their adulthood schools are supposed to empower students to maximize their full potential not their sexual potential that's right thank you all right thank you Bonnie McDougall and then Dr hiltz I would like to talk about spheres of authority in Florida who has the authority for running schools the Constitution says the school

058board shall operate control and supervise all free public schools within the school district the 2023 Florida statute says District school boards May exercise any power including process except as expressly prohibited by state constitution or general law so the school board by law of this state the school board is the a legal entity its board members are state officers the ultimate responsibility for public education in Indian River County rests with the board these state officers are chosen by you and me by US citizens of the Indian River County therefore we might question the interference in our elections by anyone not voting in Indian River County there is no place for citizens of other counties not even Leon County to tell us who to vote for and who not to vote for yet the governor has publicly

059targeted some of our school board members to be defeated in the next School Board election and on what Authority does he does he do this why are his eyes so keenly focused on our little County local Indian River County election when he has so many other things to keep his eyes on for example insurance is regulated by the states and Mark Freelander an Institute spokesman has said that rates are 42 percent higher in 2023 than 2022. check your bill mine is up 40 percent uh the state including the governor is responsible for regulating that uh also it has been reported by hedge clippers from the center for popular democracy that the friends of the governor's pack has received since 2018 3.9 million dollars from the insurance industry including more than a hundred and fifty thousand

060dollars in one day from several State Farm agents I'm looking at this and wondering what's going on our government is spending a lot of time our governor is spending a lot of time focusing on our business not which is the business of you of our school board why not the same time focusing on regulating insurance industry furthermore if you saw the debates uh maybe he thinks he's Above the Law because when Brett Bear asked him if he would invade Mexico to fight the drug cartels He suggests he definitely would so well I heard it I don't know whether you were there I heard it I heard the word so let's think this through our school board has the legal backing of the Florida Constitution and the 2023 State statutes to be the ultimate authority of

061schools in our County not the governor but he seems too busy to regulate thank you thank you very much Dr hiltz and Robert Jordan thank you [Applause] good evening board members All Nations and cultures were inhumane at some point Israelites were enslaved Europeans were indentured servants and Africans were sold as chattel and Jews were transported to concentration camps here are three books I brought that should be in school libraries and here's a few of the things that you'll find in these books ignorance of History proliferates deception slavery was abolished in 1789 in federal territories in an 1808 Congress abolished the slave trade by 1820 the Democratic party became the majority in Congress and passed laws such as the Missouri Compromise fugitive slave law in Kansas Nebraska Act to reverse the accomplishments of 1789 and 1808.

0621860 brought the first Republican President Abraham Lincoln along with the majority in the House and Senate the shift to anti-slavery and pro civil rights positions led to D.C abolishing slavery in 1862. in 1863 Emancipation Proclamation declared that all persons held as slaves within the rebellious states are and henceforth shall be free the 1860 election also led to Southern Democrats leaving Congress forming the Confederate States of America and Civil War the 13th Amendment to the U.S Constitution was proposed in 1864 and ratified in 65. March of 65 saw Congress pass an act for the relief of freedmen and refugees regarding reparations this act provided food shelter clothing medical services and land to displace Southerners including newly freed slaves for a limited period for a hand up the 1800s ended slavery several black men served and succeeded

063in various positions Frederick Douglass and Booker T Washington achieved significant accomplishments in addition Hiram rebels of Michigan was the first black U.S senator elected Republican Representatives include Benjamin Turner of Alabama served in Congress and was a prosperous and Wealthy businessman Jefferson long of Georgia the first black to deliver a congressional speech in the U.S House Joseph Rainey of South Carolina briefly served as Speaker of the House of Representatives fast forward to the 21st century bondage human trafficking financial debt massive bureaucratic welfare and Taxation systems drug alcohol and pornography addictions technology a modern day shackle these dependencies exhaust one's ability to make ReSound resin reasoned decisions take responsibility and have control over situations our elected officials and lifetime bureaucrats have forgotten so we must remind those who hold these temporary positions they Serve and Protect We

064the People Proclaim your god-given rights remove the shackles of government exploitation Stand Up and Shake out the remnants of bondage thank you and I would just like to show American history in black and white Frederick Douglass Republicans and the colored Patriots of the American Revolution are all fact-based and you'll find information in the Library of Congress and the national thank you Dr hiltz Robert Jordan and then Karen Jordan other thanks for having me my name is Robert Jordan I live in Indian River County and I want to read some of these uh things out of the books and this book here is uh homegoing by Yaya how can you say that word uh g-y-a-s-i and is currently in the Sebastian River High School originally challenged in 11 3 20 21 page 48. he put do

065we need to do a Content warning Mr content warning for watching do you think that what you're going to read is going to need a Content warning in case children and their parents are watching together that's that's up to you well the thing is is if you're reading it if you're reading it I want to know if you're going to give it that's your call okay I'll call it then I'll I'll give one if I believe there is needed all right page 48. he put her on a folded tarp spread her legs and I'll do a Content warning thank you okay go ahead go ahead just so parents in case screamed but he placed his hand over her lips then put his finger in her mouth for the entire week after his buddy had taken

066over the excuse making for him his penis limped lying limp between his legs each time he went to her even on the night stats she braided her hair the way he liked and rubbed it with coconut oil that's the one book this would probably get me kicked out here hey content warning on this one then you call it Extremely Loud and incredible close currently in the Sebastian River High School a really originally challenged 11 4 20 21. page 84. the actress getting a from her normal boyfriend and spread my legs his palms pressed gently at the insides of my thighs my thighs pressed back his palms pressed out birds were singing in the Next Room yeah at this time I will stop we will take a look at the books as a as a school

067board to take a look at them and we are noting that every title that comes up so we can look at it but I would appreciate that all right thank you thank you sir I appreciate it Karen Jordan and John croppy hmm thank you Miss Jordan good evening everyone Karen Jordan first I want to follow what Dr Hilt said about Frederick Douglass he was an incredible history for United States and in nineteen excuse me in 1848 he wrote a letter to the principal of a of the steward Seminary he said quote I am also glad to inform you that you have not succeeded as you had hoped to in depriving my child of the means of a decent education or the privilege of going to an excellent School unquote uh that's sort of the way

068I feel about the kids here and the the transforming education from y'all up there uh I don't know who makes the decisions I know that statute wise perhaps you do but I'm not sure you always listen to us uh the book that I have is definitely going to cause you to say get rid of it is called grasshopper jungle and it's already been reviewed and I'm not gonna I'm not gonna say what I have but I would like to if if I am permitted to say a prayer for the people in this room can I say this does anyone object this is okay this man wait a minute ma'am ma'am yes you have the floor you have one minute and 28 seconds I understand and I I have been told we have one minute and

06928 seconds right I I have been told that they don't want to hear a prayer so and that's fine I won't say it uh thank you very much thank you John crappie and William Griffin Jr thank you welcome Mr crappie hello how's everybody doing good thank you a nice big crowd here again a little bit of unity in the community that's everybody coming together for a selective cause I guess we could say um I have a book here I'm going to read I'm going to leave it up to the audience to decide if it's inappropriate or not I'll decide if I need to do a Content warning oh you can do that you can do that thank you so the chair uh Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott um currently in the Sebastian River High

070School you know you're supposed to listen when I talk he shoves me to the floor and pulls him off my pants I stare at the ceiling while he sweats and thrusts I'm going to do a Content warning Mr crappie okay stop okay ma'am that's enough you say that again you will be removed that is enough we are here listening and he has a ride to the floor he has a right to the floor stop thank you please stop thank you Mr crappie I'm going to give a Content warning and if you think it's not that something that other children so far should be hurt I'd ask that you not read it but appreciate it all right well the reason for for doing this obviously is because the books are in the schools okay so I

071would think that based on what I'm reading here and if you let me finish it I could explain to why I would propose a question to the crowd as to if they would if how they would feel if this was one of their children okay the citizen input is through the chair to the board so you could propose it to them but as I said earlier you know we'll be taking a look at all of these all of these and we will continue to look at these you know we have the new system but you have the right to say that but I'm just asking the with children if you would be careful please I understand that but we have a we have a collective group here I understand that but you'll be coming through

072the chair to the board and we'll be making the decision in the long term on these books so I appreciate it do you want me to keep going or it's up to you sir okay so I know go ahead and say it thank you it is your time Mr crappie thank you I know what I'm doing I'm doing I'm gonna do what's going to change he pushes faster and harder and slams my head into the floor over and over until my vision is bright and fuzzy and there are no strands of hair caught in this caught in his hand ray stairs the little girls and I stare at the food I feel my heart cramp it will be over soon finally but the thing about heart about Hearts is they always want to keep beating

073they want to keep beating and when Rey's finished he says I like that a family you'd be a good mother wouldn't you let me watch out for a little girl in our town let me take care of her help me teach her everything she needs to know so the point I'm making is that this is obviously rape of a 15 year old child I don't think anybody in this room would consider that appropriate period anybody in this room's child that would go through something like this I'm sure you would have a problem with it and I'm sure every person in this room would have a problem with it so every person in this room should have a problem with these books being in these schools it should be up to the people decide who's going

074to have these books in the schools and who's not you guys work for us correct yes yes right you guys voted right you voted I don't want the the no I know I'm not sure Mount Rushmore okay no problem thank this Rushmore yeah well I mean you you you want this right mister you want that's not necessary I know but you want this platform so we're going to give it I'm just saying that you talk to them I'm talking to you but I'm asking the community too I've lived here for 38 years a lot of people in this town lived here their whole lives they have a problem with this it's called selective outrage it's called divide and conquer this is what's happening here you have a group of people that don't want one thing

075you got a group of people don't want another thing we need to come together enough with the selective outrage there's never this many people in this room ever until there's some kind of selective issue that brings everybody out together everybody should be out here all the time speaking about these things not just showing up because they're selective objectives we have to come together I've been coming here for two and a half years half these people don't even come to these meetings now they're here okay let's let's come together as a community and stop fighting and going back and forth with each other over a bunch of bugs thank you Mr crappie I appreciate it William Griffin and then George Cohen William Griffin Junior and then George Cohen thank you good evening good evening and one

076thing to say May those of you who are the purveyors of this smut upon our children may you rot in hell all right thank you we go to George Cohen next and then Betsy D benedetto I gotta go wow what is happening to this country really thank you sir yes it is beyond my human comprehension I've been in this community 40 years I'm an addiction intervention specialist trained my networks are federal agents they know who's a criminal and who's a felon in here what are we teaching our children I'm not pointing fingers I'm just throwing things up I am beyond my human comprehension of the rationalizing you know everybody's a human being they all deserve the best of what they can get whatever that best is education Parental Guidance and if some alcoholics or addicts

077go get help or don't fix your life up you're ruining your kids what is happening the decay of this country I can't even you know what I can't even read this because the content I respect what you're saying I really do I have three I have children and I have grandchildren in the school let me tell you I grew up with Mobsters in New York we wouldn't be playing this game I'll tell you it'd be seven you mess with my kids it's a situation some of y'all think you're tough you ain't that tough when you got the mob against you I'm gonna tell you he go after your mom your dad and everybody we got to get it right I agree with John we either come together as people or we this Society is going

078to go caboots thank you go ahead it really is it's sad thing was happening I implore you please look at the information look at what they're trying to do so we can be a better example for kids or Society if there's literature and I gotta I got information here that was challenged 112022 I don't even want to read I'll tell you why I think you get the point I hope you get the point I hope all you get before because if you don't your children are going to want to suffer let me tell you I ain't suffering I yourself your children the future generation of America is is in Decay and I just want to respond to the lady who talked about the Santos not sending in the Border let me tell you you don't

079know what fentanyl is doing if you're not educated in the field of addiction or know what our country and our real servicemen and women you heard me men and women that want Integrity in this country don't comment about what this guy wants to do he just wants to save you okay by bombing the cartel [Music] no and then when they try and get Narcan or knocks it on it ain't gonna work so you know these people are out of their mind man they're uneducated they don't know what they're talking about it's happening in this system thank you very much I appreciate it Betsy D benedetto please quiet if we could and then Joanne if you go to skota or Scotto thank you Betsy hi I have been coming to several school board meetings before and

080I have some concerns about the direction the school board is going my one concern is my emphasis on Race I am one who believes that some of the greatest words ever spoken were those of Martin Luther King who long for a time when people would be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin I feel up to about a decade ago we were making great strides to become a colorblind Society but no more there's been much criticism of the new African-American history curriculum mostly for one phrase which states that in some cases some slaves develop skills which benefited them I agree maybe this could have been phrased better but some slaves did develop skills that benefited them when they became free this please stop please let her finish that

081is not appropriate please this criticism has been repeated so many times I believe for the purpose to divide us and promote hate one School Board member has taken the opportunity to use this phrase to inflame race relationships calling it twisted and embarrassing she has also stated that she would support any teacher who goes against the standard hope her Defiance won't result in the loss of the school funding another concern of mine is a narrative that the moms for Liberty want to ban books in truth moms for Liberty only want to ban books containing pornography from public school libraries one such book is me Earl and the dying Girl by dressy Jesse Andrus which is currently in the Sebastian School library this book is about a young man who socializes with a girl with leukemia Not

082a Bad plot but if you go on to read on page 59 and as I think that this is context I don't think it belongs on here it says are you going to eat her as an adult we would not read that again the board will take a look at all of these and even though that's in there this isn't even though that is in there that is not appropriate because we could have children watching I agree with you it's not 100 so I'm asking you not to read it book is named tilt by Ellen Hopper all right just a moment please stop if we cannot get control we're going to recess then we'll try it again and then we'll just have it with no one in the audience it's up to speakers so I'm

083just going to ask you once now listen to this person do not interrupt show the respect that this person deserves just by speaking here do not interrupt if so I'm going to recess and we'll try it one more time and then we'll just have have it where we just have the speakers so go ahead okay the second book is tilt by Ellen Hopkins also in the Sebastian River High School about a girl who's heading towards self-destruction you're not going to like the contents which is okay if you think it's inappropriate we need a Content warning and not ready to say a Content warning okay it talks about he frees his erection and shows me exactly no we don't that's just you know really we're just trying to get this information if I can't read it

084recess for 10 minutes we will come back we'll try it one more time if people just if people can do it okay Dr posca has a point of order I just I just want to ask a question to the chair um if we have to ask for a Content warning or it can't be read which we've done with every book legally we have to take them out of the library well if there's a Content yes Dr Moore would you go ahead and answer that that's a good question but I want to make sure because I did talk to Dr more about it literature if there's a Content warning and if we do not prohibit the individual from speaking or continuing to read through the book then that book would in fact be removed so say

085that one more time Dr Moore just so everybody's clear content warning or not if the individual is stopped from reading a book during a public hearing then that book is in fact removed so the two books that I was stopped that's a wonderful part thank you yeah we're going to take a 10-minute reason come back at 7 27 thank you thank you so much as I said earlier the speaker has the right to speak if there's going to be clapping or anything I'm just going to ask everyone to go out in the lobby and we will continue with just the speakers just so that we have the dignity that we should have and just a reminder I was talking to Dr Moore the process and the citizen has the right to speak I'm not stopping

086that but our process for a book challenge so people are aware is the first the student or the parent would go to the principal they're not happy with the principal decision then it goes through the committee and again citizen input is very very important I will give a Content warning if you're going to talk about about a book so that children in the audience or children watching with a parent they are not listening to that you know adults reading it aloud you could just say listen Dr Jones and board members this is something I want you to look at as far as the content in here and we are taking note on every book that's coming to us every book that's coming to us so please be aware of that let the board listen to

087that take note of it and then we can certainly make a decision um so we'll try this one more time if it doesn't work it'll just be the sentences one at a time because we're not getting anything accomplished with the back and forth I really appreciate it okay Miss God of Joanne yes thank you I'm Joanne Scotto I live here in Vero Beach this is also about a book I'm not it does definitely has content whatever you called it because I'm not even comfortable reading it it's about a rape it's the if the name of the book is the female of the species by Mindy McGinnis okay so you're giving a Content warning that would not be appropriate for children currently in Vero Beach High School okay and this is on page 320. it does

088have some vocal language that I will not say thank you I hear Bradley screaming but all I can do is struggle Billy is stronger than he looks I get my feet under me but he's on his too and gets my arms pinned behind my back I buck and kick swearing a Blue Streak as I see Ray drag brandly toward him across the altar her skirt pulling up to show a tiny red thong that covers absolutely nothing he smacks her bear a leaving a welt you came up here looking for something girl he says and you're gonna get it I'm fighting and twisting anything I do to get free but Billy's got a grip I can't break Ray gets his mindset on something not much you can do to stop him Billy says his tone weirdly

089conversational he's a bit too drunk too let him have his funny and fun and no one will get hurt it won't take but five minutes five minutes like the F problem is that we're on a schedule and not that Bradley is about to be raped in front of me she's Kicking and Screaming but he's already got her panties off and he's going for his belt thank you thank you Ron Foster I'm sorry Ronnie Foster and Sally Hoyt Madam chair I'd like you to take note of this book uh it's Shine by Lauren miracle and it's currently in the Sebastian River High School it is about rape and I'm not going to read the excerpt but I'd like you to take note of it thank you so much I appreciate it all right we have Trent

090Surrey sorry Sally and the Trent Surrey thank you [Music] I'm I'm a concerned citizen wondering about the quality of Education at the K-12 level for children here in Indian River County my question is is my tax money being well spent the purpose of education is to create honest tax paying citizens who will pursue a vocation and produce the next generation of law abiding honest tax pain citizens is this generation receiving the quality education of generations past if not perhaps this explains the grammatical errors of broadcasters on TV misspelling of signs and things on menus in other words is the miseducation going to trickle out into the Adult World once everybody's graduated and they're in the professions and they don't even know what's wrong is wrong now I've always believed that at about 40 years old

091each adult should think about repeating High School no because you've been in the Working World you've forgotten you know who all the presidents are what they did all the facts and figures and dates um but for this generation if they're not receiving what we did I guess what I'm trying to say is the biblical thing where you can't you can't build on a foundation of sand if that if they're not getting what what they should be then when they repeated age 40 anyway that's kind of getting confusing now also an advantage of redoing it again is that you could uh pick up some of the courses that have now been apparently shop class they don't do shop class anymore is that true or home ec or anyway also the world is at our fingertips now

092so you could build on that Foundation of what you first got and now you can really get everything anyway all right I digress um so the question is are we getting what we are paying for and what we want to be paying for is an educated citizenry where everybody knows their basic facts and are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader etc etc now um apparently there is a problem with these books at school in that um these have gone through your process yet remain on the Shelf all right thank you ma'am thank you very much I'm not sure you understand the point that we're reading thank you our next speaker is Trent I want to read the titles ma'am your time is up next person is Trent Surrey and then we go to Susan heileman

093thank you good Awakening Trent Yuri Indian River County uh I'm just astonished that um these books are not being shut down right here and now that you're able to listen through all this content knowing that they if they were shut down that they would be taken off the shelves yep and that is pure evil that we're dealing with right now and I want to thank everybody here that are fighting for our children this is absolutely disgusting another FYI all of these books that we are reading we know the process every single one of them have already gone through the steps and have been challenged by the principal so to bring that up just so everybody knows they have already been challenged this book is about rape of a minor an 11 year old girl pedophilia

094it's currently in the Freshman Learning Center and actually removed in the Sebastian River High School why it got removed in Sebastian not here is beyond me on page 20 it reads if this is really your first time he says all momtaz it's a tricky one he unbuckles his belt once before she sold Habib used Goods the Fishlips man removes my dress I wait for myself to protest but nothing happens Habib he says Habib is good with the ladies then he is on top of me and something hot and insistent in between my legs he Grunts and struggles trying to fit himself inside me I'm sorry I know you did a Content warning but I just want to remind people there's a Content warning here I think all these need content warnings which means they need

095to take off of the Shelf I just want to make sure every one of them do with a sudden thrust I am torn into oh yes he says panting Habib is good in bed I hear coming from distant a study thought thought and a register that this is the sound of headboard hitting the wall after a while I don't know how long another sound interrupts the rhythmic thud of headboard I know this noise from somewhere I work very hard to make it out finally I identify it it is the muffled sound of sobbing these books need to be removed from our kids I don't know if any of you have any I don't even know why we're up here this was challenged in January 1st on this book we demand these books to be removed

096from our schools all right Susan heilerman thank you Wyatt Susan heileman and then Pete I'm sorry Rita heilerman Peter sorry this book is by Ellen Hopkins called Crank it was currently in the Freshman Learning Center and the original challenge was made in November of 2021. this is from page 341 and I really don't want to read this thank you thank you but um the point being that if we can't even read it among adults in a polite environment then uh why is it available to our children right what was the name of the book ma'am I'm sorry Crank by Ellen Hopkins I also would like to note that there are other books by the same author Ellen Hopkins that were read before this and so that particular author really should be searched out and examined

097all right I'm gonna read it but it I believe it's verbal sexual abuse that we are hearing these things so if it's visual if they read it it's verbal in audio if we hear it and I've been uh trained in Sexual Healing uh by uh American Association of Christian counselors I have a certification in that and I was trained by the definition so by definition this is sexual abuse auditory Brendan please stop no you promise do damn little tease off came my shorts downwind his zipper I realized I was in trouble I'll scream go ahead no one can hear but skunks and coyotes still as I open my mouth he hands slapped down on his hand slapped down on it those Sublime muscles hardened just relax you'll love it my brand new Victoria's Secret shredded

098and I felt the worst of Brendan Paws savoring my Terror they all love it had he done it a different way I might have responded with excitement instead I froze as he pushed inside there it is oh god there it goes I'm not even going to finish it um this is about rape it glorifies it it suggests that women enjoy it and I have counseled dozens of women in particular about sexual abuse and particularly rape and this is a terrible presentation uh as if it were inspiring or empowering it's not for our children to see and none of the victims that I have worked with have come away from such violent and criminal activities without being severely harmed by them so I I don't understand why we even have these kinds of things in our

099schools they neither Inspire nor Empower our children so please help our children by Banning these by taking these off the shelf I mean thank you thank you Sandra Rivera and then David Williams Sandra oh I'm sorry I'm sorry Peter I'm sorry [Music] my name is Peter heilman I live in Sebastian I am married to Susan three children four grandchildren the book I have with an excerpt from it is called Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas I I would like to uh can do a Content warning not by what I'm going to read but a Content warning on you folks on you folks this what's on here is worse than some of the diapers I recently changed to my grandchildren it's filthier that it's toilet paper and it should be in the septic system so you're offended

100by what we read we're reading your books your books and so this is going to be sent to some committee who approved of these books and it deflects responsibility from you folks as you work for us we hire you we pay you you are responsible there are words in here that I as a retired Minister never let cross my lips and this is in the Vero Beach High School The Freshman Learning Center and the Sebastian River High School and I will tell you this if this evening or this weekend some young girl or some young boy gets raped because of being incited by these books that you put on the shelves I lay their rape at your feet and I hold you responsible for it now not all of you are directly responsible some of

101you are new but there are people here who are responsible I have a videotape in YouTube of a small town mayor who came to a school board and said I've talked to a judge about the books in our library and I'll tell you this if you don't remove those books tonight the sheriff is going to come and arrest you the next morning this is this is inflammatory this is pornography and don't say well we have a process and some committee there is going to take care of it these are your books you put them there and we hold you responsible thank you thank you Sandra Rivera and David Williams good evening everyone [Music] well first of all I am appalled that these books are in our libraries okay I had three children in the school

102district and I did not know okay until I got a hold of one of the books and read it um anything that has content warning should be removed immediately from the library okay I am reading a book Looking for Alaska by John Green it was currently challenged October 29th of 2021. and the book is in currently in Vero Beach High School and Sebastian River High School uh page 210 Laura unbuttoned my pants and pulled down my boxers done a little and pulled out my penis wow she said well she looked up at me but did not move her face nanometers away from my penis it's weird what do you mean weird just big I guess I could live with that kind of weird and then she wrapped her hands around it and put it in

103her mouth and waited we were both still very still she did not move a muscle in her body and I did not move a muscle in my in mine I knew that at this point something else was supposed to happen but it was quite sure what she still what she still stayed I could feel her nervous breath for a minute she laid there still with my penis in her mouth this is disgusting yes okay this is demonic and it should not be in our Books Okay Sandra what was the name of the book again please uh Looking for Alaska by John Green this book should be removed and please okay if you guys all are conservatives and if you love your children and if you love this country please remove that filth from the book

104from the library thank you David Williams and then Jane McNulty Steve thank you Miss Rivera David Williams and Jane McNulty Sneed leading board I want to read another of these graphic books which should be removed immediately this is life is funny by E.R Frank this is currently at the Vero Beach High School Sebastian River High School and Freshman Learning Center and I know it's very graphic I'm going to try to get through this quick as I can and I go and I go feel this and put her hand on my jeans of my heart D she laughs and goes well damn that's nothing new and they look in her deep eyes and her big old feet and then we're kissing watery tongue springy lips tugging pulling and we Glide down and she peels off my

105shirt and and button her shirt pretty many and soon we're all skin to skin warm sexy mouth and hands brushing stroking over t and a stomach lost mush brain heat curves sucking rocking slipping well you get the point this is another book that should be removed uh life is sitting by E.R Frank please remove it thank you sir very much thank you Jane Sneed and Joseph Alcala it was a very wise tactic they came in with tonight to stand in the lobby and hand out scripts I'm not going to allow it to distract me from what I really came for I'm here with my 15 year old daughter now we're sitting in the room that's named for her great Uncle Joe adelit on my side of the family her great-grandmother was born after traveling here

106in utero from Russia escaping the pilgrims I do know my history that was the precursor to the Holocaust uh none of the things that happened to her ancestors provided a benefit it was the hard work that we did to overcome the travesties of justice that were perpetrated on us that benefited us um this summer my daughter and I went and toured Tulane that's where she wants to go to study uh public health and tropical science before the tour they were making fun of the education system in Florida right now it was it was horrible to listen to this year her sophomore year we were scared to let her take AP Psychology and had to rearrange her schedule and she had to drop one of the three electives that she's been doing since elementary school just

107to make sure that she could keep up with her courses on her Pathway to college anyone who thinks that race is still not an issue needs look no further than what just happened in Jacksonville or to the shooter at the Tree of Life synagogue who was just sentenced to death not only do myself and uh my ex-husband take care of our daughter I'm also very involved in the school district in other ways last year I sat on our climate committee this year will be my sixth year going into the Alternative High School now renamed Indian River prep working with some of the most disadvantaged children who don't have parents to speak for them I was not offended having my daughter hear anything tonight because she's heard much worse from at least three of her friends

108who have confided in her about their sexual assault that they are suffering that they're actually suffering so if you're really worried about our children you can get involved in other ways and protect them in other ways all of these books to my knowledge need parental consent to be signed out from the library so really your children are protected from them already and it's my decision what I want to protect my daughter from I don't choose to protect protect my daughter from literature I choose her to prepare her for the real world that she is living in when my daughter has other little girls come to her and confess that they are being sexually assaulted it's me that they call it's me that has guided my daughter to be a protector and a savior so that

109we can get authorities involved in these children to safety my daughter wouldn't be prepared to do that if I was Sheltering her from the realities of the world racism is real sexual assault is real our children are not protected from it by us pretending it does not exist thank you all righty we have quiet please Joseph thank you for hearing me tonight my name is Randy Alcala Joseph Randle this is again for the book content in the Indian River schools um I'll just read this real quick the name of the book is the duff by Cody keplinger it may have content here this is currently in the Storm Grove Middle School page 167. and this is pertaining to oral sex this time his hands moved up my shirt and I hooked my bra there wasn't

110much room in my little twin bed but Wesley managed to get my top off and my jeans unzipped in record time I started to undo his pants too but he stopped me no he said moving my hand away you might not agree with blow jobs but I have a feeling you'll enjoy this I open my mouth to argue but shut it quickly as he started kissing down my stomach his hands began moving my jeans and underwear down towards my knees one of them passing really to squeeze my ticklish above my hip um I've been out of public school for 45 years minus my college time I'm a retired combat veteran thank God for the First Amendment still in this country because I seen I have seen where the First Amendment what they do okay and

111I've been there um but 45 years ago being in school I never read this crap I never read this we were playing tag in seventh and eighth grade and the only thing we worried about was coming home when it was dark to get our ass beat okay so I don't remember any of this I mean there's so many distractions now in schools what in the world was a active shooter drill I grew up in Miami 12 o'clock every day from Coral Gables they sang the siren because of Cuba we got under our desk basic nothing active Shooters all this stuff and then more more stuff to distract our kids I don't see how a kid can study I have no idea when I sit and I just look at TV and I see all this

112garbage I don't understand it plus this I I don't get it I mean it's just overwhelming how in the world how much more stuff and then we wonder why they why they go off the lane why they sway why they crash okay the lanes are to keep people in line young people okay I pray for our youth thank you thank you sir Braulio Torres and Robert Conley raleo H Torres Torres here okay we'll go on and come back or I'm sorry Torres Leo H Torres is next and then Robert Conley thank you my name is Loris caban um the book name is Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas is disgusting to read it and I think it should be taken out this is so ashamed to our country to our children you know we

113all it's sad to read it you want me to read it no what was the name of the book again ma'am no that's okay just tell me the name of the Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas thank you and there's three three different pages do we need to do a Content warning yes okay all right if you choose to read it that's up to you yes ma'am or we could just add it to our list add it to your list thank you thank you Robert Connolly and then we have Joe Murphy the important Robert Chuck Conley I've been a resident for over 20 years my father over 35 years in Sebastian so uh became interested in everything that's going on the school board a few years ago and I see all these young people

114standing up and speaking of the rights I also have a book to read so maybe I should get that out of the way it's called perfect Oh by Helen Hopkins and then she's pretty popular currently a Freshman Learning Center originally challenged on 11 121. this is a rape passage on page 268. out of a mouth comes a single word no I heard it wrong I know I did even if I did I know what she means now not no so I go ahead and push hard oh oh her eyes pop wide she screamed stop I said no stop God damn it and her little fish tried to pound against my chest which only feels good and I can't stop and if I wanted to so I don't so I won't and she starts to cry

115I don't understand so I tell her over and over again I love you I love you I love you rhythmic in perfect time with my body's rhythmic feet I love you I love you there's a strange buzzing in my ears with the final thrust there's a brilliant Flash and the empty is uh syncopated my head clears in the Mist slowly lifts I see what I've done Carl alive stiffest old toast tear glossed eyes staring up me I told you no she Whispers yeah these are hard to read I grew up in the 60s and 70s in New York and that was the time of Tamil just like we're having now but none of this type of tunnel but we were just kids like some of the gentlemen said running the streets we didn't we had

116to leave in the morning had to be home when the lights went out we saw it and did a lot of things but we never never experienced what kids are experiencing today you know the 20s and the internet and everything have changed everything and that's part of what we're battling today the internet and everything that's going on in our society social media it's really really hurting our kids they're getting more information too early in the 60s and 70s there was a a bunch of people that were doing what I think is being done again now starting up the schools and starting up the media starting what they could in the 70s and 60s we had three M's Mao Marx and makuzi and they were people that were inciting people just like this happening right now

117with using a race using religion using things like that the same thing's happening now I asked you to look around the country I just came back from a trip New York New Jersey Pennsylvania School boards everywhere somehow are doing the same thing we're doing here why we're being divided we're David invited by those groups of people the Marxist agenda is happening right here in our little gym and I feel terrible and scared for what could happen to our future Generations so please consider where we are and what we're doing thank you all right Joe Murphy and then Reverend Benny Ryan Joe Murphy and then Robin Bryant [Music] good evening my name is Joe Murphy and I'm a local homeowner and father of two children in this District and I can't believe that I'm standing here

118today reading these books and listening to all these other people read these books I never thought in a million years that add even being a school board meeting and be have to read books like this there are some things we come across in life that supersede a process Jones I've heard you talk about a process all night these books have been challenged for years I think we can all agree these books being read here tonight need to be immediately removed I'm going to read from groan it's written by Tiffany Jackson it's currently in the Vero Beach High School and the Freshman Learning Center ebook and hard copy book it's on page 150 that I'm reading from the sound of his zipper rips the room apart that's when he grabs my wrist leading it down his

119stomach I shoot up I do care about you I really do then I need you to make me feel good he says pushing my hand towards his crotch again don't you want me to be happy after the way you hurt me last night relax he whispers then I give in and let him leave my hand down his pants into his boxers something slimy flops in my palm he doesn't kiss my lips he just grabs my breast hard panting twisting and it hurts it hurts holding back my tears I stare at flounder sitting on the dresser I'm not sure if he gave a Content warning but I'm going to do so now I apologize yes I think all these books deserve a Content warning yes thank you and that my issue I have tonight is how

120on one hand you're saying these books deserve a Content warning and on the other hand they're just in these libraries and that will and that will be a board decision and that will be a board decision so I want you to continue yes yeah yes [Music] I'm going to read from another book too unravel Me by Tahari Mafi it's currently in the storm girl middle school and Sebastian River High School in the Freshman Learning Center his hands Glide down in the smooth satiny material of this suit slipping down the insides of my thighs around the backs of my knees and up and up and I wonder if it's possible to faint and still be conscious at the same time I'm betting that this is what it feels like to hyper hyperventilate when he tugs us

121backwards he slams his back into the wall finds a firm grip on my hips pulls me hard against his body I gasp I'm gonna stop there I think we all know what's going on here these books 20 years ago I'm not that old I had some Grays in my beard but I'm not as old as I look 20 years ago these books weren't in schools I've never even seen or heard of any book like this it's something needs to be done and lastly to address the issue of these professional activists here tonight most of them are not vested members of our school community and are only here to divide and cite hate I ask that you refer to Dr William Allen of an African-American member of Florida's African-American history standards work group as he has

122addressed all of your complaints very succinctly thank you thank you sir Reverend Bryant and then Thomas Kenny thank you Robin Bryant then Thomas Kenny um I'm troubled by a statement that is maybe taught in our schools that likes benefit from slavery I consider this to be awesome over on a tragedy of justice and an insult to our children what if a statement was made that the Jews benefit from the Holocaust would outcry will be made evidently the state feel that the blacks in this state of doctoral complacent and won't say a thing a statement was made that this is a quotation from Frederick Douglass in the 1800s I want you to know this is 20 23. Douglas also said what do the American slave is the Fourth of July I answered that a day that

123revealed to him more than all days of the year but growth and Justice and Purity to which he is a constant victim to him your celebration is a sham a thin veil to cover crimes which was the grace of nation of savages I have not forgotten where the Lord has brought me from born August 10 1946 in south of Georgia a town that was dominated by Jim Crow laws these laws that was designed to keep the Negro in its place there were still beatings lynchings burnings of Home churches bombed when I came to Fort Pierce Florida in 1944 54 it was no different as I said in church I heard the preacher say love your enemies but I wonder in my young black mind why don't the white church rise up against this evil in

124America or if the church sits still today the blood of those of our white brothers and sisters that died for Liberty when Freedom will cry out Let Freedom Ring let the truth be taught to our black children about black history with all the positive accomplishments that made American history Jesus said in the word you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free John 8 32 let the truth be appropriated in our minds the truth that is accepted and will set the mind and spirit and free and the soul of the body let the truth be said be preached into segregated Governors Halls of Florida let the truth of the minds that control the political motivated legislature let it be told them let the truth run like a mighty stream down Indian River

125County and let it wash away all the hidden Seekers of racism segregation and political agenda thank you thank you Thomas Kenny Kenny Reverend John Kano Thomas Kinney then Reverend Dr John how you all doing this evening I want to begin by reading a standard from another area another uh course in addition to agricultural work enslaved people earn specialized trades and worked as painters Carpenters tailors musicians and healers in the North and South once free African Americans use these skills to provide for themselves and others that is the Essential Knowledge component of the college board's AP African-American studies course a standard that has the exact meeting of the clarification under social studies 68 AAA 2.3 in the Florida Social Studies standard that is the same course the IRC NAACP endorsed in February vice president Harris who

126also endorsed the AP course completely misstated the Florida standard she said middle school students in Florida will be told that enslaved people benefited from slavery the clarification says instructions includes how slaves develop skills which in some instances could be applied for their personal benefit it's their skills learned with resilience and resourcefulness that benefited in spite of slavery just as written in the AP course Dr Jones said of the Florida standard it is truly unconscionable saying that slaves learn a skill later for life this standard is simply an embarrassing mark on our state is it an embarrassment to the college AP board too which the NAACP endorses in an interview with ABC News Dr William B Allen closed with a specific request Dr Allen is a retired professor emeritus a political philosophy and the U.S Constitution

127at Michigan State University he is also a former chair of the commission on civil rights he said I think every intellect can understand the language written there if people will only take the time to read it and it's only those who don't take the time to read it who will misstate it based on a misstatement by the Vice President Jones is leading a political effort the last time the chair took directions from the White House she believed that the National Association of school board members positions that parents were domestic terrorists and to thwart the falsely described parents she brought a motion forward to remove public comment to outside the gavel of the business meeting if Dr Jones had her way nobody would be speaking in this room my question to Dr Jones is why are

128you imposing the White House distortions on the school district lastly the NAACP is the plaintiff in the 59 year old federal case The Joint Equity work group the chair Dr Peggy Jones sits on the defense team in her letter to the doe she said I also ask that you call in representatives from our state and local NAACP branches for input on all these standards thank you Mr I'm asking for Dr Jones's to step down from the deseg work group thank you very much Dr John thank you and then William Flynn good evening hopefully after tonight you could heed my offer to begin our meetings with prayer I'm going to recite the 1962 student prayer again as I do each time I come up here almighty God we acknowledge our dependence upon thee and we beg

129thy blessings upon us our parents our teachers and our country amen there's four types of pornography that can be determined illegal by the U.S Supreme Court in decent material material harmful to minors obscenity and child pornography the indecent material certainly falls into the category that we heard tonight includes messages or pictures on Telephone radio broadcast TV that are patently offensive descriptions and depictions of sexual and excretory organs or activities that is often referred to as sexual nudity or dirty words we are way beyond that tonight 2022 study let's follow this science pornography use increased 11 percent during the covid pandemic 88.2 percent of porn scenes analyzed contain physical aggression spanking gagging and slapping women adolescents who view online porn are more likely to engage in Risky sexual behavior and to have anxiety and depression half

130of 8th graders have viewed pornography 2019 alone there were over 42 billion visits to the PornHub website 42 billion adolescents who use pornography are more likely to commit sexual violence kids under 10 10 years old comprise 22 percent of online porn use of minor consumers sites most viewed are extreme brutal gang bang sleep assault domestic discipline and crying in pain basic common sense and decency clearly tells us tonight that our schools should not be contributing to the sexualization of our children we should be protecting our most precious Treasures our children we should be doing whatever it takes to rid and cleanse our schools of curriculum and anything that would be detrimental to their minds their bodies their souls and the spirit of our children we will all be held accountable for what we do and

131do not do in regard to the nurturing and protecting of our children thank you Reverend John William Flynn and then Grace delayer William Flynn and then Joyce de Lair thank you as a taxpayer and as a businessman when I see you want to restart the clock I'm sorry sir as a as a businessman when I see a business spending money needlessly when their their main goal is supposed to be making a profit and your profit is educating our children towards being a member of the Civil Society the books that we've read do not do that you have the you have the responsibility to show our youth how to read I had a reading disability until a ninth grade teacher gave me rendezvous with Rama and that's a science fiction and that changed my life to

132the point where I started studying science I'm a diesel tech I work on electricity and air conditioning that one teacher totally changed my life and when I see our good tax money going to garbage like this it really offends me another thing I wanted to bring up is CRT comes from the Frankfurt School Frankfurt School was held by Marxist you can't have Marxism in a country without the children we need to keep such like that in a in a class called political radicalism which I took in high school but it's it's devious now the next thing I'm going to read from tricks by Ellen Hopkins it's currently in the Freshman Learning Center it was originally challenged 11 122. this is on page 381. the clubs are careful about underage girls but work for me one

133will check your ID and as for actual stripping Linda gave us some pointers turns out that I'm a better dancer than Alex her boobs are bigger and through are a really beautiful men when then Men We perform for like we dance with each other breast to breast belly to ass tight skin against pale ebony hair Blue Streak blonde I'm not sure if you gave a Content warning but I'm going to do so so continue fingers touching hidden places we won't let clients touch powerful that's how I feel seeing the helplessness we make them I'm sorry point of order just a question here um you know if we allow the reading of sexually explicit material over the TV um you know I think this is you know in general going to be a violation of a

134lot I don't I think that we should not be allowing this material to be red okay um I'd like an attorney yeah I'm not gonna I'll give you your time I'm sorry buddy thank you uh just an attorney because as I talked to Dr Moore when this began the content warning we're going to take a look at every book take a decision on it and then uh but Dr pasta had a point of order regarding the TV and that's what I want to do to make sure the children are removed in case the parents are listening the statute the statute on point refers to pornography and obscenity within the context of whether there is any value when read out of context it's a lot more difficult to really State whether there is value you're gonna

135have to so another one in English when you when you're when you're looking at it as a book for the Florida Statutes you're looking at it with the idea of whether for obscenity there is any literary or other value to the underlying book when read like this it's getting out of context and I think it does create and I think it does create a problem stop no sir no you do not you do not yell out like that thank you and answer and just and just as a clarification I'm not saying whether it's obscene or not because it's not I what the underlying book is what I'm saying is I do think that the point is taken that it is when out of context a Serial of very graphic discussions okay Miss Rosario yes just

136a little clarification because I'm not sure with all due respect I don't know how much of the research in the current um statutes you know where we are with regard to library books and pornography so recently there was a library training that was approved by the Department of Education of which was rubber stamped the pure definition of pornography and the absolute um Viewpoint that any indication of pornography whether viewed as a whole or not had nothing to do with it in this particular case the training actually defines pornography as the depiction of erotic Behavior as in pictures or writing intended to cause sexual excitement period all of these it clearly were pornographic I mean there's no doubt about that they all fell within the definition of pornography I would also like to call Reed from

137House Bill 10 169 which was just recently passed House Bill 1069 and I think you were on the same page here House Bill 1069 very clearly states that any material used in the classroom made available in a school or a classroom library or included on a reading list contains content which is pornographic and we just read the definition of pornographic or prohibited under 847 and if we go to 847 all of those items that are prohibited are here they are the obscenity statute the obscenity statute is very clear of what is prohibited not allowed in certain contexts or you know looking at the whole the book of the no prohibited means that's it there's no other view you see it it needs to be removed and all of this includes child pornography depiction of um

138miners engaged in sexual content it could be images it could be pictures it could be magnets it could be Optical it could be deviated there's a definition here of deviated sexual intercourse sexual bestiality sexual content sexual excitement sexual oriented material specific sexual activities such as human genitalia even acts of human masturbation and so on and so on all of these are prohibited they're prohibited there's no other debt there's no nothing that can justify this being okay now apart from that apart from that the HB 1069 that was just passed into law also continues and says that any material that is subject to objection all of these books have been objected prior they've been and you're new to the district that's why I'm sharing this they've all been objected to all of them were put back

139into the library at a 4-0 vote Mr Pasco was not on the board I was the only zero vote they were all put back on the shelves and now they're coming back to us again they've all been objected so any material that is subject to an objection on the basis of sub-sub paragraph one which I just read which is pornography or prohibited and number two which is the picks or describes sexual conduct right so those are the two standards must be removed within five School business days of receipt of the objection and remain unavailable to the students of that school until the objection is resolved so that's one way of handling it the second way is parents shall have the right to read passages not the book as a whole passages from any material that

140is subject to an objection that means that these passages are enough according to the law to be prohibited and then it continues and it says if the school board School Board us the four that are here and I don't know if Mr Barefoot is there if the school board denies a parent the right to read the passage due to the content that meets the requirement in those Sub sub paragraphs if they're pornography if they're pornographic if they're prohibited under 847 if it depicts or describes sexual conduct so if the school board denies a parent the right to read passages due to that content that meets those requirements the school district shall discontinue those materials not the school district shall go through a process go to the principal go to a committee go to Tom Dick

141and Harry no this says very clearly the school board shall let me read it exactly shall discontinue the use of the material discontinue it doesn't go through I'm sorry it doesn't I'm sorry it doesn't go through the process you don't recommend for them to go to the principal we have the authority I'm still we have the authority and of course I don't again with all due respect I don't know how how thorough you know your knowledge is I'm sure it is but uh just to be clear here if the and I'll continue last part if the district the school board us finds that any so of course now we have the second the second option third option here if the school board finds that any material any material meets the requirements for pornography prohibited under

142four eight four seven depiction or description of sexual conduct if the school board finds that any material meets those requirements or that any other material contained prohibited content then the school district shall discontinue the use of the material period if you find it Dr Moore that is up to you you are the superintendent of the school district you would not allow your children to read these books thank you thank you you would not allow your children to read these books you wouldn't so now you're familiar with these they don't have to go to a principal they don't have to go to a committee you are the school superintendent and as a school board I can make my vote right now those books need to be removed immediately all right thank you Miss Rosario thank you

143Dr Jones I didn't hear what you said I just said thank you Ms Rosario Dr Moore do you want to respond to anything and then I would like to thank you madam chair I know we're not done yet but in response to what Mr Rosario just said it would be a vote of the board uh in order to remove it not one individual content warning is is correct we need there is content that you may not want red but if it is the board's decision to remove these books as just stated that would be a decision of the board uh my recommendation would be to go back and look at each and every single book there's criteria thank you please thank you thank you the information pertained uh is it in our libraries uh is

144it been disconnected continued are there different labels that have been applied uh to give the a total picture to the board so you have all of the information regarding uh the books that have been shared all right thank you thank you just a moment thank you Miss Rosario um just a couple statements uh the reason I talked about the process because it has changed since the last committee we had a couple years ago led by Mr Meyer in a in a district team so it has changed the reason I asked about the principal because I know that's the first step for parents if they wish to do that obviously the content warning I would want to give or the adult reading it because there could be children listening and then obviously the board will take

145a look at this if I stop it automatically comes off and that would be a decision of the board not just mine so I just want to make sure that when we listen we can look at the whole picture and obviously some of these books we're all taking notes we will look at carefully and we will look at to make sure that um um whether they should be on there for children or not and to make it just a snap decision like that I want to do it with the board members so that's something that's important to me um when I give the content warning just as a Mom and Grandma as far as children and reading I just want to make sure they're not in there and some of these books right off the

146cuff we understand and we'll take a look at them and also with our new process we'll even be looking more carefully because I think that's very important that people are involved in that so I respect what Dr Moore is saying I respect what Miss Rosario saying and Dr posca but uh not just me stopping it but the board taking a look at them together and even just saying the name that will help me so we can go back and look at every one of these I mean take a look at every one of these because uh as one of our I think it was Reverend John earlier about not only books but the internet and the sites that kids are looking at you know we need to get a handle on that also so I

147certainly appreciate what you're saying so go ahead so if I could just yeah sorry sorry go ahead Dr Pasco so the original point of order that I um inquired about was if we are allowing the reading of this clearly sexually explicit pornographic material to anyone in the world who wants to see it on television um it is in fact a violation of the law and we've also stated the reason we're allowing it as a board is simply because if we didn't allow it then the book would be polled um but that that's just an explanation as to why you're breaking the law so I think that we should probably you know do our job if someone's going to do something that violates the law of our rules we shut it down and that's you know

148that's our job so I think we should get to work okay off of what Dr posca just mentioned because a year ago when Mrs barenborg was the board chair and she shut down some parents for reading pornography which actually I'm going to say thank you for doing that Mrs barenborg but her reasoning was for the FCC regulations and for some reason I'm surprised she's not bringing that up tonight but the FCC regulations according to what the superintendent and what um Kristen Maddox and what the the attorney at the time said was that we are under FCC regulations for the public educational and governmental access channels which means we cannot have anything pornographic or vulgar or um obscene being stated in our board meetings but apparently tonight it's okay apparently tonight being read over the intercom

149video and for the whole world to see now we have tarnished our reputation for having all these books and in addition to that we're violating the FCC regulations okay go ahead sir and then obviously we have this is number 36 we have about 15 more as far as books and the plan to make sure that we looked at the books that we've already said that could go back on the Shelf some of these have already been as we said earlier a couple years ago but as far as shutting it down I would also ask any readers that when we take note on every one of these books um I can shut it down but also we'll be taking a look at it overall because the whole picture of what we want to do and I

150understand where you're all coming from here I understand it and so I need to shut it down I will and we'll also take a look at the ones that that already went through but go ahead sir I'm sorry in what kind of time frame should we expect a and you see by by saying I don't know we need you know you have a a job to to educate our children not to groom them and most of the stuff that's been read if not all of it is grooming and I understand you have a tough job I subbed on a school bus uh when we had the three hurricanes the behavior of the children I could not believe the stuff that came out of kindergartners I could not believe but we have to be better than

151that we have to show them the Civil Society works and that's what I'm here for wait I don't wanna you you can so you can keep talking if you wish we cut you off a little bit and as a taxpayer I know you guys don't have as much money as you'd like to have but when I see money spent like this I have to question the next time you guys ask for money and I'm gonna tell you I'm not going to vote for another thing until I see these books removed and I see CRT removed and I see the you know all this stuff you have one job let's see you do it and do it well I'll do anything I can to support you a teacher changed my life and I like to see

152the same for everybody that goes to our school system thank you sir all right Paul Amira and then Christy Bell [Music] is that right good evening can you hear me yes are you miss a little lower pardon me Amber I'm sorry thank you go ahead is that going to work can you hear me yes and what is your first name Joyce you called me after this okay all right go ahead I'm sorry go ahead thank you I'll do it thank you good evening my name is Joyce delaire I have been a teacher for 20 years and also a crisis intervention counselor for for teenagers and I'm appalled at what I'm hearing going on in our school district I know it's been a long evening and um I'm sure all of you up there a couple

153of you more obvious than others are tired um but this is really for the sake of protocol and I'm actually here to um speak for the parents to the parents as a grandparent and as a concerned citizen um you've heard a lot of books that are um in our schools you get the point to continue on and on I see a lot of glassy eyes I'm sure you're tired but that's not the point the point is um you the school board work for us we've elected you and we need to remember that um it's it's just a reminder that we believe and hope that you'll do the right thing for our children um we're going to pay attention though it seems to me that you are going to be awfully busy tomorrow would hope that

154you'd get started this is another book that we're concerned about called The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison currently in Vero Beach High School and gear Gifford Middle School it was originally challenged November 4th 2021 but returned to the school page 136 with a violence born of total helplessness he pulled her dress up lowered his trousers and underwear he he he he Darlene put her hands over her face as Chloe began to stimulate what had gone on before he could do no more than make-believe the flashlight made a moon on his behind he he come on faster you ain't doing nothing for her he he he Chloe moved faster looking at Darlene he hated her he almost wished he could do it hard long painful he hated her so much ma'am thank you thank you I'm

155gonna stop you well and I'm glad you did because as you've been stopping so many people tonight that only for the record tells me that you are indeed um as all of you are recognizing that this is filth that should not be in our schools therefore as the school board you should be doing something about this now thank you very much I appreciate it remember time is up remember these people yes ma'am Christy Bell that they do something expect to see something starting tomorrow thank you Paula Merritt thank you thank you and then Christy Bell thank you good evening good evening sir I'm Paul amaroo I'm a retired high school English teacher High School librarian High School journalism teacher and past president of the Hackensack Public Library in New Jersey I want to address the

156current wave of denying children our children the right to learn the truth about slavery all of you are familiar with the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin written by Harriet Beecher Stahl did you know that the Southern States in 1852 forbade the set for bed the sale of the novel do you wonder why it spoke the truth about slavery now in the 21st century people conservative Crusaders for Purity are practicing a reverse Uncle Tom's Cabin by hoping to prevent children to read novels written by any author white black or brown that tells the truth about slavery now the State Board of Ed wants to roll back the efforts that have been made in the teaching of slavery and Jim Crow to insist that teaching our children the horrors of slavery to say that we don't want our

157children to feel bad we should all feel bad the state is injecting itself in every local Board of Ed to the point of calling out several board members around the state and working to have them lose at the polls and why did the governor do this because those board members disagreed with him those board members asked that they be allowed to teach their children the truth not what is politically expedient slavery was not bad slaves could learn a trade what they could not be taught to read or write when slaves came from Haiti the new slave holders in the South were stunned those slaves spoke French how could that be are they that intelligent I can't speak French new board members must agree that we teach our children that slavery had benefits for the slaves

158I guess they got Medicare they were taught to a trade slaves who had no control over their bodies or their lives they were taught a trade but the State Board following instructions from the governor's office tells us that slavery gave benefits to the slaves if we don't know the mistakes that we make today we are bound to make the same mistakes tomorrow it is politically expedient to not teach the children of Vero Beach the truth of slavery the history you want to give our children is not the history they need because it is not the truth the truth of how at one time a black person had to be off the streets by sundown the truth of how Jackie Robinson couldn't play golf in any course in the county why because he was black thank

159you sir thank you very much I appreciate it we only have three seconds left that's how the owner of the Dodgers Branch Ricky built the nine hole course next to the spring training complex so Jackie Robinson could play golf thank you very much sir Christy it is our policy to deny our history to deny it teach us a historical truth to be ignorant of the past is to ensure that we will make the same mistakes today thank you Bell and then Anthony Brown [Applause] so first I wanted to tell you guys oh my gosh I respect the hard work that you're doing because during the little break I had a hard conversation and even that makes your heart pound and but still it's an opportunity to learn and I got called out for an inappropriate

160assumption that I made so it was a good opportunity to learn but still what you guys are doing super hard um I didn't know there was going to be an organized book excerpt reading tonight and it's definitely a smart strategy and it does take time away from other issues and I know that that's probably not the main goal but still it's smart I came tonight first of all or second or third of all to say Workshop was really great pretty darn good progress for measurable outcomes I love that um I also came because of the new policies and standards regarding how the African-American history is to be taught starting in just a year from now our district really needs to find some way to stand up against what is wrong with some of the details

161of the standards there's a lot of good work on it but there's some that we all understand needs to be fixed the clarifications for the standards need to be changed and I'm so grateful that some of the board members agree and big kudos to you we don't want to be colorblind we want to recognize the beauty of all of the beautiful cultures and get more educated let's see more representation of our minority groups it's so important for our kids and our community in life which includes school movies teachers work representation matters but in my mind we need to actually be more aware and more educated and give additional supports to the minority groups if or when needed why in the world would I say that well people who are not part of a minority group

162look around all day long and see people who interact with the world in very similar ways and with similar cultural and lived experiences to themselves through no fault of their own it may limit the ability to see a different perspective to grow in compassion and to work well together we need opportunities to see people who are different than us and learn some factual history that will help with that understanding books are another place where representation matters lgbtq black communities oh and also it's a huge benefit for teenagers to recognize their own lives and books one man tonight read from Go Ask Alice that book can be a lifesaver one in six children will be sexually abused by an adult predator and one in ten teenagers will be raped by a peer there is research that

163shows reading some of these books and building compassion for and feeling the feelings actually can deter rape from occurring um let's see so I lost track on there um okay anyway it's wonderful that we have books in our libraries for non-academic reading and to build a life thank you very much thank you Anthony Brown ended Edward Spencer good evening board Anthony Brown NAACP first and foremost it's hilarious here tonight you know to to the point that it's sickening this orchestrated takeover of your school board meeting is masterful but to divert from the real issue about where we are here with the standards and slavery benefits slaves which one of you on that board has ever spent a day in your life black which one of them how dare any of you tell me about Black

164History how dare you minimize what it is done I heard something today in the workshop where it was a alluded to that just because it was a law that the teachers and everybody had to follow it so if a young lady is raped you're gonna teach her that rate was all right that there's benefits from rape I dare you not it was brought in this meeting about the NAACP of Indian River County are going along with these standards I sit on the I'm the third vice president for the Florida State Conference of the NAACP at no time that we endorse any such idiocy how dare anybody come along and go go tell me about Rosewood gonna tell me that July Perry was complicit in what happened in Rosewood gonna tell me that African-Americans were complicit

165in what happened in Tulsa no sir Dr Moore you gained a little bit on me today cause I was proud of you when you were trying to be walked into a trap but as the Young Folks on the street would say you said I ain't scared because you didn't say I'll talk to the chancellor because this is a very important issue and how dare it be minimized when people say there's no slavery what just happened in Jacksonville there's no racism in Indian River County there's no racism in Florida what has just happened in Flagler County any of you paid attention well white administrators started prudent to take Fifth and fourth grade black children and put them in an auditorium and tell them if they do better we'll give them some burger McDonald's in Chick-fil-A ain't

166gonna tell them that oh if you don't do better you're gonna be dead in jail or on the streets I watch the look like boy and I cried I'm afraid to go to school I'm afraid because they told me if I don't do this and then you get a little black girl to go in there and stand in front of her other children and tell them that she's better than them because her grades are better divisive yes indeed not on my watch you are custodial control and care of my children not DeSantis not the commissioner not the legislature we elected you all and you are responsible for the proper and prudent education of my children thank you Mr Brown thank you thank you all right Mr Spencer Edward Spencer and then Cindy Gibbs I kind

167of understand now why some think there was a benefit from slavery because as we know when slavery happened there was one in the field and there was one in the house and the one in the house benefited I guess that's what they talking about because one got a chicken back and one gather chicken leg that was the difference of the benefit okay we've been brought here script of our God rate beaten strung up you name it and you got the audacity to say that we benefited think about it who really benefited but what I can tell you we were gifted by God not Picasso's brother I'm not talking about that one that has been put in front of us for all our life and we've been brainwashed that that's him not talking about him but

168we came here with a god that we believe that we trust you stripped us of that you gave us yours then you got to audacity again to call us Christians with you unfortunately white Christianity is different than black Christianity because the KKK walked the old ladies across the street but they strung Black Folk up in the same bro and you got the nerve to say that we benefited from slavery you benefited but our contribution to America check it out 95 of the Creations in America we did it you jumped on our back you tuck it you manipulated us out of it but I'm sorry to tell you if I had a hat on I'll throw it up right now because it ain't 1893 it's 20 23. thank you all right thank you next we have

169Cindy Gibbs and Michael Marsh good evening I'm Cindy Gibbs I too am a law-abiding tax-paying citizen and I hope that the people in this room and the people who are watching tonight have a very good understanding that in no way shape or form are our teachers standing in the front of classrooms reading from library books all day that was quite a stunt so I want to begin by saying how pleased my husband and I are with our girls teachers this year We Trust our kids teachers We Trust our principals we trust the adults at our schools we know that they are the experts in their fields and we know that they care about the well-being of our children because we've established a relationship with them we appreciate that they have all been quick to reply

170to the questions we've had as we settle into the new school year I assure you they are not reading those books out loud in class because they're not instructional materials yes they are we have heard from from our kids that some of their teachers have already had to say that they will be careful about how they teach things this year because rules and laws have changed and they hope that the kids will understand my children are 13 and 16. they are in middle school and high school and their teachers hope that the kids will understand if they have to stop a classroom discussion so that nobody gets offended I don't know how we're teaching critical thinking to Children if we have to stop a conversation because somebody's feelings got hurt I understand why these teachers

171are saying these things they're hard-working people they chose this Noble career they deserve our trust and yet they don't have it from too many people who are just listening to the world around them and not focusing on what's actually happening in our schools anybody who tuned in tonight to listen to this stunt that or Pro showed up tonight I'm skipping over my words because I'm appalled does anybody really think that that's what happens in classrooms in our schools honestly for forty five thousand dollars a year you think teachers stand at the front of the room and read those books Out Loud come on we disrespect our children when we attempt to prevent them from evidence-based learning cognitive dissonance is trying to hold on to two conflicting beliefs it does cause discomfort it's called brain pain

172that's how you know you're learning something new and it can be hard when your parents have raised you to believe that some people aren't as good as you so when you get to school and you learn by all the people around you that everyone actually is on a Level Playing Field if you choose to believe that it can be hard because maybe you didn't learn that from your parents shifting gears just a little I want to mention that I did have the pleasure of attending the NAACP town hall meeting and it was very enlightening to hear people listening and some other people who felt it was more important to talk thank you thank you Michael Marsh and then Lords Gabon Lourdes caban Michael Marsh thank you good evening Michael C Marsh one of your newest

173proud NAACP members and it's time to get to work ladies and gentlemen just like I turned around PTA which is funny because ever since I left I don't quite see that same PTA but that's okay I'm always here if you guys need me but I won't dress the elephant in a room just yet because that's going to be under the board discussion but I want to know there was 200 and some homeless children did we fix that yet is that solved because we're still looking for the boogeyman with these books but almost 240 children from elementary to Middle to high school still identify as homeless so you want to talk about real matters to take up there's one for you and I have another one I have a great one but I also have a

174solution because I like to be a solution waiting to happen so I'm going to discuss how we got to keep the main thing the main thing because I heard that from a great superintendent and I want to discuss ese you want to talk about problems not the current ESC this is ESC 4.0 because this is all Aces you got the best assistant superintendent and the best director but we didn't always have that see my child that went to Oslo Middle School was failed from the Lea from the case manager from the resource specialist but we're good now she's amazing now but my child missed out on a lot of compensatory time matter of fact those of us who are real Advocates and not Facebook bloggers or who come once in a blue moon see I've

175been doing the work and work is good but over 11 000 minutes had to be given back at Oslo middle school and I've just begun that's just one case manager that's a problem so thank God that when those hot air balloons from the ESC office left so did the hot air because we failed many many children but I tell you what I remember me and the assistant superintendent and you know through the chair I believe Mr Seymour can fix school lunches and we'll get the bus routes figured out as a parent I was able to go to him with any situation through the tree I want to thank Miss Rosario because that's how I found Mr Seymour so thank God for both of them but now we have a director that I know that those

176IEPs are going to be carrying out with fidelity and I made certain that we're gonna have logs not just logs that don't get filled out everybody thinks and I'm going to say thanks to me because what I discovered with my child was a travesty of Justice in this education system but the work is getting better I was part of the quick reference for procedural safeguards I don't know but I always see here get gifted EPS get showcased it's time that those parents for IEPs and lastly Dr Moore I know you said we can have an advocate we need an IEP advocate for every school and I know you said we would do that at a last pack meeting speaking of next one September we should see every board member thank you very much thank you

177all right Lords come on and then Lisa Link Lourdes and then Lisa Link thank you thank you for the opportunity to be here I'm a resident of Indian River County uh voter taxpayer mother of five and future grandmother and I have a lot of concerns I don't currently have children in school but you know what I'm a protector of children I believe they're a gift from God and it's our responsibility as parents to lead guide and protect whether I see what their ears hear and how they live their lives and I hope everything I believe every parent here would agree with me on that therefore I'm here to speak on behalf of the children I can't believe I'm here wasting what's not wasting but spending four hours on a debate or presentation that shouldn't even

178be taking place this is common sense this is a no-brainer we are sexualizing our children with these books I don't want to hear the stunt this is not a stunt have this board done their work or done their what they were called said they were going to do we wouldn't be here right would we be here thank you had you done that please quiet so she can get so it's not a stun I think it's based on our convictions as parents and it's a great strategy but it's a strategy for the sake of our children so I think that's a great strategy to protect our children I I'll go with that so I want to read something a book called Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J Maas currently in the Oslo middle school and Storm

179Grove Middle School I'm not sure if this was challenged before I'm sure it has been page 349 do we need to do a Content morning I'll I'll let you decide okay thank you Rowan thrust into her in a mighty stroke as he plunged his teeth inside of her neck okay we'll do a Content warning thank you she cried out at the claiming release already barreling along her spine but he began moving moving while his teeth remained in her and she moaned with each Drive of his hips the sheer size of him I'm going to stop you from Reading okay thank you well I'm glad you did thank you you're welcome and I'm hoping that the time the process of you eliminating these books as you said the process which I I'm I'm with Jackie I

180think she said precedence and she said what she needed to say about the laws and regulations so kudos to Jackie for standing up for our children thank you thank you okay and I'm believing the other board members will all be waiting for the top for the process to take place which shouldn't have to but we're going to give you an opportunity because I believe your parents and I believe you do care about your children so with that said thank you for the time and I hope to see these books removed thank you very much can Simmon and then veal sorry avilda C green [Music] I went by Internet to the archives of these meetings and listened to your reasons why you have chosen to retain books with the dubious subject matter that these parents of

181children attending the public schools has to be removed from the school libraries of you said it was because it is important that children be allowed to read for pleasure because that incidentally will heighten their proficiency to comprehend subject matter in textbooks and help them understand what the teacher is teaching may I ask why install library books that afford hypersexualization and reckless endangerment of children conveying them to sexual promiscuity instead of the kind of books that encourage domestic and public virtues I challenge your reasoning with my personal first-hand experience and observations that I made in the sixth grade I was 10 years old we had moved to another state and after being tested I was placed among a students a girl in that class who was an Avid Reader and a straight A student she was

182very polite always prompt and neat with her homework assignments I never heard her use profanity she came from a stable home with both parents gainfully employed a few months into the school year she read the book Peyton Place and promoted it to me as a great read I had heard that it was about sexual liations in the New England town which had a facade of puritanical traditions I was not interested but do remember her repeated emphasis and promotion to read it about that time she became the first in the class to show secondary sexual characteristics of physical development which caused a lot of joking and teasing from the boys in reviewing that book Peyton Place online recently I found it is quote titillating pages that included recurring themes of hypocrisy social inequities and class privilege

183in a tale that also included incest abortion adultery illegitimacy female sexuality and teenage sexuality the reviewer Tammy truck said with the reading of it you root you root for the young lady of loose sexual morals in the next summer my schoolmate participated in a scrimmage tackle football game in her neighborhood after the game an older student went in with her into some bushes and engaged with her in sexual intercourse the boy from my class called me on the phone to tell me of it soon after and she became the most promiscuous student in the whole school and this went on through high school when her parents are away she had many boys over one at a time in her bedroom she never took the more difficult College Prep subjects guide the children in the useful

184Arts of science language mathematics and history thank you thank you very much sir I appreciate it all right a bill to green and then Stephen green I believe I believe a bill to see green be out there Stephen green okay thank you Patricia Foley [Music] hi my name is Patricia Foley I don't have any [Music] I don't have any students I don't have any children um I've come I've been here in Vero Beach for the past eight years I love this area I love the people here I love the children here I love this area you know I think that the last time I went I heard somebody speak here tonight and they were saying how they're looking around the room and and some people are ever here at these meetings well you know the

185last meeting that I was here I recall everybody saying they were going to be getting rid of the books we're going to talk about it we're going to see about it you know we they then they made lists of the books and then they said okay yeah we're going to read the books and then they objected to the books they had a list of the books that had the objections too we're going to get rid of them we thought they had okay but some schools didn't get rid of them some people didn't get rid of them so I mean how did the big books get in there I guess they get in there because there's a Follett or whoever whoever who some ever puts the books and he passed they pass them around to the

186to all the different schools and then but how is it how come the board is so resistant and getting rid of them why is that I do not understand that for the life of me I have a book the Tower of Dawn by Sarah Mass currently in Storm Grove Middle School and Oslo Middle School page 513 so Chell removed his shirt his pants following with a few trickier Maneuvers then he remembered that he he removed that dress of hers leaving it in scraps on the floor beside the bed and as travel began to move in her he really he realized that here I'm going to stop you okay can you get rid of this book will you tell me that right now right now it's okay will you tell me will you get rid of

187this doctor could you review again what we need to do as a board if we want to remove a book immediately again I just went through the process because with the new state statute just a moment with the new State statue it says that if I stop someone from Reading we will get rid of it so I just want to remove just to have Dr Moore remind the board how this will work through the chair thank you madam chair if the speaker is stopped yes that book should be automatically removed automatically removed or the board can vote to have them immediately removed the board I I am a decision I think each of these speakers tonight is is raising a concern for the book which gives us um the opportunity for me to take the

188five days which is in the rule evaluate the books and bring back a recommendation so you have all of the information to vote on all of them no there's I'm sorry may I Madam chair Dr Moore there is the a formal objection if someone makes a formal objection this is not a formal objection this is a reading a formal objection within our objection process the formal objection needs to be removed from the schools within five business days temporarily until a final decision has been made that's one way right now the next way is for parents to read and the school board chair to make that leadership decision and shut it down that's the second the third is for the board to make the decision to have it removed immediately actually there's a fourth in which

189the district can make a decision and have it immediately removed so there are really four Avenues of which to take right now we're just looking at parents who are reading during citizen comment and at this point as long as the board chair says no and shuts it down it is immediately removed we just missed the whole opportunity of all these books getting immediately removed and not having to go to the to the principles and bog down the principles in the middle of the brand new school year and have the principles and a committee convene when all of these books clearly violate the statute is there any way that these that you can review tonight's hearing and then draw out make a list unless you've already been making a list of every single one of these

190books that you've stopped people from Reading from and just get rid of them that's what the thing was supposed to be so the the answer okay just a moment please Dr Moore's responding I would love to respond when everyone's done speaking but as as we go through and collect all of the information from each of the books that we shared yes we can provide that information back to the board and make a recommendation regarding what the most appropriate Next Step would be you don't need to be more it's a moment just a moment zarya go ahead you know we heard all we needed to hear we can make a dip we can make a decision right now tonight and not only that she doesn't even talk to Jones you don't need us you can make

191the decision on your own recent books yes I know and thank you for doing that and I wish you would have done that from the beginning of the night well the one thing is and again miss Rosario just again as I as I talked to it as I talk through it I wanted to make sure I heard everything I listened to people and as the attorney said Dr Moore said I mean I don't want to be the determiner of everything but I should still be needs to be a board decision you should because Rosario please please wait to be recognized and I would like to have it as far as you know what was happening here tonight with 50 51 um maybe 40 of them regarding the books is that you know take a look

192at it just don't say well this is going to go this is going to go this is going to go I certainly respect what Dr posca said about stopping it for um television and so forth and that's why I wanted to do the content warning I was just trying to do the best I could as far as making the board decision as a board but you're right I can stop it so Dr Moore anything else nope nothing precludes the boar from taking a vote okay all right will you please remove this book from the school I stopped I stopped you ma'am so it's being removed yes power thank you thank you all right Jennifer Pippin and then Marianne Bender me but thank you what [Music] the clock's at 1 10. you have to explain that

193thank you good evening my name is Jennifer Pippen and I'm the chairman for moms for Liberty Indian River Florida almost two years we've been working on getting pornography and sexually explicit content out of the schools here in Indian River County we've made plenty of local news and even national news on these issues we've served on local and state committees as well in having a huge hand in making legislation changes to make books like you heard tonight permanently removed from the hands of unaccompanied minor children and school libraries and classrooms across Florida schools should not be providing sexually explicit content to students parents who think their child should be exposed can provide books to them they are readily available at public libraries for free Amazon Barnes and Noble and more we've been vilified for taking a

194stand to protect children we have been called anti-lgbtq anti-african-american anti-jewish anti-everything Under the Sun to protect children from the material you heard tonight we reject these false narratives shame on the adults in this room who voted to put many of these books back on the shelves for children in February of 2022 and every single one of these books tonight have been formally challenged because the board neglected to do the right thing parents grandparents and taxpayers had to act bravely they were forced to read these horrible passage aloud at the podium it's important that the record reflects who to keep who voted to keep these sexually explicit books on school library shelves Mr Barefoot Mrs barenborg and you Mrs Jones voted in favor of sexual content for minors we will remember this at The Ballot Box

195next year our chapter empowers parents and citizens to hold elected members accountable because of the negligence of these board members our members had no choice but to work at the state level to correct the negligence of Duty I proudly volunteered my time to serve on the committee for this state to accomplish what could have been resolved here at the local level with common sense for legitimate concerns after almost two years it's my honor and privilege to announce that pursuant to House Bill 1069 education bill with an effective date of July 1st 2023 line 313 States parents shall have the right to read passages from any material that is subject to an objection if a school board denies a parent the right to read the passages due to the content the school district shall discontinue the

196material thank you to all the brave parents grandparents and community members who showed up tonight and read from these disgusting illegal books to be sure they never land in the children's hand again here in Indian River County Schools thank you for not giving up the past few years and bringing positive change for children you are the real heroes and champions for parental rights Children and Families we are excited about the progress we've made but we have much more work to do we at moms for Liberty are just getting started do the right thing thank you very much all right thank you all right Marianne Bender Katie bender and then doretti flint and now it's number 52 the other ones deal with when we get to discussion and after these three speakers we will take a

197break thank you Marianne Bender good evening good evening board members my name is Marianne Bender and I have three children and three grandchildren in the Indian River County School System I appreciate having the opportunity to speak to you tonight I am embarrassed to say that I haven't been as active as I should be and items that are curriculum based but I am learning to be more active pay attention and take part in conversations and issues that are changing in our education system I was asked to speak tonight by one of my best friends on the African-American history standards I said of course I would and after doing some research I came to understand that I'm not only here to support our African-American students but I'm here to support all students and our state's history it

198is not our job to change ad opinions or tell history in a way that it doesn't offend it is our job to allow the curriculum to be taught as it happened I believe that we learn from our history mistakes so that we do not repeat them I can't tell you how many conversations I've been involved in where Florida's education system is being talked about in a negative way if we let this go on and this is how it's taught in our classrooms we are allowing our education system to be done dumbed down to protect the feelings of white children I've learned about slavery the violence the lack of food separation of families lynchings I didn't feel guilty I felt terrible about what happened in our nation I felt like I wanted to be sure that

199I wouldn't live in a time or place where this was possible again now as an as an adult who was taught the truth I want my children and my grandchildren to also know the truth of our history so it doesn't repeat itself I'm here to ask that if anything can be done by our Board of Indian River County that you take the stand to do what is right our African-American students should not have to listen in a classroom that somehow slavery was beneficial all of our students should learn factual history I would like to thank Miss Jones for her letter to the commissioner and ask that you all follow her lead I will close with a portion of her letter the parental rights Bill States the following a parent can withhold their child from any

200portion of the curriculum if they believe such material is harmful I would not allow my children or my grandchildren to listen to this material this is harmful because we are not telling the truth it is truly unconscionable saying that slaves learned a skill later for life this is a standard simply embarrassing an embarrassing mark on our state she goes on to say I know doing things right is good but doing the right thing is much better do the right thing and delete this standard and the clarification of the standard I beg of you board to do the right thing and follow her lead thank you for your time thank you Katie Bender now Katie bender and then doretti flint and that is our last I'm sorry madam chair I'm sorry I believe there's another one

201John I'm I'm a notchuku put in his form thank you Dr posca yeah I will double check John John is his first name thank you all right Katie Bender hello my name is Katie bender and I am a freshman at Indian River County this is my first time speaking at a public meeting I'm glad to have this chance to speak on an important topic of the African-American history standards I have to admit this topic is just something I've heard in an adult conversation and I didn't really think much about it then my best friend's mom explained to me it explained a little about this to me and she asked that I speak up about my feelings on this issue I guess I should mention mention that my best friend is African-American I don't think this

202should have to be mentioned but for this conversation it needs to be I I wanted to learn more about this so my mom gave me some information to read about how things will be taught in slavery in Florida schools one of the first things I read was this statement then slave benefited from slavery the curriculum guide states that children will learn how slaves develop skills in which some instances could be applied for personal benefit skills such as agricultural work painting carpentry tailoring and domestic service and blacksmithing as a 14 year old as a 14 year old girl this sounds ridiculous to me I myself have been taught some of these skills like agricultural work painting carpentry and more domestic Services than I would like to mention I must admit not too much on the blacksmithing

203I learned these skills from my parents and from volunteering in my community and the 4-H program however I learned these skills without being separated from my home or my family and without being treated horribly by a master or an owner then I went on to read that AP African American studies is banned in Florida partly because we have an act that prohibits classroom instruction that makes white people feel guilt anguish or any other forms of psychological distress because of the actions in which we played no pardon this made absolutely no sense to me when I when I have to be in a classroom that was teaching benefits of slavery I will feel guilty and I will experience anguish because trying to teach that point is awful I would feel uncomfortable for the teacher I would

204feel awful for each African-American student having to listen and honestly I would be trying to hide my face in a book I do not think it is right to try to put a positive spin on slavery and I don't want to be a part of that type of education the definition of history is the study of whole series past events particularly particularly in human Affairs I want to learn history as it happened the good and the bad I want to go on to be a college student and an adult who learns facts about history not the history that only wants people to feel better about themselves I've also spoken with the teacher and based on this matter and the teacher said that they would be ashamed to stand up in front of a class and

205teach this thank you very much [Music] next is the red doretti flint and then I did find John amateur the sorry thank you to ready hello my name is doretti flint and I'm a freshman here in Indian River County I'm here today to thank Dr Dr Jones for standing up for all students of Indian River County but especially for making me feel seen as an African-American student Dr Jones thank you and thank you all thank you John sorry thank you no sir just slipped in out of the 52 I'm sorry was there a reason why I was left out I'm sorry no sorry is there any explanation why my name is left up uh there were 52 and I must have picked it up with one or the other I don't know I'm sorry okay

206I'm deeply offended by that my name was left out left out but not my time yet because my name was left out all right I got to go back three minutes three three minutes from me because my name was left out yes sir go ahead I just want to make sure that we understand that yes while everyone is talking about racism let me say this on the topic of slavery blacks didn't benefit from slavery just like we don't benefit from abortion Planned Parenthood kills more black lives in two weeks than the KKK lynched in the century Margaret Sanger said that she did not want the word to get out that she wanted to exterminate the negro population there is no slavery like lynching a baby in the womb the same people who talk about the

207racist education standards they turn a blind and deaf ear to the fact that blacks are being slaughtered in this country by and large by the Democrat Party and white liberals who seek to further the plan of Margaret Sanger now on the topic of these pornographic books that you keep calling these uh point of contacts on as it relates to whether they should be read or not um 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher currently in Storm Grove Middle School and Freshman Learning Center Page 265. as if letting him finger me was going to cure all my problems but in the end foreign he doesn't need them yes sir I asked you to stop and you're going to have to leave if you don't continue with that yes sir no sir I'd ask you to stop I

208ask you to stop sir if you don't sir I'm asking you to stop if you don't do it we're going to have you removed thank you please I've asked you to stop yes sir I've asked you to stop sir I'm asking you just stop yes when I stop it's removed and I've asked you to stop so they were removed it's wrong okay sir Mr teskey would you remove him please three warnings three warnings I've asked you please to remove yes sir yes sir because you won't stop you won't stop I've asked you to stop Hey sir I just said I've stopped you from Reading it's going to be removed so I'm going to ask you to go it's not right that you're not listening to be removed thank you very much I appreciate it [Applause]

209[Music] thank you very much thank you very much thank you very much all right we're going to take uh that was the end of Citizen input we're going to take a 10 minute break we'll be back at 9 30. thank you View and get going with our agenda here I want to start a meeting now our next item on our agenda is a consent agenda and I would like to call for a proper motion to approve the cons consent agenda item as amended can I make a motion oh second that's a different motion sir yes um I mean I think based on the discussions we've had today I think it's very clear that these books have sexually explicit material in them I think the best thing to do is uh to make a motion to

210remove any of these books that were brought up as potentially a contest contested book and just have the board remove them all right second okay so we're adding an action item that was not on the agenda so Dr Moore and our attorney usually we do not do that because we have um we want to make sure people are here for that so any opinion on that sunshine microphone no no just just pull it closer to the mouth from a sunshine standpoint the government and the Sunshine manual says you can add an item the government and the Sunshine manual has citations that say uh be uh leery of doing so on what might be a controversial item I think it is a decision of this board as to whether this is sufficiently controversial or whether you

211just want to proceed I think from your policy and again just looking at the policy for the first time earlier today it appeared as though on a majority vote you could add to the agenda at the meeting you've indicated that you all have treated in in certain ways before I don't have any personal experience knowing how you have done that before but the answer is from a strictly Sunshine standpoint um it's it's something that's possible people are put on notice that there will be business of the agency okay we have a motion in a second by Miss Rosario discussion Dr Moore just I would like to hear from you regarding um some of the statements you had made earlier regarding removing of the books thank you madam chair I think as we listen to our

212community night there were a number of concerns expressed regarding these books um and it was stated that these books were previously challenged um a year or over two years ago I think there were a number of books in which um the speaker was in fact stopped and as a result of the speaker being stopped that book will now have to be removed I can't tell you the exact number of individuals that were stopped I might have to go back and watch it again to determine if someone was stopped or not stopped um as I look at each and every single stated concern I would have to go back and check is this book in the library it was this book weeded uh what criteria is already in place and some of those criterias you already

213know whether it's the parental consent form whether it was moved from one grade level to the next there were a number of things done um so I would like to bring that information back to the board I also see each and every single individual who came they're expressing their concern uh they are in fact uh lodging a Kim a complaint regarding these particular books maybe another Pathway to go is to allow these books to be removed from the shelves and go through the process of being reviewed each of you selected someone to serve on the book review committee so that may be a pathway to go back and put that committee to work to allow them to begin to review those books and give this board every confidence that a they've been fully reviewed and

214the appropriate action would take place and that may be anywhere between 15 and 20 25 books depending on the number of books that are automatically being removed um that's not the motion that's on the table the motion that Dr posca made is is to remove the books that were discussed or shared tonight Mr Barefoot any comments yes I I believe that the number of books were books that were which there were meant um we can just move them yeah let's temporarily pending the review Dr Moritz and if they're found to be inappropriate according to statute then they'll be permanently removed but we can remove them remove them on a temporary basis until all 25 or 30 whatever the number of books are are formally reviewed thank you miss barenborg any comment a couple books that

215were mentioned that I remember discussing before like The Bluest Eye and I thought that one was removed and so I was I heard that it was put back on the shelf and I thought wait a minute I don't remember that book um being one that I um approved to go back on the shelter there was another one handmaid's tale that I was told was because I specifically asked about that book was removed or um aged out because when we weeded out the libraries we were looking at books that were older that one was purchased in 1985. um so when all these speakers got up here and said we put these books on the shelves that's not true unless they were a book that was uh purchased in the last I don't know three and a

216half four years but some of these books have been here since the 80s and they were here when a lot of board members were board members back then and we can't know every single book that's in every single classroom in every single Library there's no idea no none of us do so um that's why we had to rely on a committee to read the books and hopefully this committee went through and vetted what at the time was the law and you asked why I stopped people from Reading because the attorney when I was chair told me that I needed to that was the law now laws have changed and tonight I didn't know that if you could read them or not because you know I am not the chair and giving that instruction from an

217attorney and I do know that the law changed with respect to how both books can be removed and how books can be reviewed and decided on I get what you're saying Dr posca some of these things that were being read I also did that last time like oh my gosh you know when we're reading out of context so when you're reading a book about rape and you're reading the scene that is about the rape of course it's going to sound horrible it really is um God forbid anybody's gone through that it is horrible experience and if we're not having anybody understand what that is and understand it before it actually happens to you and then you know how can people know that you know this might be a possibility why don't I but I'm just

218giving that as one example um I would have stopped a lot of those books tonight I would have and knowing that I can remove a book that easily that would have been great but um you know having to trust a process and then being criticized over and over and over again even though I didn't couldn't possibly read that many books shame on you people you didn't read every single book cover to cover so how can you say that you know that's shame on you we're doing the best we can do with what the information we have and that's what we can do but when somebody comes up and reads something like that and it gets your attention sure a lot of these books so um I remember looking at and thinking um didn't that book

219not go back on the Shelf didn't it get put on a shelf behind and that a parent has to request that their child gets to read it and if that's the case then that's not true they're not back on the Shelf they're behind the Shelf and I'd like to know on this list of what was read tonight what is the case with what's behind the Shelf what's on the Shelf if it's on the shelf and what they read tonight yeah I don't want that book out there if it's one that was looked at determined that yeah some kids could benefit from reading this book and is put behind the shelf for a parent to choose then I'd like to know I can't vote on this without knowing that though and so respectfully I I appreciate

220your motion but I really think that um you know bring it to the next meeting bring that motion right away at the beginning and then let's look at that but that gives me a month to look through all this and get the information from doctor more than I need about the books and where they're located in the library um because some of these I didn't think were back in the library so um again I don't have that big long list memorized so I don't know exactly where all these books were but there were a couple that kind of made me go hmm because I didn't think those were back on the Shelf um I'll have to look at the tape again I think I stopped three or four I cannot recall but we need to

221look at that as far as I would like to look at the total list Dr Moore and what and and I know there are ways to get the books off the shelves I would agree with Mr Barefoot about maybe removing them now for review I have no problem with that um as far as you know that students couldn't get to them but Dr Moore would you remind me about the five days you said that a couple times through the chair I was what I was referencing there is we have up to five days to remove the book and then begin the process what I'm suggesting is providing a detailed explanation regarding each of the books that were referenced what the shift was during the initial review um and then ultimately statute super seeds policy we

222could move these books right to review that would give me the five days to remove the books and put them up for the review the books would be off the shell into off the shelf until the review has been completed and we still have on our Focus that a parent could say I want my child not checking out any book we we still have that correct and the policy that we do have as Wednesday book is being challenged the book is removed from all media centers so the book would be ultimately removed um I I can't guess on the on the number of books it is between 15 and 20 books would be going for a review uh based on what was read tonight um it's a very lengthy process um but we knew this

223was going to start at some point so um I Can Begin that process I can provide the additional information back to the board nothing precludes the board at the next meeting of having another vote that says now that we have this information uh I'm gonna make proper this specific item any other discussion yeah yeah Mr Rosario yeah um there's a motion on the floor and he has a second right discussion so we're in discussion yeah but we're still going for now did you point of order rather was this meant to be voted on right now or was it meant to be voted on in action are we in action right now we were just starting consent uh approving the consent item and Dr posca made this motion and I double checked with our attorney about

224basically adding an action item and he said basically we could so okay so you can I I just wanted to um we don't it's really a waste of time it's a waste of Staff time it's a waste of principal time it's a waste of the committee time to meet for I don't know how long months gather them together get the books have them read the books you know have them review the process get them trained because they have to be trained I mean you have to go through all of that when you don't need it that is the reason why this law was has included three extra Provisions to avoid that lengthy process these three extra Provisions allow us to make this decision now the chair to make it at the meeting the district to

225make that decision where it doesn't need to go to the um committee or it goes through the objection committee I mean it's it's just we all agree it was the everything that we heard tonight was just inappropriate not age appropriate sexual content pornography I mean it's just clear as day I don't understand what is there to review it's not appropriate even if it's you know one excerpt is all you need for the book to be defined as not age appropriate that's all you need you shut it you shut you shut you did the um that warning for every single book I think that alone should be a testament to the content that was in there that should be caution enough now that's not legal it's not binding it's not in the law we don't have

226it written in policy but quite honestly it should just be common sense that if there needs to be some kind of disclaimer before somebody reads something graphic or pornographic or sexually graphic or any other kind of graphic that's inappropriate then that should be the determining factor that a book should be removed or that should be synonymous with I'm shutting you down but here we are and I think there were more than three or four that you actually did shut down they're probably close to 10. I think there were like 40 or 50 books that were read in total um a guesstimate so I'm sure that there were quite more than three or four but as it stands right now I'm willing to vote tonight save staff time these books are even if they were in

227the back Shelf it really doesn't make a difference then once we make that decision they get removed whether they're in the front shelf or the back Shelf quite honestly it doesn't really matter the books need to be removed I'm just a response there were 52 speakers tonight and I think 12 to 15 talked about something other than the book so it could be you know 35 books maybe I don't know um I did speak with the attorney um before this started because we knew there was new law saying if the chair shut them down then the book is removed so are you basically saying that you want all the books let's say someone is reading that we shut them down they're removed do you want books going to the committee at all or what are

228you saying if you shut them down they don't go to a committee correct so you're saying that tonight no committee avoid the committee you don't need the committee we've made the legal decision according to law to remove the books they're clearly inappropriate that's what it says if a book right I understand okay yeah I do I understand that I just don't think they should be shut down I don't think we should throw the committee away I don't we're not throwing a committee away if a parent makes a let's say tomorrow let's say 10 night we vote right tonight we vote we all agree or our majority agree the books are removed tonight all of the books that we heard tonight will be removed permanently done tomorrow if a parent wants to object to a book

229tomorrow a different book not a book from tonight a different book the parent can still go through the objection committee object with the principal let the principal respond if the parent is not satisfied the parent can come to the district at which point the committee is still in effect correct Dr Moore that is all that are based on a scenario which you just read yes the board has the ability to tonight vote on the motion that's on the floor as does a parent have the right to come in tomorrow and convene the the process first we don't need to keep going back here and vote them I would like to comment okay we have a motion on the floor I would like to amend his motion listen carefully because I'm being positive towards your emotion

230all right um I don't feel comfortable in setting a precedent for anybody to come and read something and we don't know whether or not it's in the book we're taking people's word I would like for example to have this list and I'm all for removing the books with what we heard if we have somebody double check that that's what was in the book that's all I care about because I don't want to open up Pandora's Box and have anybody come up here and remove any book they want just make up something I I just I want to get away from that stuff I I don't want to open up Pandora's Box so if we could just say I'm okay with removing the books that were read that you had you know to stop people are

231worn if those were indeed in the books okay so we have a motion to amend and we would need a second on that before discussion on that Amendment do we have a second on Miss barenberg's motion I second it okay second okay now we go into discussion on that Amendment um any discussion I'm sorry on I'll make it I'll I'll I'll I'll um discuss okay or make a comment I'm not in favor of that clearly but I also don't doubt that everyone who read read an excerpt from the exact book so my comment is um I'm just making a general comment that I don't doubt that every single excerpt was I believe that every single excerpt was read from an actual book in our school district so for that um I am not saying that

232what I'm saying is I don't want that go moving forward to be our president what I'm saying is if it's true if it was red and I agree I didn't like any of that so if that's true I just want to double check I want somebody to look on page 423 and say was that the statement that was in the book yes boom done okay we have a vote on the motion to amend any more discussion on the motion to amend because we do have to vote on that before we go back to the main motion so I mean I I would just say that you know this has been going on long enough I the idea that we would send this back to a committee after we already did that I think is a

233bad idea that's not what I the emotional I'm aware of that okay I'm respond to all the statements and um you know I think it's very clear um that these books did not belong there and they were in a constant state of violating the law this entire time so they should be removed with expedience and that's what I would expect um you know the fact that initially three board members decided they didn't feel like they wanted to vote to remove these I think is highly concerning and in Peggy in your own words earlier in the meeting you stated we would all vote to remove these okay so you know I think that eventually we gotta actually do our jobs we got to follow the law and we got to remove these books because it's bordering

234on ridiculous at this point um you know eventually um you just got to get to work and I I understand what Dr posca just said about removing these but I still think that um looking at these and what Mr Barefoot and Miss barenberg are talking about you know get him removed now and then still a review I just I have to agree with the precedent so then we have the next meeting 35 more books come the next meeting 35 more books come so no matter what if they're removed in the end or not we're still looking at them and reviewing them as Dr Moore said so all right can I clear yes ma'am go ahead I want to clarify my motion because it's getting very muddy um the motion is to remove the books that

235we heard tonight um but to verify and I'm not suggesting anybody's lying what I'm saying is I just don't want to open up Pandora's Box moving forward that's all we just need somebody to verify that what was read was in the book that's all and then that book gets removed so to just on the guys go to the work um going through looking at the book that was shared and verifying what was read when the individual was not stopped from reading actually was in the book that is in our library that is in our library right now um that is a board decision to remove those books Madam chair yes go ahead um if I could as board member Rosario was quoting from the house bill is adopted I I just think it is important

236for context for all of you to make sure however you do come down in order for the District School Board to order the books removed what the bill has adopted said if the district school board finds that any other material contains prohibited content under sub-sub paragraph B two through four which is to say that two depicts or describes sexual conduct as described in section 84700119 unless such material is for a course required by section 1346 section 1342 to n1g or section 1342 2n3 were identified by State Board of Education rule I will ask staff I don't think we have the full list yet from the state no but um three is not suited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material presented or four is inappropriate for the grade level and age group

237for which the material is used so not including the subsection one the school district shall discontinue use the material so if you all make that finding on any one of those three subparts tonight that would support in principle the removal if you wanted to do it at another time that would support the removal but that would seem to be what allows for what I would call the immediate Hatchet because the others are any material that is subject to an objection on the basis of subsection B1 pornography or sub subsection B2 which I just cited must be removed within five school days of receipt of the objection and remain unavailable to students of that school until the objection is resolved so you know those are it's the either war and again it is entirely up to

238you all as to how you want to proceed okay so miss bearing board please repeat your motion to amend Madam chair yes ma'am may I yes um just to thank you for the uh clarification um just to be clear the required um the statutes that were read uh are specific to the health requirements so the health education and then to uh the requirements in terms of core courses so we're not talking about removing Core Curriculum we're talking about removing library books although library books are considered instructional materials they are not part of the Core Curriculum so those are two so right now um that exception unless those materials are within that framework that wouldn't pertain to us right now so if we were to take that vote it is clear we can do that so

239thank you for that and if I may and if I may three and four areas not suited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material presented or is inappropriate for the grade level and age group for which the material is used so it's it's any of those three and I'm just saying any of those findings being made if you make that finding tonight you can remove it if you choose to do it another time you can remove it if you find the alternative then you can remove it within five days those those are really your options you've already said once you stop the speaker that's an automatic but the but those are the others so with that it's continual okay so vote on the motion yes could you repeat it yes I'd like

240to have the books removed that were read tonight and you we either stopped him or gave a warning removed immediately with the verification that that information is in our books that we have on our shelves okay that's the motion is there a second to that motion second any discussion okay all in favor of this motion made by Miss barenborg please signify by saying aye aye aye aye aye okay I okay so the amendment succeeded we go back to voting on the main motion as amended so the main motion as amended by Miss barenborg would you say it one more time um to have the books removed that were read tonight that you either had to stop or give a warning to um to be removed immediately as long as there's verification that what was read

241was actually in the book that is on our shelves okay so a voting now on the main motion as amended do you have a second to that second any discussion all in favor say aye aye aye aye all right thank you very much okay and Dr bore would you make sure you get that information to the board members um I feel sorry for that I'm sorry so was that a 5-0 Vote or that was a 5-0 vote Yes so if you could get information to the board members is that book on the Shelf I mean I would probably like to know a few other things I know we haven't ordered books in two years so how long is that book that's a whole other thing though but I'll ask for that all right I have

242my I have marching orders and I'll be able to provide that information to the board as swiftly as possible alrighty so approval of the consent I know approval of consent agenda items like to call for motion to prove the consent agenda items as amended I'd like to make a motion oh second and second all in any discussion please all in favor say aye aye aye aye anyone opposed okay that carries five zero all right now we'll go into consent poll to action and we do have a speaker on uh items pulled to action and I'm going to combine the two the 5e the Strategic plan and then the public hearing of all the new revised policies so Mr Marsh you wanted to speak to the first one which deals with the new revised policies books

243what's that yes because I I didn't get to speak so can I speak to that one first thank you very much I guess I'm a little confused as to why we all at five percent of parents and you can maybe use the word parents get to come in here and dictate what this process is going to be from what I could recall yes we had the committee every school board member got to choose a member so now but we don't want bombard the principles but I was told that's where it starts so as a parent if I read a book and I realize this is not appropriate as the parent am I not supposed to follow the chain of command I mean that's how life is right we'll just jump right to the superintendent we

244would go to the principal and I'm pretty certain that every principal would take it very seriously because I heard this trash that came tonight and I do agree a lot of that's disgusting but again is this the circus for that do we not go to the local units then we implore the power to the principal they get trained constant training so why are we going to remove because a few loudmouths said you better do it tonight and through the chair I could greatly appreciate what the vice chair said because yes if that's the case I want green eggs and ham out immediately Doc Jones I'm offended CRT at what point district is support and please correct me if I'm wrong it took me a long time to understand this but as a parent I go

245to the school right if the school cannot address my problem then I go to the district now I don't understand this organizational chart so maybe it's me I'm the problem you see but I believe that these principles would all agree and say you know what thank you for bringing that to the attention we don't need this circus and if everyone's so sick of it after two years then you know what we have a process in place we have a committee so we want to undo everything that was done to me that's more of a waste of time we challenged books we went through hell for cni we made these principles understand the process but now we're gonna toss it when is enough enough some of them even told you we're not parents I am a

246parent Doc and School Board of Indian River County and superintendent but the superintendent just works for the will of the board we spent how much time on this process we're just going to throw it away when five or six of them don't like it again you're setting a bad precedent you keep saying the power to the principles I heard that constantly from ESC it's the same thing here right these principles listen and I guarantee these principles will do the right thing there's been constant training and I'll finish off by saying the same thing that I had to begin the last time keeping the main thing the main thing we have to allow these principles to run their schools we're not inundating them with more work we've already created a policy but when we don't like

247it we just toss it so I'm asking put the power back to the schools and stop listening to two percent thank you so much all right um yes um if I may yes while I was fixated on the sunshine and the statute his presentation actually reminded me we we were focused on whether we could have the motion we probably for the purpose of making sure that if there is anyone else who wants to speak even if it seems to be purely ministerial should probably um essentially have a motion to reconsider just to open it up just so we have a sunshine opportunity for people to speak and then it however you choose to vote you choose to vote but I think just again to make sure from a procedural standpoint that's probably what we should

248be doing so you're saying that we would take the vote again after listening to others speak yes ma'am all right yes ma'am well this was I think it's not on the agenda Dr posca brought up the motion I determined it was for good cause okay and then uh Mr Marsh wanted to speak on every item dealing with um anything that we have as far as consent to action so at this time I can open the floor to see if anyone else would like to speak regarding the motion that was just made regarding the books if anyone else would like to speak I know I'm just I'm just doing what they said to do all right thank you in particular that was brought up which was Go Ask Alice there was an excerpt bread there is

249a lot of graphic drug use in that novel what they failed to mention is that at the end she dies it's a tale of caution to children that I as a parent chose to read with my daughter because that's what we do we read books together and then we discuss them and the content in them and I don't feel that my right as a parent should be taken away I like the fact that if a book is one that has topics that some parents May found object find objectionable put it in a shelf where a parent has to consent for their child to read it but I agree that setting the precedent of um you know there's rape in the Bible are you going to allow a parent to come up here and and object

250to that and remove that because I also read the Bible with my daughter and discuss the content of that thank you very much anyone else Mr Kenny thank you Thomas County uh policy media for Monster Liberty here in Indian River County um we did uh give the list of books that have been challenged here to Kelly bayster and Dr shafty so they already have the list for you guys I think it's imperative that what we heard here tonight um this is about our schools the number one thing with library books in 1006.4 is says is number one must be free of pornography we've had the definition of pornography red it's not about age appropriateness it must be free of pornography um when these books were originally challenged they were challenged on 1006.1006.34 I believe and

251they're free of pornography where it's written in there about instructional materials as well 1006.4 says all Library materials are in Structural Materials it was sent from the podium here tonight and that's incorrect according to law so in that regard when we went through that original challenge process it the whole place was moved to age-appropriateness we the books are never challenged on that so they weren't properly heard to begin with tonight we heard them properly and we heard what the content is one book tricks is what I like to call the Brown Bag book it's behind the counter just like the Hustler magazine in our school libraries and so I commend you all for voting unanimously and I just wanted to say thank you because our school should be free of pornography all of them all

252of them and sex education should be reserved for the health requirements and the different things that you have to do to teach kids the goals of abstinence which is required by state law so thank you very much thank you Mr Kenny anyone else yes Mr Flynn I'm sorry thank you David Flint father several children here in the district um thank you for allowing us to speak again on this as it was not something we would know that we'd be speaking on I not as prepared as I'd like to um obviously because of the short notice of this but I I do agree with the point that Mr Marsh made that there is a process that principals have already been given the training on doing this and I'm a little bit concerned about a baby with

253bath water approach on any book that was mentioned tonight because I'm not familiar with them now by what we heard tonight by and large it's inappropriate but I don't know what context any of it is in and I don't know that you do either and so I would caution us with the the baby with bath water toss it out because I I know that there's a list that moms for Liberty has has put together to challenge here in Indian River County and I know that like 30 of those books are based on African-American history they're based on African-American characters and black history and you know the the Banning of those books the challenges on those books is is done based on the accusation of CRT which we know is not happening in a school but

254it some of these books May espouse white guilt as I I believe the term that they often use um if if you're made to feel guilty because you were told about someone else's factual history and maybe you need to look at you know what we can do together different in the future to make sure that we don't do that to others and use that as you know a lesson that we can learn from and so so my concern is that though many of the books that do contain this pornography are inappropriate and should not be in here there are also many other books that are being challenged throughout this community throughout the state and throughout the country that are being banned under that same guys that just don't have anything to do with sexuality they

255have to do with false claims of CRT which is really an attack on African-American history which I'll continue to bring before this board because that's my main issue so um I would just again caution us against the baby with bath water and without knowing full context of everything if if as a board you believe that you understand the full context of everything that was read tonight then by all means you made the right decision in your vote thank you thank you anyone else reminder to people that are there you know we still have that as far as the principal you talk with and then the committee Dr Johnson yes I just want to make a point of clarification it was only the books that she had to stop somebody from Reading because they were so

256graphic she didn't want them to be read and while we're being filmed after that's that was the motion so I just want to be wasn't very clear with that and any and and anything that she yeah well I said stopped or said warning yeah one or the other yep all right so if it was a any other context it didn't that wasn't one of the books all right now we're on the Strategic plan and the public hearing on the new revised policy so Mr Marsh you could talk about that right now and then we'll go to Dr Moore's recommendation for the sake of time one response to the previous uh set of comments I just want to point out certainly there could be things in the Bible that people don't like and that could be

257graphic but as a point of fact there is actually no pornography in it so it would be irrelevant to the conversation right so we're talking about pornography so there's there's a very difference about just a moment please please let Dr posca we read the definition of pornography and that's a description of a sexual act that's designed to cause an emotional reaction that's sexual right and there's nothing in the Bible like that so I recommend reading it more um thank you very much okay now we're going to talk about uh 5e strategic plan public hearing of new and revised they're supposed to take another vote oh you're right Mr Rosario and again I I just want to clarify one thing and I think there may be well be an overlap and I just and Ms Rosario

258is certainly through the chair has raised the statute but I just want to make sure you didn't make a you didn't make a finding in order to do the immediate removal so if you're going to move to reconsider I would like to point out subsection one is the pornography subsection that's the one that gives you along with subsection to the ability for the five-day review if you want to remove anything that would that you stopped there is an overlap I think of one with four which is is it inappropriate for grade level and age group for which the material is used that's that's that one would allow this continuation upon the finding I I do not believe one allows the automatic removal I think that's the five-day notice if and you didn't make any finding

259really so because we were amending and amending I would suggest a motion to reconsider and then um now that you've had the ability for public speakers to determine as as I said before if you're going to do it immediately based on anything that you actually have that it be predicated upon subsection for if you're going to do five days then that would seem to be um what the pornography if you're going to limit yourself to that is what you're stuck with but I do think they overlap yes Mrs Arya may I may I ask um if you can go for read a little further down from wherever you are there there is underneath um I don't know where your point of reference is but where it begins any material that is subject to an objection

260a little further down Midway through there is a sentence that begins with if the district school board finds that any material meets the requirements under subsection uh two through four sub subparagraph a or that any other material contains prohibited contact under content under Sub sub paragraph B1 B1 is pornographic or prohibited in 847 the school district shall discontinue uh the use of that material I stand corrected and then a little bit above that thank you sir and then a little bit above that it says parents shall have the right and obviously we've read this before parents shall have the right to read the passages from any material that is subject to an objection and if the school board denies the parent that right obviously which is what we read before no um due to the

261content that meets requirements under sub-sub paragraph B1 again we come back to B1 pornographic or prohibited the district shall discontinue the use of that material now I as I said I stand corrected on A1 but I do think we do need to reconsider in order to make sure that we have a vote that is after the public comma thank you sir appreciate it so yes go ahead I have a point of clarification you said if a parent reads it How about if a Community member reads it I'm just reading the law that's what I'm saying it doesn't but that's one area so there's four areas so let's go back there's four areas there's the area that says that a parent or a Community member can make an objection and the objection can go through the

262objection process which begins at the principal level and then it eventually ends up with the committee that's one two is that a parent shall have the right to read and I'm reading from here parents shall have the right to read from the passages from any material that is subject to the objection at a school board meeting and it can be shut down at that point and then we can vote on that that's two three is if the school board finds that any material is um A or B one which is what we just discussed before it can it shall be removed it shall be discontinued and then four um if the district finds anything that is prohibited under subparagraph b and a then it shall be removed so you actually have four different ways for

263something to be removed that's but right now we're not voting on parents coming up here right now we're voting clarification all I wanted to know is was it apparent or could it be a Community member because obviously there were lots of community members here not parents well we didn't interview everyone here I'm sure um but then I'm I'm wondering if whether or not the Charities I'm just wanting to follow the law please don't keep talking okay so here we go we have we listen to our people and I'm going to ask Miss barenborg please State your motion to amend I'm going to say the same exact emotion whatever subsection it belongs to that's fine um let me see if I can remember it again I vote to immediately I would like to make a motion

264to immediately remove the books that were read that had content in them that you either as board chair had to stop them immediately or you had to say a warning for graphic content those are the books that I would like to have removed immediately I would just say that if we're understanding what the subsection is though just a comment B1 would be fine okay okay all right subsection okay do we have a second Madam chair yes ma'am I'm sorry just a point of clarification for the attorney if we are restating the same motion as before the original motion came from Dr posca with an amendment so the original motion was to remove all of the books that we heard tonight and then the amendment was with the verification from the district but it is a

265reconsideration anyone who is on The Winning Side okay I understand a good move to reconsider under Robert's Rules thank you okay all right so we have a motion to amend do we have a second can can you repeat the motion please it actually wouldn't be to amend it would be to reconsider reconsidering and then if you choose to go 5-0 or do whatever I would simply ask you to make the finding because the statute requires you to make the finding of uh that it violates B one two three or four in order to have the immediate effect and so I I would say any of the people on The Winning Side board member barenborg certainly qualifies can move to reconsider and upon a second you can you can discuss or not and then I would

266say in order to comply with the statute you do need to make the finding that it would be based upon non-compliance with B1 because I think we would all agree pornography was the word of the night and I think that if you have a friendly Amendment at that point then I I would say after presuming that that got Incorporated by Amendment then you could call up the final form of emotion oh I'll vote I'll ask you to reconsider the motion I'm sorry point of order go ahead so if if every book had a sexual explicit content Warning by your own words wouldn't they already have been violation of the law and need to be removed it the statute says this is how we would do right the chair said that the book is sexually explicit

267so we already made that determination the the chair does not speak for the entire board the entire board speaks for the entire board so uh Ms Rosario said the same I think he said the same as to some but until there is actually a vote by the body its comments by each of the three of you okay from a legal standpoint okay so we must have a vote on the motion to reconsider before we go back to the main motion so miss barenborg I think I already made the motion several times to reconsider this and you read the can you state the motion again please it's motion to reconsider all right motion to reconsider what we voted on prior yeah all right do we have a second second any discussion okay all in favor vote

268of motion to reconsider signify by saying I I I State your B1 and now we have that's based on non-compliance I'm sorry um non-compliance for State Statute B1 is that correct no State Statute House Bill 1069 section B1 it would be it's now a statute it would be one thousand six point two eight okay sub Sub sub paragraph B1 so let me forgive me make sure I've got this get it right get it right please to a so it would be subsection two be or no 2 2 A actually you're doing B we're doing B I know two but it'd be two a and parents to period b period Roman numeral one in parenthesis okay based on subsection 2A parent 2B 0.1 oh man I'm sorry one thousand three point four six sub 2 let's

269see B1 but um would be would be subsection 2 Sub a and parenthesis 2 period b period Roman numeral one okay motion to reconsider already done it would be a motion to amend to include the finding that that the books that are found to or that that the board has found violate 1006.28 sub 2 I got a whole different yeah I'm sorry you said earlier one thousand three point four six one thousand six point two eight sub two sub parenthesis District School Board section okay subsection a in parenthesis starting with courses of study right then subsection 2 period which discusses what the school board is supposed to do then subsection B of that and then subsection Roman numeral one all right I'm gonna try that [Laughter] um it is in violation of statute 1006.28 subsection

2702 district school board we're talking about subsection parentheses a and then 2 point B point one Point Roman numeral one within parenthesis Point Roman numeral numeral one within parentheses okay so there we have it and first you said it was going to be a motion to reconsider but this is a motion to amend correct this is a motion to Amendment correct because it violates considered motion to include the finding that is necessary under this okay motion to amend um and the violations I've just gone through I'll do it one more time one zero zero six point two eight subsection two parentheses District subsection a and then two point B Point parentheses one and ma'am just to make sure take out the word District I was just using okay the marker of what the subset taking

271out the word District I don't want to repeat it but after subsection two subsection a and then two point B point one yes motion to amend do we have a second second any discussion I just feel for Dorian trying to get this right tomorrow all right all in favor say aye aye aye anyone opposed no no okay so do we need to go back then to amend the main motion nope nope okay just want to double check there run away okay all right so Mr Marsh okay all right so now we have first one polled was uh consent to action 5e Miss barenborg and the Strategic plan okay that was me all right yes let me find my notes on that all right here we go so the Strategic plan I talked about today in

272the workshop having just done an ESC um professional development online for instructional leaders and relating it to school boards I saw that our district does not have a strategic plan that identifies some ese student needs and so I asked if that could be considered and I brought that to the attention the superintendent and then of course did that presentation today during the workshop so I'm asking if we can make sure that I want to say for the record that we're including ESC targets and strategies and data discussions for ese students and also along with that is thank you for the generous donations that were given because there was a big huge donation in there 1.5 literacy Grant it wasn't a donation it was more of a grant so Kudos forgetting that all right and I'm

273sorry Dr Moore just your recommendation on this 5e Madam chair it is the public hearing for the adoption of the policies um that we previously reviewed at the last board meeting okay anyone else would like to yeah also yeah I know I'm I'm going to do that right any other comments regarding Miss um wehrenberg's strategic plan I would just say that I I mean I support definitely trying to improve anything we can do with the ese programs that we have whether it be more support staff for the teachers um anything that we can do to look at this maybe interviewing these teachers and seeing what they need in the classroom what's going wrong and what we can do to improve things thank you all right let's go on now um to that same 5e public

274hearing new revised policies um that's the same thing that Dr Moore just talked about so miss Rosario yeah yeah um thank you I pulled it because um I wanted to make a comment and just say that I'm I'm grateful for the opportunity of bringing these forward and I um do agree about the ESC obviously there were in the initial draft of this policy when I first presented it it had all of these other components including ese in it and then it just kind of dwindled down to what it is right now but I do agree that we need to do better in terms of that I think sometimes when the Strategic plan is too wordy we kind of miss some of the nuances of of um some of the other aspects of our district and

275our goals but I do agree that we need to we need to do better there so otherwise with all of these that are here with the exception of the Student Records that came from uh Mr fagin of course um I look forward to the to the to the vote and to the support of these items thank you just one comment on one of the policies I want to commend Gifford alumni and Gifford for that transition from Gifford Dolphins to Gifford tigers and again the recognition ceremony a special thanks to Mr Bass and Nick westenberger for getting all that rolling and that's truly what a community does when you involve people like that so I appreciate that so at this time I'm ask asking for a motion on 5e I'll make a motion thank you second

276second any discussion all in favor say aye aye anyone opposed okay that vote carries 5-0 thank you all right miss barenberg you had 6E the tan yeah you knew I was going to pull this one doctor more um where are we with a letter to the other districts um that are similar to ours I know you've talked to me about it but I'd like to say it in public Madam chair uh or through the chair we are about halfway through the process of the opportunity uh to speak to a few superintendents who are circling back with their boards Mr Vegas had the opportunity to discuss with some of his counterparts ultimately looking at partnering with other districts who are in a similar situation of us in terms of size and local economy regarding um the

277funds that we generate here locally so we'll be able to bring that full report back by at our next Workshop or board meeting right now what we're finding uh is some districts who are the same size of us um have a millage at a higher rate so therefore they have a higher flow of cash than we have um I don't have all of the information yet that's just an initial response that we have in speaking uh to some of our districts and even though some of those districts do have a millage they still uh would be willing to to support us and partner with us as we advocate for for change through the legislative process and know that's something we discussed in the future about millage you know I think if the taxpayers are really

278educated on the fact that how much money we're losing every year because of tans and that money could have been put into the classrooms to help support students so um you know I just think that that just needs to be shouted from the rooftops again and again that's why I pulled the item Mrs Berry board any discussion on that item 6E tan all right so I need a motion to approve 6E I'll make a motion a second second any discussion all in favor say aye aye aye anyone opposed thank you sorry Dr Moore didn't ask for your recommendation all right I'm sorry okay Madam chair we did approve uh the policies but we did not go through the public hearing process that was not in my script at all I double checked on that so

279anyway so do you want to go to the public hearing right now on these policies it was actually done as um as a construction as a consent item okay that's how it was in the script we've already been to we've already done public hearing on these didn't we thank you all right thank you did it last meeting at 42 it's 10 42. okay all right now we are going into discussion items and Miss Rosario you have the hero days oh no we're at action item I'm sorry go ahead you have enough you have an action I'm so sorry you're right we have one yeah approval of the fsba advocacy position I talked a little bit about this at the workshop and I had the pleasure of introducing Michael marks oh I'm sorry to go right

280ahead and then I'll talk about the fsba yes ma'am I make you brief I I just want to thank those that have been this role through the chair doc I know you advocate for us not just locally for this but also with the state and through the chair I believe our vice chair when it comes to legislative issues so the application now I guess is open until September originally we saw on board docs that it already closed but I was made aware this is open to September so I implore a board member that has the time because we need to Advocate not just here locally but also for our state thank you thank you very much all right the fsba advocacy position I had the pleasure of serving in that position and I also served

281on the State platform and the federal platform and it was it was quite a bit of time there was so there were three positions and there were at least had one meeting a month both of them were on zoom and there was great discussion um if you are interested or we can nominate somebody here but it's they want one rep from each School District policy makers and stakeholders to promote public education the opportunity to be considered to serve on the legislative or federal committee and I did request that and I was selected so that was really good good information monthly meetings and additional meetings for subcommittees they can get to be quite a few advocacy and communication leadership reporting advocacy efforts back to your respective board so that's basically uh the main requirements so um

282at this time we'll take a motion or do we have any just this is a little bit unique do we have any discussion on this item first as I mentioned in the workshop today um having been the legislative liaison for a couple years now um kind of knowing the process up in Tallahassee pretty well knowing some of the players pretty well um when I went to the legislative session for fsba they said really your advocacy person and your legislative person should be the same because when I went to the legislative sessions I actually filled in for you and two of them for the advocacy but I couldn't vote because I wasn't the member so um I would love to do it because I'm already kind of in that realm um so I'm putting my name

283forward okay right when I had the three positions I could only be in one place at one time so that's a good point any discussion on that okay we need a motion then to um recommend Miss Barrymore to serve as our fsba advocacy position and that could lead into some of the other opportunities we have a motion on the floor so moved okay second I will second any discussion okay all in favor say aye aye aye anyone opposed opposed okay thank you vote carries four to one all right now we will go into discussion items Miss Rosario the hero days um yes I'm sorry let me pull up my I believe oh I'm sorry on the discussion items I'm sorry hero days go ahead Mr Marsh there's there's two doc I like to speak to

284both and we'll start off with uh through chair Miss Rosario it's very important that we never forget 9 11. so thank you to this board member for bringing that up thank you Mario um so I so every year we kind of come up to 9 11 the week before or the couple of days before and then all of a sudden realize we haven't planned much for it so I want to make sure that we plan in advance it's going to be here before we know it around the corner um for 9-1-1 Heroes day and I know that the Department of Education put out a kind of like a year at a glance um PDF and it had all the a whole bunch of different you know things including you know Holocaust week but this is

285one of those um and it uh recently there was a name shift essentially in legislation um before it was known as Patriot Day now it's known as Heroes day so I just want to make sure um with direction to Dr Moore to ensure that there is going to be the required instruction under the statute provided and that we are indeed going to cover 911 events throughout the entire district for all of our schools um through the chair yes we had a principals meeting last week we were able to review the content the shifts and the standards and fully explain the expectation that we have regarding covering that day and the importance of that day so we're very confident we'll be able to highlight the intent of of the new requirements now I and I I

286don't mean to throw anybody under the bus here but in the last several years you know it's usually that day before two days before um we're receiving the events that are going to happen one or two days after that's a little too soon to change our schedule or to be available for some of the events so if we can get that ahead of time if you're working this early you know planning for it I just appreciate if we can get as soon as possible what the schedule would be like so that you know maybe we can split up or you know go to different events if possible so through the chair getting that information to you and having the events are two different things I think the events have always taken place in terms of

287what's happening in the classroom throughout the schools but getting that information to you in a timely fashion so you can schedule your days at heard and understood and I also remind the board we do have a closed session that day on the 11th uh where we'll be talking through security and meeting with our our sheriffs and law enforcement as well so it's gonna be a very busy day for us feet any other comments on the discussion okay the last discussion item is my item Africa African-American proposed standards and we have a speaker Mr Marsh yes ma'am thank you very much let me be clear and very clear my beautiful two interracial Queens will never be taught that slavery was beneficial to African Americans as I stand Here six decades ago March of Washington 1956 the

288Brown versus the Board of Education at Topeka Kansas said we could be separate but equal no we cannot and we will not now I don't understand a couple things Gifford is still in the same place and District Two is still over Gifford I want to know why our chair and our vice chair can find their way to Gifford to listen to the NAACP speak eloquently about that we need to come together against these standards now as a new NAACP member publicly tonight I will ask through the chair District Two we would love to see you we need to hear tonight that this board collectively now we know you didn't create the standards but we know through the chair that that letter went out and we need as a board to hear from every one of

289you tonight not the superintendent he works at the willow for the willow to board every school board member should say collectively we stand against this standard now in the event we can't get that because sometimes we don't have that majority let's be clear that those teachers will never be sanctioned if they choose not to have this standard be taught because this is disgusting it's not Wordsmith it's not semantics slaves did not benefit from slavery period so we need to keep the main thing the main thing and I wish that there were so many other guest speakers but I'm it I'm all you get but I'm so glad that I stayed till almost 11 pm to tell the board that tonight not let's wait let's not come back a year doesn't matter the room is filled

290or not we the people have spoken and this hateful rhetoric is how we had 1956 and how we're going back to 1956. there is no such thing as separate but equal it didn't stand then it doesn't stand now so I don't ask it I respectfully demand that every school board member tonight makes it clear we do not stand with this standard we can have our board chair write a letter where is everybody else and also the community some came out and good for them but it's not just come out tonight because this hateful rhetoric is going to sneak back in we're not going to allow it in 23 and we're not going to allow it to 24. and if you stand for it now we'll vote you out in 25 or 26 whenever the next

291ones need to be voted out so in closing there's nothing wrong with as a board a collective board one board that we say we the school district of Indian River County we do not support this standard we do not believe that slaves benefit from slavery say it tonight not just a school board chair and the vice chair all five years say it tonight thank you Mr Marsh okay all right this is my item and I spoke in the workshop about this in great detail so all of this is on record it's in regard to the African-American standard 68 a a point two and six to eight just means that it is taught in the middle schools in these standards I have a few concerns but one major concern one of the standard States the following

292for middle school students examine the various duties and trades performed by slaves agricultural work painting carpeting tailoring domestic Services blacksmithing and transportation what they were told to do or suffer severe consequences it's not a Duty or a trade if they didn't do this they were severely punished or killed the clarification even bothers me more instruction includes how slaves develop skills which in some instances could be applied for their personal benefit superintendents received an email from commissioner Diaz on July 26. said we will move forward swiftly and honestly then the whole board received an email on August 5th this came from the representative from the state in charge of social studies and I quote the implementation timeline has not been finalized the standards are fully approved so teachers May begin teaching lessons aligned to them in

293the 23-24 school year anticipate courses containing the new standards going before the State Board of Education in October full implementation will probably be in the 24-25 school year so this is not law yet it will probably be so there's still time and then I asked Dr Moore if we were teaching that this year and he said no or this is a planning year if anyone looks at Sea Palms which will list all the standards of all the classes that are taught K-12 quite a bit and a lot of times teachers have they struggle trying to finish all of them but see I don't want to cover it up like that I want to make sure to say oh we didn't get to it no we shouldn't be teaching this these are not law yet so

294we have time to express our feelings board members community members teachers students and parents I have been reading standards for 40 years and I've never seen anything like this a separate stand for African-American history could be good but we need more local and state NAACP members on this committee my letter to the commissioner and I was very honored that a young lady read some of it tonight I said I wanted this one to be completely deleted because however you want to make it look good make it look pretty slaves did not benefit in this country there were over 300 years of slavery the last freed slaves in 1867 could we honestly say they benefited 15 generations of slavery and then of course after slavery we had the Jim Crow laws if this does become law

295obviously parents have the right to opt their children out and I will support any teacher not wanting to teach us so we need to do our work now would you force a teacher of any race to teach us and if they said no would we seriously punish them I certainly hope not so what I said to the board in the workshop and that I was going to bring today I guess one of the questions I would ask is any board member think this should be taught and the other thing is in one of our new state statutes you cannot make a child feel bad because of race how in the world would this make our black children feel let alone an African-American teachers so what can we do as a community and board as I

296said earlier this is an action item this isn't a consent item we still have time I would just like to say that we as a board do not support this and we ask them to delete this so that our our children do not have to hear it so that is my input and I look for other board discussion sure okay um so when I first heard the news reports about the African-American history standards I was very surprised and very concerned I do not want um it being taught in our schools that in in any way slavery was a beneficial thing so I read the standard which was one sentence in a 40-page document which I thought was odd and then I saw Clarity of the context of that single sentence and I looked at who

297wrote it and it was Dr William Allen who grew up in a segregated School uh he explained that the standard uh the goal of it is to explain the resilience intelligence fortitude and determination of the slaves to cope with heinous oppression that they went through and it is in no way trying to describe that slavery was a positive experience for them but instead show the qualities of the individuals who went through it so I think that what I heard today was really uh propaganda I think it's important to note I'm not qualified to decide what belongs in an African-American history class these standards are not finalized yet and the media Narrative of these standards state that slavery was beneficial to slaves and that's patently false in its propaganda I'd like to read a few quotes

298Hillary Clinton said that Robert Byrd was my friend and Mentor as she attended his funeral Byrd was a self-admitted KKK member who bragged about personally recruiting over 100 members Joe Biden in 1994 stated on the senate floor they must be taken off the street unless we do something about that Cadre of young people in closing I think you have to ask yourself why is the media and local advocacy groups trying to twist a standard to the to the people and I think it's because they don't want you thinking about how they chose to revoke all of our basic human rights just a couple years ago they don't want you to remember how you weren't allowed to go to work about how your kids were told they couldn't go to school and now suffer scholastically about

299how masks were forced on your kids faces in an obvious Act of physical and psychological child abuse they don't want you to remember that the black population in New York City was told they couldn't eat in certain restaurants because they didn't get the vaccine they don't want you to remember how they started tracking all of your movements using your phone and they don't want you to remember because they aren't done trying to take away all of our basic human rights and if we're paying attention and united we can stop them but if we're arguing over a single sentence that they Twisted they will win and that's the truth okay thank you Dr pasca Mr thank you this moment any other board member Mr barefoot Mr Barefoot are you there buddy any comments how much time

300do you have well it's your if the floor is yours Mr Barefoot it's almost tomorrow you know unfortunately words matter in the in the manner in which that once was put out there without the con that uh Dr apostatist read where uh Dr Allen presented contents in what was intended it's very unfortunate that it the uh the controversy that is created because I don't think but would ever agree that slaves that are big big slaves um it's very unfortunate that there would be some editing of the words um but I I I find the whole thing very unfortunate um I could wait by which imagine on have the words I would rewarded in a manner that it was intended it was intended the way it stated that dedicated oh okay thank you sir I think

301I got most of that Miss barenborg sure um here's a letter that I wrote to commissioner Diaz pass it down to everybody um I sent this to commissioner Diaz the governor CC news outlets and send it to Dr Moore I'm going to read it for the record dear commissioner Diaz thank you for formulating a task force to develop more robust African-American standards for Florida as a school board member it is finally nice to see a focus on creating these standards and allowing all children in our state to learn about the history of Africans in the United States and how they were brought here what they endured the accomplishments that they have contributed and the lessons we all need to learn from what happened in our history with that being said I too have concerns about

302the two standards that and know that you still have the task force meeting so these standards will hopefully be modified or removed due to the obvious outcry from the public this is my opinion not the opinion of our Collective board I stated the standard ss68aa 2.3 and I want to clarify because there was a speaker earlier Thomas Kenny that spoke and said and I quote and I wrote the quote down because he said in that standard which I have clipped it and put it exactly in this letter as it's written he added in spite of slavery that was not written in the standard okay stop please please please please that's okay no just go back and watch the board member has the right to speak at this time so not the audience so that in

303spite of slavery part really bothered me when I heard that because this is not what the standard says could you stop or I'm going to have to ask you to be removed please just let Miss barenborg speak as we let you speak so this standard I'm asking to be removed or revised and have the clarification removed I understand that the members of the task force are standing behind the intent of this standard however the wording and obvious insult to community members should be taken into consideration when revising the standards the interpretation of this standard has led to African Americans having their dignity insulted and therefore has no place in classroom instruction standard ss912aa 3.6 which goes on with a clarification that I have a problem with the clarification too and they list several massacres in

304this clarification this standard needs a revision of clarification too as an example the Ocoee Massacre which took place in Florida was horrific and the statement above states that acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans insinuates that African Americans cause the massacre of their own race because they tried to exercise their right to vote which led to the riot there are lessons to be learned about this Riot among the other examples however the verbiage could and needs to be changed to again not insult community members that are obviously sensitive to the way the standard is written as a school board member I listen to community input and that input helps influence my decisions here we go earlier tonight I urge you to do the same listen to the community instead of Defending acknowledge that

305the standards can be updated and revised just as all other standards are when a small task force is working on standards they stand behind them as the work they did has meaning and they usually are proud of the outcome this is a small group that is close to the decision making and did not have the input from so many people that have that will be impacted by the influence of these standards they and you commissioner Diaz have now heard this input and ER I urge you to listen to the outcry and make these needed changes soon now the reason why I felt like I wanted to wait and to do this because I knew tonight was going to be political I didn't realize it was going to be about books tell you truth I thought

306it was going to be about this and I thought I want to hear everything that's out there before I finalize this letter and not that my letter is going to make a bit of difference with commissioner Diaz or with the governor but I'm sure thousands of letters like this will and I think that you can have the intent like you said Dr paska of a standard but I think he needs to change it to what it was intended to mean I have heard him speak over and over again I I watched the state board meeting because I was shocked too when I heard our vice president say what she said I was in Alaska when I heard it and I thought that can't be true and then I actually read it with myself in my

307own eyes and I thought let me just read it with as much unbiased opinion as I can and then I saw it and I was I was hurt and I'm not African-American so I think that you know if we don't say something or don't if you think you can go often intended well sure I intended not to have a book that had sexually explicit material in it but there it is so I think that we need to go off of what actually is written and words do matter words can hurt there were a lot of words to her tonight there are words that are said by board members that hurt and I think that we need to stop it we need to start if everybody says come to The Middle come to the middle but

308where does that come to the middle you know let's do it come to the middle on this thank you any other board member Ms Rosario um yeah I um at as part of the Florida Department of Education work group a couple of names I know Dr Rick Rick Allen's name was mentioned two prominent participants he is one he's a former professor emeritus of the Constitution at Michigan State University a person who led the United States of America Civil Rights Commission the lead scholar of the think tank for the center for urban renewal and education and then Dr Francis Presley rice a consultant and documentarian who has spent years making historical documentaries on African-American history both say that they stand by the development of the work group and on these African-American history standards the social studies

309standards span 216 pages with hundreds of Standards written within them covering all kinds of topics such as African-American history Civics Holocaust financial literacy American history psychology geography and so on that said what I've heard time and time again from this board is leave it to the experts leave it to the experts so the Department of Education who is responsible for uh creating the standards uh and we are responsible for ensuring that the standards are met at our schools in our schools they created this work group we do not create the standards they did it um and and this is the result now I would agree with both Dr posca and Mr Baron Mr barefoot that you know the the or rather Mr Barefoot mentioned this the the word smithing here is um can cause um

310sensitivity it can cause hurt feelings I get it and I see the the what is incited in the what is cited in The Benchmark clarification states that it could be applied for their benefit for their personal benefit what Dr posca said is that he's not um I'm not I'm going to misquote him but he doesn't know enough to write the standards himself I guess um and I would agree with that too you know that's that's not my area um but we are elected officials uh and we are here to hear the community and clearly there is a community need there are this is one standard of hundreds of standards and if the community is asking for us to write a letter asking the department of Ed to reconsider I'd be okay with that I am

311not okay with suggesting in the letter what was mentioned earlier by Dr Jones that we would support teachers not teaching the standard that is absolutely that would be if the standard stays I'm not in support of saying that we would support teachers from violating the law or from violating our policies or the requirements that we are held to but in supporting the language you know just to to have them uh reconsider that I I would support that I would also say that we've already received from Dr Moore a um an update on this which was given to us on August 8th that very clearly states that the Department of Education understands the stated concerns surrounding the standards and that they're still working on it so this entire year they are going to dedicate ongoing advocacy

312there is ongoing advocacy efforts to work and modify the standards so sharing how we feel about it is fine but we have to know that it's not set in stone and they are in the process hopefully the task force will continue the work moving forward I know um uh Dr Rick Allen stated that he doesn't feel like the standards should be changed but that is him sitting on the workforce the task force and moving forward I would just ask the superintendent to continue to be in contact with the commissioner and ensure that if there are any changes moving down the road that we would be kept abreast of what those are a um just a couple more things you're correct it's not set in stone so we need to move now we need to move

313now I'm putting our opinions out there and obviously I'm not going to get a 5-0 that say that we should remove that standard but I will stand by what I said and just um for information on all of the standards violence is mentioned only five times the 200 some pages twice it is mentioned in terms of violence against and by African Americans I guess that was the attempts at self-defense twice in a generic reference as to acts of violence in once in regard to Jews there's no mention of rape lynching separation of families and many other things that were violence against African Americans so again and a couple things I read also this morning again this is a time to act this is the time to act members of the community anyone who believes this

314as far as our policy in standards for boardsmanship make decisions in terms of the educational welfare of all children regardless of ability raise Creed sex or social standing and one last thing I think that we for standards abortions boardsmanship that we protect our students students are protected from conditions harmful to learning and or to the students mental and our physical health and our safety is protected as well and that's for all students so obviously the board members have spoken there's been a discussion good discussion can I can I yes add to the discussion okay I know I don't want to keep this too late but a couple important points um I wouldn't encourage teachers breaking the law absolutely not however as I stated in the workshop today I have witnessed and been witnessed too um

315teachers that felt uncomfortable teaching something a standard in their curriculum I've witnessed teachers that didn't believe that they could teach evolution so they asked if they could remove themselves from that and have another teacher teach it and that was agreed upon by a principal I have seen that same thing with sex ed some people are not very comfortable teaching that that was my first job um so yeah it's very very you have to be very very careful you follow the law on that one especially there are people that are nervous about that because they're afraid they're going to be put in jail for saying the wrong thing look at our poor teachers now so I think that I would not approve or agree to have a teacher say that they can't teach a standard that's

316by law but I do agree that a teacher can remove themselves to not feel comfortable teaching a standard so right now there's a reason that they put this on hold I think it's probably political so I know that school board members have a say I know that everybody has a say they can all send letters to Tallahassee you can all do that I have witnessed though being in the doe building a couple of times being in the Chancellor's office one time that school board members opinions are really kind of they perk their ears okay what does a school board member say that's our job and there are 67 counties and how many of our school board members on each County and we all have we represent the people that we represent but we also have

317a say in education that's why we're here and so I think you have the right and the responsibility to document how you feel about this and if you think that it needs to be Wordsmith they're going to do it the more they hear it the more they say you know what if we just tweak this we'll comment down and we'll move on and yeah there are other things that need to be added to this we could go on and on but I think starting at least with those I put two down that I feel like need to be just tweaked or clarified okay any other discussion Dr Moore anything Dr Warren let me ask you a question what if we had an African let's say this becomes law just as it is and we have

318an African-American teacher said I cannot teach us are we going to punish that teacher in the scenario that's being discussed um it would be very hard to operationalize that because the volume of teachers that I don't think would want to teach it so you you're asking me to implement something I would be it would be hard pressed to figure out how I would be able to implement making those shifts or modifications I think at the appropriate time if it's the will of the board um or as an individual to advocate for the to this date in terms of the work that they're still doing they have yet to create the materials they are yet to create the resources that will be used ultimately to teach the standard we teach the standard not the clarifying statement

319so there's a lot of work to be done um and you know advocacy matters advocacy matters and at the end of the day um trying to operate operationalize something um that is so controversial um would be very very hard for each of the 67 districts to do thank you I know that was a little bit of an unfair question but that is how strongly I feel no fine all right any other discussion there and then we go to board member matters and please keep the community updated on your committees that you have been assigned who would like to begin board member matters I do but I can't hold on nothing is sleeping here um sure so I visited several schools at the start of school um some preschool before kids were there some um when

320the kids were there and then some I couldn't go to because they were testing so I'll get back to those schools but I've been to almost every school I've got a couple more to go and uh you know good stuff happening teachers positive kids happy and I saw a lot of really good positive things so that's good [Music] um we two of the board members were at the ribbon cutting ceremony on Friday for the football field it was beautiful field beautiful night great game girl one the field is remarkable it's better than I thought it was going to turn out to be worth the price tag when everybody was complaining about oh there'll be all these injuries and all this that the stuff was carcinogenic I mean we looked into everything and I was told

321over and over again you know the one thing everybody kept saying is well this is the same group that did the Dallas Cowboy field and if Dallas Cowboy athletes are worth I don't know millions of dollars you think they're going to put them on a field that they're going to get injured probably not so um I I did feel the cushioning of the field it was really nice I was really excited about it and I think the community really loves the field so that was nice um Thrive I'm going to go back to that because Doc Jones and I were at Thrive and Thrive is the kind of that first day that the entire District gets together and gets excited and motivated that's just the adults I shall say it happens before the kids come

322on the campus and it's basically that day of professional learning and it was so well done and I attended several sessions and actually used a couple of the different things I learned and one of the chemistry Dr Butler's class and she taught me a little bit of some fun chemistry things to do so I really appreciated that great day there have been a couple of different things that I haven't gotten to attend because they were on break for summer and so they're just back on some of these meetings that I'm going to be attending and those those will be coming up this week and next week Rosario um I have nothing to say okay Mr barefoot nothing nothing for me Dr posca okay Fairfield dedication was fun thank you to Mr Bass Dr Moore and

323Nick westenberger for making that happen very very proud in the community visited every school in four days everything was looking good and smooth Dr tomorrow I said it felt like the fourth week of school instead of the third or fourth day bus depot first day was great and I want to commend cni on Thrive and then the PD and then Mr Seymour were the coaches and ads at Ozil that was wonderful PTA Summit largest growth in the state and very proud of that and the ptas were really ready to roll just a reminder [Music] September 11th our proposals are due to the fsba and we talked about that a little bit in the legislative priorities and the Committees of value adjustment board a great meeting looking at trim notices good information salesware Planning and Zoning

324talked a lot about growth Economic Development Council is about growth and Second Chances and housing and the executive Roundtable I will attend that next meeting and the elected official oversight committee meeting with Mr westenberger and Joe Fletcher talked about capital and fge and everything looks solid there so any other comments this meeting is adjourned at 11 20. thank you