001is hot turn it on good morning or good good evening welcome to the December 4th 2023 Burke County Board of Education at this time I'd like to call the meeting to order and recognize Mr Chris Campbell to conduct the election of board chair and vice chair thank you Mr superintendent good evening board members tonight uh pursuant to policy 2200 is your annual organizational meeting at which you will elect a chair and vice chair of the board of education for the coming year so the way we will conduct the election this evening is I will open the floor for nominations and we'll take nominations for the position of chair we'll take as many nominations as there are at that point we will close nominations and then we will vote on each person nominated in the order
002in which they're nominated until someone gets a majority vote of the board of education so for example if the first person nominated gets a majority of votes that person will be chair and then we will proceed to vote for vice chair in a similar manner so first of all we'll open the floor to nominations close those nominations and then vote in the order in which they were received are there any questions or objections to the process for election of chair or vice chair this evening wonderful hearing none I will declare the floor open for nominations for the position of chair I have a I have a nomination Chris M M thank you this Burke County Board I have a little bit to say before I give my nomination you don't mind sure the Burke County
003board of education has always stood on the foundation of education and opportunity for everyone and I don't think I would be speaking out a turn by saying that our current board continues to hold True to this in the decisions we make I feel that over the last two years Aaron Johnson has been afforded a learning opportunity as Vice chairman which has now prepared him for a role of chairman of our board it's not only what he has learned these last two years as Vice chairman and the experience that Aon brings to the table that makes him ready to serve in the chairman capacity it's his character his leadership qualities and his commitment to the job at hand as a board member I've come to realize that due to the job itself you must love the
004people the who you serve more than the job and the duties itself and more than any title when I think of an ideal leader or chair chairman that one word keeps popping back up love it'll keep you grounded in what needs to be done it's the only way to lead with a pure heart Aaron has a love for the people he serves in this school system in our community and because he has that as his basis he serves humbly Aaron is not prideful he doesn't boast of the work that he does he is not self-seeking he's not easily angered and he's trustworthy and Aaron always always protects I feel that the chairman must be able to communicate and have relationships with many different people and many diverse groups in our community and our state our
005school our school board hasn't appointed a minority chairman in the last 25 years with that being of Walter Johnson serving as chairman in 1998 having Aaron fi this role as chairman would make him one of only three minority leaders of our community to serve on the Burke County Board of Education as chairman diversity in reaching all peoples is and and will always be crucial to our decision- making as a whole I feel that our community saw this with the ability to build diverse relationships in Aaron and that was confirmed when he received the Western majority of vote during the election electing him to our board with that being said I feel that our chairman should be a serving elected member of our board and so I nominate Aaron Johnson Aaron Johnson is nominated Mr Johnson
006will you accept that nomination to be voted upon kind of caught me off guard there yes okay okay thank you very much is there another nomination I have a nomination please okay M I have thoroughly enjoyed being the chair of the board for the last two years and I have worked with Seth hunt for several years I respect Seth very much and he I feel like he has earned the spot as chair so I am nominating Seth hunt Mr Hunt will you accept that nomination to serve as chair if elected humbly yes thank the floor is still open to nominations for the position of chair of the Board of Education are there other nominations hearing none I will declare the floor closed to nominations and as stated previously we will now vote in the order
007in which nominations were received until one of the candidates received a majority vote if you will please please vote by raising your hands and keeping them up so that the board secretary can make sure she gets an accurate count so at this time I will call for the vote of all in favor of Mr Aaron Johnson to serve as chair of the Burke County Board of Education please raise your hand V can vote for [Laughter] yourself so that's three votes in the affirmative this is is an action item so all members must vote all opposed to that nomination please raise your hand everyone must vote and it's okay you're not voting against the person but if you don't vote for you have to vote against that's the way the board policy works okay there any
008abstentions then I'll just ask if there's any abstentions okay then the the rest are in the are in the negative we'll now Pro uh proceed to the second nominee for position of chair and that would be Mr Seth hunt all in favor of Mr Seth hunt please raise raise your hand and keep them up okay any extensions otherwise the other three will be recorded as voting in the negative congratulations Mr Seth hunt chair Board of Education we will now proceed to the nomination and election of the vice chair of the board of education so again I will open the floor for for nominations of Vice chair I would like to nominate Aaron Johnson to stay as Vice chair on our board okay the nomination of the current Vice chair of the board Mr Aaron Johnson
009to serve another term as Vice chair Mr Johnson will you accept that nomination yes thank you I move nominations to be closed motion for nominations to be closed not hearing any objection we'll declare them closed by acclamation and move to the vote all in favor of Aaron Johnson as Vice chair of the board please raise your hand let the record state that it was unanimous congratulations Mr Johnson Vice chair Board of Education Mr chairman I turn the board over to you Mr attorney thank you so much and U uh thank you for the support of the board and I will endeavor to honorably serve one quick note and then we'll move on we do have a full agenda my thanks to Wendy Craven for the two years that she has served as chair chairman uh
010her dedication and and expertise and integrity um I think is well noted and thank you so much Wendy for everything you've done thank you members of the board you've received your agenda packet and hopefully you've had an opportunity to review it are there any additions or corrections I would like to make a motion to amend the agenda um for item public comment um according to our policy code 23 10 it states that each speaker will receive 5 minutes to present comments however the public comment session will not exceed 30 minutes except by majority vote of the board I ask that the board vote to extend that time limit due to the amount of speakers that we have okay can you be more specific about what your what what what do you what do you want
011each speaker to have a minimum of three minutes and here the entirety of the speaker for three minutes maximum correct okay so that's the uh that's the change uh is there how many speakers do we have any opposition to that anyone else want to be heard about how many speakers do we have comment and that is we have 19 speakers and Mr chairman you can vote on that at the time you get to public comment but it would also be appropriate to receive a second and vote on it now if you'd like to as part of the agenda approval thank you yeah let's let's move on it now let's decide what we're going to do mhm any other additions or corrections to the or yeah additions to the minutes anybody else like to be heard
012all right so you have uh you have the amended agenda in front of you uh any further discussion none all in favor indicate by saying I I I all oppose no eyes have it motions carried and that'll be so reflected so uh to the speakers you'll have uh 3 minutes each and we will hear the uh entirety of the folks that signed up so thank you as we uh as we move forward uh with our moment of silence and invocation Miss Craven thank you at this time we will have a moment of silence and then I'll have a prayer Lord turn our hearts and Minds toward you and toward the role you have chosen for this board to live out help us to put your will and your purpose ahead of our own we humbly
013bow before you and ask for your direction and guidance as well as your courage to live out the calling we've been given for such a time as this you were born for such a a time as this Esther amen we' all stand to receive our Color Guard from Freedom jroc this evening and remain standing please until they're retired thank you bre it I pledge Alle to the FL flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all have members of the board will join us all down front here we have some presentations Mr superintendent oh shoot we got a couple three four three members of the board audience for the last two years we have been doing a superintendent uh
014Christmas card uh we've been going out to our elementary schools and iting artwork done by our elementary school students last year was our first year uh we selected a student from V's Elementary and Mountain View Elementary this year uh we had such great success last year with our art contest we were able to select two individuals two from VES and two from Mountain View Elementary School uh so once again when you see the students artwork to put it in perspective our cards I was in the office today and was getting cards from other superintendents across the state and a lot of them are the the stamps um just a regular generic Christmas card but when you get a a card sent to you from a student uh that that really speaks volumes of what a
015county is doing on how they're recognizing our students and the great talents that they have within Burke County Public Schools so uh before we recognize our students I do want to give them a round of applause for everyone uh Dr auton and I we had Stacks to go [Applause] through so our first individual unfortunately is not able to be here but she was so kind to write a card to myself in the board that um that I would like to read say Dear Mr swan in the school board sorry I'm not able to make it to the meeting I have cheer that starts at 5:45 thank you for choosing me for the Christmas card drawing contest I'm honored to be chosen sincerely ADN Thomas V's elementary school so there's adin's artwork and once again her
016family will get in the packet um several cards for their families to pass out uh and they will also get a framed uh piece of artwork for the for their home as well so once again let's give Adeline a round of [Applause] applause Mr Williams would you come up please on our behalf Mr Charles Williams principal of Audi's elementary school will be collecting the artwork yeah uh I had the honor to go around with Miss Craven last week as we were recognizing our students and to see their face and to hear the the excitement their voices when we walked in the classroom and told them and the the Applause from their students uh Mr Samuel Walker uh please come forward congratulations Samuel [Applause] hold so this piece of artwork is from one of our kindergarten
017students at Mountain View Elementary School uh once again phenomenal job U Mr Robert V vill NOA Diego please come forward Robert [Applause] congratulations oh for and our fin final winner is Miss Bianca vquez Mar Ramirez from Mountain View Elementary School congratulations [Applause] Bianca e would also like to recognize Dr Christie McMahan principal at Mountain viiew Elementary and Miss Cassidy Upton the art teacher at Mountain View Elementary please come [Applause] forward [Applause] con good evening we' got some recognitions from the career in technical education program uh earlier in the year we recognized Miss Andrea Gladden for uh the buroughs endowment fund scholarship uh that she won for her school and her students uh she's back again uh East Bert Middle School teacher Andrea gladen was recently one of 24 teachers across North Carolina selected as finalist
018for the North Carolina Center for the advancement of teaching 2023 Career Technical education teacher of the year award this wward was in honor of the dedication Innovation ability to inspire students and to achieve Miss gladen did an outstanding job representing Berke County public schools throughout this process which was held on the campus of Western Carolina University please join me in congratulating Miss gladen as one of the 24 finalist for Teacher of the Year come forward Miss [Applause] gladen you're making a habit of this show we're not going to recycle the conat next group of individuals we'll be recognizing are also from the Career Technical education program Governor Cooper recently proclaimed November as North Carolina Career Development month and November 15th as North Carolina Career Development coordinator day so Career Development coordinator is CDC and uh
019that's who we're we're here to recognize tonight as our cdc's our Career Development coordinators are the contact for Career and Technical education programs and course information they routinely help coordinate career development services for students participating in CTE courses and promote CTE and career development for all students and staff in the county we are lucky here in Burke County to have a great CTE team led by these Career Development coordinators thank you guys for all you do thank you for the for all you do for the students teachers and the community and thank you for making a difference in the programs that we have here in Burke County here with me to help congratulate our cdc's is our CTE coordinator Miss Amy shuping I'd be remiss by not also mention how lucky we are to have
020her as the CTE coordinator she does an unbelievable job serving again the student staff and schools of Berke County if you guys will come forward and be recognized as I recognize you Natasha Williams who is a CDC at drone High School in halberton academy Mr TR Robinson who is the CDC at East Burke High School Miss Crystal mckenny who is the CDC at Freedom High School Miss Carlin McCoy who is the CDC at Patton high school and Mr Scott Huffman who is Berke County Public Schools middle schools CDC again if you guys will join me and giving them a round of applause they do a terrific job here in the county app your [Applause] right pass well thank you as you can tell there many fun parts to this job that's the funnest recognizing what
021your what your staff do we got remarkable staff and wonderful kids so uh with that uh Mr Vice chairman please sir item number eight comments to the board all right thank you Mr chair our U public time for our public comments section before we get started I'm going to um read this statement persons will speak in the order in which they have signed up to speak each speaker under the public comment section of board meetings shall have a maximum of three minutes for his or her comments at which point the speaker will be politely asked to bring comments to a close followed by thank you School Board policy state law and federal law have established separate and distinct procedures forums for the resolution of employee grievances employee complaints against individual employees pupil suspensions and appeals
022and political campaign s to avoid circum circumvention of those separate proceedings and ensure fairness to all parties concerned no person should speak regarding a filed grievance pending employee complaint filed with the school district or an outside agency complaint against individual employees employee disciplinary action suspension or termination pupil suspension or appeal which may ultimately reach the Board of Education additionally prior to elections no person who is publicly announced or filed as a candidate for public office may speak during public comments concerning his or her candidacy the board chair or designate May terminate any presentation that is not in accordance with any of these criteria except as limited by the previous Provisions public comments will be allowed during the public comments period on any subject that is within the jurisdiction of the board first Speaker tonight will
023be Mr Roger travar good evening ladies and gentlemen my name is Roger travar I'm a teacher at Freedom High School I've been there for about 24 years um I'm a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh I have two bachelor's degrees I have a master's degree from appstate University and the reason I'm up here is to talk about my colleagues who are the professional Educators one of the thing I found to be highly offensive is that there are some people making suggestions into or are throwing our profession around like it was being used as a racial slur this isn't about me it's also about my colleagues combined The Faculty of Freedom High School has a total of 86 bachelor's degrees 34 master's degrees two phds eight national board certified teachers for a total of 414 years
024of education and a combined 1,396 years of experience we're concerned about making sure the children children have the best education possible but there are also other concerns that need need to be addressed and this one was actually going to extend a little bit longer but unfortunately our time is limited at a previous meeting a speaker accused the United Nations of allowing the sexual assaults of minors is wrong did not call for the decriminalization of sex with children nor did it call with the abolition of the age of consent the International Community or Commission of jurist report set out legal principles to guide the application of international human rights to criminal law across a wide range of issues in the application of law it is recognized that criminal sanctions are not appropriate against adolescence of the
025same ages for consensual non- exploitive sexual sexual activity the United Nations is Resolute in fighting the sexual exploitation of children and upholds that that sexual exploitation and abuse of children is a crime and supports countries to protect children it's a statement that says if you set a minimum of age of consent you shouldn't allow people to evade it by getting married some us states don't even have a minimum age for marriage which serves as a legal loophole legal loophole for the age of consent laws and like anything in any investigation Details Matter and I'm a very detail any oriented person the other thing that I would like to uh mention is this was uh to the board is that I would like to propose that the board adopt a policy preventing outside speakers from the
026county who have no standing no tiese and not they're non- stakeholders from coming to our board meetings and stirring up the pot thank you thank you Mr tavaru our next speaker Mr Tim faet Dr Swan members of the board good evening my name is Tim fet I've been teaching English at Freedom High School for the last 24 years which makes me feel old but in today's contentious Society more than ever the ability to think critically to empathize with the plights of others to develop what Charles Dickens called the moral compass is more crucial today than ever as a school district one of the best ways that we can help young people to do these very things is to provide them access to books that will offer them situations from which they can develop their ideas
027their opinions a sense of empathy and perhaps even their own identity it is true that certain books provide uncomfortable even disconcerting passages but so then does Tik Tock the beauty of books however is the intimacy and the safety they provide as the reader encounters whatever the characters do usually with a context or a commentary so that readers are exposed to the various sides of the issues at hand not so social media Banning books is telling young people they're not capable of handling the material when in my experience the vast majority of them are for those who are not for whatever reason make the except ction is needed on a caseby Case basis protecting students from the depiction of things like rape spousal abuse racism and brutality denies them the opportunity to see the effects of
028these horrible things on people not to mention the chance to be inspired by people's resilience strength and even survival purging a queer relationship or the challenges of a trans characters deny these students the chance to see themselves and make no mistake we have these students students they are sons and daughters and Friends perhaps of some of the people in this room High School juniors and seniors are in some cases weeks from being in an environment where the difficult and disturbing are real they deserve the opportunity to consider and discuss them before they have to experience them a student who's gained Insight because of a book who is later able to in some small way help a friend who's been sexually assaulted on campus or who has learned something about injust Justice in print and is
029now able to actually help fight that Injustice is a far more valuable asset to society than one who gets more multiple choice EOC questions correct we claim we want to ignite learning and all that goes with it we cannot do this if we restrict what students are allowed to read thank you thank you Mr faucet our next speaker will be Mr David gerchen close enough sorry about that good evening I'm David gerin I'm a teacher at Freedom High School 24 years like some of my colleagues over here I'd like to thank the school board for increasing our supplement this year and making it based on our current pay this has been something that's been needed for many many years I do have one one suggestion if possible instead of taking the taxes all out of
030the November supplement split it in half between the November and the June supplement because this time of year we can always use the extra money thank you thank you sir our next speaker will be Mr Pastor Paul D I hold in my hand tonight an excerpt from the superintendent of cob County Georgia The Bluest County in Georgia voted as liberal as you can vote as a superintendent of cob County School District it is not usurping the board's authority to do my job and execute my professional and moral obligation to protect Cobb students from being exposed to vulgar lwd sexually explicit obscene and pornographic material so if you need someone to blame for deciding to remove the books flamer and me and Earl and the dying girl you can blame me here's his picture goes on
031to State we have a unique responsibility to Cobbs families who by law are required to place their children in care and custody of our schools approximately 180 days a year along with the privilege of educating our students we have an obligation to respect their families cultures and backgrounds parents have a right to expect when their children uh become a student that they are required to entrust them to our schools we will make every effort to keep them safe unfortunately not everyone agrees with our mission statement or those or those sentiments there are those who believe cob County schools are nothing more than a convenient battlefield for whatever their political cause and and this is what we are currently experiencing and unfortunately one of the first casualties is common sense the number of awards given to
032any book cannot be assumed to mean that those books are absent from lewd vulgar sexually explicit obscene or pornographic materials inappropriate for our schools the cob County School District is not engaging in book Banning or book burning we are not coming after the jobs of teachers or media Specialists we are not enforcing radical new policies and practices we are not going rogue and refusing to follow our own policies We are following wellestablished federal and state law policies and practices of this District that have been with us for years if not decades I just read you the statement from one of the bluest counties in Georgia we are a red County why are we having a problem with this there are 20 churches represented here tonight it's been said that this has been Winkler's Grove Baptist
033Church but there are 20 churches that are represented in this room tonight we started this campaign against the pornographic materials in our school system several months ago the board has expressed their outrage and shock of the materials the ones that I shared with the superintendant expressed to me that they felt like it was all right for the material to be in the schools and that only the parents should decide if their children should have access to this I go back to a problem we've discussed from the very beginning no one to date has given any of the parents of Burke County Schools a valid example of the illustrations and the true content that is in the pornographic lace material and yet you boast of the so-called great success of the parents giving permission for these
034kids to check out these books knowing the whole time it's deception and it's a lie how can you live with yourselves you deceive the parents of Burke County if these parents truly knew the content that were they were signing to give permission to for their kids to have access to they would sue you in a court of law for deceiving them and lying to them thank you all you on the board that's your time thank you thank you thank you for your [Applause] time excuse U Aaron could I say something please uh out of respect to the speaker that is at the podium this evening if everyone would please keep their comments to themselves out of respect so that the speaker can behold Aon please they not all right we're going to stay in order
035here and we're going to try to do our best to respect everyone in this room you understand and that goes for the board as well as you folks we want to hear what you have to say and that's what we're going to do okay Mr Vice chair Mr Ronnie Leever I want to say good evening thank the Lord for opportunity to stand and uh some of the greatest Educators I'm just going to give out a few names was uh Terry Rogers Casey's dad uh Merl Merlin schaw Wayne Fletcher Robert shook Rick O uh Buford Robinson just to just to say a few and I'm glad to uh be a citizen of Burke County and uh the greatest educator with the greatest manual that I ever had was my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and this
036is his manual and his manual says this for the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord and He pth all his goings there's a way which seeth right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death uh Galatians 6: 7 8 9 be not deceived God is Not mocked for whatsoever a man sth that shall he also reap for he that sth his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that sth to his Spirit shall of the spirit reap life Everlasting and let us not be weary in well doing for we shall reap if we faint not amen the Bible says in Proverbs 226 train up a child in the way should go and when he is old he will not depart from it Bob Jones
037senior which is one of the greatest men I've ever read after said Education Without salvation is damn Nation the Bible says in 1 Corinthians chap 1: 18- 21 and I'll be done for the preaching of the Cross is to them that perish foolishness but unto us which are saved it is the power of God for it is written I will not I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to to nothing the understanding of The Prudent where is the wise where is the Scribe where is the disputer of this world hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world for after that in the wisdom of God the World by wisdom knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe I'm glad to be
038a Christian tonight and to hold the greatest book that's ever been written to Mankind in God's word thank you Mr leevers thank you next speaker Mr Dr Ron Batty thank you I was so impressed tonight with these precious children who came forward they were so cute so innocent they touched all of our hearts and I was thinking as they are standing up here what a responsibility first of all the parents have in instructing and training and leading these young children and then secondly I was thinking about the hours those children spend in the classroom here in Burke County how soon their innocency can vanish how soon they can find themselves in a sinful situation as many do and lose all of that innocency in the spur of the moment because somebody instruct Ed them in
039something that was detrimental to their present and to their future and to expose the children in this County to pornography as you do is like passing out cookbooks on a fat Farm instead of teaching the children how to live righteously and godly you're teaching them how to sin yield to lust and yield to Temptation with these books in your library instead of putting a fence up at the top of the cliff to keep them from falling off you're putting ambulances at the bottom of the cliff to pick up the casualties this a Feeding Frenzy feeding the lore Fall Fallen nature of a young young person an adult it matters not who they are only brings tragedy into the life of that individual amen the preacher said a few minutes ago he quoted train up a
040child in the way he should go I don't think there's anybody in here tonight in their right mind who would say it's right to train up children with material in front of them that will show a young boy put his putting his hands on on the private parts of a young lady and a piece of material reflecting what that young lady says as he puts his hands in her panties and and and and on her breast how can we say that's training up a child in the way that child should go you lay be the lustful flesh of young people and they experiment sex and pornography is like drugs and alcohol it's habit forming amen and our young people don't need that in this world in which we're living they need godliness they need righteousness
041that's your time thank you Dr baby one last thing we are absolutely keeping our word on the fact that I gave here a few months ago that if we cannot resolve this it has to be resolved by litigation two hours ago I talked to our attorney and we will be proceeding to resolve this by litigation if it cannot be resolved by this board thank [Applause] you thank you Dr batty our next speaker be Mr Tony chers want to thank you for allowing me to speak uh first thing I I want to say is uh I'm upall at what I read when I see what's in these books I was reading one of these books about Onyx a book found at drone high school and there's a place in there it talks about a website Hot
042Tots where you can go and see sex trafficking does this need to be in our schools can I ask y'all that does that need to be there can I ask ask y'all do you are you swore in when you take office to protect our children are you sworn in do you put your hand on this book and swear to God that you're going to protect our children and do what's right by our children do you or you sworn in you're failing you're not protecting our children since when has educating our children turned to indoctrinating our children you see the words right here on the front of this board igniting learning for a brighter future you're not aiting learning what you're igniting is sin the Bible says that we all shall stand in judgment amen this
043book right here is our instruction manual amen this is our road map to Heaven amen and we have to go by this book and anything that goes against this book is sin know the Bible says Apostle Paul said in 2 Timothy 4: 6 for I am now ready to be offered the time of my departure is at hand I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the Faith henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but to all them that also love is appearing we need for you to fight the good fight amen we need for you to keep the faith amen amen fight the good fight children that's
044your time thank you sir what that that was your three minutes thank you can I say one more thing Heavenly Father God open their eyes and forgive them for they know not what they do thank you [Applause] amen thank you Mr chers our next speaker will be Betsy k CH okay I'm sorry I couldn't see the letter good evening good evening question why are we here again why do we continue to get resistance from you the school board members when you need to resolve all these issues and protect our children we just saw them here why is this so hard for you to understand it's like talking to our president and getting a Blank Stare without a straight answer it's crystal clear to me our educational system is literally upside down the Bible is banned
045in schools yet porn and drag shows are allowed why our education system is broken our kids are so far behind in our basic programs and test scores it's ridiculous Bible classes are not allowed but there can be after school Satan clubs we are now teaching our children on how men get pregnant also in kindergarten kids are able to pick their gender for the day seriously do you all think this is normal can any one of you guarantee that other students don't share these perverted books with other students you can't these books are warping the minds of our children and none of you seem to care a few do why is that none of you know the best for my child I repeat our kids not yours what about the special needs children are they protected
046from students mocking them and sharing porn to them I have an idea why not teach students a useful trade instead of what Daddy does to baby sister is this not disturbing to any of you you will be judged and stand before God like he said one day is this what you want Ponder this by leaving these pornographic books in our schools you are knowingly activ actively and willingly participating in Satan's Playbook we're not going away until this pornographic drug and other issues are resolved thank [Applause] you thank you m Cromer our next speaker will be Mr Jamie wof I want to First say thank you for um addressing the uh some of the policy issues in 3210 and making some changes on that I really appreciate that um but unfortunately we've got Decades of this
047explicit content that's leaked into the media centers it's coming undetected and it's still left some work to do though uh for example now this is according to fallet we've got a poetry book that only not only speaks of sexual acts but has multiple pictures of individuals and various acts of both sexual intercourse and oral sex in two schools right now we have a book that describes the the main character who uses a peach to sexually pleasure himself with another person comes in and then eats the peach along with the bodily fluid that's left inside there's multiple other explicit SCS describing the main character's weird sex fetishes I've gotten to in two schools also a book like the gentleman was talking about earlier where two young males routinely view a child pornography site called Hot Tots
048the book describes an older male sexually assaulting three 8-year-old girls this is a quote from it said the ACT involved whipped cream and a lot of licking the effect was both innocent and obscene the three of them were going over the guy with their kittenish tongues and their tiny fingers giving him a thorough workout to the sound of moans and giggles one of the characters become sexually infatuated with one of the 8-year-olds now when I was in law enforcement I saw photos of children being molested and what I saw was horrific and describing an act of sexual abuse especially with a child is innocent it's absurd but other than being Beyond inappropriate for school there's something else that all three of these books have in common not one of them are on the 14 plus
049mature list and there's more so I don't know how parents can opt out their children receiving this material if they're not on the list but the one way to guarantee 100% that our students are not going to receive this porn pornographic 18 plus adult material is not to have have it available to miners at all thank [Applause] you thank you Mr wof our next speaker will be Donald Anderson eron I'm sorry I'm going to ask for something real quick before the next speaker starts um can we ask for Mr woff to submit those names of titles of the books that he was mentioning because I didn't hear I didn't hear I didn't catch the titles okay U Dr Swan can you take care of that thank you yes first of all I want to uh
050Begin by thanking each one of you for being willing to serve on our school boards and by taking your time and I want to also thank you for listening to the concerns of the citizens of Burke County and uh also for um getting rid of some of the pornographic materials my hope is that all this material will be removed and that no new pornographic materials will be brought into our schools what I'd like to read to you tonight is the mission and vision statement of Burke County Public Schools our our mission Burke County Public Schools will educate all Learners nurture their potential and Empower them to be contributing members of our community our vision Burke County Public Schools will be a model of exemplary education by inspiring all students to be lifelong Learners who will
051contribute to our community both of these statements are great my question tonight is this what purpose do these pornographic books have in fulfilling these two statements how is pornography helping to make contributing members of our community you've already heard that many on many occasions the effects of pornography on adolescent mind so I'm not going to repeat those but if the contributions you are talking about include increased chances of committing sexual assault lower school performance and increased depression and anxiety Then by all means leave these books in place however I am sure that those are up the contributions that you are seeking or desire in your Allin promise goals goal number two is this supporting all around well-being of the students again already knowing the effects of pornography on adolescence I ask you how are these
052books contributing to their well-being would also like to call attention to board policy 3320 section of instructional and supplementary materials section B of that says the the of a section of supplemental materials section two processing criteria for selecting supplemental materials it makes reference to 3200r does the resource stimulate growth in factual knowledge L literary appreciation a static value and ethical standards how are these books meeting this requirement how do they stimulate growth in ethical standards what I'm asking you to to do tonight is fulfill your mission and your vision statements fulfill your Allin promise to our students and abide by your own board policy and remove all pornographic materials from the school media centers and classrooms again I thank you for the opportunity to speak and for your service to our community thank you Mr
053Anderson our next speaker will be Aon Gil thank you for letting me speak today what I'm about to share is an excerpt from the son and her flowers by rupe cor could you speak up just a hair please y okay can you hear me now all right so it's called the Sun and her flowers what I'm about to share with you is very explicit and graphic I was 110 lbs of Flesh or fresh meat you skinned and gutted with your fingers like you were scraping the inside of a cantaloupe clean as I screamed for my mother you nailed My Wrist To The Ground turned my breast into bruised fruit that's page 62 page 63 says every night my bedroom becomes a sward where panic attacks turn men into doctors to keep me calm every lover
054who touches me feels like you their fingers your mouth you unto until they're not ones on on top of me anymore it's you I'm so tired of doing this your way it isn't working pay page 147 says how do I welcome in kindness when I have only practiced spreading my legs for the terrifying for terrifying what I am to do with you if my idea of Love is violence but yours are sweet and your concepts of passionate eyes contact with mine but mine is Rage how can I call this intimacy if you if I crave sharp edges but your edges aren't even edges they are soft Landings so this is rape this is her describing her rape and as someone who has been raped this makes me relive that so how can somebody a minor
055grasp the concept of this and say they have been raped themselves then they have to read this and relive it and who's to say they don't check this book out but their friends are sharing it around and in the back of their mind they're thinking about the rape that they had to endure but they don't want to tell anybody this but they have to go home and think about this and who's to say they don't have access to the proper therapy or they don't want to tell their parents about this if I can't even wrap my mind around what this rape and these sexual acts do to my adult mind how can a minor wrap their head around this the media we can control what our kids see on social media y'all control what our
056kids are exposed to in the schools I'm not saying ban this book I'm saying remove it because this this is not appropriate for our children someone innocent reading this becomes tainted they it takes away their innocence at this point thank you for letting me [Applause] share thank you Miss Gilbert our next speaker Ruth Evans I do appreciate you allowing me to share with you um my concerns and my feelings for our children um I am a Burke County resident I am a tax a state and federal taxpayer and um I feel that whether um you are in Burke County or not you are still a part of the the system that is funding our schools so um I feel that everyone has a right to be able to stand and um plead with you and
057commune with you about our concerns uh with what's going on in our school and I thank you for doing that and allowing us to do that um I know in the past or at least you have regarded um and justly so that we have come from a religious and a moral stand to present these things to you but um I would like to put that aside for just a minute and speak to you as a citizen as a part of our soci society and um how the statistics I'm about to read to you uh concern us all and knowing that everything I have read concerning the beginnings of sexual abuse starts early and they say even Middle School it can begin so it is so important for us to be able to guide and frame
058these Minds in a way that is respectful for each other's bodies and each other's um reputation um so as a citizen and a part of society I would like to read these statistics to you I do have references but to to speed up my time um you're welcome to ask me about them um my my statistics focus on middle school and high school age children because they are the ones we are concerned for with whom you have a great degree of control over what they learn and what they do not learn these children are the ones that will learn sexual respect or abuse in future circumstances or relationships um some of this I've read a lot of surveys from different sources and um survey show that 82% of all victims of abuse rape or assault
059were female 54% of female surveyed were raped under the age of 18 and 32% of those were between the school ages of 12 and 17 women ages 16 to 19 years of age are four times more likely to be assaulted than any other age group in any given school year 58% of 7eventh to 12th graders experience sexual harassment or abuse one in eight high school girls say that they have been raped and one in five girls say that they have been assaulted or raped while at school only one half of all high school rape victims report the assault 18% of teens report sexual assault within their dating relationship 12% of teens admit that they have sexually abused someone that they are [Music] dating this was kind of Staggering to me 60% of all high school
060boys found it acceptable to force sex on a girl in some circumstances uh every year in the United States there are approximately 500,000 victims of rape or sexual assault with nearly 99% of the perpetrators being male I could not find current um statistics for our school year but um in the 200920 school uh that re schools that reported abuse um there was 4,200 sexual assaults with 23 school districts facing sexual assault investigation question s uh I'm sure the stat statistics have climbed considerably since we have um relax our social views and moral standards that's your time thank you thank you I appreciate it M Taylor did you have a quick comment about Onyx okay our next speaker is Dr Jerry Nelson my name is Jerry Nelson and I come to speak about the item 3210
061I'll be very brief I have letters from five major universities across the heartland of the US but that in no way qualifies me to know what is best for my children but as a citizen who raised a family I am qualified above all to know what is harmful to my children we appreciate the opportunity to speak you've been good about that we have been respectful of your position [Music] position and we've been clear about removing pornography from access to our children in school the matter is both of moral and legal significance our request is simple you must not only listen but also hear compromise is a statement against our children you cannot sit on the fence let me ask you what will it cost you to do the right thing where will the next Ted
062Bundy emerge thank you Dr Nelson our next speaker is Pastor Dean Hart thank you I appreciate the opportunity to uh stand here and I appreciate uh the fact that you all have removed some of the books I thank you for that or at least that's what I've been told I'm not in the library so I don't know for sure in Genesis Chapter 3 The Bible teaches us that there were two people in the Garden of Eden y'all might uh be enjoying that you might not be I don't know but here it is uh the scripture is absolute truth and um and that's what I go by and two people in the Garden of Eden and um they chose to uh succumb to the Ws of the enemy and as a result which is the devil
063and as a result there was too much knowledge given to those two individuals the result is is that uh we've been plunged into uh lifelong sin we're born into sin now that may not seem much to some people but I can go ahead and tell you that I've heard a lot of statements here tonight about all of the uh education and different things and the different thoughts bottom line is is that uh probably most people here are not Hicks are probably educated in some manner some way uh don't have to be a teacher in a school to be educated nor do they have to be uh the president or C CEO of a company nor do they have to be over a county as far as that goes um people learn different things down through
064the years but they learn those uh not only through their school time but also when they get into college now I said that to say this that what we have here is we have a problem with pornographic books we know it's pornographic there's no way that anybody can't understand that and what I believe that we need to understand is All Counties not just this one but all counties do everything they possibly can to keep the students and the teachers away from pornographic sites on the internet uh when they're surfing when they're connected I'm sure that you you all are not going to allow that to take place that would uh be immoral that wouldn't even be right and yet what we have here is we have uh a situation to where that the our students
065the children are being able to reach in the drawer underneath in education and reach underneath and pull out all these filthy books to be able to read you can say that parents have agreed to do this all you want to but we know that that's not a fail safe and it's not working like some people would have us to believe also the fact is is that if you would send excerpts to all the families it's been stated before then I'm sure that most families in Burke County probably all over our nation would be appalled at what their kids just what we just heard just a little bit ago now with that said we're not looking to ban freedom of speech that's not what this is about and we're not looking uh to ban books we're
066in we're looking at protecting the minds of our children this is what we're looking at the apostle Paul said in uh Philippians 2 uh 2:5 let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus he turns around in Romans chap 12 verse 2 and he says be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind he was in no wise saying that uh we are supposed to transform our children with the renewing of their mind with this kind of garbage that's going in yet what we're finding is is that they have this ability let them when they become of age if they want to run out and grab and buy every pornographic book they want to let them knock himself out hopefully we will have Give Them Enough of Jesus in the Bible so
067that their mind can be transformed so they won't be infected by all this filth that we have in our schools not just in Bur County but in Kaba County and all around and you can say well if the other counties are doing it then we'll do it as well well that's not the way it works I can tell you right now that god holds us all accountable for all these areas in which we make choices if we make the wrong choice then God's going to hold us accountable and you can say well he's not going to hold me accountable but I can promise you this it's going to take place thank you brother I appreciate it thank you all for letting me speak thank you Pastor Hart our next speaker is Justin Boyd hi my
068name is uh Justin Boyd and and and it's an honor and a privilege to be able to have the opportunity to speak first of all um I am a product of this so-called wonderful uh tradition or or indoctrination or ideology or whatever you want to call it I'm a citizen I was born and raised here I went to Glen Alin Elementary and went to tab rock middle school went to Freedom graduated the class of 06 uh but a lot of people don't realize that when I was growing up my mom raised three kids by herself my dad was nowhere to be found and the sad thing is is that with that my mom did the best she could but in that she made one little mistake and we went to DSS custody for 3 years
069of my life not even going to DARE tell what happened in those three years of my life but it was complete hell and let me tell you you can't undo those memories that you see and the things that you go through in your eyes I'm saying this from personal experience and by the time I was in tabber Rock by the time I was 12 I was bound I was already starting to smoke marijuana which is a gateway by the time I was in Freedom I was completely Bound by all kind of Nar otics from pain medications from cocaine to alcohol and by the time I graduated in 2007 October 13 2007 I tried to commit suicide and it wasn't until God changed my life and and I I'm a I am a product of knowing
070what it's like to see the outcome of what we're seeing and I would I just want to read just a few scriptures in Luke in Luke CH uh chapter 11 I'm going to try to hurry but it says this it says the light of the body is of the eyes therefore when thy eye is single the whole body also is full of light but when thy eye is evil the body also is full of Darkness take heed therefore that the light which is in thee is not Darkness It also says this in Ephesians 4 and well it got Ephesians uh 4:14 and it speaks of the ear it says this it says th let me get there it says this that we henceforth be no more children tossed here or fro and carried about with
071every wind of Doctrine by the Slate of men of cunning craftiness whereby they lie in weight to deceit and It also says this in Ephesians 4 in Ephesians 4:29 speaking about the mouth it says let no corruption or no corrupt communication proceed out of the mouth but that which is good to the use of edifica edifying that we may Minister Grace unto the hearers listen guys I can't unsee what I've went through those things haunt me every day and the thing is it's by the grace that I choose to forgive that I don't see those things but when you read those things you become those things if you don't want to if you don't want rape don't teach it if you don't want if if you don't want uh discrimination don't teach it what we
072should be teaching I'm going to end on this and then I'll shut up I'll do something the devil won't do I'll leave you alone and that's word from my pastor but it says this hang on I've got I'm just gonna finish this just give me one little second what we should be teaching is the fruits of the spirit the fruits of the spirit is this love joy peace longsuffering gentleness goodness Faith meekness Temperance against such there there is no law let let me tell you what we're doing is we're teaching our children lust the the lust of the of the Flesh and but but yet we're expecting him to have the fruits of the spirit that can't be thank you Mr it's corrupt thank [Applause] you again thank you Mr voyd our next speaker is
073Donna Kip hi this is hard for me I thank God for the two that spoke the one that was raped in the man that just spoke when I was young there was a book called True Romance I read these books they detailed stal things that affected me I became promiscuous I thought sex was love reading these books we had exerts that we read and something I thought had died in me a long time ago I was aroused by reading his stuff I don't want our children to have these books to taint their minds cuz when I got married my first experience was not what those books and told me it would should be like there was people and I was very confused because I don't get turned on by watching porn I think it's sick
074but the words still affect me I can't read books like this I read these books up to 1999 before I got saved and Jesus taught me what true love is a husband loves its wife as God loves the church and a wife is to love her husband and honor him I hope you really to consider take these SPS away I was affected and still just brething that's what I was terribly ashamed that my body would betray me like that so please look into your hearts see what you want your children to grow up remembering from their childhood thank [Applause] you but thank you Miss Kip next speaker Bill Ramirez hello School Board I'm Bill Ramirez and uh I'm a taxpayer property taxpayer no less so I don't have to thank you for allow me to
075speak it's my responsibility and it's your responsibility to listen to me because I pay for for the privilege 42 years ago when I first joined the Air Force I learned some nuggets of wisdom from a from an old man that was awesome Russell Perry he's dead gone now and he told me this he said if you're going to take my money you're going to take my advice well that's what we're doing here today is we're giving you our money now you're going to take our advice and it's not unreasonable advice it's Godly advice all you got to do is read your Bible That's the basic instructions before leaving Earth right it's so simple God doesn't say we can't have fun God doesn't say we can't work God doesn't say that we can't love each other
076in a Godly fashion in his fashion you know through the bonds of marriage he doesn't say we can't do that he says go ahead and do that within reason you know within the fence of reason right and he tell he spells it all out it's pretty simple right we've taken all we've taken the three Rs I've mentioned this before I was here before read read writing and arithmetic that's what the kids need to make them functional members of society Lord have mercy you know for them to to know how to uh well I know how to rape a I know how to rape a young a young woman how's that going to help them in in society today it's crazy and we expect that our jails are going to be less full because of what's
077being what's being allowed to be taught in here this is craziness please don't do this right use your brain you went to school you got some ifications thank God for that right but use your brain right everything is not just everything's not going to be spelled out for you right this pornography this this is not healthy read your Bible God says this is this stain your mind listen to the people that talked about this before how it affected them it didn't help them why did we want our children to have things that are not going to help them right as a grandfather I have five grandchildren I don't I don't I all I want to do is help them right but I'm going to help them within uh the guidelines of of uh of God
078in the Bible Jesus Christ um takes me back uh when when I was dealing with uh with uh Mr Perry we used to go to a place called butts Donuts uh this was in Oklahoma City this was well 4042 years ago when I first joined the Air Force and right above the cashier which was a teenager and I was just coming out of my teenage years I was 20 I think and right above there behind the cashier was all these bumper stickers or bumper Snickers as as I used to think of it but right above the cashier up high where you could see it and I would laugh every time it said hire teenagers while they still know everything and I used to laugh right because we know how untrue that is right we're learning
079we think we know everything I was one you were one we were all one when we was Teenage man we thought that we had the World by the tail right I'm not going to do what my parents did I'm not going to do what God says I know better I can handle this that's a lie and it we find out pretty quickly if it doesn't kill us in the process that oh wait a minute step back from that and start following what God has to say and again God God doesn't want us to not have fun he does want us to have fun within reason and he wants us to learn about his world that he created for us what a wonderful wonderful thing so I'm speaking to those of you that profess to be
080Christians especially as we head into our Advent season would our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ would he be proud of what we are allowing our kids to read in the Burke County school system thank you thank you Mr rarez our next speaker M Pastor Marty Bess Dr Swan school board members thank you all for serving Burke County school system thank you for the opportunity to share our concerns with you I'm a father grandfather husband local Pastor I think we all want what what's best for our children and youth in our County I personally think we should all be on the same side of this issue I believe the explicit material that's been exposed in several of our libraries in various books is very dangerous I found it to be inappropriate and indecent for any age
081especially our students I urgently plead that that you would come together for the benefit and the health of our students and remove all of these pornograph pornographic books please take action please do the right thing thank you we are praying for all of you thank you Pastor vess our last speaker is Mr Eddie Fulbright thank you I'm Eddie FBR and I'm here on behalf of Christian Perspective representative I had a written speech out but I'm not going to take you down that long road I'm gonna take you back to a a quieter and nicer time 1974 hilderbrand High School Reading Writing arithmetic world history geography trigonometry Art band Sports Library back then I was not saved I had a head knowledge but I didn't have a heart knowledge these books were not there if they
082had been I feel sure that some of us guys would have found them and read them checked them out looked at them but they weren't there CPR is growing in strength I will tell you we're going to have a voter guide that's coming out that's already developed it's uh we're just waiting for the candidates that are going to be presented to us for the school board all the elected offices in each County and at that time we're going to start uh questioning these candidates and we'll be it'll be real clear what their position is uh we're we're we're actually gaining momentum we're uh uniting with churches and organizations uh we're uh and they're standing with us they're uh standing for our children in the protection of the school system and it's a stand worth taking
083it's a stand that we will not back down we will not quit and we will not go away and uh it's it's kind of funny I'll share this with you I've had some of the businessmen that I've had uh business with in the past when I worked for a Fortune 500 company and as I would visit these people they would say Eddie what do you need from us is it money now we're not asking for money well if you need money we've got it there the people in Burke County that I have spoken with they're they're mad and uh that's it's not that's not a good place to be especially if uh you're running for a position in this County because that information will be shared and we are not going to back away and
084uh I'd like to see what you and I do know and I have seen and I have heard that you have done a good job on removing some of those books thank you thank each and every one of you now let's get the rest of them out of there let's let's be the let's be the county that other counties look to and that understand that you're not going to back down if you do that we'll stand behind you we'll support every one of you is that a deal if if it is we'll we we'll shake hands on that we'll we'll back each and every one of you we're not going away thank [Applause] you thank you Mr Fullbright thank you everyone for speaking tonight Mr chair that is concludes our public comment section thank you
085Mr Johnson and and again thanks to all of our speakers uh let's see items for board discussion and uh pending action are our school Improvement plans we have with us tonight Dr Wilson and Miss Jennings let's uh chat about that a little bit and tell us how good we're doing because I know we're doing pretty good doing great doing great good to see you this evening thank you thank you for having us thank you last week at the work session we presented to you our school Improvement plans for your consideration I want to see if you all have any questions about those any questions we prepared to uh take action yes all right what's the pleasure of the board then in regards to the school Improvement plans that uh have previously been presented and discussed
086and reviewed I'll make the motion that we approve those for Dr Wilson as they are as they were presented Miss uh Taylor move Johnson seconded approval of the school Improvement plans as has been previously discussed and uh and commented upon any further comments or questions hearing none all in favor of the motion so indicate by saying I I all oppose no eyes have it the Motions carried unanimously Madam clerk if you'd record that please thank you m thank you for your support next uh on our agenda Dr Karen Alton uh will come discuss with us uh an opportunity for additional comment final reading of uh policies that have been uh been presented to a spice before yes I'm I'll be happy to answer any questions you have um but we do have the final reading
087tonight of the policies that are aligned to the parents Bill of Rights anyone like to be heard on any of these I would like to just say just a little update if I may so we have to put these into motion tonight because it becomes effective January 1st however um that does not mean that we do not have it on the agenda for January in our work session to continue to work on some of these um policies specifically the ones that you have been speaking about um Miss Mr Johnson and I uh Dr Swan uh representative Blackwell and Senator Daniel have met with a lady named U Mary Suma I don't know if you know who she is she works with NC Values Coalition and she has taken a look at our policy she thinks
088it's pretty good now she did make some recommendations to us and that is what we are going to be discussing in January so I want to let you know that that we are listening to you we have removed books we have a moratorium on books and we have asked that if anyone has any books they would like for us to take a look at to please let Dr Swan or one of us know we're doing all that we can that's all I want to say thank you ma'am any other questions or comments on the uh final reading of policies I was going to make just a similar comment that you know we're going to approve these tonight with some of the recommendations that were made at our last meeting but these are these are working
089documents and we will continue to work we'll continue to look for ways to improve and I think that's in agreement with with everyone so the whole team all right that being said what's the pleasure of the board in regards to approving or not the final reading of the policies I move that we accept the policies as written that uh Dr auton has presented the last uh two meetings that or the last two times that we have had them in front of us I'll second that Mr hovic moved Miss Craven seconded approval of the final reading of the policies that uh were presented uh and uh with the discussion that we've had any additional comment regarding that matter hearing none all in favor Syndicate by saying I I all oppose no I have it the motion
090is carried unanimously Madame Kirk if you record that please next item on our agenda Mr Recker our um human resource director uh for consideration of approval of the revised U Personnel report if you have issues uh prior to Mo motions please remember to indicate by number not names okay any questions or comments Mr [Music] Recker hearing none what's the pleasure of the board in regards to the status of the Personnel report move for approval a second Mr Johnson move Mr Taylor second approval of the Personnel report as previously uh presented and discussed any additional discussion or comment hearing none all in favor indicate by saying I I all oppose no eyes have it the motion is carried Madam clerk please record the vote the um consent item agenda we had um several items over there
091if you review the Open Session minutes for two dates October 30 and then November the 6 close session minutes of October 30 and November 6th um budget revision 04-12 4-23 and then the Personnel report information uh presented on December the 4th as this being a consent uh consent items uh is there anyone opposed so the consent item is set is there a motion to accept as is presented I move we accept y somebody said Miss beer yeah U motion to accept move move to uh approve it being a consent item it's not a second required so the motion's on the floor uh all in favor of having a cons uh positive consent indicate by saying I I I'll oppose no eyes have the motion is carried the consent agenda has been uh approved and authorized
092uh Mr superintendent Mr attorney do we have reason to go in close session this evening we do not no legal reasons tonight Mr chairman thank you sir appreciate it very much all right having any other item from the board if not um is there a motion to adjourn please motion second uh Mr Johnson move Mr be seconded um adjournment all in favor of adjournment indicate by saying I I all oppose no eyes out motions carried Madam clerk record the vote please motion's passed good night and Merry Christmas I that