001okay that's why he's hanging me on Thursday before class good evening everyone I would like to call the October 2nd Burke County Board of Education meeting to order I would like to make a one comment we have some students here from Western Piedmont and edu class 187 it's a course called teaching and learning for all these students are in a teacher prep program and are learning about professional guidelines learning theories and appropriate instructional strategies in the classroom each of these students has been placed in a Burke County school for 48 hours of observation and lab hours so we welcome them to our meeting they are back in one of the rooms watching us but we want to just thank them for being here with us today and thank all of you for being here as
002well um we have an additional item to add to the agenda I'd like to make a motion to amend the agenda do I have a vote thank you Aaron all those in favor okay under a d we're going to add a d remarks from Miss sahoevich regarding Emergency Services she just has a few remarks she'd like to make tonight and we're going to do that under Section 7 add D remarks from Miss sohoa regarding Emergency Services I'm going to make a motion to approve the amended agenda do I have a second thank you all those in favor there we go all right at this time I'm going to turn it over to miss Leslie Taylor Who's going to do our moment of silence and our board invocation we'll start with our moment of silence and
003then we'll invite you to pray dear Lord we just thank you for this day and we thank you for the opportunities you have provided we ask that you clear our minds and our hearts for focus on your presence we ask that you be at the center of our meeting we we also ask that you be in the center of us Grace is with your wisdom and your vision of your will for our school district give us humility to remember our service is governed by a higher power lead guide and direct us and our decisions made tonight keep all that we do in service and in love and in your name amen amen all right now we're going to have a presentation of Colors by the Patton High School's fire academy Color Guard Pledge of Allegiance
004and they're going to do our pledge Stan I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God challenge [Applause] Miss Craven could we please ask the audience to turn off their phones I was going to do that thank you thank you ma'am if you do have a cell phone on if you could silence it please thank you so much all right at this time we are I'm going to turn it over to Mr Keith Recker we're going to do our beginning teacher of the year come on down thank you Madam chair bored at this time we're going to recognize our 2023 beginning teacher of the year for Burke County each year we select nominees from our instructional coaches and our principals
005we take those selections and we complete interviews so before you have Miss Cassidy Upton Cassidy is the art teacher at Mountain View Elementary it was very apparent very quickly how she hinges relationships with her students she plans instructions so that is very meaningful and relevant for her students and also often the integration of literacy that she has for her students and you can see that and the artwork displayed over at Mountain View right now and over at central office so at this time we would like to recognize Cassidy Upton she will move on to the state level for the regional competition that will be announced in February and then she'll move on hopefully after that to the state competition for ncat so miss Upton congratulations [Applause] um people like that Chastity can we get to
006the state of Memphis [Applause] good evening I have two athletic recognitions this evening the first one the North Carolina High School Athletic Association annually recognizes high schools across the state that had zero objections for the year sportsmanship is the first core value of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association schools that receive this award have set excellent examples of following the rules of the game respecting the Judgment of referees and officials and treating opponents with respect please join me in congratulating Patton high school tonight as a 2022-2023 recipient thank you guys for representing Burke County schools in a first class marriage [Applause] thank you second athletic recognition for the night the North Carolina High School Athletic Association Charlie Adams distinguished service award is presented annually at the regional meetings to one person in each of
007the state's eight regions it is a given to an individual still actively serving as an educator who has gone above and beyond what would normally be expected in service to the High School Athletic Association programs this educator also has to be for service for 10 years please join me in congratulating Jim Childers assistant principal and athletic director at East Burke on behalf of Mr Childers Miss Katie Moore principal at East Burke is here to accept this award thank you [Applause] thank you amen [Applause] also this evening we'd like to recognize both Miss Jackie Grady Burke County Public Schools preschool and kindergarten transition coordinator and superintendent Dr Mike Swann for receiving the impact award from YMCA Catawba Valley they were recognized during the annual YMCA impact celebration this is a heartfelt recognition of their unwavering dedication
008to the YMCA of Catawba Valley and their outstanding contributions which have enriched the wise ability to serve and strengthen the bonds within the YMCA and Community the impact celebration shines a light on some of the most remarkable achievements while eagerly anticipating the positive impact and the years to come please join me in congratulations congratulating Dr Mike salon and Miss Jackie Grady [Applause] thank you got it [Applause] good evening recently Senate Bill 593 allows for four members selected by the general assembly to serve on the Board of Trustees for the North Carolina School for the Deaf we are delighted to announce that Miss Tiana beasler has been appointed by Speaker of the House Representative Tim Moore to serve in this capacity until June 2026. appointees are those who are passionate about education and express concern for
009a quality of Education and students congratulations to miss beechler on the sustained recognition congratulations [Applause] thank you [Applause] all right congratulations to everybody all right I'm gonna turn it over to Mr Aaron Johnson public comments true it's time for a public comment section for tonight before we get started statement here to read persons will speak in order in which they have signed up to speak each speaker during the public comments section of board meeting shall have a maximum of five minutes for his or her comments at which point the speaker will be politely asked to bring comments to a close followed by thanking School Board policy state law and federal law have established separate distinct procedures for forums the resolution of employee grievances employee complaints against individual employees pupil suspensions and appeals and political campaigns
010to avoid circumvision of those separate proceedings and ensure fairness to all parties concerned no person shall speak regarding a file grievance pending employee complaint filed with the school district or an outside agency complain against individual employee employee disciplinary action suspension or termination or pupil suspension or appeal which may ultimately reach the Board of Education additionally prior to elections no person who has publicly announced or filed as a candidate for public office may speak during public comments concerning his or her candidacy board chair Destiny May terminate any presentation that is not in accordance with any of these criteria except as limited by previous Provisions public comments will be allowed in the public comments period on any subject that is within the jurisdiction of the board Madam chair we have 15. um speakers tonight and we'll begin
011with the first one we'll go in order as they're signed up and you'll have two minutes of peace so the first Speaker we have is two minutes okay yeah we do all right the maximum we have is 30 minutes and so we have how many so we have we've got more than 15 but we'll give the first 15 two minutes that's what we're going to make the motion for so I'm going to make a motion to let the first 15 folks who signed up to make public comments have two minutes apiece do I have a second all right all those in favor thank you Becky Diddy [Music] say you're not mine in our society you'd have to be 18 years old to buy pornographic materials why would a child waste his or her allowance and
012risk getting caught with a magazine when they can just go to their school library and get one of these books the writings in the books are no different than the writings in a pornographic magazine when he touches me down there I count he sticks his fingers into me and it feels like a pen jamming into a top one two three four beautiful doesn't let it hurt five six please let me see what it feels like he says I feel like his weight on me and His Hands spreading my legs farther apart the small noise I let out when he thrusts harder to get deeper into me dry that comes from the girl who fell from the sky by Heidi Duro this is an excerpt from the book and it's available to check out at the
013East Burke High School library this is not something I would want my 14 year old son reading but this book would be available for him to check out in his Public School this is unacceptable even if there is an age limit placed on these books what is stopping younger children from asking an older child to check out the book for them thank you [Applause] thank you ma'am the next speaker will be Kevin Lee there are several categories of words whether voiced or written that are not protected by the First Amendment right to free speech some of these categories are defamation fighting words and obscenity so I cannot threaten to kill someone and expect not to be arrested for communicating threats if I were to say that a person was a murderer without any proof I
014would be sued for defaming that person's character if I were to bring pornographic magazine into the school and give it to a child I would be arrested for contributing to the delinquency of a minor but if I tore out only a story from one of these pornographic magazines and gave it to a child I feel momentarily bad because I never I was never going to have sex with him it always ends the same way him coming into the into the air or into his shirt or onto himself or against my leg and then I can feel him all of him all at once I breathe yes as my entire body lifts off the bed and now he's opening the condom packet now he's putting the condom on now I you can feel him now he's
015putting the condom in there is there's the surprise of him inside me even though I'm expecting it then I can feel him all of him it hurts a little but there's more that that's more the surprise again of having another body in your body to getting used to something new and he's literally in it as in my vagina wouldn't I still be arrested if I gave that to a child this was actually an excerpt from several excerpts from a book breathless by Jennifer Niven it's available in Freedom High School library these books have obscene and pornographic material just like stories and Playboy Playgirl Hustler and others and need to be removed from public Library [Applause] next one is Annette Taylor weather visual or written pornography is the new Teen addiction our youth are being inundated
016with pornography before they have had the developmental capacity to integrate the material into their healthy sexual identity identity formation and teens are more likely to have premature sexual activity and harmful attitudes of sex porn creates emotional side effects such as shame guilt anxiety confusion and Nightmares porn creates a powerful biochemical rush in the user with serotonin adrenaline and dopamine the same chemicals produced by opiates alcohol cocaine and amphetamines we try to keep those from our kids why not porn as with drug use pornography erodes the prefrontal cortex that only develops fully into adulthood girls are more likely to abuse written porn so imagine your daughter granddaughter niece or baby sister with this dangerous addiction thank you for your consideration [Applause] Miss Betsy croner I need a stool I sold it can someone from the board
017show me where in the Bible it has pornographic garbage such as this Cliff's stepmother perched on her knees spit in my mouth I draw a Gaba spit to the front of my mouth and drop it into hers awesome she swallows go ahead Travis I slide myself inside of her our skin going smack smack smack and start thrusting her as hard as I can Laura goes I want you to stay inside of me do not pull out we for like a half hour until I can't hold it anymore and I come inside her here is just a part of the school board oath I placed the interest of children above all others in every decision that I make I uphold all federal and state laws and regulations in the beginning of the school year an email
018was sent out asking parents to either give permission or not for their child to read 14 plus material mature material you gave no book titles or said books content to us because you knew what was in them shame on you by taking that off you said you'd protect our children but you failed most parents except Movie video games ratings explicit warnings on music children in school do not have access free access to these things books presented to our children in public schools should be no different schools have the responsibility of keeping obscene and pornographic materials out of the hands of our children and if you can't hear our cries I know my God can thank you for your time [Applause] our next speaker be Mr go ahead Pastor Paul deal [Applause] ER school board members
019and superintendents thank you for hearing us tonight and allowing us to come before you on this matter I can't even believe that we're having this discussion but since we are I've got some questions to ask number one I want to know why when you sent the email out to parents letting them check yes or no as to whether they would give their children access to this while they were not given clear examples of the pornographic material in question you've misled and hid the facts from the parents of Burke County and this is pure deception on behalf of the media director on behalf of the school board and superintendents nobody in their right mind if they knew the examples of pornographic material in question would ever let their child or youth have access to this number
020two I want to know who determined that 14 years of age is appropriate for any young person to have access to this pornographic material in these books number three I want to know what firewalls you have put in place to stop one who may have permission to check these books out and give them to another who does not have permission Matthew chapter 8 verse 6 Jesus said but whosoever shall offend one of these little ones talking about the kids which believe in me he said it would be better to have a millstone hang around your neck and cast into the sea and drowned Proverbs 6 27 says can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned Matthew 5 28 says Jesus said if a man lust after a woman he's
021committed adultery in his own heart First Corinthians 6 18 says flee fornication he's talking to youth there if you are in support of these pornographic books you are going to be held responsible by God for causing these kids to commit fornication [Applause] all of those on the scoreboard that ran as a Christian conservative but now supports the pornographic material Matthew Jesus said you're either for me or you're against me let me conclude by saying the audacity of one of your board members to try to convince everyone Monday night of a list of listening that pornographic material in these books is like the Bible is insane and it's pathetic to put it lightly either she has never read the word of God or she has never read the pornographic experts in these books a person would
022have to be completely out of their mind or reprobate in nature Jeffrey Dahmer killed 17 boys he raped them and murdered them and dismembered their bodies and ate their body parts Ted Bundy killed 36 men they both admitted before they died that it was all because they were addicted to pornography [Music] thank you [Applause] thank you Pastor okay I'm going to ask you all to please keep it down [Music] just keep it down just be respectful our next speaker is Dr Ron Beatty [Applause] thank you I've been around the block a few times I've been pastoring churches for over 50 years I've been at the same church for 43 years I have been a chaplain with the local police department since 1992. I've been president of return America traveling across North Carolina I've seen a
023lot I've experienced a lot but I've never come across anything that I believe is as low as what you folks here and it's not only you it's other counties across this state are trying to feed into the minds of the oncoming generation there is absolutely no way that you can produce good men and women by filling their minds with pornography and feeding the basic nature of sin there's not a one of you here on this school board tonight could read this same material and have good clean thoughts as you read the material and I want to say one of you a year ago this past May said this in my opinion if it's littered with racial slurs profanity and sexual content I really don't care what the purpose of the book the Peace of literature
024is it doesn't need to be in our media center or in our instructional materials I mean to me that's just just toss it out when to use right when you said that you said that in May of 2022 and we applaud you for making that statement and I noticed that Mrs Honeycutt saying that they go to multiple sources to approve the curriculum that comes into Burke County and she named the sources I happen to know some of the sources they are as corrupt as the material that you have in the libraries you can't lay down with the dogs without getting up with the fleas it's an utter impossibility to do so I was raised on the farm you don't have to take a bull out in the cow pasture and put a picture of the
025bull a cow in front of the bull for the bull to inseminate the cow it's the nature of the bull to know what to do when you put it out in the cow pasture young people know what to do but when we go over this and put this in front of them it inflames their nature and they'll get in the back of an automobile somewhere with a young girl take that girl's virginity away from her the boy will lose his virginity there is absolutely no way this side of Eternity that you can put garbage in without getting garbage out coach it's hard for me to understand how anybody it's difficult how anybody and you folks are good folks you I know you want to do what's best but it's difficult for me to understand how
026you intelligent people have behind you the sign board of education and you're educating young people in the very recesses of pornography and filth and dirt and expect to get a good quality product as a result of it you can't do it thank you Dr babe Pastor Dean art is it heart heart [Applause] [Music] while we're here we shouldn't even have to be talking about something so vulgar so pornographic over the years I've had been fortunate enough to be around Catawba County Burke County Schools students and during that time I've driven a school bus for both counties I've enjoy being around the students over the years I've watched as school leaders stand by and let students do and say whatever they want break in their own school policies in which using vulgarity and then when the
027student wrote I when I was a student riding my bus I would teach them that's what we're all about is teaching our students and I would teach them how to act on the school bus and they would listen they actually listened and they didn't have the the pornographic words that uh we're spreading around today and so as I begin to look at this well the schools are out of control we have vocabulary that have changed over the years the their vocabularies has got to wear that and and it just goes rampant so here's what's happening now is now we're feeding that vocabulary with pornographic words in which they have access to that we we have no reason whatsoever I mean this is a no-brainer there's no reason you can holler all about well this is
028free speech and all this and there's no way under Heaven that's free speech right there and so we look and we we see these things and I just want to be clear here this uh this evening we are not trying to ban any books what we're trying to do is we're trying to protect the minds of our children and keep our children's Minds clean because this kind of garbage you wouldn't even allow in your own home you wouldn't allow your children some of you've even made that statement you wouldn't allow your children to even read this junk and yet you're allowing our children in Burke County and I got grandchildren Burke County and I like it a bit because this is wrong this is obscene it's wrong it's vulgar I'll just finish up with this
029right here in our kitchen we have a trash can and in that trash can we put trash in it we take it outside we don't leave it inside and the reason why we won't leave it inside is because we don't want it to stink in the house what we need to do is you need to go ahead because some of you made this statement that that you answer to yourselves and so we don't need to leave the junk the pornography the trash in our schools there's no place for this whatsoever it needs to be taken out it needs to be cleaned up y'all have the ability to be able to do that and it should be done I I can say this it should be done the trash the pornography should be taken out of
030our schools once and for all and y'all can set precedents here and do that very thing by doing the right thing and you know it's right you know that it's right it's biblically right and not just biblically right but it's more right it stinks it's garbage it's filled and we don't need that kind of stuff in Burke County we don't need it in Catawba County we don't need it anywhere else I know we're in Burke County right now but I understand this we don't need that kind of trash where that our kids are devouring I wouldn't even take my dog my trash can and give it to my dog and let him or her rather eat the trash and dig all in it I'd get after them you should do the same thing and put
031a stop to this all of you every single individual that has a position on the school board in the school setting every single one of you ought to step up to the plate and say well enough's enough we're done with this we're not going to allow these books to be in our classrooms understand that parents when they find out what's really going on in the trash that's going on in our school system I can tell you right now there'll be a rising up of parents that are not going to like the trash that's going on and it's simply because you're making a wrong choice [Applause] our next speakers Mr Jamie Wyckoff [Applause] before Mr Wyckoff speaks tonight miss Craven was very polite our chairman was very polite this evening and asking people to please be
032quiet while the individual up here is speaking so please have respect for the people that are up here and keep your voices to yourself and let the individuals speak thank you so I'm speaking not as a taxpayer but more importantly as a parent the Reese adopt-in email has caused a lot of confusion parents are still unsure as the what has been considered as mature content I've heard some parents say it's history books like talking about the Holocaust or Classics Like To Kill a Mockingbird so since most of the parents do not know of some of the contents of the media centers I feel like a third email should be sent out as more honest and descriptive of the contents and I request that it be added to that email that the matured materials include written
033depictions of vaginal and anal penetration ejaculation oral sex rape sexual assaults on minors child pornography incest self-harm and excessive vulgarities I'm also requesting that you broaden your email recipients to include all BCPS parents considering their materials Even in our elementary schools that are rated adult if you truly believe that there's nothing wrong with some of this material and you're backing it as approved content then there needs to be some transparency with the parents so tell them what they would be approving of and own it now whenever we're finding books available to Children 11 and under in the animal section of an elementary school that describes people having sexual intercourse discussions about statutory rape and inseminating sperm into a lady with a turkey baster and uses vulgarities including the f word multiple times don't tell me
034as it says in the policy that professional Educators knows what's more appropriate than I do for my own child we don't care about the education level of the media staff so get it out or our kids come out thank you foreign Monday night one of the school board members went out of their way to compare the pornographic material in these books as being the same as what you read when you read the Bible I'm very offended that you would degrade the work of God in this manner the Bible teaches that God exalts his word above his own name I have read the Bible and I have read the excerpts contained in these books that you are allowing the children of Burke County to have access to I cannot find anywhere in the Bible any comparison
035whatsoever I have come to the conclusion ma'am one of two things either you don't know your Bible or you've not read excerpts contained in these books with all due respect it would be greatly appreciated by myself and many other citizens of Burke County that if you don't know what you're talking about then you would be better to remain silent and thought to be ignorant than to open your mouth and remove all doubt thank you foreign our next speaker will be Cassie Hart and please forgive me for what I'm about to say because it's embarrassing you my ass in a bathroom in a Speedwagon Warehouse during the lightning bolt and 400 blows show last summer you piece of you choke me and you slam my head against the wall and you came on my face I'm
036not sure where in the world you would ever want to hear that in a school that my children could go into the library and actually check that book out I mean can you tell me what educational purpose that that book would have you know I Read To Kill a Mockingbird a Scarlet Letter you know it kind of makes sense this this is trash this is garbage this is porn we don't allow you're not allowed your child can't go and buy porn anywhere until they're of the age of 18. so why are you handing it to our children I mean the what I read is assault and rape I mean if that's okay with you I'm just I'm just disgusted [Applause] thank you Ruth and Evans thank me thank you for allowing me to be able
037to speak tonight I appreciate it this is a subject that's uh very very um heart heart is such a hard thing for our hearts right now to be able to process that this media is in our schools I would just like to share with you some of the things that I have read um in trying to determine why uh someone would allow this in our schools I read an article from Hopkins and jockman who were reporting for the Baltimore Sun and they concluded after their investigation on sexual assault that we should focus on middle schoolers in educating them against assault they stated they stated that starting intervention in high school is like trying to prevent a car crash it is as it is happening why then are our school boards opting to add fuel to
038a fire by placing sexually explicit and vulgar books at the hands of teenagers in our schools the statistics of middle and high school sexual assault is rampant and are climbing at alarming rates we know that 82 percent of all victims under 18 are girls should I be concerned that an older student with permission to read this written pornography be so enticed by these visual aids to sex that they might make my granddaughter a victim um can you promise me anyone on this board that every child that reads this pornographic material will not hurt another human being because of what this school board has included in their educational format from your book in the libraries of Burke County High School I quote he wanted to her tender tenderly but the tenderness would not hold the tightness
039of her vagina was more than he could bear his soul seeped to slip down into his guts and fly out into her I hope that you will truly hear what we are saying and consider what we are saying that we are concerned for our children just as you are thank you [Applause] thank you Miss Evans Carol Myers thank you for letting me speak uh lick that pornography when this was presented to me just so I would understand exactly what I'm talking to so I can make my point and this is what I received pornography printed or visual material containing the explicit description or display of sexual organs or activity intended to stimulate erotic rather than anesthetic or emotional feelings the example was she warned that access to hardcore pornography was shaping children's expectation of relationships
040also another thing that I've researched it said 95 percent of serial killers caught and convicted over the past 60 years have claimed to have been influenced by pornography or addiction to it generally violent hardcore or fetish related escalated into fantasy involving crimes the thing that Dr Beatty said garbage in garbage out children mimic what they are taught what they see what they hear and I think I was sitting there looking at the videos of the children smiling the fist bumps the arms around them they love you they entrust you are taking care of them and that you have their best interest at heart nothing here is educational I cannot read the excerpt because it speaks of a woman's body parts and what a man is doing to her it's a conversation I read it in
041private when we were in a group and I got so embarrassed I had to put it down and it just breaks my heart that we're here at this point in the Bible Belt of all places fighting for our children's safety for their minds their innocent they're precious they're pure and they are special to God and they should be special to you and I will ask you when you're contemplating what all we're saying that you ask yourself did my parents allow this in our schools did our grandparents allow this in our schools would we be able to come up here they would be up here tearing up the carpet off of this place they would not rest until it was resolved in a Godly manner thank you [Applause] thank you ma'am this is Laura Wyckoff [Applause]
042so I don't know if I'm allowed to do this or not but I'm going to because I feel like the people that are in this room know what I'm here to talk about and so I'm speaking to the board okay I appreciate the opportunity to be able to be here tonight and so I'll try to make mine the best two minutes that I possibly can and I want to read an excerpt from a book it's already been touched on but this book is in three of our high schools it's The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison quote he put his head down and nibbled at the back of her leg his mouth trembled at the firm sweetness of the flesh he closed his eyes letting his fingers dig into her waist the rigidness of her shocked
043body The Silence of her stunned throat was better than Pauline's easy laughter had been the confused mixture of his memories of Pauline and the doing of a wild and forbidden thing excited him and a bold of Desire ran down his genitals giving it length and softening the lips of his anus surrounding all this lust was a border of politness he wanted to her tenderly but the tenderness would not hold the tightness of her vagina was more than he could bear his soul seemed to slip down to his guts and fly out into her in the gigantic thrust he made into her then provoked the only sound she made a hollow suck of air in the back of her throat like the rapid loss of air from a circus balloon removing himself from her was so
044painful to him that he cut it short and catch snatched his genitals out of the Dry Harbor of her vagina she appeared to have fainted Kali stood up and could only see her grayish panties sad and Limp around her ankles so with that end quote I would like to also say to to the members of this school board who who know that this is wrong who are conservative who have advocated for the books to be removed dig your heels in do not let this be the end of this discussion and since our professional educators are so intent on us knowing the context around these books let me lay this context out for you so Kali in this example is piccola's father and he is raping her raping her she is a child a child if
045you think that is okay then number one you should not be on our School Board number two if you think that is okay number one well number two I can't even count I'm so stirred up but number two we should have the ability to as parents come to you and say that is not okay you are not in control of our kids our kids are ours that's the truth of the matter and so if I ask you the question tonight what are you going to do about this I asked that question in April and you know what I heard nothing silence so to you I want to say to conservatives dig your heels in if you are a supposed Conservative then you need to write yourself with your lord in closing I also would like
046to remind the board of a comment made by your one of your very own members who quoted Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart in a recent meeting Justice Stewart said of obscene material I know it when I see it so my words to you that are not of a conservative nature who are thinking this is okay that this is freedom of speech open your eyes thank you Miss walkoff Gina Compton so I'm going to read you a paragraph It's from a book called a court of mist and fury and it's available at Freedom High so I leaned down and I put my mouth on him he jerked at the contact and burped with the and I laughed around him even as I took him deeper into my mouth he nudged my legs apart with his knees
047and he spread me as he gripped my hips tugging them up up before he chiefed himself deep in me with a single stroke I'm moaned into the pillow and every glorious inch of him Rising onto my forearms as my fingers grappled into the sheets Wine's pulled out but then he plunged back in he hauled me up against him one hand cupped my breast and the other rolled and stroked that bundle of nerves between my legs and I couldn't tell where one climax ended and the second began as he thrust again and again his lips on my neck and on my ears so this is a direct quote from a porn addict porn stays in your head images are burned in your memory you cannot unsee or unread this material you are poisoning the minds of
048our children and our grandchildren with this pornography why do you feel that you know what is best for our children and grandchildren when it goes against the wishes of the parents you are not the parent research has proven that pornography content is harmful to a child's brain development it is addictive it strengthens attitude towards sexual violence it is linked to increased risk of anxiety and depression and it can lead to poor mental health one in four criminals that is arrested for pornography for possessing pornography has had a history of molesting children suicide is now the leading cause of death for 13 and 14 year olds in the U.S did you catch that age that you're targeting as mature 14 year olds have you stopped to consider that we're not doing something right with our kids
049and our youth and how in the world with these proven facts is what you're introducing to them going to help do you want to be a part of the problem or do you want to be a part of the solution the decision is yours to make now before it's too late and I would like to remind you from God's holy word which by the way should never ever be compared to the filth of this pornography Isaiah 5 20 woe unto them that call evil good and good evil God help us [Applause] thank you Ms Compton Carla Odom [Applause] members of the board as board members you are responsible for the safety and Welfare of all students in the Burke County School System the American Bar Association states that exposure to pornography harms Children and Youth
050by normalizing sexual violence and increasing the risk of addiction so why was it placed in the school libraries the Supreme Court has ruled transmitting obscenity and child pornography whether by internet or other means is illegal under federal law for both adults and juveniles while were parents not informed of the pornographic books in the school libraries why were they simply asked to give permission for their child to read books deemed appropriate for ages 14 and up all parents should be made fully aware of these pornographic books that they might make an informed decision for their child based on the truth parents are responsible for their child's upbringing and guidance regardless of the level of Education of a parent or educator has they are able to determine right from wrong and subjecting our children to pornography is
051wrong and illegal the written word is powerful it is powerful to damage and harm a child given these pornographic books and it is powerful to help and guide and teach and instruct a child as the word of our Lord Jesus Christ does for you to compare these pornographic books to the Bible shows a lack of understanding First Corinthians 2 14 says but the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness and to him neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned members of the board please remove the pornographic books for the safety and the welfare of our children if you refuse in the words of Our Lord father forgive them for they know not what they do because the Burke County Board of Education will stand
052accountable for the damaging and lasting effects of these pornographic books on our children thank you for your time thank you madam chair that is our 15th speaker thank you all for coming we appreciate your words and we will take off all the information you shared with us into account one of the things I would like to say about this board is that when our citizens have come to speak to us we have tried to do what we thought was in the best interest whether it be cell phones or vaping or books whatever it is we have really listened and tried to do what we felt was right so thank you all for coming and sharing your comments with us I appreciate it foreign next um let's look at our Title One application Dr Brett Wilson
053good evening Madam chair members of the board last week at our work session I presented the proposed Title One plan which we will submit at the end of this month I want to see if there were any follow-up questions about that plan and if not would like to ask that it be moved for action for approval actually I would move approval and authorization of the title one application as it previously discussed okay do I have a second second thank you all those in favor please raise your hand all right all right that's unanimous thank you Dr Wilson we appreciate all the hard work you put into getting that together right next we'll have our Supper meal price Mr wall Madam chair it's time again to approve our supper price for fiscal year for the federal
054government based on the July CPI for food away from home Chartwells is requesting a 7.3 increase of the current 3.02 cents per supper plate the rate they're requesting is 3.226 dollars all right glad to entertain emotion on that or ask the board to consider that okay I'd like to make a motion to approve the proposed increase from Chartwells and the supper price to three dollars and 22 6. continuation of Premium lunch days and cost of supply chain assistance funding will be given to chart Wells to offset inflation cost food prices for 20 23 2024 do I have a second second thank you all those in favor thank you Mr wow does anyone have any questions about the Personnel report remember use the number if you have anything okay I want to make a motion to
055approve the board Miss Craven I I just had one question please um Keith can you give me some suggestions as to when we bring in interventionists what are their roles in our schools examples please yes it's all relative to the need of the schools it is based on their data from the prior year and the data that they have continuing that's running this year so it hypothetically it could change throughout the year but what happens is when we onboard them they go and meet with the principal and the teams that they're going to be serving with teachers to dial in what they're going to be doing intervention-wise with the students and how they record that data and are these volunteers that are coming into our schools we do have a number of volunteers yes ma'am
056they follow our volunteer policy when they come in otherwise we are having folks come in and we do pay them a rate on an hourly basis so they could these individuals could be retired teachers yes ma'am parents grandparents yes ma'am and we have a number of retired teachers that have come in in the interventionist capacity and come in when we have vacancies in the classroom to help support with that as well thank you very much I'm going to make a motion to approve the board action report for October 2nd 2023 do I have a second second all right all those in favor all right well let's go today uh Miss Jane has a few remarks that she would like to make regarding Emergency Services there have been times in the past when um our schools
057have had fire alarms set off or they've had bomb threats or things like that I had an experience as a child growing up that my father was a volunteer fireman that helped start a volunteer fire department and these individuals go out in their trucks and they are trying to do the very best they can to get to our children and take care of them and does it matter if they're false alarms that are made but if or they are a real event that's taking place nonetheless years and years ago when I was a senior in high school my dad was out with the firefighters and a firefighter and this was a false call that was made there was a firefighter that was very close to where I lived he was in the truck truck was
058trying to miss another car in the middle of the intersection the fireman was thrown out of the truck the truck landed on top of Butch and my father had to go down to that intersection and take care of what happened afterwards this is a big this is very important to me it reads it speaks to my heart so if there are individuals that are so bored with life or other things that are going on please please do not call in false alarms please do not call in fire false alarms or bomb threats to our schools because every single one of us up here takes to heart that we have 12 000 children that we are entrusted with so that's all I have to say but please if anyone is inclined to do that think about
059Butch in his appearance that lost him that day thank you okay let's go to consent items are there any questions folks after I've moved forward the consent items were approved okay do we have a second thank you Mr Johnson all those in favor Dr swine I don't believe we have a closed session tonight do we all right so we don't have to go into closed session I am going to make a motion to adjourn do I have a second second see she got it are those in favor all right thank you thank you all okay