001e e e okay let's call this meeting to order could you the roll call Miss Donna Miss Garcia here miss Miller here Miss Williams here Mr Moore here Mr Garing pres miss chzn here miss Lanning here I'll stand for the Pledge of Allegiance please I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to theic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all good good evening everyone I will Begin by calling audience participation due to the time restraints there will be eight speakers according to the order that you signed up in order to keep things equal and fair it will be four speakers um to to keep the recommendations of the committee and for speakers to alter the recommendations of the committee everyone will have three
002minutes I have a keeper of the time please be respectful about your time and I would also like to thank a couple of officers for giving their time to be here in order to help us keep order in this meeting our first audience participation member it will be Melissa Cory okay hello my name is meliss excuse me oh my goodness I can't even get my name right uh my name is Melissa Cory and I will be serving as a secondary Library department chair this year I've worked in SJSD for the past 16 years as a middle school high school librarian as well as a technology specialist as well I am a past president of the Missouri Association of school librarians specifically serving the years 2022 through 23 um when we were at a height for
003book challenges in Missouri um I wanted to provide the board some insight into the larger view of this from a legal standpoint from a Statewide standpoint as well as our own policies and procedures first I do want to highlight that we have a board policy IAC which outlines the criteria used by Librarians When selecting books for their libraries regarding The Bluest Eye this book was most recently reviewed in the spring of 2024 by school library Journal which is a professional re review Source used by all of our Librarians this riew States the book is a riveting portrayal that centers the experience of black Americans in the mid 20th century and is recommended for high school collections as well the bluest ey is included on the advanced placement recommended reading list with appearances as a tested
004item as recently as 2019 and 2022 to clarify this book is not located at elementary or middle school collections it is reviewed for high school and is located at all three high schools second the American Library association's office for elect Freedom provided statistical data regarding challenges to the blue as die at various school districts in Missouri in the vast majority of cases the book has been retained this includes the following schools Kirkwood High School retained Lindberg High School retained Melville High School retained Le Summit High School retain wizville High School initially withdrawn but returned to the library collection after legal action as well there is much case law regarding book challenges as I mentioned above WV removed eight books um including The Bluest Eye in 2022 but a lawsuit was filed that resulted in the
005titles being retained many cases apply to various aspects of book challenges I provided the board with information on each of these prior to this meeting um these include Tinker versus De Moine Island Trees versus Pico so on and so forth basically the case law establishes that students retain their first amendment rights in school and that part of a First Amendment right is the freedom of speech which courts have proven includes Act access to information in books um under these different cases they've also established particularly in the cederville case that an individual parent has the right to make determinations for an individual student regarding their reading materials however it is a potential violation of all students rights for a select few to make that determination finally I want to highlight the ways that our Librarians Empower
006parents to assist in making reading choices for their students we are implementing an opt-in parent Guardian access to library records notification this school year any parent can sign a form in their main office provide an ID thank [Applause] you Jacob McMillan thank you board of education for letting us speak to you tonight I sent my thoughts a couple months ago to each and every one of you and since then I've been having different meetings with different members of our community trying to listen and hear where everyone stands with this and uh the reassuring thing is we all agree on 99% of what a school district does Student Success retain and recruit good staff be good stewards of the buildings and finances that the community gives us there's always going to be this 1% that comes
007up where when you have a community of different World Views and different convictions we may not agree on everything and that's okay that's part of being a community and and we find ourselves tonight at one of those moments what is appropriate for a minor when it comes to a library book and you have on one side people who say this book is needed and beneficial for the development of a student and for trauma and for them to learn and develop as a young adult on the other side of the community you have those who say that the book is not age appropriate because of the graphic nature of the scenes uh not the the message of the book but rather within those six or seven moments of the book The Graphic nature goes beyond what's
008age appropriate and would align more more with our technology handbook that would not allow these books to be maybe read or even Google searched because of the parameters of our technology handbook after all this I asked the question what is position that could unify us tonight rather than divide us is there a way we could all leave here today without winners and losers is there a way we could all leave this room being heard and respected is there a way we could have a decision and I that is best for the district best for students and best for parents my only suggestion and I don't know if it's good or not but it's a suggestion is to make parent consent at checkout for any book that has graphic sex this makes sure that those families
009who think this book is beneficial for their student it's still available in our libraries it also hears those in our community that are concerned about the graphic nature and we can tell those concern the parent has a right to Trump their concerns that's what a parent is it's also I think the most pra pragmatic way of handling this it's easier for our Librarians to handle one book being restricted than to have to insert multiple Ames calling and wanting the book restricted I'm also ready for this to move on you know if we make it parent consent at checkout we can put this conversation behind us and get back to education get back to accreditation test scores attendance staff uh excitement and District Pride but if we leave it with the policy we have now where
010parents have to notify the district then we're going to have to make every book list available in every Library so parents can educate themselves and we're going to have to be ready every year every August for those who are concerned to make videos and letters informing every person of our community of this book and its presence in the library which keeps this conversation going year in and year out I would R rather have a closed folder tonight give it back to the parents make a parent consent to check out and then we can move on and those who are concerned don't feel the need every year to voice that concern and Librarians have less updating on the system to do thank you for your time [Applause] Matt Hoskins thank you for your time 200 words
011out of 52,000 200 words have caused so much concern those who challenge this book I want you to focus on the toughest 200 words and ignore the other 52,000 200 words is not enough for you to make a decision at least not an informed one which is why we have a process a process where a Review Committee of nine people read the book made up of community members teachers Librarians School administrators all of them parents they read the book all 52,000 words within those pages they read the 200-word account of a child being raped thankfully our Review Committee didn't stop at the water's edge of 200 words they did the work and they read the book and in the end every single one of them voted to keep this book in our school libraries much
012has been made about restricting access to this material if not removing then at least restricting it so parents must consent sounds reasonable parental consent is foundational to a functioning public trust such as the SJSD so Paramount it already exists there is no need to further restrict this book on the grounds of parental consent because it already exists you see any parent can contact their school work with their students librarian and ensure family values and World Views are honored they can restrict any book any genre or frankly the entire library for their child for their child not everyone else but for their child which is what they're asking you to do those who challenge this book are asking you to decide what is and isn't too mature for every student this is not a compromise that
013is an edict in closing what I am asking is that you trust your librarian's judgment trust the review committee's decision and finally trust parents to know what's best for their own children I urge you to vote to retain The Bluest Eye [Applause] Dorothy steel I I don't know if you can hear me can you hear me can okay my name is Dorothy Steel and I'm a retired College library assistant I'm have to put my glasses on I can't read what I wrote in my line of work I had to examine and read many books to decide what was to be put on the shelves there were many I felt were not even fit to be on a college level let alone in a lower grades I understand there are many that feel we should educate
014these students so they can be prepared for life being prepared for life is one thing but being filled with sexual explicit detail is not preparation once a mind is filled with these details one will never forget it I want you to think back in your life when something was told to you or you saw or read something that shocked you then I ask you can you or have you been able to erase it from your mind younger students are even more impressionable because their minds are fresh and are like sponges we are all held responsible for what we teach and what we put in our school libraries we need to be very careful what we allow in the state of Missouri there is a law against placing sexual graphic books in our schools the law
015came into effect of August 2022 it is a misdemeanor punishable up to a year in jail or a 2,000 fine for librarians and other Educators to give students access to such material so I am asking you to be very careful what you put on the shelves of our school libraries consider what is at stake an innocent mind that needs to be nurtured trained pointed in the right direction so they can be students that will become successful in life I thank you for [Applause] listening thank you Miss Ste Sydney pinan uh hi I'm Sydney uh so I am one of the founding members of The Forbidden book club I formed book club so that we could gather with others in the community and do something that the challenges of these books couldn't be bothered to do
016read them uh I volunteered my time giving out copies of The Bluest Eye and having conversations with the people of St Joseph and while the responses from those who have read the book have been overwhelmingly positive there's also been a lot of misinformation spread around about the books the district and our criminally undervalued Librarians here are a few facts fact last year Missouri ranked number three for the highest number of Books banned in schools Nationwide fact almost 20% of the state population struggles with low literacy and 40% of our fourth graders are below average reading level fact despite making up 5.9% of published author books written by black authors are disproportionately targeted by book challenges with 47% of books targeted featuring black or LGBT voices for the record that includes six out of 10 of
017the books challenged in our community the NAACP condemned the Banning of The Bluest ey stating that we are depriving students of a fundamental source of knowledge about the history of race in America while the subject matter may be uncomfortable for some the story also holds significant historical and literary value it provides commentary on racism and colorism in 19 1940s America something that is unfortunately part of our own history as the novel takes place just seven short years after a mob of St Joe citizens Lynch 19-year-old Lloyd Warner on the steps of the courthouse it speaks on sexual abuse and the repercussions of those heinous acts in a way that is honest and inspires survivors of abuse to seek help The Bluest Eye was released three years before the US Congressional hearings on child sex crimes
018would even begin and it was considered radical at the time to even speak about issues like child abuse Educators and authors can confirm that that when readers struggling with difficult subjects such as racism abuse and poverty see representation in books it gives them the tools to better navigate these things The Bluest Eye is a beautifully tragic novel that addresses the ways in which these things intersect and harm the most vulnerable members of our community in her own words Tony Morrison wrote this novel for all the peripheral little girls who would otherwise remain unseen there are so many peripheral children in our school district who are struggling I was one and those those things some seek to shelter students from are things that their peers are already experiencing to deprive them of access to the books
019is to deny them a tool that teaches them empathy and helps them navigate the real world I ask that the board please vote in favor of protecting access to this book and preserving intellectual freedom for our students a vote in favor of restricting this novel at the request of people who haven't made an attempt to read or understand it sets the precedent that it's okay for any group to abuse the systems in place and waste our time in tax dollars when we could have spent time and money focusing on improving literacy of our students or something that actually benefits them regardless of the outcome today forbidden book club would like to make a promise that the 10 challenge books aren't going anywhere thank you for your [Applause] time Frank fenthol I'm Frank Pruden and uh
020I'm gonna have to read mine because if I don't I'm going to be getting off on rabbit Trails so it it came to my attention that the libraries of the St Joseph Public Schools have materials that I personally would consider to be inappropriate for children of any age realizing that there's a difference between people and what they would consider to be pornography I won't use that term at all I will say that these books definitely contain sexually explicit material again realizing that some parents would say it's okay for their children to have access to these books I can understand why you might say these books should remain in the library however I know that there are some parents that do not want their children to have access to sexually explicit books so my proposal to
021you is to let the parents decide whether they want their children reading these books you could segregate a list of books which have a sexually explicit material and make them unavailable to students unless their parents have given specific permission for their child to have access to those books this permission would be a simple form that that names their child as having their permission to access these books and then signed by the parent just that just so that you know what I mean by sexually explicit material I'm going to read a little about a man named Charlie and his sexual exper activities the book describes an early experiences when he was just a teenager possibly his first experience with sexual intercourse then after he was married the book describes how his wife controlled things and avoided
022having sex but then there's a there's a flashback of what she and and this is her having the flashback what it was like when they were first married and gives a vivid description of what their sex was like now the part I'm going to read is when Charlie staggers home reeling drunk on a Saturday afternoon and he sees his 11-year-old daughter washing dishes at the kitchen sink the book describes his thoughts and emotions as he watches her something she does reminds him of the first time he saw his wife Pauline the tenderness welled up in him and he sank to his knees his eyes on the foot of his daughter crawling on all fours toward her he raised his hand and caught the foot of an upward stroke but Cola lost her balance and was
023about to carine to the floor Chie raised his other hand to her hips and save her from falling he put his head down and nibbled on 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 body 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 bolt of Desire ran down his Gentiles Gentiles giving it length and softening the lips of his anus Sur grounding all of this lust was a border of politeness he wanted to tenderly but the tender pardon oh boy I'd love to read the rest of
024it you'd really enjoy it but this is the kind of stuff that I would not want my kids reading in you like a cop feel free to read I I have a copy man thank you Juniper Brown hello um my name is junifer brown um I am a St Joseph resident I have a child in the district and I am a Missouri Western political science graduate fall of 23 zumma Kum my project was specifically based on these kind of book challenges is and uh I in approaching the topic I would first like to say that if uh uh the against crowd would like to talk about the school district needing to be good fiscal stewards then they would acknowledge when there is a losing legal argument in the room um and that that's because protections
025for this book are rooted in the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment which covers strict scrutiny well the Supreme Court has ruled this is an issue of strict scrutiny requiring compelling State interest and least restrictive means there's also the fact that it's based in due process and equal protection Clauses of the 14th Amendment the question of sex and obscenity was first approached by the Supreme Court in 1957 and Roth V United States specifically they say sex and obscenity are not synonyms obscene material is material which deals with sex in in a manner of appealing to puant interest the portrayal of sex EG in art literature scientific work is not itself sufficient reason to deny material the Constitutional protection of free speech and press sex a great and mysterious motive force in human life has
026indisputably been a subject of absorbing interest to mankind Through the Ages it is one of the vital problems of human interest and public concern as to all such problems as Court said in Thorne Hy Alabama the freedom of speech and of the press guaranteed by the Constitution braces at least the Liberty to discuss publicly and truthfully all matters of public concern without previous restraint or fear or subsequent punishment freedom of discussion it would fulfill its historic function and the nation must embrace all issues about which information is needed or appropriate to enable the members of society to cope with the experience the exigencies of their period the actual policy for the district as well as state law as well as federal law law is rooted on the most recent ruling uh Miller V California which
027says that banned materials have to pass a hurdle of three tests whether the average person applying contemporary Community standards would find that the work taken as a whole appeals to the prant interests that is a morbid interest as opposed to a healthy interest second whether the work dep Pi or describes in a patently offensive way sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable State Law rsmo chapter defines as Mr Freud and Thal had referred to explicit sexual material as any pictoral or threedimensional material depicting various human sexual acts provided however that works of art or anthropological significance shall not be [Applause] deemed and our last speaker will be Janel good afternoon school board members I am Jan juwel a retired High School Humanities history teacher with 30 years of experience and I want to appeal to
028you to remove from our District's Public School libraries the book The Bluest Eyes by by Tony Morrison my concerns are that the book is very sexually graphic and explicitly leaves images of an unacceptable longlasting nature in the minds of impressionable youth the sexual language includes the topic of a very descriptive rape scene of a young teen girl our District's School library should not plant the seeds of such reprehensible Behavior by the placement of this book in our school libraries I ask for each members serious consideration of this request before making a decision which will affect the youth in our community schools which you represent thank [Applause] you is there a motion for the approval of the agenda thank you assara is there a second I'll second thank you Ronda would you call the vote please
029Miss Williams yes Miss Garcia yes Miss Miller Miss chzn yes Mr Garing yes Miss Lanning yes Mr Mor yes items under discussion the book review Dr mcginness sure I want to provide you guys with some facts and also provide that for the public so the blue is I was challenged on May 27th 2024 we received a total of four requests for reconsideration of materials forms on this particular book the committee decision was to retain the book with no restrictions and that occurred on July 2nd 2024 of the nine members on that committee six members chose to retain the book with no restrictions three members chose to retain the book with restrictions of those restrictions listed one suggested parent alert or parent permission one stated sophomores and up and one did not make a suggestion this
030decision was appealed the same day that the committee met and that was July 2nd a second appeal came to us on July 31st at your workstations you have copies of the original challenge forms you have the individual committee members forms and you have relevant board policy so I would be happy to answer any questions you may have before you um engage in some dialogue can you Dr M can you talk about the parental notification system that's already that's going in place are the restrictions that parents can put on yes that will be new this year so we have included an optin procedure so all parents can sign up for daily notifications of what books they have have checked out in that student's name they will receive an email every day I think that will go
031out about 3:00 4:00 and it will say these are the books that are checked out in your students names that so that is a new process that we are doing this year so what happens if the if there's no op in so again that's back is that back on the parents yes so if there's no form then the parent would not receive that daily email notification so it's a choice again the parent has to make correct to be involved so how do they know which books to be concerned about or not you know is there any kind of I think that's debatable depending on the parent um how old you got be watch pornography excuse me Ian excuse me you don't have the floor I'm sorry you have I'm sorry excuse me excuse me you
032don't have the floor I would behave yourself am if you're not able to be quiet I'll need you to leave the room thank you okay Dr vas I'm sorry go ahead no that's okay do you have any other questions I think did I answer that one so so you can often there's also an existing policy where you could restrict all books or what is that what was the existing process so prior to that opt-in procedure we have always had a standing procedure that if a parent doesn't want their child to check out library books then they can place that restriction on their individual students account so for example we may have a student who um doesn't do well with scary books so the parent may call in and say we don't want our child to
033have any scary books and they will put a restriction on that child's account that will be flagged when the student goes to the library to check something out um there could be um Harry Potter or Diary of a Wimpy Kid a particular author a genre and and like you had I think someone had mentioned earlier they can restrict no checkouts at the library so the parent would have to be aware that there's issue with some books to be able to say hey I'd rather not or uh the genre like like this one where under what category is The Bluest Eye I think that's a conversation that the parent could have with the librarian and I know our Librarians would be willing to have that conversation so if um a parent was uncomfortable or unsure of
034what books I would encourage that parent to reach out to their teacher librarian and have that conversation are there any other questions I I have a question y sure um so I was on the D District website to locate the the policy or the new procedure that's happening and and I it was tricky for me to find um but I was wondering to and I know we've already approved the parent handbook for this year but I was wondering maybe for next year if that um uh possibility could be added to the parent handbook because I know they have to sign that they've read the handbook um I was just wondering if that might be a possibility to add it to the handbook as always keep it on the website as far as the opt-in procedure
035that is in the handbook the ability to place restrictions on a student's account is also in the handbook okay well I guess maybe when I read that part of the handbook it didn't click with me that's that it's the same as the new policy to opt in to be notified can that part be added to the handbook that they can be notified of what their children are checking out you know what I'm saying yep I think someone just pulled that up could you read that again is sure parents have the ability to receive daily email notifications regarding the material materials their child has checked out of the school library parents wishing to receive these daily emails should contact their child's school to activate this feature additionally that's fine that's fine so that was it was
036the last time was something about restrictions that the parent has the right to to place restrictions on on that child's account and so that was the parent handbook yes well I honest truly read well it's okay read the whole and I didn't notice it so I'm sorry thank you for whoever pulled that up no I'm glad that it's in the handbook I think that's good that it's in the handbook and on the website because I did see it on the website but um I didn't I think I was looking for something that said more of a heading of libraries rather than parent access to Student Records I was looking more for as I was scrolling through looking for Library information because that's how it's listed on the website under Li under Library so that's what
037I was looking for sure but I'm glad it's in thebook yes do you think maybe a heading could be added about library or something for the next year's parent handbook so if I can remember that or if you want to shoot me any try to do that next year yes thank you very much the other point I want to clarify because we've had some public participation is the term sexually explicit materials um we have received guidance from Ed Council for two years on this topic now and so sexually explicit materials according to our Ed Council attorney is visuals and so it's not words on pages I just wanted to clarify that with the law um so that people do not think we are violating that so that was going to be my followup question to
038you I know that you've worked really closely with Ed council with our attorneys and so my two questions are you know there's been allegations that we're committing felonies by having some of the books that have been challenged in our libraries can you talk to speak to that um and then also um Miss Corey had mentioned books that had been retained but I also was aware that wizville had removed this book and others and there was legal action taken those were and so I don't know if you have any information about that but if you could speak to those two things yeah so the first thing the the f would not take place according to the guidance that we've been given from Ed counsil because sexually explicit materials would be actual pornography um with visuals he's
039made it very clear that it's pictures visuals not words and then your second question wizville if I remember correctly they pulled those books without a process and so I think that is where Lissa Cory you can correct me if I'm wrong yes so they pulled those books without a process which is why they had legal action and then they returned and just to clarify in the past that there was a process in which if a parent was interested in receiving like notifications or information that in the past all they had to do was just contact the librarian yes that's with any School record um you would just contact your child's School yeah and just for additional clarification my role in this whole process has been a facilitator and so it became very clear to me
040early on that when when we establish these committees we have to have somebody that's a neutral party that ensures We are following board policy allows all voices to be heard so that's been my role in all of these committees and the policy through the process is that it would go through the building level with the committee and then on to Administration but you all had an administrator on each of the Committees is that not on each oh at least a principal on them sometimes not a district administrator so do does does our do you all have a recommendation for us I know you had talked about being by like neutral but I think if we follow board policy we should stick with the committee process that's outlined in board policy and I would agree with
041that too and that's one thing that I would say in regards to um the entire process is uh I've spoken to several people on both sides I mean it's not a secret that's what you get to do when you sit in my seat which makes it fun um and you know I've respected every conversation that we've had and I think everybody would say that to you every person that we have spoken to I get it I understand where you're coming from uh you know I'm not going to get personal here but I do want to make a statement that I do understand that that uh I'm a public education superintendent and I'm here to educate every single kid in St Joseph and that that's my job and so that's what I'm going to continue to
042do no matter what happens here I'm going to continue to offer the very best education to every kid as we move forward and um the policy in itself uh those are some conversations that I've had with the uh folks from both sides on this deal it's not perfect but I can't I can't go change in policy and in the middle of a process and we're in we're in the middle of a process right now and unfortunately we have to let this process play out so whatever decision the board makes tonight I hope the community can respect that and um but just know that we understand where everybody is coming from and I thank you through for uh your participation you I wish we could be up here talking about the graduation profile I wish we
043could be talking about the U College and Career ready College and Career Readiness I wish we could talk about Community connections I wish we could be talking about long range plan unfortunately that's not the case I've been in education long enough to to realize I was hoping we wouldn't get to this point but we're here and U we'll do what's right for kids at the end of the day and at this point if there are no more questions I would like to give each of the board members a couple of minutes in order to make a comment if they so choose to assar is there anything that you'd like to say sure so um to begin I just want to thank every member of the public for expressing their concerns I um was elected by
044the parents of this city to watch over and protect the children in this District to be clear this is not about Democrat versus Republican or the violation of any rights this is about whether or not this novel is appropriate for our students to read after I personally read The Bluest Eye I couldn't help but to be disturbed by the graphic and erotic details that Morrison goes into as she describes rape and other sexual encounters in the book specifically when she describes the rape on page 162 we have to be 18 years old or older to view pornography or to watch rated our movies why because this is when we are legally considered an adult this is why I do not believe that this book is essential for our children's education because as a district we
045should not facilitate access to explicit and erotic material our students should be learning Civics and and math not rape and lustful encounters thank you first Librarians I'm sorry if you've been offended by these book challenges because I don't think that's the intent of the community I think they're concerned about their children and their parental rights consent to what their kids read and it didn't mean to and I'm sure they didn't mean to undermine your expertise in the choices you make and the work you do in our libraries those of you who have challenged books I admire your courage to voice your concerns when it would have been so much easier to be silent and go with the status quo you have faced ridicule ridicule and been maligned on social media for doing so even though
046we still live in a country where having their personal opinion is still legal I'm not nor have I ever been about banning books even if I disagree with its content for the sole purpose that it depends on the parents responsibility if we do that we remove the parents responsibility and being active in the child's education it's up to us to make sure that we protect we provide we educate and we fit our kids for for passing from youthfulness into adulthood but there have been times when I cringe at what's been acceptable in writing but we're not allowed to say out loud we're not allowed to view it we have we have parental consent for uh us for Safe Touch classes for sex education for technology usage policies preventing the viewing of graphic information yet we
047have no such warning on our books what some consider important information for those who have experienced abuse and neglect presented in this book can also elicit or trigger negative or harmful responses including suicide cutting delinquency for others who have lived similar situations I have been a therapist for over 20 years and an educator for over 30 and I've witnessed children youth and adults struggle with overcoming that trauma confirmed by PTSD depression Revol re withdrawal from regular activities and other issues with without therapy it is difficult to determine the cause and encourage restorative [Applause] measures Miss Lanning I'm gonna start my timer so you don't steal my time Don two minutes I got two minutes it's going to go off okay uh as a former child abuse inv investigator and foster parent I can say with
048certainty that this book brings awareness to difficult topics that students in our district face I also believe this book passes the Miller test when taken as a whole it's important and has literary value I'd like to use my time though to acknowledge how and why we got here in De Herzog senior vice president Kyle Phillips sunshin the title of every book in our library he then admittedly gave that list of then Boe candidate Jacob McMillan who attended a March academics committee meeting and shared concerns about this book and a bevy of others her then spent over $38,000 in support of McMillan and over 168,000 to oppose our bond issue which thankfully passed in May Herzog published an article accusing our district of committing felonies by having these books in our libraries a challenger discussed the
049article with a reporter via email shared it with a board member and is what EV eventually led to 10 books being challenged by people who admittedly haven't even read all the books this was done for the same reason harzog always interv intervenes in the business of public education to create noise and distract us this summer our staff and administrators spent their time and energy focused on this issue when they could have been focused on attendance test scores or graduation rates to the Librarians I'm sorry your summer was not relaxing I want to acknowledge how hard you've advocated to protect this book and the others I appreciate the implementation of the parental notification system so thank you to our administrators and all of our staff I want you to know that this noise is happening because
050you're winning you're making things better there are always going to be people online and and at the concrete company that will attack us and try to stop us trust me I know uh but we've proven that when we work together they can't stop us good things keep happening because you all keep up showing up every day for our kids I hope you know how proud of you so many of us are and that we appreciate all you do I'm hopeful we retain this book and look forward to all the great things we're going to accomplish this year together thank you M um first of all I also uh want to say that I appreciate the work that our Librarians do in our school system their job is very important um as a past teacher I
051got the opportunity to work with lots of librarians I also worked in the library uh when I was in high school so I understand the hard work that it takes to read through all those journals to figure out which book you're going to choose so I appreciate that um also I want everyone to know that um I have read all the emails that came through uh my school district email I write each and every one of them and I appreciate the fact that you took the time to voice your concerns um I appreciate that email I got um that described lots of different things um about court cases and things like that and I did look at all those court cases so I do want you to know that I've done my homework on this
052um I also want you to know know that I did read the book I read it in entirety um as I'm reading the book one of the things that I thought about was when I was a teacher and one of the uh standards that I had to teach children was mental image and mental image is when children have to create an image in their mind and I want to say that this author did an excellent job of writing words on the page so that children or any reader of this book could create a mental image of the scenes in this book um as I read the book I just want to say that there were parts of this book um that made me extremely uncomfortable as a 61-year-old adult and my concern is the fact
053that we are um giving this book or allowing children to read this book to create mental images of episodes that that describe sex in in a very um um graphic way but what I really want to say is in a way that sex isn't always like that so we're giving children the idea that sexual encounters are always very negative and that isn't true so my cons I want to take this from a different perspective and that perspective is the idea of building relationships and how our district has thank [Applause] you Mr thanks L um I'm going to keep mine pretty short um first off to everyone who emailed um I did read all the emails um I've kind of found that it's better to just acknowledge that I've read all the emails that to maybe
054respond to one or two and then people want to know why I didn't respond to theirs so I've kind of kept a uniform in that respect where I knew I would have this opportunity to thank everyone who did me email me and I do appreciate that um I'm going to keep it with the process we have a a process in hand right now we're right in the middle of that process like Dr Edgar said um with a with an administrator with a Community member um you know with the librarian with the principal um so moving forward kind of like the blanket email it's going to be blanket for me if if the committee decides they want to remove the book it's going to get a thumbs up for me if they decide they want to
055retain the book and put a restriction on it it's going to get a thumbs up for me if they decide they want to retain the book then it's going to get a thumbs up for me at this point I am going to go along with the committee and whatever um whatever decision they go with I'm going to back that have your own opinion excuse me I've already asked you once not to be disrespectful thank you that excuse me stop thank you Mr Moore I won't add much I appreciate the concern uh for the kids you know on both both sides of the topic um I have read the book and I've read all the input that the community has given me and I'm prepared to vote so thank you thank you Mr War um I
056read the book when I was very young um because as I'm looking at the room as I read the book I'm going to have a different perspective you know than the majority of people in here and I remember when I was little and I wanted blue eyes because it was gorgeous and I wasn't considered that um and then I was also thinking about as I was a little girl and I was living I was living over to Britney Village and I was able to walk to the public library only two two months later we were moved across town and I wasn't near a library and so I was never able to attend a public library again until I was in college the only libraries I was ever in it was in our schools in this
057district and so I could easily go through and let everyone know what this book means you know to black girls like me or I could easily let you guys know that I deal with a lot of the pacas in my profession every day you know but I'm not even going to go that deep with it because I look at it like this we've got the Professionals in the district for a reason in order to do their jobs of course I'm an elected official and I have an opinion okay but it is based upon an opinion these Librarians are the educated and the trained ones in order to make a decision on this and so I will always back them and at this time I would take a motion I'd like to make a motion to
058follow the committee recommendation and retain without restriction I have a motion is there a second I will second I have a motion in a second would you call the vote please Miss Donna Mr Moore yes Miss Williams yes Miss Lanning yes Miss Garcia no Mr Garing yes Miss Miller no Miss chesne no and the motion passes 4 three this meeting is adjourned