NHV BOE Meeting - 10/26/2021

001it's not dead can i please have your attention thank you um i just want to take a minute to remind everyone of the mask mandate we need to wear our masks we need to keep them on and we need to have them and we will go to recess unless we have 100 compliance they need to be worn properly which means they also need to be over your noses thank you i'd like to call to order um the north hundred and forties regional high school district board of ed meeting today is tuesday october 26 2021 we are now called to order in accordance with the requirements of the open public meeting act njsa 10-10-4-1 adequate notice that this meeting has been provided by submission of notice of the time date location or instructions for remote access

002to the hundred and democrat and the star ledger on january 21st 2021 and subsequently re-advertised on july 22nd 2021. notice and to the extent known the agenda of this meeting has been posted at the north hundred and high school and voorhees high school and provided to the municipal clerks of bethlehem township california town of clinton clinton township franklin township glenn gardner borough hampton borough high bridge borough lebanon borough lebanon township tewksbury township and union township as well as other interested parties and posted on the district website fire exits are located in the direction indicated i believe they're all behind us and some are to the sides please move in an orderly and calm fashion to the nearest smoke-free exhibit alerted to fire at this time i please ask you to silence all your cell phones

003please be advised that in accordance with executive order face masks must be worn in doors and in all school buildings this order applies to all after school activities events and meetings held inside including board of ed meetings we ask your cooperation to remain mass throughout the meeting so the board can conduct its business in an orderly fashion in accordance with board policy 0-161 the board may call a recess or adjourn this meeting at any point in time if necessary such as non-compliance with the mask requirement at this time i would like the board secretary to administer the oath of office to our new newly appointed board member glenn as he is representing union township please repeat after me state your name do you solidly swear or firm that i will support the constitution of the

004united states and the constitution of the state of new jersey and that i will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the united states and in this state under the authority of the people so help me god that i possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of the board of education that i am not disqualified as a voter pursuant to revise statute 194-1 or disqualified due to a conviction of a crime or offense and that i will faithfully and partially and justly perform all of the duties of that office according to the best of my abilities [Applause] okay miss bonomi president mr chapman president miss christologo president mr farbanish miss hintz president miss hoffman here mr kirchberger here miss mclaughlin here mr melech here

005mr lino here mr street and miss fiato here y'all rise for the flat salute my god [Music] at this time i'd like to introduce our new this year's student board representatives and alternatives from north hunterdon we have vanessa malin thank you elizabeth castro has also been appointed as her alternative [Applause] uh and then we for voorhees high school we have bethany cadu and [Applause] and emily woodruff has been appointed as her alternative good evening my name is vanessa moline i'm a senior here at north hunter in high school i am a part of several of the national honor societies one of them being desperate national honor society i am a part of several notable clubs here one of them being the interact executive committee board and relay for life i am very strongly i feel

006very strongly about community concerns and the progress of the student body here at north hunter in high school and find it very beneficial to have a voice and know how the student body feels in all regards to the good and bad progress of student activities [Applause] hi i'm bethany cadillo i'm a senior at voorhees high school i'm a competitive cheerleader i'm involved in class counsel national honor society mock trial and no place for hate um the reason i'm so excited to be part of this board is because i believe in the power of words and a student's voice and i want to be someone who amplifies the student body as best as my abilities [Applause] thank you ladies and i have a call for a motion and a second to approve agenda item 6.1 and

0076.2 oh rob kim does anyone have any questions regarding the minutes for october 22nd and september 28th or 24th no october 24th september 20th oh my goodness i'm sorry august 24th or september 28th um in september's meeting at one point there was a question about it it wasn't discussed so it wouldn't have been in the minute so i'm not sure if i put it in our old business uh the board was asked a board member asked for legal counsel and it was stated to the in front of the public that the board broke policies and we determined that it was determined that we did not break policy so are we allowed to add that to the minutes or do we put it in under the old business this month to clarify the statement that the

008board did not break policy i think your comment tonight clarifies this issue i don't know if you want to ask for the minutes to be amended but i think you're certainly clarifying uh within a record that issue okay so it'll be on tonight's meeting minutes great thank you all in favor now it's time for the school administrators report please okay good evening can everybody hear me okay we have new microphones and we're trying to figure them out so um first i'd like to report out on our harassment intimidation and bullying for the month um we have one case uh that is being fed that was a founded case that the board will be voting on tonight and there is one case of unfounded hib that the board will be hearing about for the first time

009tonight so can i have a motion to accept the one case that was presented at the august board meeting okay all in favor aye any opposed and any obsessions okay okay um so in addition to those i have some things i'd like to go over first of all i want to thank all of our employees substitutes our contracted workers for complying with the governor's executive order 253 to provide vaccination status we started testing last week for those individuals that are unvaccinated or did not provide their vaccination status and we appreciate everyone's cooperation for a smooth process close to 84 of our uh people that are employed or working in our district are fully vaccinated i'd like to spend send a special thanks out to school nurses they did go above and beyond to make sure

010testing protocols were laid out properly and efficiently and and and i thank them our high schools last week administered a psat test to all of the 9th through 11th graders um actually that was on october 13th uh that went well this week is spirit week at both of our schools as many of you know leading up to the 46th annual milk can football game which we played at fouries high school this year uh this friday october 29th at 7 15 p.m so i hope to see many of you out there i'd also like to take an opportunity to address the public on topics that i consider to be one of the utmost importance the safety and security of our students is the most important responsibility of every school administrator and faculty member in our district

011the administration will continue to do everything in our power to support all of our employees including our certified library media specialists so that they can perform their duties to enrich and educate our students [Applause] thank you but we have a long meeting so a little applause i will appreciate you next time um as has been said many times before our schools are no place for hatred racism or bias of any nature that will cause physical or emotional harm to any of our students students should be able to come to school every day confident they will be treated with respect and dignity regardless of their race ethnicity religion gender sexual orientation disabilities or gender identity i want to especially note during a time when certain students feel marginalized that we support our lgbtqai plus community during

012this and at all times every student counts and we will continue to work to make sure that every student feels respected and welcomed in our schools in regards to comments made at the previous board meeting i want the public to know that we do have policies and regulations in place that outline the procedure to submit a complaint about a book or material in our schools a complaint should be submitted to the principal who will convene a committee to review the book referenced in the complaint or the material the committee will then make a recommendation to the board since the last board meeting a complaint was filed and a committee is currently reviewing the books mentioned in the complaint and a final recommendation has not yet been made but when it is it will be submitted

013to this board event for consideration thank you very much good evening everyone i i just wanted to also take a moment to thank everyone who has reached out to the board this past month i want you to know that we received your emails sometimes dozens in a day and then i wanted to thank you for taking the time to express your support for our lgbtqai plus community our librarians and the board processes i can assure you that i personally read each and every email and that i appreciate the time that you took and i look forward to we as a board when we could as a board can provide you with a response i want to remind everyone that um our next board meeting is scheduled for november 24 or 23rd um we hope that

014this will be in the district office if not it will be here and at this time i'd like to have our committees report out with their meeting summaries we did not have a community relations meeting this month but i'm going to start the curriculum rachel do you need the mic uh can you hear me okay uh the curriculum committee met last week we discussed the action items there are seven this evening on the agenda we discussed tuition contracts for full-time students uh who attend hunterton county vocational school district we discussed out of district placements home instruction additions to the home instruction provider list additions to the professional consultants list student tuition agreements and overnight field trips we also looked at some preliminary data for our strong start assessment this year the state as a result

015of the pandemic had a standardized test that all high school students in new jersey took there will be a presentation in november time period at our meeting to overview the results of those preliminary assessments as a result of the pandemic we have seen some data where there has been some regression in the area of math so we have been talking as a committee on student supports that can be put into place to increase our scores we also know our math teachers are working very hard to review the curriculum from last year to get the students up to speed on the particular topics that they might need additional assistance in we also gave our linkit benchmark assessment which is a district assessment that we use to track progress we give that in the fall the winter

016and spring so we have our preliminary results that we discuss and the curriculum committee will be tracking those results throughout the year to look at how our students are progressing and that is my report thank you anybody have any questions for rachel all right um facilities finance and transportation yes thank you rachel um our committee met last monday evening it was a relatively short meeting however we continued to discuss the potential referendum for november 2022 these projects are still under consideration we look for more feedback from board members on that list you'll see an action item on tonight's agenda our architect is submitting to the department of education um to establish that the projects that we are considering are eligible for aid additionally you'll see on tonight's agenda um some capital work for the voice

017tennis courts uh it's been an ongoing problem with cracking uh the um so the solution which we're voting upon and our committee's in favor of is um it's a thin thin coating it's a warranty for 25 years and as long as we continue to make some maintenance work to it every five years but similar to what was done here at north hunterdon you also see a uh elite grant resolution for elite supporting the bloomsbury school and its feasibility study this was before us once before it's a continuation of that other than that you know very little business i'll entertain any other questions thank you thanks sean negotiations committee did not meet this monthly attendance personnel well as jessica villado and assistant superintendent rich burgess we discussed the personnel portion of the agenda we also reviewed

018the job description of the treasurer of school money we are not recommending any changes to that description description at this time and then we also reviewed and discussed a proposal for boys um volleyball team at north henron and borges high school and more discussions are needed and we are hoping that we will take action on that next month and the consensus of the committee will fall in favor of this of that idea do anybody have any questions for charlie um hundred and county vocational school liaison was there any meetings this month um oh i'm sorry rob policy thanks jeff the policy committee met on october 18th all members were in attendance and we discussed several agenda items including a request by brian chapman to discuss any policy related changes to our covid19 posture and the

019district response and metrics and so we had a kind of extended discussion on that topic and the committee agreed that our metrics and policies that govern decisions on coveted mitigation are covered in policy 1648 already which is the restart and recovery plan and there is a general consensus that the board members and school administrators are not the medical experts themselves and so as such when we are not subject to state mandates we would recommend and and the administration recommends reverting to the prior decision making which was at recommendations of the hunter and county health department in conjunction with the hunter medical center and in collaboration with the administrations of the other high schools in hunterdon county so the way that those decisions were reached prior to state mandates were based on the recommendations and requirements

020of the local health department input from hunter medical center and making decisions that were in conjunction with those other high schools so that we we don't believe there's a policy change that's recommended to the board the county board of health will be consulted on current conditions in the event that eo 251 and 253 are the other topic that we talked about at length was policy 2530 which is about resource materials and it was determined that this policy was revised in 2019 and still appropriate and no changes are recommended to 2530. as was already mentioned we talked about the related policy 9130 which is the policy that governs the process for public disputes or public concerns public complaints and grievances against resource materials and as was previously mentioned that committee has been formed and so we

021found that uh the policies as revised in 2019 are adequate for dealing with resources and grievances against those resources those resources and then a related not related but um another item that came up was um a recommendation that we review as part of this meeting policy 0167 which we've heard a little bit about today already which is about public participation in board meetings and so for the convenience of all i will read policy 0167 so that everyone has a common understanding and this is public participation in board meetings and the board of education recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest in order to permit fair and orderly expression of such comment the board shall set

022aside a portion of every regularly scheduled meeting of the board the length of the portion to be determined by the board for public comment on any school or school district issue that a member of the public field may be of concern to the residents of the school district public participation shall be governed by the following rules a participant must be recognized by the presiding officer and must preface comments by an announcement of their name municipality residence and group affiliation if applicable each statement by a participant shall be limited to three minutes duration and thus waived by the presiding officer and no participant may speak more than once on the same topic until all others who wish to speak on that topic have been heard all statements questions or inquiries shall be directed to the presiding

023officer and any questions or inquiries directed by a participant to another board member shall be redirected to the presiding officer who shall determine if such statement question or inquiry shall be addressed by the presiding officer on behalf of the border by an individual board member the presiding officer may interrupt warn and or terminate a participant's statement question or inquiry when it is too lengthy interrupt and or warn a participant when the statement question or inquiry is abusive obscene or maybe defamatory request any person leave the meeting when that person does not observe reasonable decorum request the assistance of law enforcement officers in the removal of a disorderly person when that person prevents or disrupts a meeting with an act that obstructs or interferes with the meeting call for a recess or an adjournment to another

024time when the lack of public decorum interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting and waive those rules when necessary for the protection of privacy or to maintain an orderly operation of the board meeting thank you all in advance for your adherence to this policy during our upcoming public comment section and that is all we covered in the possibility it was a big meeting does anyone have any questions for rob i already have just want to go back and circle back to the delegates and the liaisons that we have in place for the hundred and county vocational school the new jersey school boards association the hunter and county school boards association or the hunter and county educational services commission i know we did have a meeting last month i know rachel you were in attendance

025deb and ryan we're both in attendance um rachel you are the delegates all right you want to report out a little bit on that sure the new jersey school boards association has a school board for each county in the state of new jersey and we meet regularly to discuss topics related to school boards at our last meeting the topic was a presentation called community and public relations and we actually discussed a lot of the things that mr hershberger just referred to which was how to make board meetings effective for both the board and the public we had some discussions and ideas about how boards can be more transparent to the public by educating the public many people that come forward to discuss an issue aren't quite sure of the board process so there are ways

026that the board can communicate to the public to make them understand a little bit more about how the process works such as mr kirchberger just relaying the policy on public comment and we also discussed ways that school boards could continue to reach out to community so that the board is aware of community concerns and there were some ideas shared there was was a community relations spokesperson for some districts in southern new jersey who shared a lot of creative ideas that we will continue as a board to discuss you may have any questions for rachel all right yes uh good evening and welcome all uh again we're gonna be moving now to our opportunity for public comment i was going to read policy 0167 which has already been read so i'm not going to read it

027again and you're welcome i will note that this first amendment right to be heard is sacred it's recognized by this board this board's going to honor that tonight for folks who want to step up but it is not unlimited it's often said that the rights of one end when the rights of another begin the policy zero one six seven mr kirchberg read speaks to that the board's not going to permit defamatory comment the board is not going to permit abusive or obscene comments the lord's not going to permit comment which does not observe decorum and there are steps that the board takes in the event that that happens we've got law enforcement support here tonight because of a certain heightened level of public uh interest and comments already on on some issues and uh if

028comment violates the rules our president may stop that comment or ask for assistance public comment also is not q a it's common you have a voice we celebrate that voice and your opportunity to be heard i also want to note uh our assistant superintendent noted that there is a policy to come to file a complaint about instructional materials uh similar to the complaints the the concerns raised at the last meeting the formal process has been initiated it's ongoing it'd be premature for the board to comment on it or to take some action so it's not going to happen so if anybody came out you hear what's going to happen about a book you're not going to hear what's going to happen uh about a book tonight and that's because the process is ongoing that said

029again you have an opportunity to be heard speakers will have three minutes each uh our period is typically 30 minutes but i understand that presiding officer may extend that if we run out of time in light of the volume of folks thank you madam president thank you now it's time for the opportunity for public comment during this portion of the meeting the public is invited to address the school board with questions or comments please line up along the wall if you'd like to make a comment testing testing can you hear me nope i'm trying [Laughter] to hear that doesn't sound like it yeah we can't hear that maren your mic's not i think it looks like i can get through but i can't [Laughter] yep you guys can all hear me right testing perfect okay

030all right read it just read it okay all right i do before we can start public comment i still need to to address public comment during this portion of the meeting the public is invited to address the board with questions or comments the public is requested to sign the register provided for this purpose and to state their name municipality of residence group affiliation if applicable and to direct your comments to the board president while all comments will be considered and a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate school board members will not respond to the speakers at the time of their appearance the public comment period will be a maximum of 30 minutes in length unless there are unusual circumstances those appearing will be allocated three minutes to speak and i really do ask

031that we comply with that since there are a number of people here waiting to speak and no one will be permitted to speak twice until those that have not yet had an opportunity to speak have had a term hello my name is evelyn alvarez flores i have two children in our school system a sophomore and a senior in high school my oldest is two years out of the district as well i thank you board for allowing us the opportunity to come before you today and speak on behalf of our children and advocate for our children as somebody who was actually born in the country that was touched by both socialism and communism do you know who bans books countries regimes that find it dangerous to have access to these books was it we're in 2021

032this is the united states of america okay i became a citizen i became a citizen when i was 19 years old because i believed what this country had to offer and one of those amazing things that this country has to offer is access to literature no censorship access to full literature and let's be honest if we're really talking about morality then i think that many of you have targeted these four lgbtq plus books in question would have been outraged outraged up in arms about all the other books that are in our children's libraries that are far more sexually explicit as well as have mentioned the violet everything from violence to rape to inappropriate behavior between adults and children okay so i'm gonna be so kind as to share some of these books with you guys

033because my children did me the solid of going into our school library at voorhees and checking these books out for me so i present to you speak who here has read this book okay this book is about a child that was sexually assaulted and i apologize for interrupting okay very articulate uh and we appreciate your speech sure public comment folks is not public comment to the public okay fair enough okay i'll continue directing you it's okay thank you okay all right so let's get started i appreciate it again right i've paused it okay please direct your comments to the board thank you we have speak this is a book about a child that was sexually assaulted after a game and she explicitly talks about her rape throughout the entire book i will not read from

034this book because it's a giant trigger for myself as a childhood essay victim and a survivor we have another one that is actually labeled as why a young adult and it have marked all the areas which again i won't read here because they're exceptionally explicit and i actually do care about what our children read so but what i will say that it explicitly describes a sexual encounter between a 19 year old and another character that is said to be about 100 years old because it's you know whatever why a fantasy but the reality is we have several books in our library that are far more sexually explicit than a book that is going to help our children our lgbtq children who by the way don't have the proper sex ed in our school system because

035if you think about it every time they have a sex ed it's about heterosexual relationships and as somebody who has worked in public health as somebody who actually spent the time having to train pediatricians how to explain to their nine-year-old students and nine-year-old patients what protected sex actually looks like because there was an outbreak of chlamydia in the bronx in the late 2000s when i was working i can tell you that access to proper sex ed is absolutely pertinent for our children as somebody who has worked with hiv aids plus patients as somebody who has worked with children again that have stis we need to be able to talk to our children and quite frankly the books in question are just bad so our children should have access to these lgbtq books thank you and

036that's it uh [Music] hi my name is cynthia reyes lebanon township we the parents have prepared a statement addressing the school the board the administration community members and attendants as well as all students at north hunterton and voorhees high school last month many parents spoke at the boe meeting about library books with the content that is illegal to distribute to minors federal laws and new jersey laws clearly define what obscene means for example a narrative that that depicts sexual activity such as human genitals and state of sexual arousal or any act of human masturbation or sexual intercourse examples were read and shown from the north huntington boys library books that unquestionably qualify as obscene because north huntington warhead school district is knowing knowingly distributing obscene materials to minors law enforcement is involved but that's not

037what i'm here to talk about parents raise an issue with the books obscene material the laws of our state and our nation define what is legal and what is not obscenity doesn't discriminate based on one's sexual orientation or given obscene material to minors is illegal and dangerous and that's why parents were concerned spoke up after extensive research by several parents we have not found the single library book with an extreme obscene heterosexual contact we haven't found any books that normalize images of heterosexual 10 year old giving another 10 year old oral sex images depicting an adult male masturbating an underage girl or anything that's playing with i won't even say what it is um putting strap ons and letting a guy ejaculating your mouth from a heterosexual perspective if there are any heterosexual books that

038contain child pornography or other obscene and inappropriate materials for minors please definitely bring them forward so they could be removed too within one day of last month's meeting the people who support familial scene material in school fabricated an absolute lie to gain support and cover up for what they were caught doing they lied to you students they lied to you parents they even lied to the media they told students quote these parents want to ban books with lgbtq plus characters or ideas these parents only care because they are lgbtq books end quote every bit of that is false and when they lied they turned innocent lgbtq students into victims their lie was calculated and intentional to deflect the tension away from what they've done they claimed lgbtq discrimination and tugged at your heartstrings to get

039the community support but parents were never concerned about sexual orientation in the books the lie was used to get your support to defend their illegal actions these students deserve an apology they deserve an apology for being used as human shields for these adult crimes they deserve an apology for being roped into an issue that they were never a part of they deserve an apology for making them feel like victims and i'm sorry i just have two more things to say lgbt students are we are here to support you we are here to support lgbtq students support and protect every student of north huntington every student deserves to be protected from obscene material every school every cynthia i have to ask you it is three okay and again please we are sorry for what they have

040done [Applause] good evening distinguished members of the board of education my name is jordan jobert and i'm a senior here at north henron high school as many of you may notice a bunch of my peers and i are wearing shirts that are purple they say ignorant youth on them as a reaction to what was um my i posted on social media about this board of education not expressing any opinion and i had a parent against my wishes and against my permission post my name and what i posted on social media calling me an ignorant youth and reacting and saying hurtful things completely honestly so i feel a great connection to the topic at hand and i feel that it's only fair that i'm sorry i'm very nervous take your time at north hunter in high

041school all freshmen are required to take team pep which is a sexual education course taught by juniors it's given very explicit content on safe sex visuals skits and other things as someone who is lgbt myself i found that this content was not helpful i looked to books and i found lots of resources i was very lucky i went to the library i was able to find books and that's just something that i feel everyone should have access to and if it's between two consenting people and it's safe i don't think there's any shame behind it i just find that this access to books was very helpful to me and i just wanted to speak my opinion thank you eric from franklin township has two students here at north hunter 287 students that is how many

042currently enrolled north hunter and voorhees students will be sexually abused or assaulted before they walk across the graduation stage these statistics come directly from the national center for victims of crime i'm speaking as a north parent and as a director for a non-profit organization that is solely dedicated to supporting child victims of sexual abuse one in five females one in 20 males that is 12 of our children who have been or will be victims of sexual assault before they turn 18. a school should be a safe place for children and teens i want to address ways that the district's actions are affecting student survivors maybe in ways it doesn't realize the library is stocked with all sorts of books ebooks videos that are sexual and content some of this is healthy because it is educational

043educational sexual material should be available in schools because the purpose of school is to educate but when about but what about the library book that normalizes oral sex between two ten-year-olds i quote i was in fourth grade it was no big deal it wasn't terrible twelve percent of the student body is or will be sexual assault victims and there is no warning labor on that book about its sexual abuse content or how about the contest that use dunkin donuts gift cards to incentivize students to read about a freshman getting raped by a senior and then becoming ostracized in school north's daily announcement said libraries banded for having a political viewpoint and discussing sexual violence no the book was banned from school libraries because of its inappropriate sexual content schools banned it to protect students from

044the triggers it might cause for victims of sexual assault but when i asked the librarian and the vice principal and the principal why this book was highlighted i had no response zero the school isn't just triggering victims the school is literally creating an environment where sexual abuse thrives abusers do this exact same thing they gradually normalize sexually content where it isn't natural child and teen sexual abuse affects all genders all sexual sexualities all economic statuses children from all political viewpoints we have to work together to protect our children and our children from the harm that non-educational sexual exposure leads to when we send our kids to school we expect them to receive an education we demand that the school immediately stop exposing our children to unnecessary uneducational sexual content and protect these deserving students from

045unnecessary harm and triggers please remember sexual assault victims when you just when decisions are made thank you [Applause] hello my name is jax carey i am a sophomore at voorhees high school i am here today because i saw the last board of education meeting and because of what i have seen now i am a student and watching the last meeting brought up many difficult promotions for me as a member of the lgbtqia community and as a colombian-american i had something prepared today that i was gonna say but now i changed it so i watched the last board of education meeting and that made me cry because yes i did feel targeted i did feel that what who i was was not going to be okay and so i am now going to read you what

046i have previously written about what i felt many people want to ban books specifically books that include minority characters that are part of the lgbtqia community or are people of color i disagree with banning a book just because it has gay or trans characters because it has a difficult topic in previous meeting it was told we do not talk about our differences because it will divide us i believe our differences make us stronger they unite us we come together as a community we get over our problems and we compromise these books give students like me hope that there are others like us and we are not alone we are not sorry i'm not supposed to address people here i'm not alone today standing here i feel supported but i also feel like there are others

047here who do not want me to speak who do not want to see me thrive these books are not being forced upon anyone usually these books are sought after by these minority book minority groups represented in the book these books are not causing others to hate it's in fact the opposite they are teaching love and compassion and courage and that it's okay to be who you are for those saying they are protecting the children by banning these books they are wrong i am the child my friends are the child my the peers of my school are the children of these schools we benefit from these books we are seen and we are heard i would like to redo the district goals from the 2021-2022 school year which the board of education had to approve number

048three provide the necessary supports to address and assist students and staff with mental health overall wellness and emotional needs number four continue to address inherent bias and racism focusing on equity and inclusion to provide all students with the opportunities and knowledge to make reflective decisions end quote if it is chosen to ban these books you are neglecting the mental health of these students of the district and choosing to ignore and erase the stories of these books and these students so often our voices have been silenced and i am here to say i am here i am queer and i am going to speak for what i believe in [Applause] hi my name is max moore and i'm a queer student at voorhees last month i watched adults all over the country come to school board

049of bed meetings during banned books week they suggested the banning of certain books from our library all of them containing queer anti-racist and anti-classes themes the reasoning for these suggested bands was the themes presented were too serious or that the books contain pornographic content aside from the fact that the majority of the books on the list have no sexual content there are books with nudity or sex scenes some of these books include lawn boy by j vision and fun home by alison bechdel blonde boys book about racism and classism and has four pages of sexual content out of a 320 page book the passage read that last month's meeting was taken completely out of context and misconstrued to seem like the entire theme of the book the sexual content is not there to corrupt children

050or normalize pedophilia it's there to add an important add to an important narrative that criticizes racism classism and pedophilia fun home is a graphic novel memoir that follows a woman exploring her sexual identity while struggling to connect to her gay father about halfway through the book she learns that her father has shown pedophilic behavior this is a memoir a retelling of true events simply leaving her father's pedophilic behavior out with sim would compromise the integrity of the story itself the one page lesbian sex scene is also integral to the story it's not their service pornography they are once again there to add to the story and build the narrative time and time again the history and stories of minorities and marginalized communities have been erased with similar excuses of them being too inappropriate or obscene

051so many queer indigenous black and other minority stories have been erased and forgotten why have books like brave new world and libraries for years without question when a book entitled two boys kissing comes into question even when it has no sexual content i'm of course not saying brave new world should be taken out i'm saying that these suggested bans are not out of an attempt to protect children from pornographic content it's an attempt to shield children from certain ideals that people do not agree with in the u.s supreme court case of island trees school district vpico it was ruled that no book can be taken out of a school library simply for the fact that the school dislikes the book one of the main concerns of parents at last month's meeting was the corruption of

052children that queerness will be forced upon them in school curriculum i'm here to say definitively that queer media and stories did not make me transgender for your media through media and transgender stories helped me and so many other teens realize that what we are is okay that is not shameful or dirty or inherently sinful we're not here to start a fight or argue or spread any kind of ill intention we're here to speak on behalf of those who would be affected by the banning of the books my peers my fellow students and my friends the continuation of this cycle poses real harm to countless minority communities thank you um all right so hello my name is oliver foley i'm a student at vorkey's high school so sorry we're having trouble hearing can you hear me

053now yeah thank you is that better okay sorry hello i'm oliver foley i'm a student at vortey's uh high school um so i had something planned but i'm probably gonna go off a bit because of what i've already heard but so as someone who is a part of the lgbtq community um i feel upset with what has happened in the recent board meeting and a bit of upset as to what happened in this board meeting uh so when i was younger i was never really taught much about uh those who would consider quote-unquote different um never i was um i learned on my own from queer media and other just like resources that weren't necessarily from parental figures um most of it was not from school libraries and when i started voorhees i was really

054really happy to see the representation in this library um when i watched the last video i was um i was definitely shocked at the uh the movement to take away these books um by taking away knowledge from adolescents who want to learn you limit their growth questioning the world questioning yourself is human nature providing people knowledge about their interests helps them learn about themselves and the people around them finding things you like building relationships on set interest and so much more contribute to a healthy human mind i saw some parents talk about how topics such as these should be taught at home and they would prefer to teach it themselves or not teach it at all and i i totally agree that you it is up to the parents responsibility to teach your children about

055more difficult social subjects or not even just difficult difficult subjects in general um however we still should have those resources in the library to um for students to utilize if they want to learn more about a certain subject um school is a place of learning so why should we remove that and take that away from the student body um no way please we will have to end public comment and recess if there is outburst okay all right [Applause] [Music] all right uh oliver we we stopped the clock the floor is yours again please continue that's pretty much okay sorry okay [Music] sorry [Music] alright [Applause] okay okay please we need the mass on all right thank you hello members of the board um my name is becca thomas i am a student at vorhees high

056school and i'm here to address the attempted book ban against books such as this book is gay by juno dawson fun home by allison bechdel and other such books when i heard that these stories might be banned i immediately set out to try to find these books in libraries and bookstores anywhere i could look so that i could see exactly why they were being banned and from what i discovered a lot of these stories have a single aspect in common every single one of them has a central idea of homosexuality or lgbtq ideals as a bisexual teenager i've dealt with my fair share of homophobic discrimination i've been called a number of slurs and derogatory names i've been excluded and bullied and treated differently usually to my detriment i even lost friends just because i

057was different so when i saw that there were parents that were attempting to ban these and other such books i was heartbroken and i was outraged high school was a time for self-discovery not just to find someone's interest in future careers but also to find their own identity and north hunter and voorhees are public schools meaning that they should be for everyone regardless of religion ethnicity family background sexual orientation gender identity or anything that sets them apart from others it's bad enough that members of the lgbtq community are hardly represented in books and movies but now there are parents that wish to take away what little representation we do have let me take the time to remind everyone that banning these books because they talk about and have a centralized focus on lgbtqi deals this

058is way too similar to what happened during world war ii and forgive me if i step a little across the line but this is something i believe that needs to be said during world war ii there was a time when nazi soldiers burnt books any and all books that didn't agree or did not align with the nazi and ideals of adolf hitler are we really at a point where we're we're are we really at a point where parents are becoming far too similar to the ruthless soldiers of world war ii germany let's not forget that in last month's board meeting out of everyone that spoke in favor of the book ban not a single one of them was a student every single one was a parent and after reviewing these parents comments they claim that

059these types of books and others should are and should be classified as pornography after reading some of these books and conferring with others who read these books this applies to none of them turned pornography is a greek term which defined by merriam webster is any sort of pictures or media depicting erotic behavior intended to cause sexual excitement or arousal this does not apply to any of these books in question keep in mind that any two of these books they're non-fiction they're meant to be a story that tells real life stories [Music] all right so folks we we have come to the end of uh the first 30 minutes we're going to extend it by another 30 minutes okay okay go ahead [Applause] good evening i hope your day's been well my name is jujeb and

060i'm a 15 year old gay transgender sophomore at north country in high school living in annandale and tonight i'd like to share my opinion on the potential book fan imagine you're in a diner and you've just ordered a cake now keiki's usually isn't on the menu usually it's pie cherry pie lemon pie blueberry pie all types of pie it's not that you particularly dislike pie but you want cake tonight the waiter comes through and as a plate is about to lower towards you someone from the next table says waiter cancel that cake of course you're surprised how does this person have the audacity to cancel your cake but waiter however leaves with your cake you ask this stranger why they wanted your cake taken they look at you as if you're unreasonable i didn't want

061any cake they said you you're confused yet again they didn't have to eat the cake it was for you not them you chose to have the cake and they chose not to why does their choice have to affect yours now i'm sure we all think that this story is clear they shouldn't have cancelled your cake and the waiter should not have taken it away let's imagine this again you're in a library and you've just chosen a book about two men in love there are plenty of books about men and women in love but today you're more interested in reading about two men in love or two women as you're about to check the book out and leave to read someone says excuse me don't let them read that the library has its controversial books taken

062away stopping you from reading about it you didn't want to read about heterosexual couples you wanted to read about homosexual couples you didn't want to eat any pie you wanted to have some cake it's your personal choice not to have any cake it's your personal choice not to read about lgbtq plus people or sexual scenes this doesn't mean that everyone has to avoid it with you just because we're children does not mean that we don't have opinions we want to eat our cake eat our pie and have choices some are concerned about having sexually explicit books in schools makes it unsafe for their child however this overlooks the simple fact that no one is mandated to read the book none of the books mentioned are centered around sex presented around lgbtq plus teenagers figuring out

063who they are and growing up it's inevitable that there will be books that you dislike acknowledge it and move on please listen please listen to the opinions of students and let us keep our books thank you for your time okay i i want to remind you again about the outburst my name is mr decosta i'm a freshman here at north from lebanon many issues were brought up by concerned parents of my peers about certain books on the north hundred and school library ranging from child pornography to political agendas these parents believe that these books long boy by jonathan everson fun home by allison bechdel this book is gay by juno dawson and gender queer by maya kobabe have no place in a high school setting i would first like to bring up the concerns about

064the book longhorn according to some parents the graphic passages of the longboy should be classified as child pornography and should be banned and anyone that distributed the book should be arrested they specifically brought up section 2c 24-4 of the new jersey code of criminal justice as proof of the illegality of this book however this law states that it only applies to content about actual kids or images or videos depicting child exploitation long boy only contains semi-graphic written details about act between fictional characters so this law shouldn't even apply another issue was that these books were and i quote being jammed down our children's throats in the name of peace and equality and equity the parents then listed off over 15 books using this as proof of the oversaturation of lgbtq plus books first of all

065there are over 20 000 physical books in the library with hundreds more online these books also don't appear on the list of books that students are required to read for classes making all these books completely optional for students that want to read them i should also bring up the petition as some of you may or may not know there was a petition sent around north over the last week asking how students felt about the removal of these books as of writing this the petition has over 200 signatures from students at north and that number is growing every day many students at north support keeping these books in our library and i believe that we should learn how students feel before making a decision to impact them some of the students had strong feelings about this

066and hear their responses lgbtq plus books have really helped me come to terms with my own identity and sexuality and have helped me accept myself i encourage anyone that is on the fence about this issue makes a vote to keep these books as they can truly help a student who is in a difficult place in their life books like genderqueer and this book is gay are so important when i was still in the closet reading books with lgbtq plus protagonists made me feel understood and expressed what i wasn't able to articulate taking books about the lgbtq plus community away from students has the potential to be detrimental to their mental health and journey of self-discovery they keep saying that school is no longer safe for their child but where were they when it wasn't safe

067for us the first amendment states that not even a government should have the right to prohibit the free exercise thereof or bring the freedom of speech or the press since when are books that lead children on a journey of self-discovery not allowed since when are books rated for ages 13 and up that talks about real life issues banned for high school students that is the question i'm asking today what do some parents let alone any of us have him saying what students can choose to read board members excuse me i'm steve sinaway a resident of union township i want to read into the record the contents of a letter my wife and i sent to all board members the superintendent the assistant superintendent and the principal of north hunter high school we are writing with

068serious concerns about what transpired at the last district school board meeting on september 28 2021 we we witnessed via video vitriolic attacks by some community members excuse me against the north hunter and high school school librarian as well as individual board members for their support of the library's annual banned book week program the community members who spoke displayed ignorance and prejudice against the rights of all lgbtq plus students to read materials that may reflect their own experiences despite the fact that these materials are available nationwide in public school libraries a few years ago when there was a movement to ban the book fun home which was talked about tonight from the nhhs library a book that was a finalist in the national book critics circle awards we were in the board of ed meeting quarterback

069meeting room next door at nhhs when then nhhhs voorhees high school students as they did tonight spoke eloquently and movingly about what access to this coming-of-age book meant to them to learn that they were not alone in their quest for understanding themselves school boards schools students should provide an environment to open minds not to enable ignorance prejudice and the feeling of hate [Applause] our children are constantly exposed to their classmates opinions on social media and the internet unless you homeschool your child this is the real world we live in we cannot insulate our children for forever from diversity our school libraries and librarians can should and do serve as the source of learning this is 2021 not 1951. finally we speak as parents of two recent nhhs graduates which gives us a different perspective with

070whom we had open discussions on diversity and racism we did not ban our children from reading controversial books but rather encourage them to read them and to speak with us if they felt confused or uncertain about what certain books were about and we still have these discussions to this day they both have a diverse group of friends both both our children have a diverse group of friends for which we are thankful and proud this is a multicultural multi-ethnic multi-racial world our children are growing up in let's embrace it and not be afraid of it [Applause] short hello my name is uh joy labelle i'm a resident of pittstown in union township i want to thank all the board of members for volunteering your time i'm a professional volunteer and i know there's occasions when you

071feel it's thankless uh more than just two and a half years ago i stood before you regarding unacceptable potential policy changes to number 2530 and i'm submitting copies of both my 2019 and my 2021 remarks to enter in tonight's minutes it's disappointing that we're here again discussing the possible review or removal of books not appreciated by some of the community i believe that they're coming from a position of fear fear of the unknown fear of the different fear of anything outside their imagined social norm marie curie once said that nothing in life is to be feared it is only to be understood now is the time to understand more so that we may fear less and of quote to fear less isn't that wonderful to come to understand each other that's bliss through education we

072acquire knowledge skills values beliefs habits and personal development we come to an understanding when we reach conclusions through reasoning information and awareness of other people's feelings maybe we wouldn't have problems with all the sexuality whether it's hetero homo or otherwise if there was a light showed on it and we were taught this early on so you could be empowered to not be abused and not accept unacceptable treatment communication here leads to community that is to our understanding our emotional connection and our mutual valuing the human rights watch organization says that students rights include education personal security freedom from discrimination access to information free expression association and privacy why are we fearful of anything different or lgbtq in this case with the books being reviewed i hope the review committee has people on it that can

073reflect my opinion and not just a staffed opinion the academy of arts has several suggesting making lbgtq fields feel students feel valued they are but not limited to creating a student organization or club check one for north we've got the gay straight alliance they ask why these topics should be included in the curriculum in the curriculum the books that are being reviewed are independent reading independent study nobody's being forced to read them any more than the bible in the library or adolf hitler's mind comp all those books are available and it's up why would we include sexuality in all of the topics of curriculum alexander the great was gay headset was a female foul dressed as a man that's our history topics what about alan turing who broke the code for the nazi enigma machine

074and save tens of thousands of lives in our math or comp slide people what about the genius inventor leonardo da vinci and the educator astronaut sally ride for science yes i said sally wide she was a partner for 27 years with another female me reading a book about sally ride doesn't make me an astronaut or queer any more than a queer student rooting the book about straight makes them straight [Applause] all right hi my name is noela whitney i and uh i if you could not tell by my leather jacket and flannel i am a huge lesbian i'm a hybrid native i was raised put family first a god-fearing catholic graduated vorhees in 2011 continued on to one of the top three art schools in the united states in baltimore have lived and worked for

075many years in japan as a teacher of elementary middle and high school kids and i am a multi-award-winning comic book illustrator and writer [Music] [Applause] the creator of genderqueer and allison bechdel the creator of fun home both works which have been named in this issue are my professional peers if you are of the opinion that these books are disgusting have you ever talked to the people who made them have you ever asked what a gay lesbian bisexual trans queer person has thought about them before before seeming them unfit what impact these works have had on how they view themselves and how they give us a way to help articulate who we are i am one of those people if i had a book that showed me an lgbtqia person as a full human when i

076was in high school maybe i would have had the courage to talk to my parents about my attraction towards girls which started when i was a freshman in high school if i had the words to talk about what i felt maybe it could have maybe it could have been revealed to them in a way that didn't that didn't severely emotionally scar all of us my senior year at 40s did you know they immediately threw me in therapy after they found out did you know i despise them did you know i've spent the last 10 years repairing our relationship did you know that i dreaded going home did you know that i still don't fully trust them did you know that i am still traumatized and i still feel it in my throat and i still

077feel my throat seized with fear when i talk about it like now what a messed up thing for someone a child to get a trophy for having agony inflicted on them by someone who was willfully unkind when the child was scared i would never want that for my own children my best award-winning comics are entirely born of that single awful morning my mother who swears she loves me screaming at me and all the tears and hard conversations after because i will never get any other kind of closure i make my stories so others do not have to go through that sort of pain ever again i pay my words forward to the next generation so that they may have the words and so that they may have the words and the courage to be themselves

078many readers of mine have told me personally to my face how deeply my stories and characters have affected them how old scratched an itch they never even knew they had kids will be kids curious enthusiastic scared the whole unfiltered gamut of human emotion sexuality and gender identity are parts of them that you cannot rip out of them no matter how hard you may try this is [Applause] hello my name is abigail fisher and i am a senior at orgies high school that's a hard act to follow you don't have to burn books to destroy a culture you just have to get people to stop reading them ray bradbury said this in many interviews about his hit novel fahrenheit 4k1 the classic provides a glimpse into the world where all books are burned the reasoning being

079that they are more troubled in their work ironically fahrenheit 451 has been banned in several school systems a fact i learned during banned book week at voorhees the same week i learned that a concerned parent said that two books one boy by jonathan everson and gender queer by maya calcaba should be removed from the library naturally as president of the book club and member of the national english honor society this shocked me i couldn't believe that someone would think it proper to remove the choice of reading these books from all students simply because they thought it improper for nearly adults to have them available to read it didn't surprise me that these books dealt with race sexuality gender and economic disparity these topics are often a source of discomfort and therefore avoided in literature for

080children however we the students of voorhees and north hunterdon are not children we are young adults who deserve the right to choose what we read it is in reading and discussing uncomfortable topics that we learn to form our own opinions search for our own answers and address our own biases these processes make us more socially emotionally and academically intelligent from this we become more competent adults as it is impossible to fully engage in a democratic society without the ability to form one's own opinions based on facts and reason the entire purpose of school is to prepare us for life and preventing students from engaging with the difficult topics shown in these books hinders that preparation ultimately the request to ban these books ignores the everyday life of the students in the north hunter and voorhees

081school district we are constantly exposed to these topics in and out of school and therefore need to be prepared to discuss them in an intelligent way we are not children we are young adults allowing us the chance to discuss these difficult topics and form healthy opinions on them in a safe environment is an opportunity that should not be taken away these books and the discussions attached to them are valuable assets not only to the school community but to the county the state and the country as a whole information is more valuable than any opinion on it as it allows for the formation of new ideas and therefore no book is more trouble than it's worth thank you [Applause] my name is hope kaufman i live in tewksbury township before i start i just think we

082should all give a big round of applause to this amazing board of education i don't think anybody here needs to be reminded that these are volunteers and they chose to be here and to listen to us and that is a huge deal in the precedent setting case of pico justice william brennan writing for the plural that plurality reasoned that the first amendment right to express ideas must be supported by an implied right to receive information and ideas and i quote students may not be regarded as closed circuit recipients of only that which the state chooses to communicate school officials cannot suppress expressions of feeling with which they do not wish to contempt the first amendment defines critic certain critical rights and responsibilities of participants in the educational process it both protects the freedom of speech

083thought and inquiry and requires respect for the right of others to do the same it requires schools to resort to more speech not enforced silence in seeking to resolve our differences these differences are why we are here tonight the pioneer of modern american censorship anthony comstock founded the new york society for the suppression of vice in 1872. he started a movement that would go on to ban chaucer's canterbury tales the arabian nights and aristophanes the sistatra authors who worked whose work were subsequently censored into the comstock law including ernest hemingway james joyce f scott fitzgerald victor hugo d.h lawrence john steinbeck eugene o'neill and many others when citizens ask schools to censor materials schools must balance their first amendment duties against other concerns such as meaning maintaining the integrity of the educational program meeting state

084educational requirements respecting the judgments of professional staff and addressing deeply held beliefs in students and members of the community the supreme court has repeatedly recognized two core principles schools have broad power to decide what and how to teach second the decisions that are most vulnerable to legal challenge are those that are motivated by hostility to an unpopular or controversial idea or by the desire to force acceptance of a particular viewpoint as the supreme court stated in its 2021 mahoney decision schools have a strong interest in protecting unpopular expression and exposing students to a wide range of views and in giving students the opportunity to discuss those views so the question in front of us is how to distinguish censorship from selection schools make decisions all the time about which books and materials to include or

085exclude from the curriculum hence they are not violating the first amendment every time they cross a book off a reading list however they could be acting unconstitutionally if they decide to remove a book solely because of hostility to the ideas it contains i'll leave it there thank you [Applause] hello my name is steve alderson i am my 16th year as a math teacher at north huntingdon and i currently serve as the north hunter 40's education association president remember the members of the nhpea work hard to support all our students no matter their identity orientation political belief race religion or family structure we stand by the principle the uniqueness of all students must be celebrated not demeaned to all students who are here tonight to respectfully voice your opinions and concerns we see you support you

086and are particularly proud of all who are brave enough to speak up for yourselves we appreciate the statements made by the board of education the assistant superintendent tonight however we've been disappointed and discouraged by the silence of the month since their microphone was used to attack and persecute specific members of our education community especially our librarian martha hickson i am honored to work alongside martha every day she is someone who has dedicated nearly two decades of her life to the students and staff of north huntingdon martha opens her doors to all students without hesitation and is eager to help any student to find a book to enjoy a research article for an assignment or just an accepting place to escape from the difficulties of teenage life ms hixson has generously aided me personally in the

087search for age-appropriate books for my own children to enjoy thus helping to enrich their love of reading in short this district is full of individuals who are better and more supportive readers researchers and learners because martha is a member of this community the educators of the north high and aborigines district enjoy civil discourse and all issues related to our curriculum including the books that sit on our library shelves unfortunately some community members have decided the most effective way to be heard is by grandstanding at board of education meetings honestly how can the students in this district be expected to learn how to respectfully disagree if the adults cannot do so themselves [Music] educators start every day at the school expecting there could be questions and criticisms constructive or otherwise but we deserve a chance to

088respond and defend ourselves this is why there are policies and procedures in place for the community to leverage their concerns however this board and administration seemed content to allow community members to ignore proper channels and instead level personal attacks on individual educators of this microphone this past month has inflicted an extreme physical and mental tolerance staff as we watch one of our colleagues be attacked without a response some community members may not care about how their statements and accusations impact the education this community however our school board and administration should tonight i call on the board of education administration do three things help the educators to provide a safe civil and respectful environment for all our students and community members stand up and defend this hard working and dedicated staff and enforce the posted policies

089for the community concerns so this microphone can never never be used as a weapon again thank you for your time [Applause] hello good evening my name is barbara carr i'm a member of the north hundred and faculty and i'm here tonight to share a message from one of my actually one of our former students joe maymon nhh class of 2012 now a senior clinical research coordinator in psychiatry at harvard university joe writes i'm horrified at the way that the library and these books are being attacked i grew up as a closeted gay kid at north until i came out late in my junior year shortly after i came out there were times that i would raise my hand in the front of a class and kids in the back of the room would shout when

090i got called on it was not easy to come out at north back then i spoke at my graduation and i was genuinely afraid to do so for fear that i would be shamed while on stage it scares me that these efforts to obviously discriminate against lgbtq literature may be causing great damage for any out or closeted queer student in the district who are painfully paying attention to the ongoing vitriol and fear the bitter hatred between behind these discriminatory arguments as if they are being directed at them personally i can only imagine how this public hatred may be inflaming the confidence of other teens who feel like their bullying against queer students is endorsed and acceptable this act of public discriminate discrimination is detrimental to the mental health of the queer students who identify with

091these books public demonstration of prejudice like this can drive queer adolescents deep into dark internal states of shame and self-hatred that can lead to devastating depression anxiety non-suicidal self-injury like cutting and burning oneself and not unrealistically suicidal thinking the problem too is that these effects are not limited to the north hunter and voorhees school district alone these effects are known to affect queer people beyond the community who become aware of the discrimination via the media and word of mouth speaking from personal experience from the perspective of a man who has now been out for over a decade and is very comfortable in his sexuality and very happily partnered just last night after watching the recording of the late september board meeting i had a nightmare that i was being pursued and beaten up by a

092group of men who are angry at me for being gay i haven't had a dream like that in over six or seven years seeing this hatred in the community i once called home now living over 250 miles away in boston i'm very shaken that this hateful movement has taken hold thank you very much for listening to his words [Applause] i just want to let you know that we're coming up on an hour i'm going to give us 15 more minutes and then we're going to need to move forward with board business hello my name is emma ettinger she her pronouns and i graduated from voorhees high school class of 2012. i want to respond to a concern raised during the last board meeting the presence of particular queer coming out and coming of age stories

093in the district libraries quote amounts to an effort to groom our kids to make them more willing to participate in the heinous acts described in these books end quote i want to assure the board that queer youth will be clear whether or not they are exposed to these novels and memoirs they will be clear whether or not their identities are affirmed by these novels and memoirs they will be clear whether or not they have the opportunity to read that others before them have shared in their feelings their questions their experiences queer youth will be clear whether or not they remain in the closet or know that there is a closet to come out of what these books have the extraordinary power to do is to make queer youth feel less alone and yes although each

094of these books has been widely recommended for youth some of them have what we might term adult content for letter words and sexual encounters so do many other books we've judged appropriate for high school romeo and juliet involve sex between minors and like the rest of shakespeare is absolutely full of sexual jokes but when we specifically identify queer experiences as being more adult more inappropriate more pornographic than their heteronormative counterparts what we do is tell queer youth that they themselves are inappropriate and that is a dangerous message to send according to the trevor project's most recent national survey 42 percent of surveyed lgbtq plus youth in the united states had seriously considered or attempted suicide in the past year more than 50 percent of trans and non-binary youth those with access to spaces affirming their

095gender and sexuality attempted suicide at significantly lower rates than their peers without such supports and the books in a library can be an absolutely crucial space of acceptance queer youth who learn to shroud their sexuality in secrecy who lack access to real life or fictional models for what healthy and unhealthy relationships might look like are more not less likely to stumble into risky or emotionally compromising sexual encounters and relationships the coming-of-age journeys portrayed in these books are messy that's how coming of age works and high schoolers of all sexualities are going to experiment with new experiences when some of that experimentation and exploration happens vicariously it doesn't encourage risky behavior rather it offers a path for the journey to be a little bit less messy for the next generation and that's a positive thank you

096for your time my name is adriana may i am a resident of redington township i am a librarian and i am representing the new jersey library association this evening an employee of your school district is receiving hate mail and threats from persons who disagree with some of the books at the north hunter end high school library media specialists serve as knowledge conduits to students and teachers often it is the librarian that helps students to connect the dots between classroom learning and application through careful consideration and rigorous training school library media specialists are equipped to make selection decisions for the purchase of library materials that represent a balance of the spectrum of knowledge we strongly affirm the library bill of rights our library workers are trained to uphold the tenants of intellectual freedom we are guided

097by our ethical responsibilities as information providers we provide access to books and other library resources for the interest information and enlightenment of all people within the communities that we serve we do not exclude materials because of their origin background or the views of those contributing to their creation we urge you on behalf of the executive board and members of the new jersey library association to resist and denounce the censorship of information and knowledge threats made to school media library specialists in your district should not be condoned acquiescing to loud voices whose desire to stifle opposing voices would only contribute to growing a dangerous society ultimately it would be a major disservice to the students that we have been entrusted to guide thank you just um i just wanted to know if anyone in the line

098had anything else to comment on other than the books i just want to make sure that others opinions are represented is there anyone willing to defer your place in line so that a different opinion can be heard on a different topic she's on new jersey members of the board thank you for your service to our community the view is expressed here online and do not represent any organization my children will be students here in a few short years the reason i am raising a family here is because in hunterdon county we protect our kids i hope you have formed a fair committee in good faith to do just this and i have heard that it is not the stigma our lgbtq students must cope with is not just absurd it is dangerous i've been a

099school teacher and school librarian in this county and like most experienced educators i can tell you there's nothing quite like burying the child suicide is the leading cause of death for lgbtqtes one in three attempts or completes suicide please decline the stigma that informs this horror if someone is appalled at a library book they can read something else they can also make the choice that a public school education is not for their family or for their career these recognized books have been carefully selected by an experienced solid and nationally recognized librarian it is not the room that is a safe haven for our students the library we voted for more than nine million dollars in part to renovate is not the safe space the safe space here is marthy it is the air and the

100affirmation that she breathes teachers like martha keep our kids alive i have known three of the one in three condemning gay kids or gay books is a dangerous act of hatred i will gladly speak up to keep that kind of blood off of my hands and off of all of ours please have no part in censoring these books abandoning our kids or harassing mrs hixson in hunterdon county that kind of hatred needs to stay at home behind closed doors thank you [Applause] hi my name is eliza thompson i live in clinton and i am in eighth grade i homeschool i am currently deciding whether or not to come to north next year i am here to support the north hundred and high school library lgbtq plus books are important and valuable for our all students

101regardless of sexual orientation because books are our strongest power against hate and homophobia what better way to have someone's humanity realized than to live inside their head i also want to thank you for supporting the mask mandate [Music] hi my name is alexa offenhauer and i am a member of the north huntering class of thank you i live in clinton that was my daughter you just heard from i am also an assistant professor of english at raritan valley community college and i recently earned my doctorate in english education from columbia university teachers college i'm here to defend the choices made by the high school librarians choices that were recently called into question by some people in september at the board of ed meeting many of the books in the school library as well as in

102the curriculum itself deal with themes and topics that are difficult mature and potentially controversial yet the only themes being called out is harmful by these parents are those dealing with lgbtq plus representation in particular one book called lawn boy which i read immediately upon hearing the comments last uh last month as i listened to those excerpts read out loud by one of the parents i became skeptical one of the things that i warn my students again is cherry picking their quotes or presenting their quotes out of context as an english professor at a community college i well know the value of accessible interesting complex books for teens and young adult readers they are hard to find and worth more than their weight in gold lomboy is without a doubt one such book and i am

103thrilled it is available for students at the library i fully support the north librarians and this and other book choices they have made thank you very much [Music] [Applause] oh thank you so i'm john drall from pittstown um i've got a student at north uh i'm the one who sent you a letter in regard to how students were being controlled and being silenced at uh friday night at football games specifically right and i'm sure you saw my exchanges with dr cottrell where all he did was hide behind new jersey state policy more new jersey state policy which in my opinion is what people do when they don't want to employ common sense and leadership to solve real problems free speech is not something that the administrators have a right to decide upon as i stated

104in my exchanges you and i might not like what some of the kids have to say but in these united states they have a right to say it for sure i am truly tired of watching administrators wave their fingers cross their arms and try to control everything these kids do when they come out on a friday night on their own time to watch a football game with their peers these administrators act as if they're holier than now and shocked by the slightest infraction a curse a slight push whatever it might be now i don't want classless f you chance or anything like that of course i don't but this administration has to find a better way to balance just like the other schools that we play do on friday nights but to have the athletic

105director send letters to students and parents stating and i quote appropriate school discipline will be imposed by north hunter and or criminal charges will be filed by the clinton township police if the staff members and staff members only on duty feel it is inappropriate their judgment will be upheld and one of those fraction interactions stated is bullying are you kidding me now many parents and administrators want want to hand out hib reports like their candy my question is who's bullying who you have the audacity to treat students and citizens like this remember this is the post-911 lockdown generation the mass mandate generation haven't they suffered enough are they not allowed to get out on friday night and blow off some steam how much control do you need to satisfy the state where does the bullying

106end that's what i want to know now after my letter last week i was very happy to see that no students left the game in handcuffs for a bullying thanks for that maybe it was because dr kochel didn't show up and the kids booed a few times and nobody was criminally charged and you know what nobody's feelings got hurt from the bullying it was amazing bottom line here is i'm finding more and more that administrators are serving as the sole arbiters of what is acceptable free speech and at times it's only the speech of those who they themselves deem as marginalized that are allowed to be heard and that's unacceptable i'm sorry but free speech is free speech [Applause] [Music] [Applause] so we really have to move on with the board meeting [Music] i really

107highly encourage you to send us an email we do read them and i really i appreciate you all coming out [Music] [Applause] i have to ask you to please stop thank you going to call a five-minute recess ask for a motion in a second i have a motion robin thank you i've been in recess everybody's in favor [Music] a second [Music] is that person okay come on all right can i i'd like to call the meeting back to order um can i remind everybody that we are still following the mass mandate so if you're still within the theater you can please put them on and i'd like to call for a motion and a second to reconvene second okay all in favor any opposed okay um i'd like to call for a motion in a

108second to approve resolution 102621-8 for the revision of the district textbook list which requires a role called majority vote motion oh robin rachel sorry yes mr chapman yes miss crystal logo yes mr far banished miss hoffman mr kirchberger yes miss mclaughlin yes mr melech yes ms celina yes mr street i call for a motion and a second to approve agenda items 13.1 through 15.13. um all in favor aye are you opposed let's see okay hey now it's time for any older new business have any older new business they'd like to discuss him um there might have been someone in that public that we did not get to hear that was on a different topic so maybe we need a mechanism for that yeah so can i chime in i i hear what you're saying and

109it's a really smart important point we've got to be really careful about uh prior restraint on speech uh which is being selected about topic i know you're not trying to censor anyone no no i'm just saying can we go by agenda that wasn't specifically on an agenda [Music] i think the only option there would be some districts do this uh because the old public meetings act only requires one opportunity so we have one opportunity uh some districts will have an opportunity on agenda items and then another opportunity on anything right so that's something the board could could consider and we've done it i know in my agenda items one's at the end of the meeting it was i mean i know jessica we extended 30 minutes and 15 minutes but we could have done but

110had a 30 minute beginning 30 at the end just just a suggestion yeah i think tonight was a one-off video no i think you you're even allowed you know we certainly want to be consistent uh and i think that the way it was extended giving you know more than twice the allotment uh was a good plan but there are different ways to handle this issue so kim just like in the past in prior years we we have had that two public speaking section agenda and i think the reason we changed it was probably it might have been my first or second year on the board but we changed it relatively recently because i think we struggled regularly with people in the like agenda-only public comment just saying stuff that wasn't on the like just coming

111to the microphone to say whatever that was on their mind and then it turned into like a refereeing match and you know this was an unusual amount of people wanting to be here but on a normal night we when we don't have that many people here it felt like we were spending a lot of time like telling people no you can't talk right now because that's not on the agenda so i think that decision was made for to make the meeting more like effective it's certainly something we could revisit i think but that was the reason yeah there are different differing opinions and we all come from different sending districts i just was sitting on nine years on my board that's how we did it and you know there are times when you had to

112stop can be short and quick if there's nobody that has any comments you just move on any other note roger i know we've talked about this before but for new for anything roger we have that it's a spreadsheet that's in the board resources folder and i i just looked at it yesterday and it's updated with yeah so there's a tab of closed out items that have been addressed and then there's a tab of open items some of which they couple of which date back to earlier this year but two or three of them are from last month closing um the item so one of the items was that i brought up about hiv training and i know we were gonna said we were gonna do it but we haven't done it um something out to

113the board this month we were planning on doing something in january when we have our new members and we're looking into a board retreat okay i did send an email out on that earlier this month it was in the same email as the training okay yeah it addressed training i'm not sure if january is the right month or february it's not going to be the same day as our board meeting but some boards do it for various reasons we can do it to better clarify our role as board members and also as a team building exercise so i'd like to just propose that to the board uh after the new slate is here so i don't know again if that's late january or early february like we have the head training we could do there's

114also obviously issues within the board that we can address and start the new year and then you board on a good note on a positive note but to that can we piggyback um i think we talked about this i brought that up about him can we take well we could but it was brought up after staff was already trained it was the beginning of the school year but moving forward moving forward we could do that we can invite the board to giving it to sure we them offer that as an option but if it's whether or not board members would be able to come and stick with that door today you know and so with work obligations that might be difficult for some board members so i think it's important to offer to everybody so

115that they all have an opportunity directly but that there was the the librarian has received um not a lot of support maybe some opposite of support from the community and some emails to her and things like that is it possible at least to um so we got we the board got a lot of emails explicitly expressing support for her actions we heard them today too i wonder how we might be able to make her aware that there is a strong community of support for her expressed through you know letters to the to the board i don't think we could i'm gonna guess that we couldn't send those to her without permission of the writers perhaps we could ask for permission it's a um i don't i don't i don't i don't i feel really bad

116that she herself is getting you know hate mail yeah i know the building administration has been working with her to try to um if there is anything that is threatening harassing you know they're addressing it with the administrative standpoint and also if need be law enforcement if it's a rat you know arrest and intimidation um so i know they have worked with her and i know they've expressed that we have been getting a lot of positive emails as well but if we wanted to formalize that some way but it's my understanding that those have been shared the views and opinions of those on that side have been shared as well okay so do you think she's cognizant of the amount of support that she's she's getting some um yeah i mean personally i'll personally follow

117up with you right what about the idea of like some resolution of support just from the board like just supporting staff and in particular you know um mrs hickson we had i don't know how we could write i don't know if that's like something we can do or not but it seems like some sort of statement that irrespective of how anybody individually feels about the issue it's a statement of support for a professional that's part of our team here part of our part of our staff i mean i'll i'll chime in and all these are heartfelt comments and you know rich made a comment at the beginning of the meeting in part specifically not mentioning her but mentioning our media specialists by title and you heard the reaction in the audience so i know there's

118an administrative uh effort to support her i think i'd like to talk to the administration about whether or not a resolution would be appropriate just thinking context uh and you know there are times when public comes out and makes negative comments about various individuals have we done that before is this you know is this something that you know we want to consider now and anyway i i think that uh it's certainly something that is uh relevant to talk about she is supported uh all staff is supported you know obviously but i would suggest that give us some time to talk to the administration if there's other suggestions that are better than that just let us know as a board how can we not only support her but if this ever happens again yes yes any

119other older new business good all right like to call for a motion in a second to adopt the attached uh resolution 102 621-2 for executive session to discuss matters falling under categories 4 7 and 8 as reflected in the attached resolution the board expects to be in executive session for approximately an hour and we'll return the public section after action whereas and return to public session action will be taken second all in favor i call for a motion and a second to reconvene for public sector recommended public sessions tara all in favor call for new business is there any new business that anybody would like to discuss at this point done i call for a motion and a second to approve agenda items twenty point one through twenty point three including the hand carries if

120provided this would be a roll call group yes mr chapman yes miss crystal logo yes miss hoffman mr kirchberger yes ms mclaughlin yes mr mueller yes mr lino uh yes except for 3.1.1 what was that which one was that 3.1.1 can i call for a motion and a second to insurance you