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Cameron Exposed
At the conclusion of the September 19, 2023 board of education meeting, Pam Ice, president of the board of education in Cameron, Missouri, read a prepared statement to the public who were in attendance. I believe some of the information she provided is inaccurate. I have inserted my response into that original video. That compilation is shared in the video below.
I believe this is yet another calculated delay tactic by the Cameron school district to try and buy time. This policy, like the last one they used to review the sexually explicit books, does not include a solution to the problem. This policy does not give the district the ability to restrict content that is vulgar or sexually explicit.
The district has no policy in place that will prevent additional sexually explicit, vulgar and inappropriate content from being added to our libraries. They do not have any plan, or apparent desire, to start a process of finding additional concerning content that hasn’t yet been identified. Why are the members of the public responsible for finding the inappropriate content the school added?
This shouldn’t be so difficult.
In a previous blog entry titled Cameron school district likely ineligible for state funds to purchase books under new rule to protect children, we speculated the Cameron school district wasn’t complying with this new rule. In the interest of getting the truth of the matter, we submitted a sunshine law request seeking the records that would show the truth. We were right. The Cameron R-1 school district is not in compliance.
You can see the sunshine law request above that was made to request records that would have shown the Cameron school district attempting to comply with this new rule to qualify for state funds designated specifically to purchase library books.
In this next image you can see the response from the Cameron school district to that records request. When Ms Walker says “The district does not have any records responsive to this request.” that is our indication that they didn’t submit that paperwork by the deadline date. Had they submitted the paperwork there would be a record.
Does that mean the school district won’t add more books to the library?
The Cameron school district will still add lots of books to the Cameron school libraries, they will just use funds other than those provided by the secretary of state to pay for them. By using funds the school already has they can avoid those pesky restrictions on providing vulgar and sexually explicit books to our children.
This is unfortunate for two reasons. The most obvious is that in order to qualify for those state funds that can only be used to buy books, the Cameron school district would have to take steps to protect our children from vulgar and sexually explicit content. That would be the win that we are seeking.
The second reason, if those book purchases are bought with funds that the school already has it prevents those book purchase funds from being used for other necessities within the district. If we can obtain funds from the state specifically to buy books we could stretch the budget further to see to more needs of our students.
Can anything be done since they aren’t complying?
I had the same question, and I have to admit I may be wrong here. But my understanding is this isn’t a law, so there is no way to force compliance. If the Cameron school district doesn’t wish to comply with the requirements to receive those funds they are ineligible to receive them. They are not required to received those funds.
Our fight will continue
This new rule would have been an easy solution for the Cameron school district and board of education to protect our children from inappropriate content. It is more than a little disappointing they elected to ignore it and not comply.
Our fight to remove the adult content from the school district is far from over. We are committed to bringing change and protecting our children. If you are willing to help, either in the eye of the public or from the shadows, please let us know.
Recently a new rule went into effect in MO, Library Certification Requirement for the Protection of Minors, that was designed to help protect children from sexually explicit, obscene and age inappropriate content while empowering parents. No surprise, the Cameron school district is in direct defiance and non-compliance with this new rule. Libraries which do not comply with these rules will be ineligible to receive state funding earmarked for the purchase of books. Rules for thee, but not for me. Why wouldn’t the school district want to comply with a requirement designed to help protect minors?
There are six requirements outlined in this rule that libraries must follow in order to receive funding from the state. Those rules are :
- Libraries must create and publish a written policy describing how they consider age appropriateness when selecting materials. – No such policy exists at the Cameron school district. This is one of the many complaints of the citizens concerned about the books in our school district.
- Libraries are banned from buying materials that are “obscene,” “pornographic for minors” or “child pornography” as defined by Missouri law.
- Libraries must create and publish a policy letting parents and guardians determine what materials their child(ren) can access. Library workers are banned from giving material to children that hasn’t been approved by parents. – No such policy exists in the Cameron school district. They do offer a “restriction form” but that does not comply with this requirement. It is going to require a GOOD policy for the district to be able to comply with this one.
- No “age-inappropriate” materials will be displayed in areas of libraries primarily used for children or teens. – Under the new rule, parents have the right to challenge such displays. This is good for parents AND students. See item 6.
- Events held in the libraries must designate which age groups the events are deemed appropriate to allow parents to decide if they will allow their child(ren) to participate.
- Libraries will adopt a written policy letting parents challenge whether materials, events or displays are “age-appropriate.” Results of challenges must be published on a library’s website. – This item is big. I will write about it below.
Just last week at a special board of education meeting the board voted unanimously to rescind policy KLB-AP1. That policy partially complied with item 6. But our board of education felt it was prudent and necessary to rescind the policy which allowed parents to challenge individual books if we had any concerns about the contents.
Now the district tells us if we have concerns about a book we need to address those concerns through policy BDDH-1. You will have to request to be added to the agenda to address the board of education and ask them to consider instructing the district to review the book which concerns you. Mind you, they are under no obligation to do so. It is entirely at their discretion.
The stated goal of this library certification requirement is to protect children. Why would the district and board of education vote to rescind policy KLB-AP1 which gave parents and tax payers a process to challenge books, to try and protect our children?Why is our superintendent not complying with this new rule? Is he not aware, or is this a deliberate act?
To the parents and tax payers in the Cameron community, its time to take a stand. I encourage you to contact every member of the board of education and ask them why they choose to move away from the requirements that were put in place to help protect our children. Demand answers. And let us know how the respond.
https://www.cameron.k12.mo.us/page/board-members
Currently the Cameron school district has no policy in place which would prohibit sexually explicit material from being in our school libraries. This is true for the content that is currently in the library as well as books that can be added in the future. No policy will prevent more sexually explicit content from being added to the library.
At the special board of education meeting in August, the board directed Matt Robinson to order the review of all the books that been previously challenged under policy KLB-AP1. They knew, or should have known, the outcome of that review before they even ordered it to be conducted. No content will be removed for being sexually explicit. It will be retained because it fits the districts mission to be “diverse”.
Policy IIA is the basis, the guide, for how policy IIAC-R1 will be viewed and applied as the school district reviews the list of challenged books. Within the highlighted picture above, notice this quoted portion.
Multi-cultural, disability-aware and gender-fair concepts will be criteria for selection of materials
The people who are reviewing the challenged books will argue that the books that include issues such as LGBT, alternative sexuality, alternative genders and the other topics that concern us are all multi-cultural issues. Because All Boys Aren’t Blue is about a homosexual black man it gets 2 marks in the multi-cultural column and will likely be retained.
You will notice that the district doesn’t define multi-cultural, disability-aware or gender-fair concepts. Because the district doesn’t define it, those who are reviewing the books under this policy get to apply their own subjective definitions.
Moving on to the policy that will be used to “reconsider” the challenged books. Towards the bottom of policy IIAC-R1 you will find the section which covers reconsideration. This is the image to the right of this text. You will notice that this too is entirely subjective, it will be entirely at the discretion of each committee member to decide what they feel those subjective guidelines mean.
Look at item 5. We know the librarian likely recommends every one of the challenged books, she personally selected most of them. So no chance she will say those books aren’t recommended. But should a sexually explicit book which describes how to have anal sex be recommended by anyone at the school district? I say no. Not appropriate content for young children and no amount of context will make it OK.
What should be done?
Many of the books that are being challenged are there because board policy was not followed. Those books should be removed until they can be added in accordance with board policy. To remove only the challenged books would invite lawsuit from organizations like the ACLU for viewpoint discrimination.
Anyone who failed to follow board policy relating to this book mess should be considered as having a conflict of interest in being on that reconsideration committee. Other teachers, librarians or administrators should be appointed, as necessary.
The board of education has the ability, and obligation, to amend policy which does not comply with community standards. It is in their power to draft new policy, or alter existing policy, to protect our children from sexually explicit content. They could amend IIAC-R1 to replace sexually explicit content as well as limit the schools ability to add new books with sexually explicit content.
They could publish the list of books they hope to add to the library in advance of such purchases. This would allow the community to look into the books and make the book selection committee aware of any concerning content. That would give the community a stake in the books being bought with their tax dollars while helping to make the job easier for the selection committee.
In an article published by Heidi Schmidt on August 28, 2023, on the KC TV 5 website she shared the American Library Association’s top 13 most challenged books of 2022 in Missouri and Kansas. Out of curiosity I decided to check the Cameron library and see how many of those books we had here.
It didn’t take me long to find the first book. I knew this one from memory. All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson is the 2nd most challenged books in Missouri and Kansas. In this picture from the personal Instagram account of the Cameron high school librarian you can see the cover of All Boys in the top right. According to Heidi, this book was challenged 86 times for the stated reason of having sexually explicit content.
Residents of Cameron who attended the August 29, 2023 special board of education meeting had the opportunity to hear Dan Landi read some of that concerning sexually explicit content. For those of you who missed it, you can watch Dan read it to the board of education.
In total, the Cameron high school library has 8 of the top 13 most challenged books of 2022. The Cameron board of education recently said our district is a leader in education in NW Missouri. I don’t think they had this particular stat in mind when the made that statement.
The other 7 of the top 13 books found in the Cameron high school library and the most state reason for being challenged are as follows.
- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison – sexually explicit, sexual assault and
- Looking for Alaska by John Green – sexually explicit and LBGT content
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky – sexual abuse, sexually explicit content, LBGT content, drug use and profanity
- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie – sexually explicit content and profanity
- Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez – sexually explicit content and abuse
- Crank by Ellen Hopkins – sexually explicit content and drug use
- Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews – sexually explicit content and profanity
Does the Cameron board of education truly respect your uninhibited freedom of speech? Or do some of them believe there are limits? Should a public body, or specifically members of that body, be calling for their constituents to curb their freedom of speech because the topics turn our stomachs?
We get freedom even in these topics that sometimes turn our stomachs.
Pam Ice, board president of Cameron school district, at 29 August 2023 board meeting
Below is a video clip taken from the special meeting of the board of education on the evening of August 29, 2023. In the meeting Pam spoke after Ann and Jackie, but I include her part in this clip first. Freedom is scary. But Pam is right, it is what our nation was founded upon.
Several grievances have been filed with the district alleging 1st and 14th amendment violations relating to freedom of speech issues. Perhaps there is true merit to those allegations and they should be taken seriously.
The term gender affirming closet is something that I learned about this year as I began to read and learn more about the dirty book issue in Cameron. In this blog post I will share what I have learned, explain why you should know about it, and debunk the claim that there is no narrative being pushed on our kids.
A story published by the Herzog Foundation in their online publication The Lion is what prompted me to write this piece. Their story is about a school in Liberty, MO, and a grant application for a “gender affirming closet” that was submitted by the Gender and Sexualities Alliance (GSA) student group.
So what is a gender affirming closet? Look at the image that The Lion published of the grant application and read how the GSA in Liberty defines it. See what they want it to do with a gender affirming closet. According to Liberty North GSA, they want to create a gender affirming closet to offer nonbinary and transgender teens a safe space to express themselves through clothing, accessories, binders, makeup, jewelry and nail polish. The hope to provide accessibility to those items for students who may not currently have them.
Notice the words in bold print in the sentence above. The term accessories is broad, but I believe you should know about it. This information comes from the Daily Caller article: TransTape, Chest Binders And Packers: The ‘Gender-Affirming’ Gear Public Schools Are Stocking Up On
For biological males, an accessory can consist of “tucking tape”, some times called transtape, which allows him to tape his penis and testicles up between his legs to “hide the bulge”. It can also include a bra and something to stuff into it.
For biological females, accessories can include a prosthetic penis which would allow her to pee while standing up. These are often referred to as “packers” on websites which sell them and often require harnesses and tight boxers briefs to keep them in place. Binders were specially named in the application for that grant. They are used to bind down female breasts and hide them.
Stand-to-pee devices are prosthetic penises “designed for standing urination” for females, according to the FtM Essentials website. Harnesses and tight boxer briefs are required to keep the devices in place and it is recommended that females try the device out in the shower first to learn how to use the device.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/community-family/fairfax-schools-teacher-training-student-gender-transitions
If you scroll down to the itemized list of expenses on the GSA grant application in The Lions article you will see in the $3500 they want to spend on clothing the specifically list intimates as one of the items they want to buy.
In my home we define “intimates” as female articles of clothing, lingerie, like bras and panties. Based on our use of the word, the purpose of the grant included buying and providing panties to young boys. And it is likely that schools with these transition closets aren’t notifying parents that their child is using them.
“Who may not currently have them” is concerning to me. The reason they do not currently have those items is because, right or wrong, the parents often do no approve of their child having those items. Schools across our nation are keeping transition closets secret and training teachers to transition children’s genders and not get parental approval. In some instances, like in the quote below, children are changing clothes when they arrive at school and at the end of the day before going home. This is done to hide this secret life from the parents. We believe this debunks the myth that no agenda is being pushed on our nations children. If they weren’t pushing an agenda there would be no need to hide it.
They started in colleges, but trans closets—rooms stocked with transgender clothes and accessories for students to change into after arriving to school and back out of before going home—are being discovered in public schools with some indication they are being kept a secret from parents.
https://americanfaith.com/more-secret-gender-transition-closets-discovered-in-public-schools/
While it is suspicious to me that the Liberty school district superintendent waited to decline the grant for a gender closet until after The Lion sought records about the grant, it is good that this closet business was ended. That doesn’t mean this issue is over, just that they won’t go about it this way.
Parents and citizens should know about gender closets and be on the lookout for them. Schools should be teaching reading, science and mathematics to kids, not feeding into their gender dysphoria. Public schools are not trained or qualified to treat any dysphoria and feeding into and encouraging a dysphoria is unethical and wildly irresponsible. Any time an adult states or implies to a child that there is no need to tell the parents we should be deeply concerned.
The Cameron area has received some outside attention on the issue relating to sexually explicit books in our public school libraries. Ryan Foley, a reporter with the Christian post, published his article titled “Missouri parents say school district ‘stonewalled’ them about ‘naughty books’ in school libraries.”
You can read the story on the Christian Post website.
The Cameron , MO board of education has called a special board of education meeting for the evening of August 29, 2023 at 7 PM in the Goodrich boardroom. You can view the agenda for that meeting on the district website. The building is located at 423 N Chestnut in Cameron, MO.
There will be a public participation period during this meeting. Members of the public will be granted 3 minutes to address the board. This will occur after the board discussion on Policy consideration.
There are 5 items on the agenda under Policy Considerations. They are:
- Suspending/Rescinding Board Policy KL Public Concerns and Complaints
- Suspending/Rescinding Board Policy KLB – Public Questions, Comments or Concerns regarding district instructional/ media libraries
- Suspending/Rescinding/Amending Board Policy KLB-AP1
- Utilizing Internal Review Policy IIAC-R1
- Parent restriction of library materials authorization process/form
I have serious concerns about the parent restriction of library materials form the district is using. I discussed it recently in one of our YouTube videos.
At the recent board of education there was some discussion by the board on Social Emotional Learning (SEL)and how wonderful it is for the kids. If all I knew about SEL is what the board told us I would be onboard for it too. But I’ve seen the stories that are being told across our nation about the darker side of SEL.
I am going to share one story that was sent to me today by a concerned parent. This story takes place in CA, the birthplace of SEL. You know the old saying, as goes California so goes the nation. This story takes place in California and it is common there for SEL to tell youth that sex is normal and healthy. Some even encourage children to do it. Social Emotional Learning is used by sexual predators through emotional manipulations to sexualize children. The link to the Daily Wire story is below.
A leading “social emotional learning” program that contracts with schools and holds intimate talks with children is led by an astrology-peddling mystic who pushed girls as young as 12 to have sex and appears to have failed to report child abuse and at least one case of rape, according to an investigation by The Daily Wire.
DailyWire.com – https://www.dailywire.com/news/social-emotional-learning-guru-may-have-concealed-sex-abuse-while-pushing-young-teens-to-enjoy-sex
Social Emotional Learning is being taught in the Cameron school district. Parents should learn more about SEL and make appointments with the district to see the curriculum. It can be used by bad actors to sexualize our kids. But it can be used for other bad purposes too. Do a search for “dangers of social emotional learning” and prepare to be frustrated. Social Emotional Learning is like Critical Race Theory on steroids.