Here is the video from the Cameron R-1 school districts board of education meeting from December 19, 2023. There are time stamps in the description for the video. There was an update in this video to the ongoing book fight.
In March of 2023, the board of education amended policy BDDH-1 to allow them to place specific restrictions on citizens addressing the board of education during public meetings. One of those changes allows the board to restrict a citizen from discussing a topic which has previously been discussed before the board in the past 90 days.
The problem is that the school district and board of education are selectively enforcing that policy. Watch the video below for details.
Mrs Debbie Cox addresses the Cameron school districts board of education to talk about the sexually explicit books they are making available to students in the school libraries. Some of those books violate Missouri law and statute 573.550, prohibition against schools providing sexually explicit content to minors.
Here are the documents that will be shared with the Cameron, MO, board of education at the 17 October, 2023 board of education meeting. (We will add the link of that address after the board meeting.) These documents show I have been bringing concerns about the policy being discriminatory and indications that the school district isn’t complying with policy for more than a year. My concerns have been ignored. The board of education and Matt Robinson have ignored that they are not complying with the drug testing policy.
I will also include the link to the audio file I will mention where Robinson admits on 7 December of 2022 that he does not know which drug test is being conducted and that he is unconcerned he does not know. The video should start playing at the correct time stamp, but he makes this admission at 1 minute and 24 second mark.
Not knowing what tests are being conducted is a problem because the drug testing policy JFCI-AP1 calls for a specific test to be conducted. Approved board policy, which was adopted in 2014, requires a gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) be conducted on all non-negative urine samples. If the school district doesn’t know which tests are being done, it is impossible to ensure it is complying with this policy.
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.
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 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.