In the Cameron high school library, the process and reason behind the sexually explicit books which have been added to the school libraries makes sense when you know the players behind the scenes. Or in this instance, it is the state library association known as MASL. It is the position of this organization that children should be permitted to read any content they want to read.
Listen to this interview with the President of the Missouri Association of School Librarians (MASL) and then ask yourself, should an organization with these stated goals and opinions about parents be creating our guidelines on what content will be made available to children?
In the video below is a bit of a reading from the Dave Pelzer autobiography, A Child Called IT. This book is made available in the Cameron R-1 school district to children as early as the 6th grade. We also read from the review of this book by a current high school ELA teacher who refers to it as “horrific and terrifying.“
No restrictions of any kind are placed on this book by the Cameron school district. The district does not require parental approval for their children to read this book. Call me old fashioned, but the school district should REQUIRE the express permission of parents before they give them books to read that contain content like this.
Recently a local Cameron resident, Mr Dan Landi, shared with me a book he found in the Cameron high school library. He found it with the school districts online book catalog through the school districts website. The book was the graphic novel version of Slaughterhouse Five. This was of particular interest because it contains pictures of people having sex, making it illegal for school to provide to children under Missouri statute 573.550. I confirmed the book showed as being in the online catalog through the resource Go Follett by selecting the state and appropriate school. I was able to find it in the CHS library catalog.
I found a website dedicated to the book fight in the Rockwood, MO, school district called Library Exposed. Searching their website I was able to see some of the images found in the book Slaughterhouse Five. I was able to determine why MO schools were pulling it. I will link directly to that page for the adults who want to be informed.
That got me curious, I wondered how many other books were in Cameron high school that had been pulled from Missouri schools for containing porn, as defined by Missouri statute 573.550. A quick internet search and I found an article from November of 2022 which said 300 books had been banned in Missouri because of the then newly implemented law. The article linked to a google document where there is a list of books and their authors which have been removed by various Missouri school district. A little copy and paste and I was able to see how many of those books still showed up in the Cameron high school library. To my dismay, I found 20 books in the Cameron high school library which appear other schools in Missouri determined were sexually explicit enough to remove . Twenty books which other Missouri school districts pulled from their shelves because they contained pictures which they were concerned would cause them to be in violation of Missouri law prohibiting schools from providing sexually explicit books to children.
In a previous blog entry, I discussed the graphic novel book Watchmen. I showed some of the content from that book, also found on the Library Exposed website. I include a video in that blog entry where I show the content and relevant statutes. You can find the blog post and video at Graphic novel Watchmen.
The image to the right is from a screen shot taken of the high school library catalog which shows Watchmen was in the library and was checked out to a Cameron high school student.
We obtained records from March 3, 2023 from the Cameron school district through Missouri Sunshine Law requests that show Robinson informed the board of education by email about a conversation he had with all the district librarians in August of 2022. He told the board “I sat down with all librarians in August and shared my thoughts on controversial books and shared that our day is coming, it’s only a matter of time.” That indicates he knew there were books that would concern parents and members of the community. Did they know about these books then? Why didn’t they take steps in August to avoid this issue? Has their day arrived? Hopefully it has and this means these books will finally be removed.
In April of 2023, Andi Lockridge, the attorney who sits on the Cameron board of education, asked the superintendent Matt Robinson during that months board of education meeting if any of those books, as defined by the statute she read aloud, were in the Cameron school district. He responded by shaking his head and said “no”. You can watch a recording of that board meeting that was live streamed on Citizen Observer Facebook page. The relevant portion begins around the 46 minute and 20 second mark.
Here is the current list of books which we found on the library catalog for the Cameron high school.
- Autopsies by Jeffrey Gary
- The Dark Knight series by Frank Miller
- Brazen:Rebel Ladies who rocked the world by Penelope Bagieu
- Grass by Gendry-Kim
- Himawari House by Harmony Becker
- How It All Blew Up by Arvin Ahmadi
- Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
- Red Rising by Pierce Brown
- Salughterhouse Five graphic novel by Vonnegut
- Speak the graphic novel by Laurie Anderson
- Spinning by Tillie Walden
- The Best We Can Do by Thi Bui
- The Giver by Craig Russell
- The Sacrafice of Darkness by Roxane Gay
- Watchmen by Allen Moore
One of our constant concerns about the Cameron school district and the board of education is that we do not feel they are listening to us. We have been saying consistently for some time that they are ignoring us. On Tuesday night two of the board members, Pam and Staci, proved it.
In this video clip you will hear a portion of the address that Paula Allen made to the board. She referred to the April board meeting when a student told the board about sexual comments being made by teachers. Pam and Staci both asked about this teacher and when he left the school district. Had the looked into the complaint of sexual harassment of students by teachers back in April, wouldn’t the know the answer to this question? Shouldn’t they know?
This clearly indicates to me this board of education does not take our concerns seriously. It appears they dismissed Kassidy Wilcox entirely. This is why parents and students say that when they come to the district with concerns and problems that we feel ignored and dismissed. Because they are ignoring and dismissing us.
Here you can hear some passages from the book Fade which is available for children to read at eh Cameron, MO, high school. Children as young as 14 are able to checkout and read this book that, among other things, shows how a teacher grooms one of his female students.
This book also explains how a group of students are roofied and how girls who are raped after being given a date rape drug do not report the crime because they can’t remember it. Is that the kind of knowledge we should be giving to children who are constantly sexualized at school?
Here is an example of the content being made available to children as young as 14 in the high school library in Cameron, Missouri. The school district and the board of education know this content is there but refuse to even require parental approval for a child to check it out. They know this content is in the hands of children but REFUSE to take any steps to protect them.
Give this a listen and then try to convince me how this is appropriate for children.
We often times hear from folks that we are exaggerating about the book issue at the Cameron school district, that the books are not as bad as we imply. We also have people shocked and appalled when they hear one of us read from one of these books. We are going to provide a list of those books which you’re able to view online through the Book Looks website below. You can check our work and confirm they’re in the library with another website, Go Follett. Just select your state, your district and the school.
The following list is from the Cameron high school. These books contain adult sexually explicit content.
- All Boys Aren’t Blue by Johnson – LINK
- The Bluest Eye by Morrison – LINK
- A Court of Thorns and Roses by Maas – LINK
- Crank by Hopkins – LINK
- Eleanor and Park by Rowell – LINK
- Fade by McMann – LINK
- The Freedom Writers Diary by The Freedom Writers Erin Gruwell – LINK
- The Handmaid’s Tale by Atwood – LINK
- The You I’ve Never Known by Hopkins – LINK
- YOLO by Myracle – LINK
- Juliet Takes a Breath by Rivera – LINK
- The Kite Runner by Hosseini – LINK
- Like a Love Story by Nazemian- LINK
- Looking for Alaska: a Novel by Green – LINK
- Lucky by Sebold – LINK
- The Lovely Bones by Sebold – LINK
- Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Andrews – LINK
- Nineteen Minutes by Picoult – LINK
- Out of Darkness by Perez – LINK
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Chbosky – LINK
- Slaughterhouse-Five by Vonnegut – LINK
- Sold by McCormick – LINK
- Speak by Anderson – LINK
- Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Maguire – LINK
- The Carnival at Bray by Jessie Foley – LINK
- A Child Called IT by David Pelzer – LINK
- How beautiful the ordinary by Michael Cart – LINK
- Ask the Passengers by A.S. King – LINK
- All the Things We Do In the Dark by Saundra Mitchell – LINK
- Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott – LINK
- Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Foer – LINK
- The DUFF by Kody Keplinger – LINK
- Crown of Midnight: A throne of glass by Maas – LINK
- Throne of Glass by Maas – LINK
- Smoke by Hopkins – LINK
- Burned by Hopkins – LINK
- Crank by Hopkins – LINK
- Fallout by Hopkins – LINK
- Glass by Hopkins – LINK
- Identical by Hopkins – LINK
- Impulse by Hopkins – LINK
- Rumble by Hopkins – LINK
- Tilt by Hopkins – LINK
- Traffick by Hopkins – LINK
- Ttfn by Myracle – LINK
- L8r, G8r by Myracle –LINK
- Shine by Myracle – LINK
- TTYL by Myracle- LINK
- The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis – LINK
- Heroine Mindy McGinnis – LINK
- Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher – LINK
- Beloved by Toni Morrison – LINK
- The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas – LINK
- Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender – LINK
- Friday by Robert Heinlein – LINK
- Go Ask Alice by Anonymous – LINK
- Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson – LINK
- How It All Blew Up by Arvin Ahmadi – LINK
- I’ll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson – LINK
- A Stolen Life by Dugard – LINK
- The Glass Castle by Walls –
- The Poet X by Acevedo – LINK
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
The second largest school district in Georgia, as reported by AP News, has removed the book Me and Earl and the Dying Girl from 20 of their school libraries. They cite the reason for removing those books was because it had
“highly inappropriate, sexually explicit content.”
Cobb County school district as found on AP News
The board of education and superintendent at the Cobb county school district have the courage to let the community know exactly where they stand on the issue of sexually explicit content. The Cobb county school district gets it. Sexually explicit content does NOT belong in our schools. If only the board of education and superintendent here in Cameron had this type of morality, leadership and courage.
“Protecting our students from sexually explicit content isn’t controversial, it’s what our parents expect,” John Floresta, the district’s chief strategy and accountability officer. “Our board and superintendent are clear — any book, video, or lesson which contains sexually explicit content is entirely unacceptable and has no place in our schools.”
It just so happens that the Cameron High School also has this book on its shelf, complete with that very same “highly inappropriate, sexually explicit content.”
It just so happens that the Cameron High School also has this book on its shelf, complete with that very same “highly inappropriate, sexually explicit content.”This book is one of 80 in the Cameron high school which have been challenged and will be reviewed by they district. You can see the list of all the books currently being challenged on the Cameron school districts website. Or you can go directly to the page with the current lists.