Update on our previous post about the “Book Tasting” event from the Cameron Missouri high school. We have obtained clarification from the district and a copy of the documents seen in picture from the Cameron R-1 schools Facebook page. We will share that clarification and the 43 page document we received.
Today we received an email that documented a Missouri Sunshine law response that was forwarded to us. A concerned tax payer had request a copy of the document seen in the districts Facebook post about the “book tasting” event. The school district has fulfilled that records request and provided a clarifying statement. You can see the documents in the following image on the flat surface under the monitor.
According to the statement in the email response Mr Landi received, that document seen in the photo was apparently unrelated to the book tasting event and wasn’t intended specifically for the book tasting even. Here is the districts statement.
The following link will allow you to download the 43 page PDF provided by the Cameron R-1 school distinct.
Looking at this document and all of its pages, I am left with the two different gut feelings. First, this material lacks any warnings to the type of adult content found in these restricted books. Second, it seems this document is intended to get children interested in reading the adult content that superintendent Matt Robinson personally determined needed to be restricted to all students except those who are 18 years old. Is the school district truly spending tax payer resources to encourage children to read sexually explicit adult content?
It is interesting that the school district chose to use school district staff and resources to create this “unfettered review” for students. Despite being asked to do so for almost 2 years, the district refuses to create a similar document for parents. We want something that outlines the content in these books that caused the superintendent to restrict them. I believe it is reasonable for the Cameron R-1 school district to provide parents with a resource like this 43 page PDF that would allow us to make an informed decision about allowing our children to read these books.
Currently the Cameron R-1 school district doesn’t provide parents with anything that explains why a specific book has been restricted by the district. Even the Destiny Discover service parents can use doesn’t describe the content in these books. Superintendent Matt Robinson determined these books needed to be restricted, doesn’t the school district owe it to the parents to tell us why?
In a previous blog post titled “Reents-Dickkut says students can “view” restricted books” we covered what appears to be an intentional run around of the parents wishes. Restricted books were provided to the class without at least one parents approval. Dickkut appears to have admitted as much in her email response to a concerned parent.
Considering those two books, Speak and Hate U Give, were among the 43 pages in this document, I do not believe the district can claim this was an accident. The cover of each pages specifically states “These books require a parent signed Full Access Agreement” on every page. That is pretty clear to me. Here are those two books as seen in this document.
The Cameron R-1 school district has spent two years ignoring our questions about these books. Of course, I have more questions after inspecting this document. Who created this document and why? Was it created by direction of school administrators? Which one? Or is this dimply the act of one person and another attempt to indoctrinate our children and circumvent the will of parents.
I will close out this post by sharing an Instagram post from an account appearing to belong to the high school librarian. They are recording an unboxing video as the appear to promote a series of different LBTQAlphabetSoup books. Several of those books seen in this video have been restricted or outright removed because of their adult content.
Did you catch her mention of “diversity” as she discussed these books with a student? Notice her hashtags on that post in the description under the video? Yes, we have DEI in the Cameron R-1 school district.
On February 6, the Cameron, MO high school shared out a post on it’s Facebook Page highlighting a “book tasting” event held by ELA teacher Jennifer Reents-Dickkut for her sophomore level Language Arts class. One local parent noticed that among the images posted by the Cameron school district were 3 titles that had been restricted by the school superintendent, Matt Robinson. These books were restricted because of the adult content they contained and were not to be given to under age children without express permission from a parent through a form provided by the district.
Here is the original post on the Cameron R-1 High Schools Facebook page. Three different “restricted” titles are visible in the included photos for this post
In a strange turn of events, we received an email that was forwarded by a parent who had a child in that class. That parents child was given the restricted book The Hate U Give without the parents consent. This parent emailed Mrs Dickkut to ask why their child was given a restricted book without consent. The following screenshot was taken from the bizarre response which seems to suggest that superintendent Robinson’s restriction on books is only for reading, viewing them is acceptable. See the blue highlighted portion in the image below.
“There is a policy to read books with permission, but nothing on the form about viewing them. ” – Jennifer Reents-Dickkut
Yes, Mrs Dickkut appears to defend her actions by suggesting that school restrictions that prohibit her from providing restricted books to children without parental written approval doesn’t apply to just “viewing”.
Considering the 2 year long fight in Cameron over all of these explicit books with adult content, it doesn’t seem reasonable that this was a mistake or a misunderstanding of policy. Dickkut was at the same board meetings as me when the superintendent and board discussed these restricted books and how they were to be handled. It was very clear. Restricted books were to be segregated in a library closet and not to be given to students under the age of 18 without first getting parental approval on a book restriction form. There was ZERO discussion about any differences between reading and viewing.
In a story we shared yesterday, you can see Mrs. Dickkut admitted to this parent that she told the students in advance that there were restricted books being used in the book tasting. This struck me as odd, because we were told by the Cameron school district and our board of education that access to restricted books would be controlled and only students with parental consent would be provided a restricted book. This appears to be a deliberate act by an activist teacher to disobey her administrators and board of education.
Recently the Clinton County leader, based out of rural Plattsburg, MO, published a story on its Facebook page about the Cameron High Schools social media post about CHS teacher Jennifer Reents-Dickkut’s Language Arts 2 classes. The Sophomore level classes visited the CHS library and took part in a “book tasting.” According to Reents-Dickkut, 9 different books were “tasted”. We have that list of books and would like to share it.
While viewing the schools social media post about the “book tasting”, a concerned member of the public identified 3 three books shown in those pictures that had been restricted by school superintendent Matt Robinson. According to Robinson and the 7 member school board, restricted books were not to be given to minors without express parental consent.
We have obtained an email record from Mrs. Reents-Dickkut about the books that was sent to a concerned parent. Dickkut appears to provide a list of the books used in her book tasting event. Dickkut denies that the book Me Earl and the Dying Girl shown in the pictures for the event was used in the class. Apparently another district employee was making that restricted material available to the students.
Here is the list of book titles sent to the concerned parent. Some of the books listed here are rated by Book Looks, we will provide a link to those books after the book titles. Those links will open a PDF which will give you an overview of the book, a summary of the concerns with that book and the page numbers with the text of the concerning passages. Books with excessive vulgar language will also include word counts on that PDF. The books Speak and Hate U Give are the two books that have been restricted by the school district. There are links provided for both of those books.
1-The Sun is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon, –
2 Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, – Link to Book Looks
3-All American Boys by Brendan Kiely and Jason Reynolds – Link to Book Looks
4-The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas – Link to Book Looks
5-Dear Martin by Nic Stone – Link to Book Looks
6-The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie – Link to Book Looks
7- Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds – Link to Book Looks
8-Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia
9-A very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi etc.
This screen shot was taken from the email that Mrs. Dickkut sent to the concerned parent. The admissions from Dickkut in this letter are concerning and will be featured in its own topic soon. In this screen shot made from that email, you can see students were told in advance that restricted books were on the tables. The school board assured the community the restricted books wouldn’t be given to students without parental consent. Clearly that directive wasn’t followed.
What is the curriculum objective for these 9 books that Mrs. Dickkut selected for that class? What is the literary value of those books? We have asked those very questions dozens of times about the books we find and challenge within the Cameron, Missouri, school district. In 2 years, neither the district nor any member of the board of education will so much as acknowledge they have received our questions. So without any answers, we have been left to trying to draw our own conclusions.
Because the Cameron school district refuses to allow parents or members of the public to inspect these books, we have to resort to using the only available resource they provide us, Destiny Discover. Jumping into Destiny I found a reoccurring theme to these books selected for this class. Racism and oppressed minority groups. Is this DEI in our classrooms?
In the following video, you will see and hear Mrs. Dickkut addressing the school board about the restriction of books in the Cameron school district. She strongly supports children reading these books with adult sexually explicit content. In this video, Dickkut mentions diversity 5 times along with references to race, minority groups, LGBTQ issues and a few other topics addressed in DEI. Is this a radical teacher pushing DEI on our kids? You tell me.
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