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.
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.
Recently I had a comment on one of my posts on our Facebook page about the book The Hate You Give, by Angie Thomas. It’s one of the books that are available in the Cameron high school library that was challenged and will be reviewed.
In this Facebook post, they mention that the book was made into a movie and that it’s only rated as PG-13. The implication being that this book should be perfectly acceptable for kids to read.
First off, the movie is rated determined by the content of the movie, not the book it is based upon. The movie is never exactly like the book. The film directer can, and usually does, leave out elements that would earn them an R rating when they want a larger and younger audience to watch the movie. The movie version of a book is not a direct reflection on the content of that book.
However, this commenter does inadvertently make my point for me. Let me explain.
If the movie version of the book did indeed include every scene and all the language as it is written in the book, the motion picture associations film rating committee would rate it as Restricted. In movie form, the students in Cameron high school would not be allowed to view that version of the movie!
RESTRICTED.Children Under 17 Require Accompanying Parent or Adult Guardian.These films contain some adult material. An R-rated film may depict adult activity, hard language, intense graphic or persistent violence, sexually oriented nudity, drug abuse or other elements.Parents are counseled to take this rating very seriously. Children under 17 are not allowed to attend R-rated films unaccompanied by a parent or adult guardian. Parents are strongly urged to find out more about the particular film in determining its suitability for their children. Generally, it is not appropriate for parents to bring their young children with them to R-rated movies
Movie Rating Stem PDF on https://www.filmratings.com website
So what content is really in the book? we highly recommend the site Book Looks and will provide a link to the PDF for The Hate You Give. Go verify our work. The language alone in this book would certainly earn it a rated R rating. Our school district cannot play rated R movies with this kind of language for students. Why then can they provide books with the same content that would be prohibited in a movie?
Did you know that the Parkview Elementary school teaches human sexuality at the school? It isn’t required by state law, so our board of education approved this. One can only assume they believe it’s appropriate.
Did you know? This was news to me when a local concerned parent reached out to me and shared the link to the student handbook. I was shocked, thought it must be a mistake. Surely this parent misunderstood. But there it was in black and white under “Instruction”. Human sexuality is being taught in the Parkview elementary school.
In the interest of transparency, we are still waiting to to see the curriculum to determine what exactly they’re teaching. But honestly it’s what isn’t on the curriculum that’s being taught that concerns me. The curriculum allows human sexuality to be taught, I’m concerned about what will be added by teachers with an agenda that isn’t approved. See the blog post on the report on what tenured teachers are doing in New York.
What child in kindergarten or Pre-K is emotionally developed and ready for a discussion on human sexuality? I’d argue they simple are not and it may be doing actual harm. The teacher is not equipped or trained to know which students are ready for that conversation. Besides, that should be a conversation that parents choose if and when their child is ready. Not a school district which makes that decision for parents without parental input.
Here is a brief video where I show the student handbook and discuss this concern. We will have more content in this issue as we see curriculum.
This is a great article that talks about the dangers of sexualizing our kids and the real damage that can be done to children.