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.
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?
Today I was doing some digging about the organization which the librarian requested to send a box of books to the school. That group is Hope In a Box. Hope In a Box is the organization that sent the book All Boys Aren’t Blue.
It took me just a few minutes to find this gem on a FAQ’s sheet they make for teachers and librarians on their website.
The question is “How should I talk to younger students about gender and sexuality.” They shouldn’t of course, that’s not their job. No one at the school should be discussing sexuality with kids, especially the younger ones. Scroll to the bottom of the picture and see the age groups for the books they recommend.
The Cameron school district requested books from an organization which encourages teachers and librarians to have discussions with students about gender and sexuality. Of course Hope In a Box intends that book All Boys to be used to push their agenda.
How young of students are they referring to in this FAQ page? Great question. See in the picture above the book Neither? It’s for ages 2-6. That’s a book that’s recommended by Hope In a Box for younger students. It looks like they recommend teachers and librarians discuss gender and sexuality with students as young as 2.
How long will the board ignore what we all know? These books are NOT appropriate and the librarian is absolutely pushing an agenda. Sexuality is being pushed on our kids and our school district sits and ignores the problem.
Stop sexualizing our kids. Remove the porn and inappropriate material from our schools.