You don't think motives are important? You'd be OK with non-FCPS parents stirring the pot for their own political motives? |
This is a good primer: https://www.nsba.org/ASBJ/2019/October/First-Amendment Here is the key conclusion: "I hope the take-away from this article is clear. School boards must be extremely cautious about restricting what citizens say during the period set aside for public comments at school board meetings. Generally, if a school board is going to allow for public comment (which is not constitutionally required), it must allow the public to speak about any matter within the school board’s authority." And here is just one of the many court opinions on the issue (this one from July 2021): https://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/21a0156p-06.pdf In that case, the school board adopted a rule prohibiting speech that was “antagonistic,” “abusive” and “personally directed.” The 6th Circuit struck down the rule as impermissible viewpoint discrimination. In reaching its holding, the court cited the well-established principle that a government entity cannot prohibit offensive speech in a public forum. |
Let’s see what the FCC says. I assume this mom got legal advice before doing this |
they'll possibly fine the tv station, but there is zero chance they will fine the speaker. |
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In DCUM land where people love to redshirt, Freshman are 14-15 for summer birthdays.
Now all of a sudden people think 12-13 years olds have access to high school libraries. Using extremes to prove your point doesn't help. These books are on a shelf, not visible unless you are searching for them or ask the librarian for material on this subject. They would be checked out by 14-18 year olds. Use actual facts. If you think they are inappropriate for 14-18 year olds, say that. No need to bring ES and MS students into the mix. |
People are bringing MS into it because these books are in at least one secondary school's library. |
In FCPS, there are some secondary schools which have 7th grade through 12th grade (Robinson, Hayfield and Lake Braddock). A PP confirmed that there is one library for these schools, which is accessed by the middle school and high school students. That's why you have people bringing up whether a 12 yo should have access to this material. It's a legitimate issue given how large those schools were, so it results in thousands of middle schoolers having access. Lawn Boy doesn't really bother me. There are plenty of books where if you read passages outloud, it's uncomfortable. I think images are a different game altogether and Gender Queer should be removed. We'd never be OK if the book depicted images of a young girl imagining giving an older man a blow job. Or kids where the girl was the one giving a boy the blow job because the boy wanted to experiment. Just because this is all in pursuit of gender identity doesn't make it acceptable. |
I wonder what the consequences will be down the line from this abuse... No more school board broadcasts? No more speaker time? |
Well the end of the book is actually positive. The main character didn't like the experimenting and isn't comfortable with such explicit sexual acts (at age 25). Then it goes on to discuss consent, pressure, finding a partner comfortable with limits and things that you do not want to do. Even talk about being asexual and everything that comes with it. Other than the graphics, the book has good material. Maybe an alternative would be to edit those pictures out by the publisher. I do think it's an important book for older teens and young adults. |
that would be a great look, how would the phrase it, "a mother read expects from a book found in a secondary school library that was so offensive that we can no longer have speakers at school board meetings" |
Pekarsky and Keys Gamarra had a town hall last night, and I submitted this question. They didn’t answer it. But, they obviously can’t have this happen again. And look at LCPS to see where this crap leads— parent standing on tables yelling and spitting. Threats. Arrests. At a minimum, they are going to have to put public comments on a time delay so they can interrupt the broadcast of these “adults” and their Freedumbs. I think that’s a legally tough thing to do, because they are a governmental body making split second decisions about what to censor. I guess their other options are to start the broadcast after public comments, stop public comments or post the meeting afterward with a warning if there is inappropriate content. I hope they don’t do the last one. I like having the livestreams. I I like to listen to them with my teen and tween. They should understand how the decisions fetching their schools are made, and one will be a 2024 voter. I guess my vote would be to start broadcasting after public comments. I think the Indian community and virtual education is an example of a group using this process well. So was Open FCPS last year. I hate that it only takes one awful adult to screw up citizen engagement on important topics. |
Sorry you're dumb AF and haven't figured out context yet. Maybe have your fictional children explain it to you. |
I'm sorry, if some makes you clutch your pearls so much if it's read in public, maybe it doesn't belong in a school library |
the activists would love that because it would lead to lawsuits over viewpoint discrimination that they would end up winning. Either they have comments and deal with offensive material on occasion or they cut out the comments. I have no problem with them airing the meeting post comments because the rest will still likely be recorded by activists and posted if anything off the rails happens |
I don't mind hearing it. My HS kid doesn't mind hearing it. My neighbor's 6 year old probably shouldn't have heard it though... |