BY KARISSA MILLER
Local residents flooded the Iredell-Statesville School Board meeting Monday night to express their concerns about the district’s book controversy following last week’s board discussion at the Committee of the Whole meeting.
The board gave 28 speakers two minutes each to address the issue or other concerns during the meeting’s public comment section.
Representatives of Moms for Liberty, who have raised the issue repeatedly for months, had their say again Monday.
“Some people in this area have said I’m trying to destroy the superintendent, the school board and the entire school system, but this is not true. I’m not trying to hurt anyone, but trying to preserve the innocence of children,” said Paula Mimnaugh, who has led the charge in trying to have books removed from I-SS school libraries.
Mimnaugh said that the board needs to remove books that are pornographic and obscene because “they are made to groom children into thinking that children participating in sex is normal.”
Moms for Liberty chair Kelli Harris said she that doesn’t think that obscene books should be on the top 10 list of things for the school board to tackle. She said mental health, staffing, academics and other things should be the highest priorities.
However, she said that the books that her group asked the district to review for removal do fit the definition of obscene and vulgar.
“Everybody needs to get on the same page. Read what we are talking about. Obscenity, vulgarity, sexualized nature, crudeness and curse words… I think we can do better for our students in Iredell-Statesville Schools,” Harris said.
Meanwhile, students, parents and other parents pushed back against the calls to remove books.
The Brawley IB School student McKayla Gershier, who was there primarily to address the school board about revising the dress code, briefly chimed in on the book discussion.
“Several books that I read last year are being banned,” Gershier said.
“Look Both Ways” by Jason Reynolds, she said, is a book about diversity and inclusion.
Beth Kendall, who is the current chair of the Iredell County Democratic Party, pointed out some striking similarities between the Moms for Liberty’s national agenda for banning books and the “agenda of the new school board members.”
“Four of you ran under the banner of Moms for Liberty. And it’s constantly you four that are bringing up things like social emotional learning, book bans and generally overstepping your duties as an elected official,” Kendall said.
“This board has to stop pushing agenda and using tactics that it has learned from this national group. Let the professionals and specialists do their jobs,” she added.
Parent Shanika Turner said she was a student 30 years ago at Statesville High School in Honors English.
She recalled reading “Night” by Elie Wiesel, “The Year of Impossible Goodbyes” by Sook Nyul Choi and “Diary of Anne Frank.”
Turner said that her teacher “embraced the books and read it to the class.”
“We learned about the Jewish Holocaust. We learned about the Korean War from a 10-year-old girl. What that taught me is that when I heard these stories and read these books it allowed me to be relatable to the pain that I felt as an African American,” Turner said.
Former Iredell County commissioner Diane Hamby criticized the school board for not focusing on the “real issues.”
“Banning books in the age of the smart phone — when every kid has a smart phone — is the silliest thing I’ve ever heard,” Hamby said. “What they are being exposed to everyday on social media, YouTube is horrible. Focus on the real stuff.”
Public mistrust, power struggles over a variety of issues and tense debates have marked the past several months for the Iredell-Statesville school board.
Other community members spoke out Monday about their mistrust of the school board for violating open meeting laws and from distracting the district from focusing on what’s best for student learning.
We have a rating system for movies because young brains do not process the same as mature brains. Would you let your 3rd grader watch the opening scene from “Saving Private Ryan”? How about letting them go to strip clubs? Of course not. Why then expose them to other subject matter they cannot process?
Children have access to alcohol in the home, so why not allow them to purchase it at the ABC store? Seems like a faulty argument on the cell phones. It’s not about limiting all access. I believe the concern is the implied normalization.
Here we go again with this SCHOOL BOARD.
MOMS FOR LIBERTY?
what’s their Agenda never heard of this Group
A few of the Extremism organizations according to the Southern Poverty Law Center:
Ku Klux Klan
Neo-NAZIs
White Nationalists
Racist Skinheads
Militia Movement
Sovereign citizen movement
“Constitutional sheriff” movement
Christian Identity
Anti-LGBT
Moms for Liberty.
So, are we to believe that the Southern Poverty Law Center is correct about the others, but not these idiots?
Allowing any of these people access to our children is a stupid idea. Yet, somehow, they filled our school board with these people. What a disgrace.
No worries! Most kids don’t read at school. They just download porn!
My reply to several comments made at the August 14 ISS school board meeting:
“Kids watch pornography on their cell phones” This is a false argument when compared to kids having access to obscene books in Iredell County school libraries. Schools neither provide the phones to students nor regulate what students read or watch on their phones. It’s apples compared to oranges. But media specialist decide which books are selected to be purchased and added to the library shelves each year. Therefore, purchase of obscene books must be regulated and prevented.
Another false argument is that removing obscene books from schools violates the first amendment to the constitution. Students are absolutely free to purchase or borrow and read the books in question outside of school. However, obscene books must not be distributed in schools. In fact, providing pornography to minor children is against federal law, and it is a felony.
My paraphrase what was said: Kids benefit from reading obscene literature because it helps them cope with their own stressful life problems. What twisted logic supports this contention? What is more likely is that pornography sexualizes adolescents and potentially leads them into dangerous situations with sexual predators.
I wager that those citizens who spoke up at the school board meeting against the removal of pervasively obscene literature from libraries have never even examined any of the books, read an excerpt from even one book, or determined whether they would approve of their children reading such filth.
Finally, it was argued that very few of the obscene books have been checked out many times. While these data provide a quantifiable metric for evaluating how many students have taken an interest in the books, it fails to take into account how frequently the obscene excerpts may have been read by students while physically in the libraries.
So Abby Trent finally opened her mouth to proclaim her independence from Moms For Liberty.
Glad she made that clarification.
Unless third graders are wandering into high school libraries and checking out the books, I’m guessing they’re not getting exposed.