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The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –
A Facebook post from Professional Educators of Tennessee last month asked if local school districts rather than state officials should establish a process for parents regarding mature content in books available to public school students.
Professional Educators of Tennessee is a non-union professional association that offers benefits to teachers including legal protection and liability coverage.
Conservative Tennessee parents have begun to question the books that are available to their children in their school libraries and have requested a number of them to be reviewed.
The Professional Educators of Tennessee post included a photo that reads “If you’re afraid that reading a book will change someone’s thinking, then you’re not afraid of books, you’re afraid of thinking.”
Recently elected Wilson County school board member Joseph Padilla had this to say:
“I haven’t met any parents that are afraid of any books. Parents are concerned with the sexually explicit content that these books include. In an over sexualized society, public schools should be a place where a student can learn and a parent doesn’t have to worry about any sexual ideology their child will be exposed to.
Once again, it’s not the books, it’s the content. Parents aren’t asking for reviews of 1984 or Fahrenheit 451, rather a book like “Fun” that has cartoonish, comic book looking sexual situations that include the statements; “Lesbian Terrorist” and “Get Your God Off My Body.”
Please stop putting this issue as parents against books. It is parents against the over sexualization of society and how we want public schools to be an environment that doesn’t contribute to that.“
Wilson County Moms for Liberty Chair Amanda Price says, “We are finding extreme sexually explicit material “young adult” literature intended for ages 12-18… Meanwhile, there is also a push from the ALA to remove limitations of age-appropriateness and parental input. While it is currently against the law to distribute sexually explicit material to minors, some have successfully argued that words are different from images and that quality as a whole negates obscenities in part.
We now have books in school libraries that more closely resemble a smutty romance novel hidden in the desperate wife’s bedside drawer… Parents at least have a right to know if sexually explicit materials are being offered to their children at school. Informed consent is the compromise.”
Price says that the list of sexually explicit books currently available in Wilson County Schools will take no less than 5 years to be formally reviewed as the book review committee only considers a maximum of 2 books per month.
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
