Image Credit: wilsoncountyschoolstn
The Tennessee Conservative [By Adelia Kirchner] –
A vote will soon be held to determine whether or not Wilson County residents will still be allowed to speak about explicit material in school libraries during school board meetings.
The Wilson County Republican Party sent out a call to action from the county’s Moms For Liberty chapter, detailing some of the policies that will be discussed during an upcoming school board meeting.
One of the policy changes up for a vote is Policy 4.403. This would alter Policy 1.404 which currently allows those who wish to speak at school board meetings to do so as long as they have gone through proper protocol.
This policy change was requested back in October and would prevent any Wilson County residents who are not school employees or parents of students in the county school system from filing complaints about sexually or otherwise explicit library books and any other questionable school materials.
“While there are several valuable policy changes coming through that will help support our teachers,” writes Moms For Liberty, “it appears that some people have been working hard behind the scenes to restrict the participation of Wilson County residents in school board meetings.”
Referencing U.S. v. American Library Association (2003), Moms For Liberty writes, “It is important for government officials to remember they have a ‘compelling interest in preventing the dissemination of obscenity, child pornography, or material harmful to minors.’”
One parent and former teacher is already scheduled to address the board in support of this change.
The board will also consider altering Policy 1.404 so that individuals who wish to address the board have to submit a form “no less than 24 hours” before the start of a board meeting.
“This policy suggests that there is a push to restrict speech as much as possible,” reads the Moms For Liberty statement.
There will also be a vote on Policy 1.400 which would allow the school board to cut video recordings of board meetings whenever board members believe a recording creates a “threat to public safety and welfare” or “impedes the conducting of efficient and orderly public meetings.”
“Will citizen iPhone recordings be considered a threat to public safety and welfare?” reads the statement from Moms For Liberty. “If you watch this video of the School Board Attorney conducting a Watertown Meeting, you’ll see how subjective ‘threats’ can be to some.”
The Wilson County School Board will also be deciding whether “The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold and “Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen will remain in school libraries during their upcoming meeting on December 4th.
Wilson County residents are encouraged to contact their school board members if they disagree with any of these policy changes.
About the Author: Adelia Kirchner is a Tennessee resident and reporter for the Tennessee Conservative. Currently the host of Subtle Rampage Podcast, she has also worked for the South Dakota State Legislature and interned for Senator Bill Hagerty’s Office in Nashville, Tennessee. You can reach Adelia at adelia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
11 Responses
How about we just stop paying taxes to the school?
No taxation without allowing taxpayer input.
This article is incorrect as there is no proposed policy change to restrict who can speak at school board meetings.
This is 100% fake news.
There is absolutely NO proposal to restrict any Wilson County resident from speaking about anything they wish during school board meetings.
Please do better with your reporting. People are trusting you to share facts.
And people wonder why many do not trust us Republicans anymore.
Also, once Moms for Liberty is not being 100% transparent with what they sent, I’ll shed some light.
Next week our board will be voting on two major items, if both items pass then they will be on par with state laws.
1.) They will be voting on whether or not only employees, parents, and students may submit book challenges. Right now, anyone who lives in Wilson county may submit a challenge. During the last policy meeting it was shown that all book challenge come from Wilson County residents who do not have children in the schools. It also came out that most of those challenging the books do not actually read them.
2.) The board will be voting on whether or not there should be a sign up cut off when it comes to speaking. They would like for people to sign up (I believe) no more than 24 hours before the meeting starts so they can be organized.
“There is absolutely NO proposal to restrict any Wilson County resident from speaking about anything they wish during school board meetings.”
“1.) They will be voting on whether or not only employees, parents, and students may submit book challenges.”
Sure looks like your 1st two sentences are WRONG!!
Submitting a book challenge is not the same as not allowing individuals to speak at meetings.
I know it’s hard but citizens have to get involved. I have no idea what the actual problem is because blurring the facts is the common denominator for both side. If enough parents get involved on either side of the argument, something will be done. If enough parents don’t want a certain piece of literature available in the library or a certain subject taught in the classroom, you vote out those who fail to do the will of the majority or enact unconstitutional rules and regulations. You can’t change much with just your mouth, you have to use your feet and get into the voting booth.
Thanx for the good article.
Nobody will be prevented from speaking against books at school board meetings. The proposed change would only change the policy regarding who can initiate book challenges, to align with state law and surrounding counties. Once a book is challenged, anyone in Wilson County can testify about it to the board. You should issue a correction to the article.
I find it interesting that the public schools fight so hard to hold onto their “educational” legal exemption to present pornography to captive school children and fight to keep their community from removing all the pornography the children are provided by “school” at one time. Limiting them to onesie twosie challenges and attempting to limit who can challenge. Just censor them and collect the taxes. And whining that “they don’t have time to review the books they put in the library” while accusing the community that is complaining of not having read the child pornography they spent our money on. Or shutting them down in a school board meeting if a member of the public dares to present the pornography the school is protecting to the public meeting. The gall of you people. You are guilty of a crime in every sense except that you enjoy the monopoly of the government education welfare system that forces home and landowners to fund your existence at the threat of losing their property.
The “education” exemption for presenting pornography to minors and thereby contributing to their delinquency should be repealed. This is a state crime for anyone else except the public school system.
Pornography has a specific legal definition. NONE of the challenged books, or any of the books in our public schools, meet that definition of pornography. There *are* books for mature readers, which is why we have a mature reader list in our high schools so parents have the right to control what books their kids can check out. If you don’t want your kid reading mature material, don’t sign them up for the list. If you don’t have a child in the schools… then it really shouldn’t be a concern of yours and most importantly you don’t get to override parents.
The Wilson County TAXPAYER is the boss, the ones who pay for the schools, salaries, everything. The TAXPAYER may or may not not have children, it doesn’t make any difference as to our right to demand accountability of our elected representatives and Public Servants, aka School Administrations and Teachers.