Why Isn’t Anyone Challenging the Explicit/Pornographic Books in Hamilton County Schools?

Image Credit: Johnny McClung / Unsplash

Submitted by Tonya Dodd [Chapter Chair, Mom’s For Liberty Hamilton County, TN] –

The school system and local news do not report the full story of what is happening in our schools, so it is my obligation to shed light on the reality of the situation.

I get phone calls, emails, and messages daily from local citizens, parents, and educators who provide information to Moms for Liberty about issues currently happening in Hamilton County Schools (HCS).

I will address the current policy for reconsideration of books in school and classroom libraries. Our local policy states a stakeholder is a parent of a student or a teacher in HCS.

The local news covered this story and asked for my input. I called to give them my perspective, but they did not answer my phone call. Therefore, I am here to report on the reason for lack of requests for reconsideration of books. 

I have received feedback from many community members on how disgusted they are that nothing has been done about the pornographic books in our schools.

You can probably remember the public readings of some of those books from prior school board meetings. I am here to talk about this topic, because I would rather spare us all the time of public reading of books that most adults can barely stomach, much less children. 

I will always stand for protecting a child’s innocence. Students are at school to learn and can do so without these disgusting books put on shelves and shoved in their faces in the one place they should be safe from harm.

I tell those who ask about the policy the requirement to submit a request for reconsideration is to be a teacher or parent. Most of the time those teachers and parents bring up the personal attacks that I have been subjected to on local and national news outlets, then tell me that is why they are not submitting book reconsideration requests. 

If you remember back to the Mother’s Day Lesson that was canceled after a librarian wanted to use books that did not include a representation of a biological woman, you will also remember because I was the spokesperson for community concerns, my name was used in a National Media campaign to slander and harass me.

I was asked by multiple parents from that school to inform the public about what books were included in this lesson plan. It was also requested to find out what the alternate lesson plan would be and where that alternate lesson plan would take place.

I put out a personal public statement, by choice, of why I did not support the lesson since I believed people needed to know where I stand on government schools promoting gender ideology. In response to my public statement, I received emails that told me to hang myself, phone calls telling me to go away, and constant harassment from local activists which has all been documented. 

Additionally, a volunteer of Moms for Social Justice, Angela Favalaro, was able to pull and review my HC employee file from when I was a teacher, it was documented that she reviewed my file, and I never received notification. She viewed the file right after this Mother’s Day lesson was canceled. Some information she retrieved from my file was embellished and used to publicly slander me on social media platforms. Some of my open records requests have not been responded to for many months, so I wonder how this person got in to see my file in such a short amount of time. 

Knowing that these types of activists exist in our community who will go to great lengths to slander people, do you think parents and teachers are going to be willing to endure that kind of harassment?

As a former teacher, I understand why a teacher would be terrified of the harassment they are going to receive from administration, central office staff and local activists in our community if they were to ask for reconsideration of a book in their school. They would be attacked, doxed and ostracized. 

The definition of stakeholder is a person with an interest or concern in something. Taxpayers are stakeholders in this school system. It is a great disservice to taxpayers, who elected the Hamilton County School Board and pay their wages, to not be allowed to submit reconsideration requests on behalf of teachers and students. If they do not amend this policy and allow citizens to speak on behalf of students and teachers, the school board will continue to see teachers resign and parents pull their children out of HCS, as many have already.