Book Issues Identified - October 1, 2021

I interrupt this regularly scheduled blog post about the SBISD lawsuit and lack of board transparency to talk about a very disturbing current event taking place across many SBISD elementary and middle school libraries. I saw on Facebook a post about a book in the Wilchester Elementary school library that is inappropriate to say the least. The book is called The Breakaways, and it is a graphic novel (in more ways than one) which pretends, I mean, purports to be about a middle school girls soccer team. Here’s what I have learned:

A ten year old student at Wilchester Elementary school checked this book out of the library and was reading at home. She got to a part in the novel where two girls were in bed together and were kissing (I posted the page of the book below) and talking about how one of them believes that she is really a boy. The fifth grader got very uncomfortable with the contents of the book and showed her mom. You can imagine this mom’s complete shock at this book her daughter checked out of a school library! I am told that this parent (and others) complained to the Wilchester principal, Liz Goodman, who sees nothing inappropriate about this book. This principal, according to her LinkedIn, was hired by the district in 2018. This is not the first time that the Wilchester parents have hit a brick wall with Goodman on issues they didn't like being forced upon their children. One dad summed up Goodman’s attitude about The Breakaways this way, “if you don’t like it, don’t read it.”

I googled a few of the book’s reviews. Publisher’s Weekly describes the book this way, “Johnson (Jeremiah) presents an eclectic group of middle schoolers who are exploring issues of gender identity, sexuality, ethnicity, mental health, and more." Without touching on whether elementary school aged children need to be reading books about complicated topics like gender identity, ethnicity and mental health, there is no scenario where they need to see two girls (or a boy and a girl) in bed together kissing. Also, there’s no scenario where children need to be reading about any of these topics without their parents knowledge and approval. I send my children to school to learn and should not have to worry about them being exposed to inappropriate sexual material by their principals, teachers or librarians. Is it too much to ask to stick to reading, writing and arithmetic?

In addition to all of those fun topics, there are subtle messages in the illustrations like “bleed the pigs” and “suite for creepers” (see photo below). For the children whose parents are law enforcement officers, just deal with it.

Here’s a link to see what books are in your school’s library: https://www.springbranchisd.com/stude.../library/book-access

I don’t know how up to date or accurate this link is, but it’s a starting point. Aside from Wilchester, your child can find the The Breakaways at Treasure Forest Elementary, Spring Branch Middle, Memorial Middle and Northbrook Middle schools.

We are getting what our tax dollars have paid for when SBISD hires social activist “educational consultants” like Ed Fuel. While Ed Fuel is a topic for another day, I encourage you to check out their website. It is very upfront about what they stand for. Our district pays them thousands of dollars every year to help us hire principals like Liz Goodman who think that two children laying in bed kissing is appropriate for elementary school children or “bleed the pigs” messages foster respect for law enforcement. I mean, we are just the parents, right? Who cares what we want for our children? I don't know what makes me more angry- the fact that someone chose this book for a school library or that Goodman brushed off the parent's concern and defended this trash.

We need to be asking Dr. Blaine, our board of trustees and principals what the policies and procedures are for approval of books in our school libraries? Do these policies and procedures even exist? Someone in the administration building needs to articulate a clear response with the name of the person in charge of this and there needs to be accountability for Goodman's response.

LA

#lawyermom #LNS #SBISD

Posted on 01 Oct 2021, 15:47 - Category: Facebook Blog