This is not the first time it has happened over the past year. Not by any stretch. But it is always worth noting.
From Steven Watson’s article at summitnews.com:
A pastor in Florida was forcibly removed from a school board meeting when he attempted to read aloud pornographic passages from a book that was available to children.
The man was one of around 30 parents at the Monday meeting at the Indian River County School Board.
Pastor John K. Amanchukwu Sr. began to read from the book titled 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher, but he only got one sentence in before the board shut him down.
“As if letting him finger me was going to cure all my problems,” the pastor read, prompting one board member to yell into the microphone “Sir, I’ll stop you there.”
Amanchukwu’s mic was then cut off and security was called as he attempted to continue to read.
Let’s think about this.
The school board (and this board is far from the only one with a similar attitude) demands immediate censorship of material being read at the meeting; material that is currently in the school’s own library. – the middle school, by the way, which means the children are mostly pre-teen.
Watch the video and see/hear Pastor Amanchukwu shut up, shut downm then forcibly removed. But you will not hear even one member of that board say anything about the book being inappropriate for pre-teens
The article goes on to point out that a number of parents were also cut off when reading from other books available in the school libraries.
It also notes that Governor DeSantis instituted a rule earlier in the year that parents “shall have the right to read passages from any material that is subject to an objection.”, and if parents are prevented from doing so, the materials they are objecting to must be immediately removed and discontinued from use in the school. Does that make sense to you? It sure does to me.
The saddest part of this story is that it is not an isolated incident. We have a national public education system that, in all too many locations, has been expropriated by people less interested in teaching children the basics they need to function in the real world and more interested in making sure to indoctrinate them with whatever beliefs/values they personally share, apparently including the availability of sexual material parents might consider inappropriate.
The most elemental common sense should tell these people that if the material is unacceptable for adults at a school board meeting, it is unacceptable for pre-teen children in the school library.
But when you’re dealing with ideologues, logic goes straight out the window.
The sooner we get rid of them and bring schools back to teaching what, I am certain, most parents feel schools are there to teach, the better.
