The Washington Post recently published a piece on the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights concluding that Forsyth County Schools may have violated students’ civil rights by pulling certain books from school library shelves:
The federal government has concluded that a Georgia school district’s removal of titles with Black and LGBTQ characters may have created a “hostile environment” for students, potentially violating their civil rights. https://t.co/XItupypWHd
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 22, 2023
The outcome in the Georgia case could affect how administrators in other districts and states manage book-removal requests. It comes as the country faces a historic rise in attempts to pull books from school libraries and classrooms. The majority of such challenges — which began to spike shortly after the coronavirus pandemic ignited culture wars in education — target books that deal with race, racism, and LGTBQ characters and themes, the American Library Association and free-expression advocacy group PEN America have repeatedly found.
…
The Georgia ruling, although less far-reaching in its implications, is “a quiet shot over the bow against school districts that egregiously and without due process remove books from library shelves,” said Bruce Fuller, who studies education policy at the University of California at Berkeley’s School of Education. “When students are struggling with these issues of identity, and you ban books that are speaking to these kids, that does appear to violate the spirit of the letter of the civil rights law.”
The Education Department’s investigation into the Forsyth district — which involved the examination of school documents, interviews with top school personnel and a review of public board meeting records — was based on a complaint alleging that the January 2022 removal of books created a “racially and sexually hostile environment for students,” according to the department. It remains unclear who filed the complaint and when. [Forsyth schools spokeswoman Jennifer Caracciolo] said she did not know the timing of the complaint but that the district was first contacted by the Education Department in March.
…
The district ultimately removed eight books indefinitely and two temporarily, according to the letter, and it limited four titles to high schools. Superintendent Jeff Bearden told the school board that the books being yanked “were obviously sexually explicit or pornographic,” according to the letter.
Of the books listed for removal, three center on characters of color and one on an LGBTQ protagonist, according to a Washington Post analysis. The nixed titles include “The Bluest Eye” by Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, the Forsyth County News reported and Caracciolo confirmed.
“The Bluest Eye” might be the title that comes up more than any other in articles about schools “banning” books that totally belong in school libraries. What, exactly, is in “The Bluest Eye” that concerned parents object to? What, exactly, is in any of the books that concerned parents object to? To read the Washington Post, you could believe that books are getting pulled from shelves just because of nonwhite or LGBTQ+ characters or something totally innocuous that only bigots would get upset about it.
Since WaPo is apparently not curious enough to actually delve into the content of the controversial materials, looks like it’s up to us to figure it out. Or, rather, looks like it’s up to us to share @politicalmath’s findings:
Since @washingtonpost decided not to include this info in their article, here is a review of the books that were removed by the Forsyth County schools: 🧵 https://t.co/h9yhAeyApF
— PoIiMath (@politicalmath) May 22, 2023
For anyone wanting *real* journalism about the actual contents of these books: https://t.co/87MuPIuwXx
— Billy Gribbin (@BillyGribbin) May 22, 2023
Buckle up:
All Boys Aren't Blue by George M Johnson
"This book contains sexual nudity; sexual activities including sexual assault; alternate gender ideologies; profanity and derogatory terms; alcohol and drug use; and controversial racial commentary."https://t.co/vZtMXgWDWH
— PoIiMath (@politicalmath) May 22, 2023
Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera
This book contains profanity; inflammatory racial and cultural commentary; controversial religious commentary; sexual activities; sexual nudity; alternate gender ideologies; alternate sexualities; and drug use.https://t.co/05WzaaLiMN
— PoIiMath (@politicalmath) May 22, 2023
L8r, g8r by Lauren Myracle
This book contains references to sexual nudity; sexual activities; and profanityhttps://t.co/H3nKBsNdel
— PoIiMath (@politicalmath) May 22, 2023
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
This book contains sexual activities; sexual nudity; profanity and derogatory terms; violence; controversial social and political and religious commentary; alternate sexualities; hate; abortion; and suicidehttps://t.co/XU0WSFsgWs
— PoIiMath (@politicalmath) May 22, 2023
Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez
This book contains controversial racial commentary; derogatory terms and mild profanity; violence; explicit sexual nudity and explicit sexual activities including sexual assault and battery of a minor.https://t.co/sSwTpZLhhS
— PoIiMath (@politicalmath) May 22, 2023
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
This book contains profanity and derogatory terms; sexual activities including sexual assault and molestation; alcohol use; inflammatory racial and religious commentary and references.https://t.co/TURL4nzxFK
— PoIiMath (@politicalmath) May 22, 2023
The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle
This book contains obscene sexual activities; sexual nudity; and profanityhttps://t.co/Gc2xTEQSeW
— PoIiMath (@politicalmath) May 22, 2023
Ah, OK. So it’s not just a matter of bigoted parents wanting to ban books because of their bigotry, then. Maybe they actually have other reasons to be concerned about these books.
As usual it seems, legacy media does not include the entirety of the facts surrounding… anything. Their stories are editorializing by not including information that is relevant to the story.
Because they're not news. https://t.co/z3GT7YrrWV
— Shayadjinn (@Shayadjinn1) May 22, 2023
What WaPo and way too many liberal outlets and reporters do is intentionally conflate parents wanting a say in what their kids are exposed to at school with old-timey book burnings. That’s not what’s happening here, and the media know it. But in order to sell a narrative, they’re willing to demonize parents and defend exposing kids to sexually inappropriate materials. Do they think that helps their cause? Because it doesn’t.
You may feel that these books belong in a school library or that they do not. That is not the point of this.
The point is that we can't possible have this discussion like adults unless we all know what we are talking about.
WaPo has a responsibility to inform their readers
— PoIiMath (@politicalmath) May 22, 2023
And WaPo chose to abdicate that responsibility in favor of a woke liberal agenda.
I don't want the federal gov't sticking its nose into what books school libraries do or do not have. That is not an appropriate use of their time or power.
— PoIiMath (@politicalmath) May 22, 2023
And it’s not an appropriate use of the media’s time or power to lie by omission while continuing to demand our respect.
***
Join the conversation as a VIP Member