It Only Takes One Parent to Get All The Graphic Novels Removed From a School Library

[SuperMatt]

Yeesh, in your daughters middle school? Yeah that is wrong, but it was never intended to be for that age from what the author said. So someone fell asleep at the wheel there, but I don't agree with the imagery and IMO the image isn't necessary for the need the need of the book and would have felt the same way if it were a straight book. The point is this latest kerfuffle from what the article stated is about an anti-fundamentalist christian coming of age book, not your example from years ago.

I wonder what book you are talking about.

Regarding the above story, this book ban story is insane. The man is abusing Florida’s ill-advised challenge system, getting 3600 books banned! And it’s not about age-appropriate content. He is opposed to LGBTQ content or books containing stories about minorities.

How to ban 3600 books from school libraries

This year, at least 102 books have been removed from the shelves of school libraries in Clay County, Florida. Many of these books were pulled at the request of one man: Bruce Friedman. A conservative activist and longtime resident of New York, Friedman moved to Clay County this May.

popular.info

One of the books pulled from the shelves of school libraries this year in Clay County is The Girl From The Sea, an award-winning graphic novel. The book is about a 15-year-old girl who develops romantic feelings for another girl. The two girls hold hands and, at one point, share a kiss. There is no sex, no swearing, and no nudity.

In an interview with Popular Information, Friedman described The Girl From The Sea as a book for "slightly post-pubescent little lesbians." Friedman says he objects to the book being available in Clay County libraries because students are "not in school to learn how to be better lesbians." The book exposes students to "a land of girls making out with great illustrations." According to Friedman, students should not be "focused on kissing, or petting or anything else in that general territory."

The Girl From The Sea has been removed from Clay County school libraries because of a new policy, implemented in July, that requires books to be pulled as soon as a challenge has been properly filed. The books remain unavailable to students while the challenge is being considered by a District Curriculum Council.

Friedman acknowledged that he filed challenges over the summer without reading the challenged books. Initially, Clay County accepted many of these challenges. But Friedman said he has already filed more than 350 challenges. Eventually, Clay County began to reject Freidman's challenges as incomplete because they do not include any real explanation of the objection.

But Friedman is undeterred and, in the hopes of getting more challenges accepted, said he has changed his approach. According to Friedman, he has read "25 books in the last 10 days." Friedman identified books to challenge by "scouring the internet" for lists of books that have been challenged elsewhere, including "a very conservative community" in Texas that "met with their superintendent" about "a couple of hundred books that concern them."

Friedman acknowledged he is not aware of any children who were exposed to objectionable content at a school library and had it negatively impact their lives. But he claims that is irrelevant. "I don't have to know them," Friedman said. "It's all of them. Any poor kid who had the misfortune of coming across this material."

Friedman also challenged Dear Martin, citing the Parental Rights Act. But Dear Martin does not have any LGBTQ content. Dear Martin is about "the story of an Ivy League-bound African American student named Justyce who becomes a victim of racial profiling." Friedman says the book should be removed because it promotes "the Black Lives Matter movement" and "a sense of white guilt in its musings about 'micro-aggressions' as elsewhere defined in Critical Race Theory."

I added the bold.

 

[rdrr]

I wonder what book you are talking about.

Regarding the above story, this book ban story is insane. The man is abusing Florida’s ill-advised challenge system, getting 3600 books banned! And it’s not about age-appropriate content. He is opposed to LGBTQ content or books containing stories about minorities.

How to ban 3600 books from school libraries

This year, at least 102 books have been removed from the shelves of school libraries in Clay County, Florida. Many of these books were pulled at the request of one man: Bruce Friedman. A conservative activist and longtime resident of New York, Friedman moved to Clay County this May.

popular.info

I added the bold.

So I am confused about what part of my response you are referring to.

In the original article that started this thread it says, "Tim Reiland took issue with the school letting his teenage daughter borrow Blankets, an autobiographical coming-of-age story by Craig Thompson about questioning blind faith in a fundamentalist Christian household." That is what started the banning process by this jerk.

I made some comments and stepped in it. Herdfan posted "What about this for 12 year olds?", and posted a moderated image from Gender Queer, which is a good story just has IMO an unnecessary image of sexual act that shouldn't be in any school's library below college. It threw me because I opened up that thread with the image at work. Learned two lessons, one was using this site during the day, and the other was to stop and breath before I post in anger.

While I think the book on the topics of LGBTQ should be available to children around the age of puberty. Kids who are struggling with LGBTQ identities, may feel too afraid to express what they are feeling, and any avenue to help them I am all for it. Unfortunately I don't think that sexual act imagery of any type (straight or gay) belongs in school libraries.

 

[SuperMatt]

So I am confused about what part of my response you are referring to.

In the original article that started this thread it says, "Tim Reiland took issue with the school letting his teenage daughter borrow Blankets, an autobiographical coming-of-age story by Craig Thompson about questioning blind faith in a fundamentalist Christian household." That is what started the banning process by this jerk.

I made some comments and stepped in it. Herdfan posted "What about this for 12 year olds?", and posted a moderated image from Gender Queer, which is a good story just has IMO an unnecessary image of sexual act that shouldn't be in any school's library below college. It threw me because I opened up that thread with the image at work. Learned two lessons, one was using this site during the day, and the other was to stop and breath before I post in anger.

While I think the book on the topics of LGBTQ should be available to children around the age of puberty. Kids who are struggling with LGBTQ identities, may feel too afraid to express what they are feeling, and any avenue to help them I am all for it. Unfortunately I don't think that sexual act imagery of any type (straight or gay) belongs in school libraries.

Thanks for clarifying. I read the initial article about Blankets, but never saw the title of the 2nd book Gender Queer mentioned.