NEWARK – Concerns about book banning dominated a school board meeting this week.
Dozens of citizens attended Tuesday’s Worcester County Board of Education meeting to share various concerns, the majority of which related to a library book under review. Though two community members asked the school system to review inclusion of the book “All Boys Aren’t Blue” in high school libraries, most citizens at Tuesday’s meeting objected to any books being pulled from shelves.
“Restricting access to queer education and resources will not rid the Eastern Shore of LGTBQ youth,” said Berlin resident Allison Barton. “Instead, removing queer narratives from vital places of learning will promote the idea that these stories and the characters in them are less valuable than their white, heteronormative counterparts.”
After people shared explicit passages from “All Boys Aren’t Blue”—a memoir of “growing up Black and queer in America”—at a recent meeting, the school system received two requests for review of the item. Both asked that it be removed from library shelves. At Tuesday’s school board meeting—one of the first to be held in the evening—numerous parents and community members said they didn’t want to see any books removed from school libraries. Parent Amy Gooding said checking out a library book was a choice.
“Trust your children, you have raised them,” she said.
What on earth does black and white have to do with being queer? Another race card that needs to be tossed aside.
Eliminate public school libraries and the issue goes away.
Parents can go to public libraries with their children and that helps eliminate the question why is there a need for more public libraries.
Oh thats too easy and until then – more complaining about books in schools.
I miss bugs bunny vs daffy duck cartoons. That too was removed because it was too violent. Seems there is more violence today with the younger gen (without Bugs/Daffy) than the older gen who is still alive and successful with Reading/Writing/Arithmetic.
Kids today don’t write their name, still have trouble reading and cant add/subtract/divide/multiply in their heads. Basic building blocks to survive in life!
Funny eh?