Wicomico County Board of Education Continues to Expose Minors to Obscenity – PART II

We have a newly elected school board in Wicomico County that makes up the majority of the board. However, no priority has been given to the sexually explicit materials used in our schools. In fact, amendments have been recently made to the Selection and Review of Textbooks, Instructional Materials, and Media Materials Policy INS-SCH-PL-008 at the last board meeting held on May 9, 2023. All members voted AYE to add provisions that now open the door for such materials. In this policy, the board surrendered their full authority to the superintendent and media specialists, permitting full control over the book and media selection. Now, anything goes.

The initial ordering of books is now easier than ever. However, there is a lengthy procedure to request the removal of an inappropriate book if a parent were to file a complaint. This procedure results in a dead-end denial 99.9% of the time, and it’s by design.

The past and current board have failed to define “appropriate.” Therefore, the term has been crafted into a gray area in order to be elusive. What is the unit of measure to determine appropriate? It all comes down to an individual’s perception centered on their own personal desires, who then apply those desires to define what’s appropriate for the environment. It then becomes a liberal/conservative battle over the word appropriate when it comes to morality. In the end, the individuals who are ultimately responsible are our elected board members.

“Book burners,” the liberals declare! “The Nazis burned books in Germany and that did not end well,” they all say. They all regurgitate the same play card and statements like broken records in order to vilify parents and advance their political agenda in order to groom minor children for their own deviant sexual desires. Nobody is out to ban or censor books in the library. It’s about what’s appropriate and necessary for a school environment to properly and responsibly educate our children without a political or sexual agenda.

Are sexually-explicit materials really necessary in order to educate our children?

The National Coalition to Prevent Child Sex Abuse published The Impact of Exposure to Sexually Explicit and Exploitative Materials that explains the facts for prevention of child sex abuse and exploitation.

For those critics out there who favor such materials in our school, we have news for you. The school media center is not a public library. It is a classroom where students are taught, and materials are integrated into the curriculum as indicated in the WCPS School Library Media Handbook.

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