- 1 day ago
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00:00Transcription by CastingWords
00:00:30Transcription by CastingWords
00:01:00You may well consider the vocation of a librarian.
00:01:06We just never imagined we would be in the forefront.
00:01:11We're not supposed to necessarily be seen and felt.
00:01:14We're stewards of the space, stewards of the resources.
00:01:21We're the stewards for the people.
00:01:26Now I think we've moved into a vanguard.
00:01:29We have to be out in front telling the story.
00:01:34It's about us.
00:01:35We're the first place.
00:02:05Texas Republicans are launching an investigation into what types of books
00:02:35school districts have, specifically ones that pertain to race and sexuality.
00:02:39In a letter to the Texas Education Agency, lawmakers pointed to Texas districts that
00:02:43recently removed books from classrooms after parent complaints. Republican State
00:02:48Representative Matt Krause of Fort Worth sent this list of 850 books to a number of public school
00:02:54districts. There's no information on who helped Representative Krause compile the list.
00:03:00We were right there in the crosshairs of this rising call, so we felt like everything that
00:03:10we did was being watched.
00:03:30It's not just 850 books, which we've all fixated on. He says, and any other books.
00:03:37I'm just immediately angry because it's so obvious that he is targeting LGBTQ titles and
00:03:44authors of color and books about race and books about sex education. He is asking districts
00:03:51to remove these and any other books that might embarrass or shame someone due to sex or race.
00:04:00What struck me was, one, there was a list of 850 books. He wanted to know if school districts
00:04:10had them, how much money had been spent on them. The list includes titles like a book on the history
00:04:16of the KKK and another about desegregation in schools. There are also books about gender identity,
00:04:22the LGBTQ plus community, and the history of Roe v. Wade.
00:04:27I didn't even think, you know, most school districts would entertain this.
00:04:31I remember looking at it thinking, they're singling us out again.
00:04:37A couple days later, our governor doubled down and sent a letter to the Texas Association of School Boards
00:04:44asking them to do something about pornography in our libraries.
00:04:50I'm calling for the immediate removal of this very graphic, pornographic material from our libraries
00:04:57and our schools and want to establish standards so that parents have the assurance that their children
00:05:02will not be exposed to it.
00:05:05I remember seeing Governor Abbott's letter and my district was mentioned specifically.
00:05:12That was the first moment that I realized school librarians could be criminalized for selecting books
00:05:21and making them available on the shelf.
00:05:23All books, Ulysses. I wonder what they say in all those books.
00:05:38Politicians are playing a very dangerous game when they try to make school libraries battlegrounds for their political war.
00:05:48Because the only people that that is going to hurt are our kids.
00:05:55This space, these resources, they're supposed to be this magical entry point to the world, to stories, to ideas.
00:06:10There it is.
00:06:12There it is. See it? Something they're saying in there.
00:06:17Where, Lyle?
00:06:19There's an A. Yep, that's an A right there.
00:06:23Sure would like to know what they're saying in there, though.
00:06:27Well, ladies and gentlemen, here we are. Granberry High School.
00:06:42You know, it's always exciting. The first day of school, kids are dressed up. Parents are excited.
00:07:00Especially new moms and dads taking that walk for the first time with those five-year-olds in the kindergarten.
00:07:07It's a great feeling.
00:07:20I've been getting some emails. Concerns from parents. And they are going to trustees. And trustees come to me.
00:07:30And when they come to me, I need to have a conversation with you.
00:07:34We were called into a meeting and told anything that is sexually explicit that could meet the penal code, you are responsible for in your library.
00:07:45We were going to pull books off the shelves, especially the 850 books that were put forth by, was represented in a house.
00:07:54And that'll keep you out of a bind, and that'll keep me out of a bind.
00:07:57It's the transgender, LGBTQ, and the sex, sexuality in books.
00:08:02That's what the governor has said that he will prosecute people for, and that's what we're pulling out.
00:08:07And I popped up, I said, just the cross list, and got the evil eye.
00:08:12If you do not know this, you've been probably under a rock.
00:08:17But Granberry is in a very, very conservative community.
00:08:23If it is not what you believe, you better hide it, because it ain't changing.
00:08:30We spent the rest of the afternoon in that meeting and going through our catalogs and trying to figure out what we have and what we don't have.
00:08:37I was sitting in the library reading, and these men came in with this big cart, and they went up to the library, and so they started saying,
00:08:44where are the books? We need to get these things out of here.
00:08:47We were just told, get rid of them. Get rid of them. Deal with it. Get rid of them.
00:08:52Getting them off the shelves, putting them on carts, putting them on whatever, going through books and just chunking them.
00:09:00They had no room downtown. The offices were full of books. The high school was full of books.
00:09:09When you have to go through, like, 10,000 books, what are you going to do?
00:09:14To me, as a librarian, that was trauma.
00:09:18I went to the campus of a librarian I particularly feared for, and she took me into a closet.
00:09:26I was very careful to let me know, what I'm about to show you is behind three locks, so I feel like it's safe.
00:09:33The librarian unlocks each of those when we get to the cabinets and open the cabinets.
00:09:37It's shelves and shelves of books. Harmless books. I just started putting them on the carts and said no.
00:09:48Every book that was on that shelf felt like a student that we were saying, we've got to put you behind three locks.
00:09:56We've got to hide you back here in the dark.
00:10:01May you welcome, Director.
00:10:03Mr. Reed Harris, you wrote a book.
00:10:05And at the time you wrote this book, did you feel that marriage could be cast out of our civilization as antiquated and stupid religious phenomena?
00:10:16You put an implication on it, and you feature this particular point out of the book, which of course is quite out of context, does not give a proper impression of the book as a whole.
00:10:25The American public doesn't get an honest impression of even that book.
00:10:28Well, then let's continue to read your own writing.
00:10:31If we would go back in history to McCarthyism, it felt like that happened to them. It wouldn't happen to us. It wouldn't happen now.
00:10:40Our hearts swell with pride because those who went before you worked to give to us today, standing here, this pride.
00:10:51Don't join the book burners. Don't think you're going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed.
00:10:59Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book.
00:11:04We do have a code of ethics around intellectual freedom, around privacy, around representation and access to information, and a diversity of perspectives and issues.
00:11:20Those are all part of our code.
00:11:22I couldn't remove a book because it has ideas we don't like.
00:11:27Can't we look at this from a practical point of view? Take my word for it, it's not unreasonable to ask you to take out just this one book.
00:11:37If you can control the library, you can control the community.
00:11:42Because if you can control the flow of information, if you can control the ideas, you've got it. You've got everything.
00:11:48Of course you're coming after school librarians first. Of course you are.
00:11:55Texas leaders and parents continue to argue over what kids should be allowed to read in the classroom.
00:12:04And now we're hearing from a local librarian who says she lost her job because of it.
00:12:10That was my office.
00:12:15Uh, where is it?
00:12:19These are two books that I was asked to be removed and I would not remove them.
00:12:28No. They asked us to put these behind the counter so that they weren't available unless you knew they were here.
00:12:41Now they've separated all of the pluses from the regular books.
00:12:45The LGBTQ books.
00:12:47They were all integrated before, but now they have separated them.
00:12:51But also, we went out of our way to get Christian books just for this group when they started making problems.
00:12:58So we got two series down here just so that their children, who were more Christian-based, could have their books too.
00:13:04I have to show you our children's library.
00:13:06Oh.
00:13:07You know, that's where our porn lives.
00:13:13A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo. Have you seen that one?
00:13:15It's a story about a bunny rabbit.
00:13:18He meets another male bunny.
00:13:22So that bunnies end up getting married.
00:13:26They don't know that's here.
00:13:28Why don't they?
00:13:30Because they're just looking on their list.
00:13:33So yes, there are books here that they may not like, but they're here.
00:13:39He did.
00:13:42This is the actual rules of the Lanark County Library.
00:13:45And, no case should any book be excluded because of race or nationality, or the political or religious views of the writer.
00:13:51I followed these rules, and I got fired for it.
00:14:00That's me when I was in the U.S. Army.
00:14:05When we take our oath to protect the country,
00:14:08it doesn't stop there.
00:14:11You protect the Constitution of the United States
00:14:14from attacks both external and internal.
00:14:21Did you know this book existed?
00:14:24Everybody's afraid to say what these people are acting like,
00:14:29but if you read history, you know what they are acting like.
00:14:36It says,
00:14:37No to decadence and moral corruption.
00:14:40Yes to decency and morality and family and state.
00:14:44You do well to commit to the flames the evil spirit of the past.
00:14:48This is a strong, great, and symbolic deed.
00:14:51This is a strong, great, and symbolic deed.
00:14:53The age of an overspitzed Jewish intellectualism is now at the end.
00:14:59And the breakthrough of the German Revolution
00:15:04has made the gas of bread on the German way again.
00:15:11A lot of the books that he burned were not just the Jewish authors.
00:15:15They were the LGBTQ+.
00:15:17They were those authors that they burned.
00:15:20Stop throwing it in there!
00:15:32Burn it! Burn it! Burn it! Burn it!
00:15:39Hallelujah!
00:15:41Come on, let me throw some of them.
00:16:11I do want to clarify a couple of points on behalf of the district.
00:16:25As you know, Texas education is the responsibility of the state, which essentially makes Governor Abbott our CEO.
00:16:35I want to start this out simple.
00:16:36The job of the superintendent and the school board is to not only protect the students in this district,
00:16:41but to make them feel like they have a place in this community.
00:16:44But I got to tell you, from what I've seen so far, you are failing at your job.
00:16:53We've all read Fahrenheit our freshman year, and we talk about the scariness of book banning.
00:17:03Literally on the windows of our library, our library has a big windowed wall.
00:17:07There are freshman students' drawings about Fahrenheit 451.
00:17:16Look, these are all novels.
00:17:18All about people that never existed.
00:17:21The people that read them and makes them unhappy with their own lives, makes them want to live in other ways that can never really be.
00:17:29So, we must burn the books, Montag.
00:17:32All the books.
00:17:35And seeing that, and knowing what is going on within that library, it feels like it's blatant that there's a facade here.
00:17:44We have books in the library that are pretty heavy and have sexual assault, like a clockwork orange even.
00:17:51And that wasn't pulled, so.
00:17:54Had I not picked this book up, I don't think I would be sitting here now.
00:17:59If it's a cis, straight, white, male, or female, well, it's no issue.
00:18:04But as soon as you've got any kind of diversity.
00:18:07Got a gay person, a brown person, cut it out.
00:18:12An analysis of the 850 book list found the following likely reasons for inclusion.
00:18:1760% because of LGBTQ+, 8% because of race and racism, 13% because of sexual education, something that is not taught in all Texas schools.
00:18:28Stop the censorship in our district.
00:18:30Wake up to the reality that we are all different and we should all embrace each other with love, not blatant hate.
00:18:34I'm simply going to say that no government, and public school is an extension of government, has ever banned books and banned information from its public and been remembered in history as the good guys.
00:18:45Let's not misrepresent things.
00:18:47We're not taking Shakespeare or Hemingway off the shelves.
00:18:50And we're not going and grabbing every socially, culturally, or religiously diverse book and pulling them.
00:18:56That's absurd.
00:18:57And the people that are saying that are gaslighters, and it's designed to incite division.
00:19:07I might need somebody else to help me.
00:19:10I need to pass these out.
00:19:11Maybe somebody else to help Karen.
00:19:14You can give them to the board.
00:19:16Definitely she needs to help.
00:19:17I brought you some excerpts of books.
00:19:18I pray you really are able to stop this kind of content from going in the school.
00:19:23These people put sexually explicit content into your libraries.
00:19:27Get ready for truth and transparency from an ocean of liberal tears.
00:19:35Let's talk about Superintendent Dr. Jeremy Glenn and the smut and porn in the library books.
00:19:42And it's not just his position.
00:19:44It's the position of the school board.
00:19:46It's the position of this community at large.
00:19:49Bottom line, this is about removing pornographic, sexually explicit, and vulgar materials from school libraries.
00:19:58I want you to know this.
00:19:59Tonight I'm going to go home and I'm going to get a great night's sleep.
00:20:02Because unlike you, I've actually read what's in those books.
00:20:06And I'm proud that they've been removed from our shelves and we've made the right decision for kids.
00:20:10I taught for about five years.
00:20:20I've taught in a private school setting.
00:20:21I've taught sixth grade social studies.
00:20:24I've taught third grade general education.
00:20:27So all the core classes.
00:20:29My concern was that there might have been stuff that they just didn't know was there.
00:20:34That they just weren't aware.
00:20:35Because they didn't know where to look.
00:20:38And at first I didn't know where to look.
00:20:43I had gone to a Moms for Liberty event where we had a preview to a documentary.
00:20:49You are teaching children adult child sex.
00:20:52You're teaching transgender issues.
00:20:54And children are moldable and influenced by that.
00:20:58In my humble opinion, it will be worse before it gets better.
00:21:05My kids go to the schools here.
00:21:10My family's kids go to the schools here.
00:21:12My friends' kids go to the schools here.
00:21:15It was disheartening to think that that was actually happening in my hometown.
00:21:22The books are worse than terrible.
00:21:25They are damaging.
00:21:26They are out to destroy, not, well, they're out to wreck the heterosexual relationship.
00:21:31That's not okay.
00:21:35That's distribution of sexual materials to children.
00:21:38And if the book they have in their hand does that, it has to be kicked out.
00:21:42We first really encountered the Moms for Liberty organizations during COVID as they really pushed to open schools and unmask children.
00:21:53And that's when we started to hear about their parental rights.
00:21:56Some of us moms out here have really struggled, have children that have really struggled with wearing a mask.
00:22:03Then, when that crisis was over, they turned to the books.
00:22:09The things that Moms for Liberty is fighting against is pornography in school.
00:22:13Teaching young children scientific ideologies that have, or non-scientific ideologies.
00:22:19This stuff is coming into your schools, and it's probably already there.
00:22:23A true job is getting here right here, right now, in God's place to have an impact.
00:22:27The culture and the humanity that you're in right now.
00:22:30And if you do that in Grandbury, then it spreads to Newham County.
00:22:33And once you do that in Newham County, it spreads to Palmer Johnson and Tarrant County.
00:22:36Once you do that, the whole state is on fire.
00:22:41And it just spread.
00:22:43We could almost see a preview of what was to come, and this playbook emerged.
00:22:53We were afraid.
00:22:54We were told not to tweet.
00:22:56We were told not to put things on Facebook.
00:22:58They came after me, and they came after our library.
00:23:02They came after our library board.
00:23:05We were called evil specialists instead of media specialists.
00:23:09I know they're going to fire me.
00:23:12I know they're making a case to fire me.
00:23:14I know it's coming, but I'm not going to shut up.
00:23:16I'm just not going to do it.
00:23:18You continue to speak out.
00:23:20You will be on the chopping block.
00:23:21You will lose your job.
00:23:23We have guns.
00:23:24When can we start killing liberals?
00:23:25When could they start hunting us?
00:23:27Hold the line against the LGBT mafia and their dang pedo fans.
00:23:33We had to bring in law enforcement to meetings.
00:23:36There was this white truck pulled up behind us, and the guy rolled down his window,
00:23:40and he yelled at me.
00:23:42He said, we're coming after you next.
00:23:44We're going to keep coming so hard.
00:23:45The only thing these booktards got to figure out is whether it's on their face,
00:23:49back, butt, or thighs.
00:23:55A Florida school district has pulled 176 books from its libraries
00:24:00to comply with the new state education reform law championed by Governor Ron DeSantis.
00:24:05We are going to make sure that parents have a seat at the table,
00:24:09and that we protect their rights.
00:24:11Under Florida's HB 1467 law, school books have to be free of pornography
00:24:16or certain race-based teachings.
00:24:19Violating parts of the law could lead teachers to be charged with a felony.
00:24:29Librarians are pulling books without anyone challenging them.
00:24:31The teachers in Manatee County were told by Friday at 3 p.m.
00:24:38you will either cover with paper, turn them to the walls, or take your books home.
00:24:44They thought they were erring on the side of caution.
00:24:47But the kids were so upset, they actually texted their parents and said,
00:24:52everyone's crying, everyone's upset, we need our books, we want our books.
00:24:56They wrote emails to the principal saying, please don't take away our books.
00:25:05Part of what I see as my calling is taking care of children.
00:25:11Elizabeth Ann Seton was the patron saint of teachers.
00:25:14I do not believe that scripture is there for us to use as a weapon.
00:25:24Or to make our political points.
00:25:30Please do some research as to our founding fathers.
00:25:34Their biggest fear was that we become a theocracy.
00:25:36They did not want to be governed by a king, and they did not want to be governed by a god.
00:25:42They wanted freedom.
00:25:47Librarians have heard from hundreds of kids that books have saved their lives.
00:25:52That's why to me, I see this as the civil rights fight of our time.
00:25:56And they're not banning just any books.
00:26:06They're banning the best books.
00:26:08We reject woke ideology.
00:26:25We fight the woke in the legislature.
00:26:28We fight the woke in the schools.
00:26:30We fight the woke in the corporations.
00:26:32We will never, ever surrender to the woke mob.
00:26:36Florida is where woke goes to die.
00:26:53We've got down here a librarian of Auschwitz.
00:26:57Some people are challenging or flamer, which is actually a really good one.
00:27:03And then, of course, Handmaid's Tale.
00:27:08I had been at the school for nine years.
00:27:11It had been a dream job for the first seven of those nine years.
00:27:16The governor says this is child pornography.
00:27:19In June, one of the Moms for Liberty in our area had posted a video
00:27:24about the second book in the Court of Thorns and Roses series.
00:27:28And she tagged all of the schools that had the book in their library.
00:27:32So then the district decided to just quietly pull the books from the shelves and delete them.
00:27:38And I happened to notice a few days later when I went up to work.
00:27:42I was very concerned that this was kind of getting out of hand.
00:27:46So I went to the school board meeting.
00:27:48Hi, good evening.
00:27:49My name is Julie Miller.
00:27:51My address is on file.
00:27:53And I am a high school librarian.
00:27:57I know.
00:27:58We're kind of seen as the bad guy.
00:28:01So I just wanted to give you guys just a moment of hearing straight from one of us
00:28:08who are boots on the ground to let you know, like, a little bit about us.
00:28:12I am a Baptist minister's wife and daughter of a minister as well.
00:28:19It was at that same meeting where Bruce Friedman showed up.
00:28:24This year, at least 102 books have been banned in Clay County, Florida.
00:28:30They were removed from school libraries thanks in large part to this single conservative activist.
00:28:36I represent No Left Turn in Education.
00:28:38That's the Florida chapter.
00:28:40I also run the New York chapter.
00:28:41Also a member of Moms for Liberty.
00:28:43I spent like 45 minutes after that meeting talking to him.
00:28:48And it was a, you know, pleasant, weird, but pleasant conversation.
00:28:54And the next thing I know is Bruce essentially said in an article,
00:29:00I'm going to clean up the libraries in Clay County.
00:29:02Anyone who gets in my way, I'm going to run over them like a dead body.
00:29:07And it was just like, first of all, who runs over a dead body?
00:29:09Like, what does that even mean?
00:29:12But very, like, triggering language.
00:29:16And then he started writing my name on challenge forms.
00:29:21Talk to Julie Miller.
00:29:23Julie Miller has this one.
00:29:24Surprise, surprise.
00:29:26Disgusting.
00:29:27Julie Miller was very helpful in research of the books that have been banned, the books that have been removed.
00:29:50To attempt to take black history and take a lot of our stories away from children is one of the most evil things I think a person can do.
00:30:07When it comes to the number of banned books at schools, Florida leads the nation in Clay County as number one in the state.
00:30:15Clay County is one of the last good old boy frontiers in North Florida.
00:30:25If you ride through Clay County, most of the streets are named after slave owners.
00:30:33And so that symbolism and that ideology, it gives them opportunity to be deep-seated in government, positions, superintendents, school board, city managers, all of that.
00:30:47All right.
00:30:53These are some of the books.
00:30:55Stamp.
00:30:58Anybody ever seen the movie Color Purple?
00:31:00Yes.
00:31:02And of course, 1619 Project.
00:31:05Do you care whether books that are written
00:31:09by African-Americans or books like,
00:31:14this book was banned?
00:31:17As a kid, like, going to a predominantly white school,
00:31:21I was always questioning who I was.
00:31:25Like, hair, skin color.
00:31:28I feel like this new kid, Hair Love,
00:31:32I feel like that would have made me feel
00:31:34a little bit more comfortable in my own skin.
00:31:38What's dangerous with this book banning is
00:31:42it's being led by people who say they love God.
00:31:47And I call for the fire of God and the glory of God
00:31:51and the fear of the Lord to fall on Clay County, Florida,
00:31:54in the name of Jesus.
00:31:58Next, we have Jeffrey Dove.
00:32:08I do not wish the fire of God to fall on you all.
00:32:12That's not the God I serve.
00:32:17I'm a lot of things.
00:32:18I'm a pastor.
00:32:19I'm a father.
00:32:20And most of all, I'm a strong black man.
00:32:22But when you start talking about removing African-American authors
00:32:27and African-American history, I got a problem with that.
00:32:30Because right now we are an embarrassment in the state of Florida.
00:32:39We got the list of these books are to be removed immediately,
00:32:42so says the Oversight Committee.
00:32:44I wrote an email back and just asked, like, could you please provide us with the reason why each of these books is being removed?
00:32:58Some months had went by.
00:33:00I asked someone about Julie and how she was doing.
00:33:04That one thing that I dreaded the most had happened.
00:33:08I lost my job.
00:33:11I was removed from my library for asking questions.
00:33:17They're going to say it's because I was refusing to follow directives.
00:33:21That's not the case at all.
00:33:23It's really just because I kept pushing back.
00:33:32I sat there for three hours.
00:33:34I wasn't giving up.
00:33:36I wasn't budging.
00:33:37I don't care how long it was.
00:33:39They were going to hear me that day.
00:33:42Alright, so before actually we move into school board member comments,
00:33:45I did have a question from the audience.
00:33:48Yeah, the reason I came back is because I saw one of you all's media specialist in Clay County was removed.
00:33:57It's loans.
00:34:01Don't do people like that when they have a different view.
00:34:05It's not fair.
00:34:07If anybody has to be responsible for this,
00:34:10we're leading the United States in books that are not on the shelf.
00:34:16It's y'all.
00:34:18Shame on you.
00:34:19Shame, shame, shame on you.
00:34:22Moms for Liberty are making a lot of ground.
00:34:27Very smart, young ladies.
00:34:30I call it wicked genius.
00:34:33It's a genius that curtails to oppressing people.
00:34:37It was like snuffing out a candle.
00:34:42It just happened so, like, quietly.
00:34:47And it's like you're dismissed.
00:34:51And it's all politically motivated, right?
00:34:54But I met the young man outside.
00:34:59I said, how you doing, brother?
00:35:03He says, I hate librarians.
00:35:09This can't be America.
00:35:17No, this can't be America.
00:35:18It feels like I'm living in a dystopian novel right now.
00:35:31Like, if you would have asked me 10 years ago
00:35:33if I was going to have, like, security concerns
00:35:36at a librarian conference, I would have been like, you're nuts.
00:35:39This is the highest number of attempted vote bans
00:35:45since we began compiling these lists 20 years ago.
00:35:49And I hate that censorship affects our professional lives,
00:35:52but it is a reality.
00:35:54Sometimes librarians are relocated to other buildings
00:35:57or grade levels, and sometimes librarians are outright fired
00:36:02for defending intellectual freedom.
00:36:04And then there are the cases where librarians feel
00:36:08for their physical safety and for those of their families.
00:36:12One librarian had her tires slashed
00:36:14during a library board meeting.
00:36:17We understand what's going on right now
00:36:19on a very real and personal level for some of us.
00:36:24But I know that as librarians, we continue to remember
00:36:28and focus on our professionalism and the work that we do.
00:36:33We want to make sure that we are reinforcing to you
00:36:36that even in the darkest of days, this is still what we do.
00:36:46We want to talk about a book-banning controversy
00:36:49underway in Island Trees, New York.
00:36:51For six years, The Naked Ape, Slaughterhouse Five,
00:36:54and seven other books labeled by the school board
00:36:56as anti-American or obscene have been banned
00:36:58from Island Trees library shelves.
00:37:01Stephen Pico, you were one of the students to bring action,
00:37:04were you not?
00:37:05We filed suit because we believe that every American,
00:37:07regardless of age, has the right to be exposed
00:37:10to a diversity of viewpoints
00:37:11and gain a number of perspectives on life.
00:37:13The Supreme Court today sharply curbed the authority
00:37:16of local school boards to ban books from school libraries.
00:37:19For laypeople, this is the Roe v. Wade of libraries.
00:37:26When the Kraus list came back, when Granbury boxed up hundreds of books,
00:37:30they were infringing on what Pico established.
00:37:33A book cannot be removed because of a disagreement with the ideas
00:37:38that are in the book.
00:37:40We're highly trained in the selection of age-appropriate material.
00:37:45Most of us have library and information science master's degrees.
00:37:50We learned legal precedent.
00:37:52We take courses on it.
00:37:54The thing that truly concerns us is when an individual,
00:37:57whether it be a parent or a non-parent or a single group
00:38:00within the society, tries to determine what is correct
00:38:03for not only that child, but other children as well.
00:38:07That is what we fight.
00:38:19When I was growing up, we had one road here.
00:38:22And if you were black, you lived on that one road.
00:38:27In our parish, we have the highest concentration of, like,
00:38:30KKK, Aryan Nation, those type of groups.
00:38:37I'm not going to say my parents are white Christian nationalists,
00:38:40but when I started being targeted,
00:38:42they didn't speak to me for a week.
00:38:44It's, uh, kind of a mess in here.
00:38:49There we go.
00:38:50Turn this.
00:38:55All right.
00:38:56For 40 years, I've been wanting to build a cannon.
00:38:58See, it rolls real easy.
00:39:01It's called the Confederate mountain rifle.
00:39:04It's the exact replica of what you would have seen
00:39:06back through the Civil War.
00:39:14You know, I've done a lot of family history and research.
00:39:17My ancestors listed slaves as property,
00:39:20and I'm not proud of that.
00:39:23It's uncomfortable.
00:39:24But I think sometimes we have to be uncomfortable
00:39:26and face that fact.
00:39:27Why would you want to embarrass white kids or...?
00:39:31It's like she said, that's the past,
00:39:34and we can't change that.
00:39:35What you don't want to do
00:39:37is teach your kids to hate their country,
00:39:41because then when they grow up, we won't have a country.
00:39:43I love my country, but I think we have to acknowledge that we're not perfect.
00:39:47Don't teach only the bad, the bad, the bad, the bad, the bad, the bad, the bad, the bad.
00:39:58While the rest of us were in lockdown,
00:40:00Live Oak Middle School librarian Amanda Jones and her students were traveling the world.
00:40:05I decided if they couldn't go out in the world, I was going to bring the world to them.
00:40:09She was awarded the 2021 National School Librarian of the Year.
00:40:13And I hope to use it as a platform to advocate for school libraries across the country.
00:40:17Here is Amanda Jones at the Livingston Parish Library Board meeting on Tuesday, July 19th.
00:40:26Why is she fighting so hard to keep sexually erotic and pornographic material in the kids' section?
00:40:32The reason why I got targeted to attack is because I spoke at our public library board meeting as a parent.
00:40:39If a middle school teacher is promoting pornography and erotic content to kids,
00:40:44I don't care what kind of pedigree she has.
00:40:47And I've never promoted pornography and erotica to children.
00:40:52Our local representative came for a photo op when I got National School Librarian of the Year.
00:40:57She was there for that photo op.
00:40:59Two years later, she's perpetuating lies about me.
00:41:06Jones was the subject of harsh memes, comments, and threats.
00:41:10Police couldn't determine who was threatening her.
00:41:14I have made it very well known that I travel with a weapon, multiple weapons, and we got security all around our home.
00:41:24I have escape routes wherever I go in my head, and I get my groceries delivered.
00:41:30I don't go in public in my community.
00:41:32Because the things they say online are so horrible.
00:41:37You know, I should be killed, and I shouldn't be alive.
00:41:42And that's sad. It's just my life now.
00:41:45I don't think any of us imagined when we started out that one day our lives might be at risk.
00:41:55I reached out to a lawyer, just got some background information about our county DA,
00:42:00and who in Texas would want to be the first district attorney to try to prosecute a school librarian.
00:42:09That was an existential moment for me.
00:42:12Imagining my face on the wanted poster and my friends being taken away in handcuffs.
00:42:18You are obsolete, Mr. Wordsworth.
00:42:21A lie. No man is obsolete.
00:42:24You're a librarian, Mr. Wordsworth.
00:42:27I'm a human being. I exist.
00:42:29And if I speak one thought aloud, that thought lives, even after I'm shoveled into my grave.
00:42:36You waste our time, Mr. Wordsworth, and you're not worth the waste.
00:42:42How do you find, ladies and gentlemen?
00:42:46Obsolete.
00:42:47Obsolete.
00:42:48Obsolete.
00:42:49Obsolete.
00:42:50I concur.
00:43:06When I was first attacked back in 2021, a student who was not a library regular previously
00:43:15started showing up in the first couple of weeks in September every day during lunch time
00:43:20and would just roam the stacks.
00:43:25And I'd go out and I'd say, Can I help you find anything?
00:43:27And he would say, No.
00:43:29And I would leave it at that.
00:43:31I don't want to, you know, nag a kid.
00:43:34After two weeks of this every day, I see the kid emerge from the stacks holding Lawn Boy by Jonathan Eveson.
00:43:54I read the book myself and loved it.
00:43:58And I was kind of dumbfounded because it was not a wildly popular book.
00:44:03It wasn't on many people's radar.
00:44:05And of all the 20,000 books in the library, he emerges with that one.
00:44:09I said, how'd you learn about it?
00:44:11And he said, my parents sent me, my parents told me about it and said I should look for it in the library.
00:44:1824 hours later, that student's mother was standing in front of the Board of Education.
00:44:26Martha Hickson, our school librarian, remarked to my son as he was checking out the books,
00:44:31Whoa, I love that book.
00:44:33And calling me a pornographer, pedophile, and groomer of children.
00:44:37This amounts to an effort to groom our kids, to make them more willing to participate in the heinous act described in these books.
00:44:45It grooms them to accept the inappropriate advances of an adult.
00:44:49My principal was in that room.
00:44:53The assistant superintendent was in that room.
00:44:56But they sat there in silence.
00:44:58And here's the pain, really painful part.
00:45:01They have maintained that silence for three years.
00:45:04Being a librarian, I started researching.
00:45:23I was watching Texas and Florida both very carefully.
00:45:26I felt like that's sort of the petri dish of what could be coming up here.
00:45:35This started in Lano, Texas.
00:45:38About a week later, a woman in Virginia saw the Lano Challenge and picked up some of that language.
00:45:45Both of these books include pedophilia.
00:45:49This, do not interrupt my time.
00:45:53And then, about two weeks later, same claim showed up at our board meeting.
00:45:58And that suggested to me something was afoot.
00:46:00And I said, I don't think this is organic.
00:46:05I don't think this is spontaneous.
00:46:07This is organized.
00:46:13Moms for Liberty are having their town hall here tonight on the Upper East Side.
00:46:18Welcome, New York.
00:46:19We are thrilled to be here.
00:46:21Thank you so much for joining us tonight.
00:46:24It seems like there's a lot of misconceptions out there about who we are and what we do.
00:46:28We were founded in 2021 by Tiffany Justice and I.
00:46:32We're both former school board members.
00:46:33What is Moms for Liberty?
00:46:35The New Yorker calls them the right-wing mothers fueling the school board wars.
00:46:38No one's going to fight for any issue like a parent.
00:46:41We're not in it for the money.
00:46:42There's no glory.
00:46:43We love our children and we're willing to do anything to protect the future.
00:46:47What money?
00:46:48What money?
00:46:49Now, they'll tell you that their funding for these national conferences
00:46:53comes from selling their $15 t-shirts.
00:46:56You don't get Ron DeSantis to show up at your conference.
00:47:01Donald Trump to show at your conference just from selling t-shirts.
00:47:06But this grassroots group is registered as a 501c.
00:47:09They are not required to disclose their donors.
00:47:12But we do know that their PAC received a $50,000 donation this year from Julie Fancelli,
00:47:17the largest single donor to the January 6th Stop the Steele rally that led to the Capitol insurrection.
00:47:23We asked Moms for Liberty, who else is among their donors?
00:47:26And they did not respond with any specific names.
00:47:28What ideology are the children being indoctrinated into?
00:47:32I think parents' fears are realized.
00:47:35They're looking at these books where sexual discussions are happening with their children at younger and younger ages.
00:47:40And Tango Makes Three has been challenged in at least 32 states.
00:47:46It's about two male penguins who care for an abandoned baby penguin.
00:47:49The book has been labeled a tool for so-called grooming.
00:47:54Marie Sendak's in the night kitchen.
00:47:56They drew pants.
00:47:57You're getting to the point of talking about a period.
00:48:03It is sexually explicit.
00:48:05Under the new law, Lord of the Rings is considered being inappropriate.
00:48:09There's some Facebook Moms group that said that pandas symbolized something.
00:48:19The graphic novel of the Diary of Anne Frank.
00:48:24Yep, there's your nudity right there.
00:48:27And mouse, which has to do with mouse nudity in a concentration camp.
00:48:37When they go after the books, what they're really going after is those kids that come into my library for a safe space.
00:48:46And I cannot abide that.
00:48:48Part of the ethics of our profession to support the First Amendment and to fight censorship.
00:49:00It's what I've been trained to do.
00:49:10The North Carolina Voorhees Regional High School District Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, January 30th is now called to border.
00:49:17If I were a younger person, I may have left by now.
00:49:24But I believe firmly in what's right.
00:49:28And then I also believe firmly in my students.
00:49:31If I were to say to the board or someone at school, you are a vile and disgusting C-word and a danger to young people, I could and should be escorted out of this building by the police.
00:49:43This is the exact language that has been sent to our school librarian by a group led by the spouse of someone on the board.
00:49:49If you want to get rid of and censor books, you are no different than fascist.
00:49:54For every fascist movement began the same exact way.
00:49:58You're here to ban books with gay characters.
00:50:01You might as well be here to start the Fourth Reich.
00:50:05Lord, you want him out.
00:50:06For girls.
00:50:07You guys cursed at my fucking children and you fucking bookbending me.
00:50:11You guys cursed.
00:50:12You fucking cursed.
00:50:17Thank you, Lord.
00:50:19The book itself, queerfully and wonderfully made, that's going against the scripture.
00:50:42It's fearfully and wonderfully made.
00:50:44And that's what we are.
00:50:45I could go through the whole chapter of that, of the Bible.
00:50:50This book is considered nonfiction and it is including Christianity.
00:50:55The Bible doesn't support this, so that already debunks the nonfiction status of this book.
00:51:00So we're talking about pornography here.
00:51:03I was born and raised in Holden.
00:51:05I am also trans feminine and I am a queer person.
00:51:07I don't think y'all understand what it's like to grow up in an environment like this.
00:51:13Where even your family members are constantly telling you that you're going to burn in hell.
00:51:18Books like this say, hey, you were loved.
00:51:22There is a community that will be there for you.
00:51:26Sorry, my anxiety is running very high because I can tell that y'all very much misunderstand us.
00:51:33This is much, this requires, thank you.
00:51:37Hello, my name is Amanda Jones.
00:51:53The great thing about books is that we all have different ways that we interpret them.
00:51:58I read this book and I interpret it as meaning a push for love and acceptance.
00:52:05It was written by pastors and mental health professionals for Christians.
00:52:13This book is not in the children's picture book section.
00:52:17It is in the teen nonfiction section where it belongs because it was written for teens.
00:52:24Monitor your own children.
00:52:26Don't let your children read it if you don't want to.
00:52:29No one's forcing you to check it out.
00:52:31Now, LGBTQ youth who report having at least one accepting adult are 40% less likely to accept suicide.
00:52:39Some kids don't have those adults in their life.
00:52:43I have lost over 12 students who were ostracized because they were made to feel less than in this parish.
00:52:53And I feel it right now, even though I'm not from that community, from the hate that's coming from some people in this room.
00:53:01It would be easy to move this book and placate a few people for the sake of bypassing drama.
00:53:06It would be easy.
00:53:08But sometimes doing what's easy is not what's right.
00:53:12The board would like to protect children from inappropriate material and would prefer to remove the challenged materials while the library processes its request.
00:53:28I'll be damned if we're going to lose another kid because of something our community has done to make them feel less.
00:53:39I've had former students reach out to me that have told me books have saved them.
00:53:47And then there's the kids that grew up and killed themselves because they were ostracized in our community for who they are.
00:53:53And if I was silent, my silence would be my compliance.
00:53:59And I am not going to be complicit in the death of children or even the hurtful feelings.
00:54:08I'm not going to participate in that anymore.
00:54:11Because even though I didn't actively participate in it before, I was silent and I saw stuff.
00:54:17But I'm not going to do that anymore.
00:54:19I'm going to speak out about it.
00:54:21And so, this is my strong-willed child and I thought, she's not going to lay down and take this.
00:54:43Our district was doing an okay job before this.
00:54:46Was it perfect?
00:54:47No.
00:54:48They were doing a pretty darn good job.
00:54:49And they were watching out for our kids and they were trying to keep their own personal politics out of the decision-making.
00:54:55But that's not what we're doing anymore.
00:54:57Now it's all the culture wars of America are just right smack dab right here in the middle of my kids' school district.
00:55:04After more than a year of controversy, Keller ISD voted to ban books about gender identity.
00:55:10I pledge allegiance to the taxes once paid under God, one hundred people.
00:55:24Hi.
00:55:29I'm Laney.
00:55:30I'm a mom of four kids in Keller ISD.
00:55:33As soon as our new Patriot Mobile School Board was elected,
00:55:35your top priority was to disregard all the parent, district, and community input.
00:55:39Since then, you've created a hateful, contradictory, nonsensical, and unconstitutional book-banning rubric.
00:55:46You are also passing a policy tonight that gives you the power to hire and fire every employee in the district
00:55:52all the way down to the cafeteria workers.
00:55:54You don't trust your admin. You don't trust your principals.
00:55:58You don't trust your teachers. You don't trust the parents.
00:56:00You're coming for teachers and librarians. You've made it clear, and they know it.
00:56:05We have a movement within America that has decided that school boards are now where they want to push their agenda.
00:56:18Patriot Mobile. They aren't just a wireless provider. They are a political movement.
00:56:23Up to 5% of every Patriot Mobile phone bill goes directly to supporting Patriot Mobile's Political Action Committee.
00:56:29We need to put our money behind companies that share our values.
00:56:33I'm looking at Glenn over here from Patriot Mobile.
00:56:36We know that Patriot Mobile, they admitted to coming into our communities and interviewing people
00:56:41and finding who they thought would best represent their interests.
00:56:44And that's who they backed with the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
00:56:47It wasn't until we started getting these mailers that we realized what was happening.
00:56:55We're talking probably 7, 8, 9, 10 flyers.
00:56:58These people are getting covered with images of crying children and saying they've been exposed to porn in school
00:57:03and your kid is being made to feel guilty for being white.
00:57:06All of these things that are just simply untrue.
00:57:10Then we started sharing them online and then we found out the school districts neighboring ours
00:57:15had the exact same flyers paid for by the exact same pack.
00:57:20But just with the pictures of the candidates inter-swapped with theirs.
00:57:23And we were like, oh my goodness, this is a large-scale, coordinated effort
00:57:29to take over school boards across the state of Texas.
00:57:33One of the keys is these school boards, right?
00:57:35The school boards are the key that picks the lot.
00:57:38This was their blueprint and they succeeded.
00:57:41They backed 11 candidates in North Texas.
00:57:44All 11 candidates won.
00:57:46And now they hold a majority and the president, vice president, and secretary
00:57:51on all four school boards that they decided to fund.
00:57:54And they're going to continue to spread it.
00:57:56We're focused on school boards here for now,
00:57:58but our goal is to spread this as large as we can to other states and other communities
00:58:03that are quite frankly wanting what we're doing here in their communities.
00:58:16They had that school board meeting completely packed with people.
00:58:36Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure.
00:58:39Somebody told me this morning to go online and look at the Republican Club.
00:58:43They had some meeting, I guess, last week.
00:58:45And it was all about book banning.
00:58:48And they had speakers come in.
00:58:50So they got them all riled up and gave them all their talking points
00:58:54so that they could all come to this meeting
00:58:56and completely drown anybody else's voices out.
00:58:59That's what they did.
00:59:01That's what they do.
00:59:02Well, you know, a lot of these people actually make threats, you know,
00:59:08about having a gun and yada, yada, yada.
00:59:10They drive around in trucks with, you know, confederate flags.
00:59:17Yeah, confederate flags and those secret organizations.
00:59:21They're not secret.
00:59:21Oath keepers, three percenters.
00:59:23Yeah, three percenters.
00:59:24Yeah, you see that all the time.
00:59:26It's just, like, just so ate up with hate.
00:59:32And there's not enough voices countering it.
00:59:36Of the United States and of this state.
00:59:38Of the United States and of this state.
00:59:41So help me God.
00:59:42So help me God.
00:59:44I ran on this platform.
00:59:49The porn and the grooming and pedophiles in schools.
00:59:55I felt like it was there.
00:59:58People just didn't know or they didn't know where to look.
01:00:00And I was going to find it.
01:00:02Head gummit.
01:00:03So that's what I did.
01:00:05You know, that's why I ran.
01:00:08And so I did the research.
01:00:09I was expecting to find something that would relate to what they were saying.
01:00:17But nothing even came close.
01:00:19I mean, it just, it didn't even come close.
01:00:21It just became very apparent that what they were trying to tell parents and what was actually happening in our schools were two completely different things.
01:00:31This was just complete sexualization of the kids.
01:00:39And it's not stopping.
01:00:40It's not going backwards.
01:00:41It's moving forward.
01:00:43It's moving full steam ahead.
01:00:46Our mission on the Blue Shark Show was to bring transparency to our local government.
01:00:51It pains me to say that GISD, through the inaction of the Board of Trustees and the upper level administrators, are grooming your children.
01:01:00The aha moment for me was a conversation I had with one of my former co-hosts.
01:01:07I felt we need to let our community know that it's not in the schools.
01:01:11And he told me to stop talking to my fellow trustees.
01:01:15Just completely cut off communication.
01:01:20Granbury races for the trustees.
01:01:22We've got three positions that are up.
01:01:25If you want more morally sound schools that don't have satanic cartoon porn and jihadi sympathizer material in the library, this is a no-brainer.
01:01:34They wanted to flip the board.
01:01:35They wanted to flip the commissioner's court.
01:01:36They want to flip the city council.
01:01:37Every level of government here locally to get their candidates in.
01:01:41When you're trying to get people in every level of government, something else is going on behind the scenes.
01:01:49I refused to do their bidding.
01:01:52And I said, no, I'm not doing that.
01:01:55That's not right.
01:01:56Now I'm enemy number one with them.
01:01:58Surprise, surprise.
01:01:59Courtney Gore has been an entire and complete and total disappointment.
01:02:08Yes.
01:02:09I would say disappointment is a big word.
01:02:12And I go back to that culture of, do you want to do the right thing and not be liked by everybody?
01:02:18I guess Courtney's woke.
01:02:21She woke.
01:02:23Courtney's woke?
01:02:24I guess she's woke now is what they're saying.
01:02:27Courtney?
01:02:28Yes.
01:02:29You can't say there's not porn in schools because there is.
01:02:35I knew I was going to get backlash, but I never thought it was going to rise to the level that it did.
01:02:41There was a June meeting where a gentleman, it was actually his grandfather, came with a firearm.
01:02:49Yeah, I've got something for you, too.
01:02:50You just wait.
01:02:54I don't play with the rules anymore.
01:02:56I haven't played with the rules since Vietnam.
01:02:59And I'm not going to start now.
01:03:01We have profile sheets on Courtney Gore, which is not here.
01:03:07Profile sheets.
01:03:07We know what you do.
01:03:08We know where you live.
01:03:09One of my younger brothers came over here and actually slept on our front porch that night, just to make sure we were safe.
01:03:21I feel like by talking, that is the only way I'm going to be able to protect myself.
01:03:26Like, I have to be vocal.
01:03:27And if I'm not, that's when they get the power.
01:03:32Last day in Granbury.
01:03:41We're very excited to be leaving.
01:03:45This is a place Mindy and I both grew up in, came back to raise our kids in.
01:03:52I ran the baseball and softball association.
01:03:55I served on the school board and this place changed.
01:03:58People more willing to impose their religion on others, discriminate against others.
01:04:03We've been fighting for years.
01:04:05The book ban is the latest piece.
01:04:10I have a proven conservative record.
01:04:12Always considered one of the top conservatives in the House.
01:04:15Before the Krauss list.
01:04:17There had been zero parent requests to review books.
01:04:22Not even one.
01:04:24So why are we doing this?
01:04:26My Texas House rep, while I was serving on the school board, the first time he got elected, we met with him as a school board and said, here's the things we care about in public education.
01:04:40We'd love your support.
01:04:43He told us, yes, yes, absolutely.
01:04:46And when it came time to vote, he voted exactly the opposite.
01:04:52I couldn't understand why.
01:04:54You told us you were going to support our schools.
01:04:56And then you voted against them every time and honestly started to badmouth our schools.
01:05:03And that's truly what made me start digging into money.
01:05:0760 percent, 70 percent of his money was coming from one source, which was a billionaire out in Cisco, Texas.
01:05:14A male on male or a female on female is against nature.
01:05:19So this lifestyle is a predatorial lifestyle in that they need your children and straight people having kids to fulfill their sexual habits.
01:05:30They want your children.
01:05:31The cornerstones of our government are crumbling and starting to come apart.
01:05:36And it's because of the lack of morality, the lack of belief in our Heavenly Father.
01:05:42I did the thing that people do, right?
01:05:47When you discover something is you put it on Facebook or you put it on Twitter and you talk about it.
01:05:52Our schools are not to be used for personal political agendas and our children are here for education, not religious indoctrination.
01:06:03Go tell your pastor our schools are not your church.
01:06:08I'm good at spreadsheets.
01:06:12So I built pie charts and yeah, I built a site to make it go.
01:06:17We have Chris Tackett, who is a former trustee of this school board.
01:06:25Pie chart guy for the Texas, for all the state rips.
01:06:28Right, he does pie charts, right, for all the conservatives to show where all the dark money goes.
01:06:33It was kind of an eye opener for me to realize that there was this bigger agenda behind everything.
01:06:38Some of the people that are pushing this agenda believe it is their duty to take over everywhere.
01:06:45Government, public schools, media, every aspect of our lives.
01:06:49You're going to read about certain verticals or structures that the enemy is working on.
01:06:57Satan wants to occupy the seat of influence over the Supreme Court, over the government, over education with indoctrination.
01:07:04Satan, we're the force that is hindering the devil from doing what he wants to do.
01:07:10God takes what the devil meant to harm us and he turns it into good.
01:07:16He blesses us with it.
01:07:19Every time we're attacked at Patriot Mobile, our sales just go through the roof.
01:07:23We increase our sales.
01:07:25And so what does increasing our sales mean?
01:07:27It means we can get more money back to organizations like Moms for Liberty.
01:07:33This is a spiritual war, not a political war.
01:07:39Is the agenda to gain power and money or is it to make our country a Christian theocracy?
01:07:46Or are they one and the same?
01:07:48Thank you for having me, all of you.
01:07:59I moved to Granbury in 2020 and I really hope it stands up to the reputation it had when I came.
01:08:07The word I have on my heart is repentance.
01:08:10Not all of us had a hand in what's happened here,
01:08:12but we are the ones who are present to solve the issues.
01:08:15The last book I read was 600 plus pages and it was a whipping for poor quality, number one,
01:08:23but also sexual content.
01:08:25And I'm sorry to point fingers, but we have librarians who are misunderstanding
01:08:29what is healthy and good for children.
01:08:31I think you ought to have people of good moral standards,
01:08:34people in the community that maybe even are voted on,
01:08:37pastors like Paul Duncan.
01:08:38He would never steer you wrong and he'll put you in a safety zone with your books.
01:08:42You don't have to have these ultra controversial books in your library.
01:08:47Hey, TikTok, I got a wild one for you.
01:08:49In 2018, I received this text from my mom after coming out
01:08:52and was effectively cut off from my family and eight younger siblings.
01:08:56I came across this video showing my mom speaking at a school board meeting in Texas,
01:09:00calling for the district to remove books, repent,
01:09:03and appoint a pastor to review and approve educational material.
01:09:06She even filed charges against librarians in Granbury, Texas.
01:09:09Literally, you have thousands of books.
01:09:12So what harm is it to let go of some of them?
01:09:15And that's all I have to say.
01:09:18And Kibbe's brown.
01:09:20Your kids do not go to school here.
01:09:29No, they don't.
01:09:30You're on a political agenda.
01:09:31Everybody knows what you're doing.
01:09:32You're trying to get school staff arrested.
01:09:35You've already tried it.
01:09:37That's what you're doing.
01:09:37And we know that's what you're doing.
01:09:39That's fine with me if you know it.
01:09:41I'm not hiding anything.
01:09:42You notice I haven't hit a thing.
01:09:44I'm not hiding anything.
01:09:45And I do have a problem with sexually explicit books in the library.
01:09:48I'm sure you do.
01:09:49You can't expose crime.
01:09:50You're trying to arrest librarians.
01:09:52I have nothing to say to you.
01:09:53A librarian to expose children to...
01:09:53You're trying to arrest librarians.
01:09:55Are you understanding the concept?
01:09:56You're trying to arrest librarians.
01:09:58No, I do not understand.
01:09:59You're a fascist.
01:10:00You're a fascist.
01:10:01Fascist.
01:10:02Sexually explicit books.
01:10:03Fascist.
01:10:04Fascist.
01:10:05When I moved here to San Diego, I got a bunch of prints.
01:10:16My siblings from a few years back, one of the last times I got to see them.
01:10:20And my partner here, his name's Andrew.
01:10:26Growing up, none of my siblings, there's nine of us total, none of us have stepped foot in
01:10:31a public school.
01:10:35Every piece of printed material that came into our home was curated by my parents.
01:10:41I'm starting a little collection of books.
01:10:47It's off to a small start.
01:10:48The book that started it all, All Boys Aren't Blue.
01:10:53Right off the bat, this book is saying, hey, there are some heavy topics.
01:10:56It's like, be, be aware.
01:11:03It all seems so much smaller and, like, depressing.
01:11:09I hope my siblings can make it out unscathed.
01:11:12And I'm worried that they're growing up in even more extreme circumstances.
01:11:17And I'm, you know, I hope that they're able to find their own path as well.
01:11:24What my parents, the people that my parents learned from are doing is so harmful and they
01:11:29deserve to be put back in their lane.
01:11:38Hello, everyone.
01:11:39My name is Weston Brown.
01:11:40I was born and raised in Texas and I'm grateful for the opportunity to speak here tonight.
01:11:44A few months ago, I saw my mom, Monica Brown, standing at this podium, calling for the removal
01:11:49of books and asking the school to follow the guidance of the religious side.
01:11:53Weston Brown.
01:12:05From a young age, I was taught to give a voice to people who are disregarded, elevate the
01:12:10marginalized, and love my neighbor.
01:12:11Today, I strive to be the person I needed when I was young.
01:12:16Someone who would stand up, speak out, and protect the kid that felt alone.
01:12:22Growing up, we read the Bible cover to cover from the earliest age I can remember.
01:12:27We repetitively read graphic depictions of sex, violence, genocide, sexual assault, and
01:12:32incest.
01:12:33However, topics related to dating, safe sex, drugs, alcohol, or sexual identity were deemed
01:12:40inappropriate or too heavy to discuss.
01:12:43I wouldn't have given anything to read a book with a character that felt the feelings I felt,
01:12:49ask the questions I couldn't ask, and learn the lessons that I needed to learn.
01:12:53It's been nearly five years since I came out to my family.
01:12:57I'm not allowed to join in family celebrations or holidays or be a part of my eight younger
01:13:07siblings' lives solely because I'm not straight.
01:13:10I'm here today to implore you to listen to librarians, educators, and students, not those speaking from a religious
01:13:20perspective or at the bidding of a political group.
01:13:25If you choose to marginalize difference and remove representation, you will only cause harm.
01:13:30History will remember your decisions and demand accountability.
01:13:36Show the world that Granbury will not succumb to fear.
01:13:41Publish, shine brightly, leading the way for the next generation of Texans.
01:13:46Thank you for listening.
01:13:46Next up, we have one for the world.
01:14:09And I knew that was coming, what came tonight.
01:14:11It's no surprise.
01:14:13It's not all true.
01:14:14But it is true that we have said no in our home for what we expect in our family, whether that matters to any of you or not.
01:14:23Just as an example, you know, in the scripture it says Adam knew Eve.
01:14:27That's not the same as saying he sucked his dick in her body.
01:14:31That's what you've got in your library.
01:14:33Listen, that's what you've got in your library.
01:14:36That's my mom who birthed me, who raised me and fed me and took care of me.
01:14:44Is it some sort of religious psychosis, years of messaging from extremist pastors and political leaders?
01:14:52Because when I look at my mom, I see someone who absolutely believes what she's saying.
01:14:58And I see someone who looks scared.
01:15:01Thank you so much.
01:15:02Wait, let me get behind you just in case.
01:15:05Okay.
01:15:06It's like the chances of getting hate crimes are low, but never zero.
01:15:08Your mother has been involved in this process.
01:15:13What was it like to stand here tonight knowing she's here as well?
01:15:17You know, in my mind, that wasn't, it's interesting, it wasn't what was top of mind for me.
01:15:22I don't have a message for my family or for my mom or my dad specifically.
01:15:26I've brought and said everything that I have to say to them in many conversations, many times over.
01:15:32And so my perspective tonight isn't to try to reach through to my parents.
01:15:36That's a conversation that they have the tools they need.
01:15:39They know what they need to do to build the bridge.
01:15:41But my goal, not my goal, my plea is for librarians, educators, students, and the boards to pay attention to what matters.
01:15:50I think as librarians, we recognize that we're on a continuum.
01:16:15But the swing between these polarizing views are having catastrophic effects on our social structures and our communities.
01:16:26We are on the precipice of some very, very bad things happening in this country.
01:16:34I just hope and pray that people are waking up.
01:16:37It's gone way beyond the cross list, honey.
01:16:40Way beyond the cross list.
01:16:42We are going to take back our schools.
01:16:45This is what I will do to the growing books when I become Secretary of State.
01:16:53Being offended is the basis for House Bill 666.
01:16:56They feel that this legislation could be used to threaten schools to remove books or face arrest just because someone does not like a book.
01:17:05Is it so hurtful to maybe nurture morality? Is that so awful to do that?
01:17:10I think that there is going to come a time in some of these books where it crosses a criminal line.
01:17:16It's called Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor.
01:17:18I had been home for three days and in that last day, I had people calling me left and right.
01:17:37Are you okay?
01:17:38What's going on?
01:17:39I was like, what are you talking about?
01:17:42A Hood County constable attempted to bring felony charges against three librarians for providing students with library books the constable deemed obscene.
01:17:57Now, I'm not one of those crazy overthrow the government anarchist types.
01:18:04But it is a legitimate question to ask.
01:18:08What do you do when your government doesn't follow its own rules?
01:18:12How does a sheriff arrest someone for violating your constitutional rights?
01:18:22I had some complainants come in on Friday and talked about making a report about the books.
01:18:29Okay.
01:18:30Do you know if they use student aides in the libraries?
01:18:33Yes.
01:18:34I was told that my library aides were going to be pulled because for every piece of pornography that was found in the library, I would be served with one felony for every student.
01:18:50Constable London, he was trying to tell the librarians that if minors had actually put those books on the shelves, then it was then elevated to a felony.
01:19:01I'm doing a criminal investigation into some of your staff.
01:19:05Obviously, there's been an allegation of books that were in conflict of the penal code in the library.
01:19:12Essentially, the librarians are my suspects.
01:19:15If they're the ones that are choosing books and putting them in there, you know, they're the ones that are carrying the criminal liability.
01:19:22Constable London was able to get the names of the minors that checked out those books.
01:19:28To me, as a parent, that is extremely concerning.
01:19:36So then I got to tell those four kids that they were not going to be allowed to be librarians because people are afraid that there's pornography in the library.
01:19:44I'm definitely on that list.
01:19:45I was in the library literally every single day of my senior year.
01:19:49That is really, really scary.
01:19:53And that is information that can be used in such an evil way.
01:20:01If the student was underage, was he going to go after the parents?
01:20:06For the kids checking out pornography, was he going to go after other students who may have been 18 at the time?
01:20:13As someone who has not had anything to do with breaking the law and that, I mean, maybe a speeding ticket, but who would have thought child pornography?
01:20:26I fear that we are at the point now where we're going to see teachers in handcuffs.
01:20:31There are forces that want to manipulate and to control the dissemination of information.
01:20:47Some of us feel that depth of responsibility to help our communities navigate.
01:20:57That's why we're here.
01:20:58Librarians are the firewall.
01:20:59I happen to come in contact last year with our state senator, Andrew Zwicker, who after hearing my story, put forth the New Jersey Freedom to Read Act.
01:21:23I went down to Trenton to testify in front of the education committee in favor of the bill.
01:21:29There is a proposed committee substitute, which establishes requirements for library material in public school libraries and establishes protections for school library staff members and librarians.
01:21:41Being, you know, your vast experience over the years in your role, do you see a distinction between book banning and restricting access to pornography for minors?
01:21:50In my professional role, there is no pornography for minors in a school library, so there is no need to restrict it.
01:21:57But restrictions are, however, a form of censorship.
01:22:01Your personal opinion about obscenity does not make it so.
01:22:06Thank you for sharing.
01:22:07I believe a penis isn't appropriate for fifth grade, but thank you.
01:22:10We can talk offline.
01:22:12Had I been permitted to speak further, I would have reminded her that fifth graders have penises.
01:22:19A county in central Texas will consider shutting down its entire public library system because a federal judge ordered it to return banned books.
01:22:37This dispute ultimately led to a special meeting in commissioner's court.
01:22:41I am in favor of closing the libraries temporarily until we find a solution to the pornographic filth we do have.
01:22:50How do we think it's okay that the librarians would actually facilitate that and deal that like a drug dealer to our kids?
01:22:59Now they're becoming porn dealers?
01:23:01Is that what our librarians have to become?
01:23:05My name is Suzette Baker.
01:23:07I'm the former head librarian for Kingsland, Texas.
01:23:10I'm also a military veteran.
01:23:14The books that are in the library are not pornographic.
01:23:18None of them are.
01:23:19I would like to know how the history of the KKK is pornographic.
01:23:24How to be an anti-racist.
01:23:26How is that pornographic?
01:23:28It's not.
01:23:30This is about taking away rights.
01:23:34Keep the libraries open.
01:23:36Keep the information available to all equally.
01:23:42This is not a communist nation.
01:23:45You do not get to pick our reading material.
01:23:48It is ours.
01:23:50So with that, I take a motion.
01:23:52I'll make a motion on agenda item number one to remove the agenda item.
01:23:58I'll second.
01:23:59The library will remain open.
01:24:01We will try this in the courts, not through social media or through news media.
01:24:06Libraries in Atlanta will stay open after a passion-filled afternoon.
01:24:11It's good to know we're not alone.
01:24:22I couldn't be more delighted to introduce
01:24:52Amanda Jones to you, author of That Librarian, the part memoir, part manifesto.
01:24:58No one should have to endure everything that Amanda has had to endure.
01:25:01And I fear that other people in this room may have had similar experiences.
01:25:06We are so grateful for all you do on the front lines.
01:25:14How can you stay?
01:25:17Oh, stay in my town?
01:25:18Yeah.
01:25:18Oh, it's my town.
01:25:19They can all go to hell.
01:25:22You're my hero.
01:25:28You know that, right?
01:25:30You're absolutely my hero.
01:25:33You definitely are.
01:25:34I don't know what's going to happen next.
01:25:50I cannot imagine us being on a cliff.
01:25:55That's just too much.
01:25:57But, I don't know, maybe we are, and we've gone over.
01:26:09Our stories have power.
01:26:10I can't stay anonymous.
01:26:12I can't stay anonymous.
01:26:14I can't stay in the shadows anymore.
01:26:25I can't let them keep my story in the dark.
01:26:27I won't be censored.
01:26:30Just like, we can't let them keep censoring the stories in our books.
01:26:37What I do know is that our story is still being written.
01:26:41But now, it's everyone's story.
01:26:45We'll be here.
01:26:47We'll see you soon.
01:26:51I'll be right back.
01:27:03We'll see you soon.
Recommended
1:01
|
Up next
1:47
1:35
2:26
1:24
1:09:33
46:57
1:12
58:56
1:28:55
45:12
48:25
47:15
Be the first to comment