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00:00:30I never imagined that what's happening right now could ever happen.
00:00:43It didn't dawn on us that we would come under attack.
00:00:49Do you like people?
00:00:52Have you a real love of books and learning?
00:01:00We just never imagined we would be in the forefront.
00:01:09We're not supposed to necessarily be seen and felt.
00:01:13We're stewards of the space, stewards of the resources.
00:01:18We're the stewards for the people.
00:01:20Now, I think we've moved into a vanguard.
00:01:28We have to be out in front telling the story.
00:01:31It's about us.
00:01:32For more information, if you'd like to visit us, it's about us.
00:01:36Another thing is, it's about us.
00:01:37We've got us.
00:01:39We've got us.
00:01:41We've got us.
00:03:16It's not just 850 books which we've all fixated on, he says, and any other books.
00:03:23I'm just immediately angry because it's so obvious that he is targeting LGBTQ titles
00:03:31and authors of color and books about race and books about sex education.
00:03:37He is asking districts to remove these and any other books that might embarrass or shame someone.
00:03:45Due to sex or race.
00:03:48What struck me was, one, there was a list of 850 books.
00:03:54He wanted to know if school districts had them, how much money had been spent on them.
00:04:01The list includes titles like a book on the history of the KKK and another about desegregation in schools.
00:04:07There are also books about gender identity, the LGBTQ plus community, and the history of Roe v. Wade.
00:04:13I didn't even think, you know, most school districts would entertain this.
00:04:18I remember looking at it thinking, they're singling us out again.
00:04:24A couple days later, our governor doubled down and sent a letter to the Texas Association of School Boards,
00:04:31asking them to do something about pornography in our libraries.
00:04:35I'm calling for the immediate removal of this very graphic, pornographic material from our libraries and our schools,
00:04:44and want to establish standards so that parents have the assurance that their children will not be exposed to it.
00:04:50I remember seeing Governor Abbott's letter and my district was mentioned specifically.
00:04:59That was the first moment that I realized school librarians could be criminalized for selecting books and making them available on the shelf.
00:05:09All books, Ulysses. I wonder what they say in all those books.
00:05:24Politicians are playing a very dangerous game when they try to make school libraries battlegrounds for their political war.
00:05:36Because the only people that that is going to hurt are our kids.
00:05:46This space, these resources, they're supposed to be this magical entry point to the world, to stories, to ideas.
00:05:57There it is. See it? Something they're saying in there.
00:06:04Where, Lyle?
00:06:06There's an A. Yep, that's an A right there.
00:06:10Sure would like to know what they're saying in there, though.
00:06:14Every letter's different.
00:06:16Well, ladies and gentlemen, here we are, Granberry High School.
00:06:38You know, it's always exciting. The first day of school, kids are dressed up, parents are excited, especially new moms and dads taking that walk for the first time with those five-year-olds in the kindergarten.
00:06:50In the garden, it's a, it's a great feeling.
00:07:03I've been getting some emails, concerns from parents, and they are going to trustees, and trustees come to me. And when they come to me, I need to have a conversation with you.
00:07:17We 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.
00:07:28We were going to pull books off the shelves, especially the 850 books that were put forth by, was represented in a house.
00:07:36And that'll keep you out of a mind, and that'll keep me out of a mind.
00:07:40It's the transgender, LGBTQ, and the sex, sexuality in books.
00:07:45That's what the governor has said that he will prosecute people for, and that's what we're pulling out.
00:07:50And I popped up, I said, just the cross list, and got the evil eye.
00:07:56If you do not know this, you've been probably under a rock, but Granberry is in a very, very conservative community.
00:08:07If it is not what you believe, you better hide it, because it ain't changing.
00:08:14We spent the rest of the afternoon in that meeting, going through our catalogs and trying to figure out what we have and what we don't have.
00:08:20I 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,
00:08:27where are the books? We need to get these things out of here.
00:08:30We were just told, get rid of them. Get rid of them. Deal with it. Get rid of them.
00:08:35Getting them off the shelves, putting them on carts, putting them on whatever, going through books and just chunking them.
00:08:43They had no room downtown. The offices were full of books. The high school was full of books.
00:08:51When you have to go through like 10,000 books, what are you going to do?
00:08:57To me, as a librarian, that was trauma.
00:09:01I went to the campus of a librarian I particularly feared for, and she took me into a closet.
00:09:09I 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.
00:09:16The librarian unlocks each of those when we get to the cabinets and open the cabinets.
00:09:21It's shelves and shelves of books. Harmless books.
00:09:28I just started putting them on the carts and said, no.
00:09:31Every book that was on that shelf felt like a student that we were saying,
00:09:36we've got to put you behind three locks.
00:09:39We've got to hide you back here in the dark.
00:09:43May you welcome, Director.
00:09:46Mr. Reid Harris, you wrote a book.
00:09:49And at the time you wrote this book, did you feel that marriage
00:09:53could be cast out of our civilization as antiquated and stupid religious phenomena?
00:09:59You put an implication on it and you feature this particular point out of the book,
00:10:03which of course is quite out of context, does not give a proper impression of the book as a whole.
00:10:08The American public doesn't get an honest impression of even that book.
00:10:12Well, then let's continue to read your own writing.
00:10:14If we would go back in history to McCarthyism, it felt like that happened to them.
00:10:20It wouldn't happen to us. It wouldn't happen now.
00:10:23Our hearts swell with pride.
00:10:26Because those who went before you worked.
00:10:29To give to us today, standing here, this pride.
00:10:34Don't join the book burners.
00:10:36Don't think you're going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed.
00:10:41Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book.
00:10:46We do have a code of ethics.
00:10:51Around intellectual freedom.
00:10:54Around privacy.
00:10:56Around representation and access to information.
00:10:59And a diversity of perspectives and issues.
00:11:03Those are all part of our code.
00:11:05I couldn't remove a book because it has ideas we don't like.
00:11:10Can't we look at this from a practical point of view?
00:11:13Take my word for it, it's not unreasonable to ask you to take out just this one book.
00:11:19If you can control the library, you can control the community.
00:11:25Because if you can control the flow of information, if you can control the ideas, you've got it.
00:11:30You've got everything.
00:11:31Of course you're coming after school librarians first.
00:11:35Of course you are.
00:11:42Texas leaders and parents continue to argue over what kids should be allowed to read in the classroom.
00:11:48And now we're hearing from a local librarian who says she lost her job because of it.
00:11:53That was my office.
00:11:58Oh, where is it?
00:12:08These are two books that I was asked to be removed and I would not remove them.
00:12:13No, they asked us to put these behind the counter so that they weren't available unless you knew they were here.
00:12:20Now they've separated all of the pluses from the regular books.
00:12:28The LGBTQ books.
00:12:30They were all integrated before but now they have separated them.
00:12:34But also, we went out of our way to get Christian books just for this group when they started making problems.
00:12:41So we got two series down here just so that their children who were more Christian based could have their books too.
00:12:47I have to show you our children's library.
00:12:49Oh.
00:12:50You know, that's where our porn lives.
00:12:56A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo.
00:12:58Have you seen that one?
00:12:59It's a story about a bunny rabbit.
00:13:01He meets another male bunny.
00:13:04So that bunnies end up getting married.
00:13:09They don't know that's here.
00:13:11Why don't they?
00:13:13Because they're just looking on their list.
00:13:16So yes, there are books here that they may not like, but they're here.
00:13:25This is the actual rules of the Llano County Library.
00:13:28In no case should any book be excluded because of race or nationality or the political or religious views of the writer.
00:13:34I followed these rules and I got fired for it.
00:13:41That's me when I was in the U.S. Army.
00:13:47When we take our oath to protect the country, it doesn't stop there.
00:13:51You protect the Constitution of the United States from attacks both external and internal.
00:14:03Did you know this book existed?
00:14:06Everybody's afraid to say what these people are acting like.
00:14:11But if you read history, you know what they are acting like.
00:14:15It says, no to decadence and moral corruption, yes to decency and morality and family and state.
00:14:26You do well to commit to the flames the evil spirit of the past.
00:14:30This is a strong, great and symbolic deed.
00:14:33A lot of the books that he burned were not just the Jewish authors, they were the LGBTQ+.
00:14:46They were those authors that they burned.
00:15:02That they burned.
00:15:10Stop throwing it in there!
00:15:11Stop throwing it in there!
00:15:12Stop throwing it in there!
00:15:13Stop throwing it in there!
00:15:14Burn it!
00:15:15Burn it!
00:15:16Burn it!
00:15:21Hallelujah!
00:15:22Woo!
00:15:24Mom, let me throw somebody!
00:15:25Woo!
00:15:26I pledge allegiance to you, Texas,
00:15:55one state under God, one indivisible.
00:16:01I do want to clarify a couple of points on behalf of the district.
00:16:06As you know, Texas education is the responsibility of the state,
00:16:11which essentially makes Governor Abbott our CEO.
00:16:15I want to start this out simple.
00:16:17The job of the superintendent and the school board
00:16:19is to not only protect the students in this district,
00:16:21but to make them feel like they have a place in this community.
00:16:24But I got to tell you, from what I've seen so far,
00:16:26you are failing at your job.
00:16:33Hi, guys. Come on in.
00:16:36We've all read Fahrenheit our freshman year,
00:16:39and we talk about the scariness of book banning.
00:16:44Literally on the windows of our library,
00:16:46our library has a big windowed wall,
00:16:48there are freshman students' drawings about Fahrenheit 451.
00:16:55Look, these are all novels.
00:16:57All about people that never existed.
00:17:01The people that read them and makes them unhappy with their own lives,
00:17:04makes them want to live in other ways that can never really be.
00:17:07So, we must burn the books, Montag.
00:17:14All the books.
00:17:16And seeing that and knowing what is going on within that library,
00:17:20it feels like it's blatant that there's a facade here.
00:17:24We have books in the library that are pretty heavy
00:17:27and have sexual assault, like a clockwork orange even.
00:17:31And that wasn't pulled, so.
00:17:33Had I not picked this book up,
00:17:36I don't think I would be sitting here now.
00:17:40If it's a cis straight white male or female,
00:17:43well, it's no issue.
00:17:44But as soon as you've got any kind of diversity.
00:17:47Got a gay person, a brown person, cut it out.
00:17:53Stop the censorship in our district.
00:17:55Wake up to the reality that we are all different
00:17:57and we should all embrace each other with love,
00:17:59not blatant hate.
00:18:00I'm simply going to say that no government,
00:18:03and public school is an extension of government,
00:18:05has ever banned books and banned information from its public
00:18:09and been remembered in history as the good guys.
00:18:11Let's not misrepresent things.
00:18:12We're not taking Shakespeare or Hemingway off the shelves
00:18:15and we're not going and grabbing every socially,
00:18:18culturally or religiously diverse book and pulling them.
00:18:21That's absurd.
00:18:23And the people that are saying that are gaslighters
00:18:26and it's designed to incite division.
00:18:33I might need somebody else to help me.
00:18:36I need to pass these out.
00:18:37Maybe somebody else to help Karen.
00:18:39You can give them to the board.
00:18:41Definitely she needs help.
00:18:42I brought you some excerpts of books.
00:18:44I pray you really are able to stop this kind of content
00:18:46from going in the school.
00:18:48These people put sexually explicit content into your libraries.
00:18:52Get ready for truth and transparency from an ocean of liberal tears.
00:19:00Let's talk about Superintendent Dr. Jeremy Glenn and the smut and porn in the library books.
00:19:08And it's not just his position.
00:19:10It's the position of the school board.
00:19:12It's the position of this community at large.
00:19:15Bottom line, this is about removing pornographic, sexually explicit and vulgar materials from school libraries.
00:19:23I want you to know this.
00:19:24Tonight I'm going to go home and I'm going to get a great night's sleep.
00:19:27Because unlike you, I've actually read what's in those books.
00:19:31And I'm proud that they've been removed from our shelves and we've made the right decision for kids.
00:19:36I taught for about five years.
00:19:45I've taught in a private school setting.
00:19:47I've taught sixth grade social studies.
00:19:49I've taught third grade general education, so all the core classes.
00:19:55My concern was that there might have been stuff that they just didn't know was there.
00:19:59That they just weren't aware.
00:20:01Because they didn't know, they didn't know where to look.
00:20:04And at first I didn't know where to look.
00:20:09I had gone to a Moms for Liberty event where we had a preview to a documentary.
00:20:14You are teaching children adult child sex.
00:20:18You're teaching transgender issues.
00:20:20And children are moldable and influenced by that.
00:20:23In my humble opinion, it will be worse before it gets better.
00:20:31My kids go to the schools here.
00:20:33My family's kids go to the schools here.
00:20:36My friends' kids go to the schools here.
00:20:38It was disheartening to think that that was actually happening in my hometown.
00:20:46The books are worse than terrible.
00:20:48They are damaging.
00:20:49They are out to destroy.
00:20:50Well, they're out to wreck the heterosexual relationship.
00:20:57That's not okay.
00:20:58That's distribution of sexual materials to children.
00:21:01And the book they have in their hand does that.
00:21:04It has to be kicked out.
00:21:05We first really encountered the Moms for Liberty organizations during COVID as they really pushed to open schools and unmask children.
00:21:15And that's when we started to hear about their parental rights.
00:21:19When that crisis was over, they turned to the books.
00:21:25The things that Moms for Liberty is fighting against is pornography in school.
00:21:29Teaching young children scientific ideologies that have, or non-scientific ideologies.
00:21:35This stuff is coming into your schools and it's probably already there.
00:21:39But your job is getting here right here right now and God's place is due to have an impact.
00:21:43The culture and the humanity of children right now.
00:21:46And if you do that in Grandbury, then it spreads to Hood County.
00:21:49And once you do that in Hood County, it spreads to Palmer Johnson and Tarrant County.
00:21:52Once you do that, the whole state is on fire.
00:21:54And it just spread.
00:22:01We could almost see a preview of what was to come.
00:22:04And this playbook emerged.
00:22:09We were afraid.
00:22:11We were told not to tweet.
00:22:12We were told not to put things on Facebook.
00:22:14They came after me and they came after our library.
00:22:18They came after our library board.
00:22:21We were called evil specialists instead of media specialists.
00:22:26I know they're going to fire me.
00:22:28I know they're making a case to fire me.
00:22:30I know it's coming, but I'm not going to shut up.
00:22:33I'm just not going to do it.
00:22:34You continue to speak out.
00:22:36You will be on the chopping block.
00:22:38You will lose your job.
00:22:39We have guns.
00:22:40When can we start killing liberals?
00:22:42When could they start hunting us?
00:22:44Hold the line against the LGBT mafia and their dang pedo fans.
00:22:50We had to bring in law enforcement to meetings.
00:22:53This white truck pulled up behind us.
00:22:55And the guy rolled down his window and he yelled at me.
00:22:58He said, we're coming after you next.
00:23:00We're going to keep coming so hard.
00:23:02The only thing these booktards got to figure out
00:23:04is whether it's on their face, back, butt, or thighs.
00:23:07Woo!
00:23:08A Florida school district has pulled 176 books from its libraries
00:23:16to comply with the new state education reform law championed by Governor Ron DeSantis.
00:23:21We are going to make sure that parents have a seat at the table
00:23:25and that we protect their rights.
00:23:27Under Florida's HB 1467 law, school books have to be free of pornography
00:23:32or certain race-based teachings.
00:23:35Violating parts of the law could lead teachers to be charged with a felony.
00:23:45Librarians are pulling books without anyone challenging them.
00:23:48The teachers in Manatee County were told by Friday at 3 p.m.
00:23:54you will either cover with paper, turn them to the walls, or take your books home.
00:24:00They thought they were erring on the side of caution.
00:24:03But the kids were so upset, they actually texted their parents and said,
00:24:08everyone's crying, everyone's upset, we need our books, we want our books.
00:24:12They wrote emails to the principal saying, please don't take away our books.
00:24:21Part of what I see as my calling is taking care of children.
00:24:27Elizabeth Ann Seton was the patron saint of teachers.
00:24:34I do not believe that scripture is there for us to use as a weapon.
00:24:39Or to make our political points.
00:24:47Please do some research as to our founding fathers.
00:24:50Their biggest fear was that we become a theocracy.
00:24:53They did not want to be governed by a king,
00:24:55and they did not want to be governed by a god.
00:24:59They wanted freedom.
00:25:03Librarians have heard from hundreds of kids that books have saved their lives.
00:25:07That's why, to me, I see this as the civil rights fight of our time.
00:25:16And they're not banning just any books.
00:25:18They're banning the best books.
00:25:20They're banning the best books.
00:25:35We reject woke ideology.
00:25:39We fight the woke in the legislature.
00:25:41We fight the woke in the schools.
00:25:43We fight the woke in the schools. We fight the woke in the corporations. We will never, ever surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die.
00:25:53We've got, down here, a librarian of Auschwitz. Some people are challenging, or Flamer, which is actually a really good one. And then, of course, Handmaid's Tale.
00:26:17I had been at the school for nine years. It had been a dream job for the first seven of those nine years.
00:26:28The governor says this is child pornography.
00:26:31In June, one of the Moms for Liberty in our area had posted a video about the second book in the Court of Thorns and Roses series, and she tagged all of the schools that had the book in their library.
00:26:43So then the district decided to just quietly pull the books from the shelves and delete them.
00:26:50And I happened to notice a few days later when I went up to work.
00:26:54I was very concerned that this was kind of getting out of hand.
00:26:57So I went to the school board meeting.
00:26:59Hi, good evening. My name is Julie Miller. My address is on file, and I am a high school librarian.
00:27:06I know. We're kind of seen as the bad guy.
00:27:12So I just wanted to give you guys just a moment of hearing straight from one of us who are boots on the ground to let you know, like, a little bit about us.
00:27:24I am a Baptist minister's wife and daughter of a minister as well.
00:27:30It was at that same meeting where Bruce Friedman showed up.
00:27:36This year, at least 102 books have been banned in Clay County, Florida.
00:27:41They were removed from school libraries thanks in large part to this single conservative activist.
00:27:47I represent No Left Turn in Education. That's the Florida chapter.
00:27:51I also run the New York chapter. Also a member of Moms for Liberty.
00:27:54I spent like 45 minutes after that meeting talking to him, and it was a, you know, pleasant, weird, but pleasant conversation.
00:28:06And the next thing I know is Bruce essentially said in an article, I'm going to clean up the libraries in Clay County.
00:28:14Anyone who gets in my way, I'm going to run over them like a dead body.
00:28:18Which is like, first of all, who runs over a dead body? Like, what does that even mean?
00:28:22But very, like, triggering language.
00:28:27And then he started writing my name on challenge forms.
00:28:32Talk to Julie Miller. Julie Miller has this one. Surprise, surprise. Disgusting.
00:28:39It was like, what is going on?
00:28:41Julie was very helpful in research of the books that have been banned, the books that have been removed.
00:29:02To 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.
00:29:19When it comes to the number of banned books at schools, Florida leased the nation, and Clay County is number one in the state.
00:29:27These are some of the books.
00:29:37Stamp.
00:29:40Anybody ever seen the movie Color Purple?
00:29:43Yes.
00:29:43And, of course, 1619 Project.
00:29:48Do you care whether books that are written by African Americans or books like, this book was banned?
00:30:00As a kid, like, going to a predominantly white school, I was always questioning who I was.
00:30:07Like, hair, skin color, I feel like this, New Kid, Hair Love, I feel like that would have made me feel a little bit more comfortable in my own skin.
00:30:21What's dangerous with this book banning is it's being led by people who say they love God.
00:30:29And I call for the fire of God and the glory of God and the fear of the Lord to fall on Clay County, Florida, in the name of Jesus.
00:30:41Next, we have Jeffrey Dove.
00:30:48I do not wish the fire of God to fall on you all.
00:30:55That's not the God I serve.
00:30:57I'm a lot of things, I'm a pastor, I'm a father, and most of all, I'm a strong black man.
00:31:04But when you start talking about removing African American authors and African American history, I got a problem with that.
00:31:11Because right now, we are an embarrassment in the state of Florida.
00:31:19We got the list of these books are to be removed immediately, so says the Oversight Committee.
00:31:27I wrote an email back and just asked, like, could you please provide us with the reason why each of these books is being removed.
00:31:38Some months had went by.
00:31:40I asked someone about Julie and how she was doing.
00:31:44That one thing that I dreaded the most had happened.
00:31:48I lost my job.
00:31:51I was removed from my library for asking questions.
00:31:57They're going to say it's because I was refusing to follow directives.
00:32:01That's not the case at all.
00:32:03It's really just because I kept pushing back.
00:32:06I sat there for three hours.
00:32:15I wasn't giving up.
00:32:16I wasn't budging.
00:32:18I don't care how long it was.
00:32:19They were going to hear me that day.
00:32:22All right.
00:32:23So before, actually, we move into school board member comments, I did have a question from the audience.
00:32:27Yeah, the reason I came back is because I saw one of you all's media specialists in Clay County was removed.
00:32:38It's wrong.
00:32:41Don't do people like that when they have a different view.
00:32:45It's not fair.
00:32:46If anybody has to be responsible for this cabalgo, we're leading the United States and books that are not on the shelf.
00:32:56It's y'all.
00:32:59Shame on you.
00:33:00Shame, shame, shame on you.
00:33:02Moms for Liberty are making a lot of ground.
00:33:07Very smart, young ladies.
00:33:10I call it wicked genius.
00:33:12It's a genius that curtails to oppressing people.
00:33:19It was like snuffing out a candle.
00:33:24It just happened so, like, quietly, and it's like you're dismissed.
00:33:32And it's all politically motivated, right?
00:33:37But I met the young man outside.
00:33:39And I said, how you doing, brother?
00:33:46He says, I hate librarians.
00:33:51This can't be America.
00:33:57No, this can't be America.
00:33:59It feels like I'm living in a dystopian novel right now.
00:34:12Like, if you would have asked me 10 years ago if I was going to have, like, security concerns at a librarian conference, I would have been like, you're nuts.
00:34:20This is the highest number of attempted folk bans since we began compiling these lists 20 years ago.
00:34:30And I hate that censorship affects our professional lives, but it is a reality.
00:34:35Sometimes librarians are relocated to other buildings or grade levels, and sometimes librarians are outright fired for defending intellectual freedom.
00:34:44And then there are the cases where librarians feel for their physical safety and for those of their families.
00:34:52One librarian had her tires slashed during a library board meeting.
00:34:56We understand what's going on right now on a very real and personal level for some of us.
00:35:04But I know that as librarians, we continue to remember and focus on our professionalism and the work that we do.
00:35:13We want to make sure that we are reinforcing to you that even in the darkest of days, this is still what we do.
00:35:26We want to talk about a book-banning controversy underway in Island Trees, New York.
00:35:31For six years, The Naked Ape, Slaughterhouse-Five, and seven other books labeled by the school board as anti-American or obscene have been banned from Island Trees library shelves.
00:35:41Stephen Pico, you were one of the students to bring action, were you not?
00:35:44We filed suit because we believe that every American, regardless of age, has the right to be exposed to a diversity of viewpoints and gain a number of perspectives on life.
00:35:53The Supreme Court today sharply curbed the authority of local school boards to ban books from school libraries.
00:36:01For lay people, this is the Roe v. Wade of libraries.
00:36:06When the Kraus list came back, when Granbury boxed up hundreds of books, they were infringing on what Pico established.
00:36:14A book cannot be removed because of a disagreement with the ideas that are in the book.
00:36:20We're highly trained in the selection of age-appropriate material.
00:36:26Most of us have library and information science master's degrees.
00:36:30We learned legal precedent.
00:36:33We take courses on it.
00:36:35The thing that truly concerns us is when an individual, whether it be a parent or a non-parent or a single group within the society,
00:36:42tries to determine what is correct for not only that child, but other children as well.
00:36:47That is what we fight.
00:36:56I'm not going to say my parents are white Christian nationalists,
00:36:59but when I started being targeted, they didn't speak to me for a week.
00:37:03It's kind of a mess in here.
00:37:08There we go.
00:37:09Turn this.
00:37:10For 40 years, I've been wanting to build a cannon.
00:37:18See, it rolls real easy.
00:37:20It's called a Confederate mountain rifle.
00:37:23It's the exact replica of what you would say back to the Civil War.
00:37:27You know, I've done a lot of family history and research.
00:37:37My ancestors listed slaves as property, and I'm not proud of that.
00:37:42It's uncomfortable.
00:37:44But I think sometimes we have to be uncomfortable and face that fact.
00:37:46What you don't want to do is teach your kids to hate their country,
00:38:01because then when they grow up, we won't have a country.
00:38:03I love my country, but I think we have to acknowledge that we're not perfect.
00:38:07Don't teach only the bad, the bad, the bad, the bad, the bad, the bad, the bad, the bad.
00:38:16While the rest of us were in lockdown,
00:38:19Live Oak Middle School librarian Amanda Jones and her students were traveling the world.
00:38:24I decided if they couldn't go out in the world, I was going to bring the world to them.
00:38:27She was awarded the 2021 National School Librarian of the Year.
00:38:32And I hope to use it as a platform to advocate for school libraries across the country.
00:38:37Here is Amanda Jones at the Livingston Parish Library Board meeting on Tuesday, July 19th.
00:38:45Why is she fighting so hard to keep sexually erotic and pornographic material in the kids' section?
00:38:58If a middle school teacher is promoting pornography and erotic content to kids,
00:39:03I don't care what kind of pedigree she has.
00:39:05And I've never promoted pornography and erotica to children.
00:39:11Our local representative came for a photo op when I got National School Librarian of the Year.
00:39:16She was there for that photo op.
00:39:18Two years later, she's perpetuating lies about me.
00:39:25Jones was the subject of harsh memes, comments, and threats.
00:39:29Police couldn't determine who was threatening her.
00:39:35I have made it very well known that I travel with a weapon, multiple weapons,
00:39:41and we got security all around our home.
00:39:44I have escape routes wherever I go in my head, and I get my groceries delivered.
00:39:48I don't go in public in my community.
00:39:53Because the things they say online are so horrible.
00:39:57You know, I should be killed, and I shouldn't be alive.
00:40:02And that's sad.
00:40:03It's just my life now.
00:40:04I don't think any of us imagined when we started out that one day our lives might be at risk.
00:40:13I reached out to a lawyer.
00:40:16Just got some background information about our county DA.
00:40:19And who in Texas would want to be the first district attorney to try to prosecute a school librarian?
00:40:28That was an existential moment for me.
00:40:31Imagining my face on the wanted poster and my friends being taken away in handcuffs.
00:40:37You are obsolete, Mr. Wordsworth.
00:40:40A lie.
00:40:41No man is obsolete.
00:40:43You're a librarian, Mr. Wordsworth.
00:40:46I'm a human being.
00:40:47I exist.
00:40:47And if I speak one thought aloud, that thought lives, even after I'm shoveled into my grave.
00:40:55You waste our time, Mr. Wordsworth, and you're not worth the waste.
00:41:01How do you find, ladies and gentlemen?
00:41:05Obsolete.
00:41:06Obsolete.
00:41:07Obsolete.
00:41:08Obsolete.
00:41:09I concur.
00:41:17Obsolete.
00:41:18Obsolete.
00:41:27So, when I was first attacked, back in 2021, student who was not a library regular
00:41:32uh, previously,
00:41:34started showing up in the first couple of weeks in September,
00:41:37every day during lunchtime,
00:41:39and would just roam the stacks.
00:41:44And I'd go out and I'd say,
00:41:45can I help you find anything?
00:41:47And he would say no.
00:41:48And I would leave it at that.
00:41:49I don't want to, you know, nag a kid.
00:41:52After two weeks of this every day,
00:41:54I see the kid emerge from the stacks,
00:41:57holding Lawn Boy by Jonathan Edison.
00:42:02I read the book myself and loved it.
00:42:16And I was kind of dumbfounded,
00:42:19because it was not a wildly popular book.
00:42:22It wasn't on many people's radar.
00:42:24And of all the 20,000 books in the library,
00:42:26he emerges with that one.
00:42:28I said, how'd you learn about it?
00:42:30And he said, my parents sent me,
00:42:32my parents told me about it
00:42:34and said I should look for it in the library.
00:42:3724 hours later,
00:42:41that student's mother was standing in front of the Board of Education.
00:42:45Martha Hickson, our school librarian,
00:42:47remarked to my son as he was checking out the books,
00:42:50quote, I love that book.
00:42:52And calling me a pornographer, pedophile, and groomer of children.
00:42:56This amounts to an effort to groom our kids
00:42:59to make them more willing to participate
00:43:01in the heinous act described in these books.
00:43:04It grooms them to accept the inappropriate advances of an adult.
00:43:09My principal was in that room.
00:43:11The assistant superintendent was in that room.
00:43:14But they sat there in silence.
00:43:17And here's the pain, really painful part.
00:43:20They have maintained that silence for three years.
00:43:23Being a librarian, I started researching.
00:43:39I was watching Texas and Florida both very carefully.
00:43:48I felt like that's sort of the petri dish
00:43:50of what could be coming up here.
00:43:54This started in Lano, Texas.
00:43:57About a week later,
00:43:59a woman in Virginia saw the Lano Challenge
00:44:02and picked up some of that language.
00:44:04Both of these books include pedophilia.
00:44:08Do not interrupt my time.
00:44:12And then, about two weeks later,
00:44:15same claim showed up at our board meeting.
00:44:17And that suggested to me something was afoot.
00:44:20And I said, I don't think this is organic.
00:44:23I don't think this is spontaneous.
00:44:26This is organized.
00:44:28Moms for Liberty are having their town hall here tonight
00:44:34on the Upper East Side.
00:44:36Welcome, New York.
00:44:38We are thrilled to be here.
00:44:39Thank you so much for joining us tonight.
00:44:42It seems like there's a lot of misconceptions out there
00:44:45about who we are and what we do.
00:44:47We were founded in 2021 by Tiffany Justice and I.
00:44:50We're both former school board members.
00:44:52What is Moms for Liberty?
00:44:53The New Yorker calls them the right-wing mothers
00:44:55fueling the school board wars.
00:44:57No one's going to fight for any issue like a parent.
00:44:59We're not in it for the money.
00:45:01There's no glory.
00:45:02We love our children and we're willing to do anything.
00:45:04Now, they'll tell you that their funding
00:45:06for these national conferences
00:45:08comes from selling their $15 t-shirts.
00:45:12You don't get Ron DeSantis to show up at your conference,
00:45:16Donald Trump to show at your conference
00:45:18just from selling t-shirts.
00:45:20But this grassroots group is registered as a 501c.
00:45:24They are not required to disclose their donors.
00:45:27But we do know that their pack received a $50,000 donation
00:45:30this year from Julie Fancelli,
00:45:32the largest single donor to the January 6th
00:45:35Stop the Steal rally that led to the Capitol insurrection.
00:45:38We asked Moms for Liberty who else is among their donors
00:45:41and they did not respond with any specific names.
00:45:43What ideology are the children being indoctrinated into?
00:45:47I think parents' fears are realized.
00:45:50They're looking at these books where sexual discussions
00:45:53are happening with their children at younger and younger ages.
00:45:56And Tango Makes Three has been challenged in at least 32 states.
00:46:01It's about two male penguins who care for an abandoned baby penguin.
00:46:04The book has been labeled a tool for so-called grooming.
00:46:09Marie Sendak's in the night kitchen.
00:46:12They drew pants.
00:46:14You're getting to the point of talking about a period.
00:46:18It is sexually explicit.
00:46:21Under the new law,
00:46:22Lord of the Rings is considered being inappropriate.
00:46:25There's some Facebook Moms group
00:46:28that said that pandas symbolized something.
00:46:34The graphic novel of the Diary of Anne Frank.
00:46:40Yep, there's your nudity right there.
00:46:44And mouse,
00:46:46which has to do with mouse nudity
00:46:49in a concentration camp.
00:46:52When they go after the books,
00:46:54what they're really going after
00:46:56is those kids
00:46:58that come into my library for a safe space.
00:47:01And I cannot abide that.
00:47:09Part of the ethics of our profession
00:47:11to support the First Amendment
00:47:12and to fight censorship.
00:47:16It's what I've been trained to do.
00:47:25The North Huntington Voorhees Regional High School District
00:47:28Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, January 30th,
00:47:31is now called to border.
00:47:34If I were a younger person,
00:47:37I may have left by now.
00:47:40But I believe firmly in what's right.
00:47:43And then I also believe firmly in my students.
00:47:47If I were to say to the board or someone at school,
00:47:50you are a vile and disgusting C-word
00:47:52and a danger to young people,
00:47:54I could and should be escorted
00:47:56out of this building by the police.
00:47:58This is the exact language
00:47:59that has been sent to our school librarian
00:48:01by a group led by the spouse
00:48:03of someone on the board.
00:48:04If you want to get rid of and censor books,
00:48:07you are no different than fascist.
00:48:09For every fascist movement
00:48:11began the same exact way.
00:48:13You're here to ban books with gay characters.
00:48:16You might as well be here to start the fourth rank.
00:48:19Ford, you want him out.
00:48:21For girls.
00:48:22Yes!
00:48:23You guys cursed at my f***ing children
00:48:25and you f***ing book banning me.
00:48:26You guys cursed.
00:48:28You fucking creep.
00:48:29I f***ing you.
00:48:30I f***ing you.
00:48:31I f***ing you.
00:48:32Thank you, Ford.
00:48:33I'm my f***ing c***ing c***ing.
00:48:36I'm done.
00:48:37I'm done.
00:48:38I'm done.
00:48:43I'm done.
00:48:44I'm done.
00:48:45I'm done.
00:48:46I'm done.
00:48:47I'm done.
00:48:48I'm done.
00:48:49I'm done.
00:48:50I'm done.
00:48:51The book itself,
00:48:52queerfully and wonderfully made,
00:48:54that's going against the scripture.
00:48:57It's fearfully and wonderfully made.
00:49:00And that's what we are.
00:49:01I could go through the whole chapter of that,
00:49:04of the Bible.
00:49:05This book is considered non-fiction,
00:49:08and it is including Christianity.
00:49:10The Bible doesn't support this,
00:49:12so that already debunks
00:49:14the non-fiction status of this book.
00:49:16So we're talking about pornography.
00:49:18I was born and raised in Holden.
00:49:20I am also trans feminine,
00:49:22and I am a queer person.
00:49:24I don't think y'all understand
00:49:26what it's like to grow up
00:49:27in an environment like this,
00:49:28where even your family members are
00:49:30constantly telling you
00:49:31that you're gonna burn in hell.
00:49:33Books like this say,
00:49:35hey, you were loved.
00:49:37There is a community that will be there for you.
00:49:42Sorry, my anxiety is running very high,
00:49:44because I can tell that y'all
00:49:46very much misunderstand us.
00:49:48This gives much, this requires...
00:49:54Hello, my name is Amanda Jones.
00:50:09The great thing about books
00:50:10is that we all have different ways
00:50:12that we interpret them.
00:50:14I read this book,
00:50:16and I interpret it as meaning
00:50:19a push for love and acceptance.
00:50:22It was written by pastors
00:50:24and mental health professionals
00:50:27for Christians.
00:50:29This book is not
00:50:30in the children's picture book section.
00:50:32It is in the teen non-fiction section
00:50:35where it belongs,
00:50:37because it was written for teens.
00:50:39Monitor your own children.
00:50:41Don't let your children read it
00:50:43if you don't want to.
00:50:45No one's forcing you to check it out.
00:50:47LGBTQ youth who report having
00:50:49at least one accepting adult
00:50:51are 40% less likely to accept suicide.
00:50:54Some kids don't have those adults in their life.
00:50:58I have lost over 12 students
00:51:02who were ostracized
00:51:04because they were made to feel less than
00:51:07in this parish.
00:51:08And I feel it right now,
00:51:10even though I'm not from that community,
00:51:12from the hate that's coming
00:51:14from some people in this room.
00:51:16It would be easy to move this book
00:51:18and placate a few people
00:51:19for the sake of bypassing drama.
00:51:21It would be easy.
00:51:23But sometimes doing what's easy
00:51:26is not what's right.
00:51:27The board would like to protect children
00:51:37from inappropriate material
00:51:38and would prefer to remove
00:51:40the challenged materials
00:51:41while the library processes its request.
00:51:47I'll be damned if we're going to lose
00:51:49another kid because of something
00:51:52our community has done
00:51:53to make them feel less.
00:51:54I've had former students reach out to me
00:51:59that have told me books have saved them.
00:52:01And then there's the kids
00:52:03that grew up and killed themselves
00:52:05because they were ostracized
00:52:07in our community for who they are.
00:52:09And if I was silent,
00:52:12my silence would be my compliance
00:52:15and I am not going to be complicit
00:52:17in the death of children
00:52:19or even the hurtful feelings
00:52:23or I'm not going to participate
00:52:25in that anymore.
00:52:26Because even though I didn't
00:52:28actively participated in before,
00:52:30I was silent and I saw stuff.
00:52:32But I'm not going to do that anymore.
00:52:34I'm going to speak out about it, so.
00:52:36This is my strong-willed child
00:52:38and I thought, mm-mm,
00:52:40she's not going to lay down
00:52:41and take this.
00:52:42Yes.
00:52:59Our district was doing an okay job before this.
00:53:01Was it perfect? No.
00:53:03They were doing a pretty darn good job.
00:53:05And they were watching out for our kids
00:53:07and they were trying to keep their own personal politics
00:53:09out of the decision making.
00:53:11But that's not what we're doing anymore.
00:53:12Now it's all the culture wars of America
00:53:15are just right smack dab right here
00:53:17in the middle of my kids' school district.
00:53:19After more than a year of controversy,
00:53:22Keller ISD voted to ban books about gender identity.
00:53:26I pledge allegiance to the Texas
00:53:29one state under God one country under the world.
00:53:43Hi. I'm Lainey.
00:53:45I'm a mom of four kids in Keller ISD.
00:53:48As soon as our new Patriot Mobile School Board
00:53:50was elected, your top priority was to disregard
00:53:52all the parent, district, and community input.
00:53:55Since then, you've created a hateful, contradictory,
00:53:57nonsensical, and unconstitutional book-banning rubric.
00:54:01You are also passing a policy tonight
00:54:04that gives you the power to hire and fire
00:54:06every employee in the district
00:54:07all the way down to the cafeteria workers.
00:54:10You don't trust your admin.
00:54:11You don't trust your principals.
00:54:13You don't trust your teachers.
00:54:14You don't trust the parents.
00:54:16You're coming for teachers and librarians.
00:54:18You've made it clear, and they know it.
00:54:20We have a movement within America
00:54:23that has decided that school boards are now
00:54:25where they want to push their agenda.
00:54:34Patriot Mobile.
00:54:35They aren't just a wireless provider.
00:54:36They are a political movement.
00:54:38Up to 5% of every Patriot Mobile phone bill
00:54:41goes directly to supporting
00:54:42Patriot Mobile's political action committee.
00:54:44We need to put our money behind companies
00:54:47that share our values.
00:54:48I'm looking at Glenn over here from Patriot Mobile.
00:54:51We know that Patriot Mobile,
00:54:53they admitted to coming into our communities
00:54:54and interviewing people
00:54:56and finding who they thought
00:54:57would best represent their interests.
00:54:59And that's who they backed
00:55:00with the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
00:55:02It wasn't until we started getting these mailers
00:55:06that we realized what was happening.
00:55:09We're talking probably 7, 8, 9, 10 flyers.
00:55:12These people are getting covered with images
00:55:15of crying children
00:55:16and saying they've been exposed to porn in school
00:55:18and your kid is being made to feel guilty for being white.
00:55:21All of these things that are just simply untrue.
00:55:24Then we started sharing them online.
00:55:26Then we found out the school districts neighboring ours
00:55:29had the exact same flyers paid for by the exact same pack,
00:55:35but just with the pictures of the candidates
00:55:37inter-swapped with theirs.
00:55:39And we were like, oh, my goodness.
00:55:41This is a large-scale, coordinated effort
00:55:44to take over school boards across the state of Texas.
00:55:48One of the keys is these school boards, right?
00:55:50The school boards are the key that picks the lot.
00:55:53This was their blueprint, and they succeeded.
00:55:56They backed 11 candidates in North Texas.
00:56:00All 11 candidates won.
00:56:02And now they hold a majority
00:56:04and the president, vice president, and secretary
00:56:07on all four school boards that they decided to fund.
00:56:10And they're going to continue to spread it.
00:56:12We're focused on school boards here for now,
00:56:14but our goal is to spread this as large as we can
00:56:17to other states and other communities
00:56:19that are quite frankly wanting
00:56:21what we're doing here in their communities.
00:56:26They had the school board meeting completely packed with people.
00:56:46Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure.
00:56:48Somebody told me this morning to go online
00:56:51and look at the Republican Club.
00:56:53They had some meeting, I guess, last week,
00:56:56and it was all about book banning.
00:56:58And they had speakers come in,
00:57:00so they got them all riled up
00:57:02and gave them all their talking points
00:57:04so that they could all come to this meeting
00:57:06and completely drown anybody else's voices out.
00:57:09That's what they did. That's what they do.
00:57:12Well, you know, a lot of these people
00:57:15actually make threats, you know,
00:57:18about having a gun and yada, yada, yada.
00:57:21Mm-hmm.
00:57:22It's just, like, just so ate up with hate.
00:57:26Yeah.
00:57:27And there's not enough voices countering it.
00:57:30Of the United States and of this state.
00:57:33Of the United States and of this state.
00:57:36So help me God. So help me God.
00:57:42I ran on this platform.
00:57:44The porn and the grooming and pedophiles in schools.
00:57:49I felt like it was there.
00:57:52People just didn't know,
00:57:53or they didn't know where to look,
00:57:54and I was going to find it.
00:57:56Head gum it.
00:57:57So that's what I did.
00:57:59You know, that's why I ran.
00:58:02And so I did the research.
00:58:05I was expecting to find something
00:58:07that would relate to what they were saying,
00:58:11but nothing even came close.
00:58:13I mean, it just, it didn't even come close.
00:58:15It just became very apparent
00:58:17that what they were trying to tell parents
00:58:21and what was actually happening in our schools
00:58:24were two completely different things.
00:58:27This was just complete sexualization of the kids.
00:58:32And it's not stopping.
00:58:33It's not going backwards.
00:58:35It's moving forward.
00:58:37It pains me to say that GISD,
00:58:39through the inaction of the Board of Trustees
00:58:42and the upper-level administrators,
00:58:44are grooming your children.
00:58:47The aha moment for me
00:58:49was a conversation I had
00:58:50with one of my former co-hosts.
00:58:53I felt we need to let our community know
00:58:55that it's not in the schools.
00:58:57And he told me to stop talking to my fellow trustees.
00:59:01Just completely cut off communication.
00:59:04I refused to do their bidding.
00:59:09And I said, no, I'm not doing that.
00:59:11That's not right.
00:59:13Now I'm enemy number one with them.
00:59:15Surprise, surprise.
00:59:21Courtney Gore has been an entire and complete
00:59:23and total disappointment.
00:59:25Yes.
00:59:26I would say disappointment is a big word.
00:59:29And I go back to that culture of,
00:59:31do you want to do the right thing
00:59:33and not be liked by everybody?
00:59:35I guess Courtney's woke.
00:59:38She woke.
00:59:39Courtney's woke?
00:59:40I guess she's woke now is what they're saying.
00:59:44Courtney?
00:59:45Yes.
00:59:46You can't say there's not porn in schools
00:59:49because there is.
00:59:52I knew I was going to get backlash,
00:59:53but I never thought it was going to rise
00:59:55to the level that it did.
00:59:57There was a June meeting where a gentleman,
00:59:59it was actually his grandfather,
01:00:01came with a firearm.
01:00:05Yeah, I've got something for you too.
01:00:07You just wait.
01:00:11I don't pay for the rules anymore.
01:00:13I haven't paid for the rules since Vietnam.
01:00:16And I'm not going to start now.
01:00:18We have profile sheets on Courtney's door,
01:00:21which is not here.
01:00:23Profile sheets.
01:00:24We know what you do.
01:00:25We know where you live.
01:00:31One of my younger brothers came over here
01:00:33and actually slept on our front porch that night
01:00:36just to make sure we were safe.
01:00:38I feel like by talking,
01:00:40that is the only way I'm going to be able to protect myself.
01:00:42Like I have to be vocal.
01:00:44And if I'm not, that's when they get the power.
01:00:56Last day in Granberry.
01:00:59We're very excited to be leaving.
01:01:02This is a place Mindy and I both grew up in,
01:01:05came back to raise our kids in.
01:01:08I ran the baseball and softball association.
01:01:12I served on the school board and this place changed.
01:01:15People more willing to impose their religion on others,
01:01:18discriminate against others.
01:01:20We've been fighting for years.
01:01:23The book ban is the latest piece.
01:01:26I have a proven conservative record.
01:01:29Always considered one of the top conservatives in the house.
01:01:32Before the Krauss list.
01:01:34There had been zero parent requests to review books.
01:01:38Not even one.
01:01:41So why are we doing this?
01:01:43My Texas house rep, while I was serving on the school board,
01:01:49the first time he got elected,
01:01:51we met with him as a school board and said,
01:01:54here's the things we care about in public education.
01:01:57We'd love your support.
01:02:00He told us, yes, yes, absolutely.
01:02:03And when it came time to vote,
01:02:05he voted exactly the opposite.
01:02:07I couldn't understand why.
01:02:10You told us you were going to support our schools
01:02:13and then you voted against them every time
01:02:15and honestly started to bad mouth our schools.
01:02:19And that's truly what made me start digging into money.
01:02:2360%, 70% of his money was coming from one source,
01:02:27which was a billionaire out in Cisco, Texas.
01:02:30A male on male or a female on female is against nature.
01:02:37So this lifestyle is a predatorial lifestyle
01:02:40in that they need your children and straight people
01:02:43having kids to fulfill their sexual habits.
01:02:46They want your children.
01:02:49The cornerstones of our government are crumbling
01:02:51and starting to come apart.
01:02:53And it's because of the lack of morality,
01:02:56the lack of belief in our Heavenly Father.
01:03:01I did the thing that people do, right?
01:03:03When you discover something is you put it on Facebook
01:03:06or you put it on Twitter and you talk about it.
01:03:10Our schools are not to be used for personal political agendas.
01:03:15And our children are here for education,
01:03:18not religious indoctrination.
01:03:20Go tell your pastor, our schools are not your church.
01:03:27I'm good at spreadsheets.
01:03:28So I built pie charts, and yeah, I built a site to make it go.
01:03:33We have Chris Tackett, who is a former trustee of this school board.
01:03:41Pie chart guy for the Texas, for all the state reps.
01:03:44Right, he does pie charts, right?
01:03:45Pie chart man.
01:03:46For all the conservatives to show where all the dark money goes.
01:03:49It was kind of an eye-opener for me to realize
01:03:52that there was this bigger agenda behind everything.
01:03:55Some of the people that are pushing this agenda
01:03:58believe it is their duty to take over everywhere.
01:04:01Government, public schools, media, every aspect of our lives.
01:04:05You're going to read about certain verticals or structures that the enemy is working on.
01:04:14Satan wants to occupy the seat of influence over the Supreme Court,
01:04:18over the government, over education with indoctrination.
01:04:22We're the force that is hindering the devil from doing what he wants to do.
01:04:26God takes what the devil meant to harm us, and he turns it into good.
01:04:33He blesses us with it.
01:04:35Every time we're attacked at Patriot Mobile, our sales just go through the roof.
01:04:39We increase our sales.
01:04:41And so what does increasing our sales mean?
01:04:44It means we can get more money back to organizations like Moms for Liberty.
01:04:49This is a spiritual war, not a political war.
01:04:54Is the agenda to gain power and money?
01:04:59Or is it to make our country a Christian theocracy?
01:05:03Or are they one and the same?
01:05:12Thank you for having me, all of you.
01:05:15I moved to Granbury in 2020, and the word I have on my heart is repentance.
01:05:21Not all of us had a hand in what's happened here,
01:05:24but we are the ones who are present to solve the issues.
01:05:28The last book I read was 600-plus pages, and it was a whipping for poor quality,
01:05:34number one, but also sexual content.
01:05:37And I'm sorry to point fingers, but we have librarians who are misunderstanding
01:05:41what is healthy and good for children.
01:05:43I think you ought to have people of good moral standards.
01:05:47People in the community that maybe even are voted on.
01:05:49Pastors like Paul Duncan, he would never steer you wrong,
01:05:52and he'll put you in a safety zone with your books.
01:05:54You don't have to have these ultra-controversial books in your library.
01:05:58Hey, TikTok, I got a wild one for you.
01:06:01In 2018, I received this text from my mom after coming out
01:06:05and was effectively cut off from my family and eight younger siblings.
01:06:08I came across this video showing my mom speaking at a school board meeting in Texas,
01:06:12calling for the district to remove books, repent, and appoint a pastor
01:06:15to review and approve educational material.
01:06:18She even filed charges against librarians in Granbury, Texas.
01:06:22Literally, you have thousands of books, so what harm is it to let go of some of them?
01:06:28And that's all I have to say.
01:06:30And Kibbe's brown.
01:06:40Your kids do not go to school here.
01:06:42You're on a political agenda.
01:06:44Everybody knows what you're doing.
01:06:45You're trying to get school staff arrested.
01:06:48You've already tried it.
01:06:49That's what you're doing.
01:06:50And we know that's what you're doing.
01:06:52That's fine with me if you know it.
01:06:53I'm not hiding anything.
01:06:54You notice I haven't hit a thing.
01:06:56I'm not hiding anything.
01:06:57And I do have a problem with sexually explicit books in the library.
01:07:00I'm sure you do.
01:07:01You can't expose fraud.
01:07:02You're trying to arrest librarians.
01:07:03I have nothing to say to you.
01:07:04A librarian to expose children to...
01:07:05You're trying to arrest librarians.
01:07:07Are you understanding the concept?
01:07:08You're trying to arrest librarians.
01:07:09No, I do not understand.
01:07:10You're a fascist.
01:07:11You're a fascist.
01:07:12You're a fascist.
01:07:13Fascist.
01:07:14Sexually explicit books.
01:07:15Fascist.
01:07:16Fascist.
01:07:17When I moved here to San Diego, I got a bunch of prints.
01:07:28My siblings from a few years back.
01:07:30One of the last times I got to see them.
01:07:32And my partner here.
01:07:35His name's Andrew.
01:07:36Growing up, none of my siblings, there's nine of us total.
01:07:42None of us have stepped foot in a public school.
01:07:47Every piece of printed material that came into our home was curated by my parents.
01:07:53I'm starting a little collection of books.
01:07:59It's off to a small start.
01:08:00The book that started it all, All Boys Aren't Blue.
01:08:05Right off the bat, this book is saying, hey, there are some heavy topics.
01:08:08Like, be aware.
01:08:15It all seems so much smaller and, like, depressing.
01:08:22I hope my siblings can make it out unscathed.
01:08:24And I'm worried that they're growing up in, um, even more extreme circumstances.
01:08:29And I'm, you know, I hope that they're able to find their own path as well.
01:08:35What my parents, the people that my parents learned from, are doing is so harmful.
01:08:41And they deserve to be put back in their lane.
01:08:46Hello, everyone.
01:08:51My name is Weston Brown.
01:08:52I was born and raised in Texas and am grateful for the opportunity to speak here tonight.
01:08:56A few months ago, I saw my mom, Monica Brown, standing at this podium, calling for the removal of books and asking the school to follow the guidance.
01:09:05Weston Brown.
01:09:07From a young age, I was taught to give a voice to people who were disregarded, elevate the marginalized, and love my neighbor.
01:09:24Today, I strive to be the person I needed when I was young.
01:09:28Someone who would stand up, speak out, and protect the kid that felt alone.
01:09:33Growing up, we read the Bible cover to cover from the earliest age I can remember.
01:09:39We repetitively read graphic depictions of sex, violence, genocide, sexual assault, and incest.
01:09:46However, topics related to dating, safe sex, drugs, alcohol, or sexual identity were deemed inappropriate or too heavy to discuss.
01:09:55I wouldn't have given anything to read a book with a character that felt the feelings I felt.
01:10:00I asked the questions I couldn't ask, and learned the lessons that I needed to learn.
01:10:06It's been nearly five years since I came out to my family.
01:10:10I'm not allowed to join in family celebrations or holidays or be a part of my eight younger siblings' lives solely because I'm not straight.
01:10:23I'm here today to implore you to listen to librarians, educators, and students.
01:10:31Not those speaking from a religious perspective or at the bidding of a political group.
01:10:37If you choose to marginalize difference and remove representation, you will only cause harm.
01:10:42History will remember your decisions and demand accountability.
01:10:47Show the world that Granbury will not succumb to fear.
01:10:53And publish Shine Brightly, leading the way for the next generation of Texans.
01:10:57Thank you for listening.
01:10:59Next up, we have one for the real.
01:11:14And I knew that was coming what came tonight.
01:11:16It's no surprise.
01:11:18Not all true.
01:11:20But it is true that we have said no in our home for what we expect in our family.
01:11:25Whether that matters to any of you or not.
01:11:28Just as an example, you know, in the scripture it says Adam knew Eve.
01:11:31That's not the same as saying he stuck his in her body.
01:11:35That's what you've got in your library.
01:11:37Listen, that's what you've got in your library.
01:11:41That's my mom who birthed me, who raised me and fed me and took care of me.
01:11:48Is it some sort of religious psychosis?
01:11:52Years of messaging from extremist pastors and political leaders?
01:11:59Because when I look at my mom, I see someone who absolutely believes what she's saying.
01:12:03And I see someone who looks scared.
01:12:06Thank you so much.
01:12:08Wait, let me get behind you just in case.
01:12:10Okay.
01:12:11It's like the chances of getting hate crimes are low, but never zero.
01:12:15Your mother has been involved in this process.
01:12:18What was it like to stand here tonight knowing she's here as well?
01:12:22You know, in my mind that wasn't, it's interesting, it wasn't what was top of mind for me.
01:12:27I don't have a message for my family or for my mom or my dad specifically.
01:12:31I have brought and said everything that I have to say to them in many conversations, many times over.
01:12:37And so my perspective tonight isn't to try to reach through to my parents.
01:12:41That's a conversation that they have the tools they need.
01:12:44They know what they need to do to build the bridge.
01:12:46But my goal, not my goal, my plea is for librarians, educators, students, and the boards to pay attention to what matters.
01:12:55I think as librarians, we recognize that we're on a continuum.
01:13:20But the swing between these polarizing views are having catastrophic effects on our social structures and our communities.
01:13:31We are on the precipice of some very, very bad things happening in this country.
01:13:38I just hope and pray that people are waking up.
01:13:41It's gone way beyond the Kraus list, honey.
01:13:44Way beyond the Kraus list.
01:13:46We are going to take back our schools.
01:13:50This is what I will do to the growing books when I become Secretary of State.
01:13:57Being offended is the basis for House Bill 666.
01:14:00They feel that this legislation could be used to threaten schools to remove books or face arrest just because someone does not like a book.
01:14:08I think that there is going to come a time in some of these books where it crosses a criminal line.
01:14:14It's called Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor.
01:14:19I had been home for three days, and in that last day, I had people calling me left and right.
01:14:37Are you okay?
01:14:38What's going on?
01:14:39I was like, what are you talking about?
01:14:42A Hood County constable attempted to bring felony charges against three librarians for providing students with library books the constable deemed obscene.
01:14:57Now, I'm not one of those crazy overthrow the government anarchist types.
01:15:04But it is a legitimate question to ask.
01:15:07What do you do when your government doesn't follow its own rules?
01:15:12How does a sheriff arrest someone for violating your constitutional rights?
01:15:22I had some complainants come in on Friday and talked about making a report about the books.
01:15:29Okay.
01:15:30Do you know if they use student aids in the libraries?
01:15:33Yes.
01:15:34I 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.
01:15:49Constable 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.
01:16:01I'm doing a criminal investigation into some of your staff.
01:16:04Obviously, there's been an allegation of books that were in conflict of the penal code in the library.
01:16:11Essentially, the librarians are my suspects.
01:16:14If 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.
01:16:21Constable London was able to get the names of the minors that checked out those books.
01:16:28To me, as a parent, that is extremely concerning.
01:16:35So then I got to tell those poor kids that they were not going to be allowed to be librarians because people are afraid that there's pornography in the library.
01:16:43I'm definitely on that list. I was in the library literally every single day of my senior year.
01:16:49That is really, really scary. And that is information that can be used in such a evil way.
01:17:01If the student was underage, was he going to go after the parents for the kids checking out pornography?
01:17:08Was he going to go after other students who may have been 18 at the time?
01:17:12As 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?
01:17:24I fear that we are at the point now where we're going to see teachers in handcuffs.
01:17:31There are forces that want to manipulate and to control the dissemination of information.
01:17:47Some of us feel that depth of responsibility to help our communities navigate.
01:17:56That's why we're here. Librarians are the firewall.
01:18:00We're here.
01:18:01We're here.
01:18:02We're here.
01:18:03We're here.
01:18:04We're here.
01:18:05We're here.
01:18:06We're here.
01:18:07We're here.
01:18:08We're here.
01:18:09We're here.
01:18:10I happened to come in contact last year with our state senator, Andrew Zwicker, who, after hearing
01:18:15my story, put forth the New Jersey Freedom to Read Act.
01:18:23I went down to Trenton to testify in front of the Education Committee in favor of the bill.
01:18:29There is a proposed committee substitute which establishes requirements for library material in
01:18:34public school libraries and establishes protections for school library staff members and librarians.
01:18:41Being, you know, your vast experience over the years in your role.
01:18:45Do you see a distinction between book banning and restricting access to pornography for minors?
01:18:50In my professional role, there is no pornography for minors in a school library, so there is no need to restrict it.
01:18:57Book restrictions are, however, a form of censorship.
01:19:01Your personal opinion about obscenity does not make it so.
01:19:05Thank you for sharing.
01:19:06I believe a penis isn't appropriate for fifth grade, but thank you.
01:19:09We can talk offline.
01:19:12Had I been permitted to speak further, I would have reminded her that fifth graders have penises.
01:19:18A county in Central Texas will consider shutting down its entire public library system
01:19:33because a federal judge ordered it to return banned books.
01:19:37I am in favor of closing the libraries temporarily until we find a solution to the pornographic filth we do have.
01:19:45How do we think it's okay that the librarians would actually facilitate that and deal that like a drug dealer to our kids?
01:19:53Now they're becoming porn dealers? Is that what our librarians have to become?
01:19:58My name is Suzette Baker. I'm the former head librarian for Kingsland, Texas. I'm also a military veteran.
01:20:08The books that are in the library are not pornographic. None of them are.
01:20:14I would like to know how the history of the KKK is pornographic.
01:20:19How to be an anti-racist, how is that pornographic?
01:20:23It's not. This is about taking away rights. Keep the libraries open. Keep the information available to all equally.
01:20:36This is not a communist nation. You do not get to pick our reading material. It is ours.
01:20:45So with that, I'll take a motion.
01:20:48I'll make a motion on agenda item number one to remove the agenda item.
01:20:52I'll second.
01:20:54The library will remain open. We will try this in the courts, not through social media or through news media.
01:21:01Libraries in Atlanta will stay open after a passion-filled afternoon.
01:21:10It's good to know we're not alone.
01:21:13I couldn't be more delighted to introduce Amanda Jones to you, author of That Librarian, the Memoir Pop Manifesto.
01:21:28No one should have to endure everything that Amanda has had to endure, and I fear that other people in this room may have had similar experiences.
01:21:33We are so grateful for all you do on the front lines.
01:21:38How can you stay?
01:21:47How can you stay?
01:21:48Oh, stay in my town?
01:21:49Yeah.
01:21:50Oh, it's my town. They can all go to hell.
01:21:52You're my hero. You know that, right?
01:21:54You're absolutely my hero.
01:21:55You definitely are.
01:21:56You definitely are.
01:21:57You definitely are.
01:21:58You're my hero.
01:21:59You're my hero. You know that, right?
01:22:01You're absolutely my hero.
01:22:02You definitely are.
01:22:03I don't know what's going to happen next. I cannot imagine us being on a cliff that's just
01:22:10You're my hero. You know that, right?
01:22:14You're absolutely my hero.
01:22:26I don't know what's going to happen next.
01:22:28I cannot imagine us being on a cliff.
01:22:31That's just too much.
01:22:34But I don't know, maybe we are and we've gone over.
01:22:46Our stories have power.
01:22:50I can't stay anonymous.
01:22:52I can't stay in the shadows anymore.
01:22:54I can't let them keep my story in the dark.
01:23:05I won't be censored.
01:23:07Just like we can't let them keep censoring the stories in our books.
01:23:14What I do know is that our story is still being written.
01:23:18But now it's everyone's story.
01:23:48It's kasih.
01:23:49I don't know who the Center is officially to read on song.
01:23:53I love it.
01:23:54I got to read that in the eye though.
01:23:58I'm going to read that out.
01:24:00Or remember from there reading.
01:24:01I feel게요.
01:24:03I bet I get it.
01:24:06And break it in the way.
01:24:07Hey!
01:24:09Well, there are many stories on study is that at home.
01:24:12And now I'm gonna listen to them in�.
01:24:13I still don't.
01:24:14I'm gonna read people.
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