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00:00:00Thank you for listening.
00:00:37I 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?
00:00:51Have you a real love of books and learning?
00:00:55Do you? You may well consider the vocation of a librarian.
00:01:03We 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.
00:01:24Now, 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.
00:02:00It's about us.
00:02:24Texas Republicans are launching an investigation into what types of books school districts have,
00:02:29specifically ones that pertain to race and sexuality.
00:02:32In a letter to the Texas Education Agency, lawmakers pointed to Texas districts that recently removed books from classrooms after
00:02:39parent complaints.
00:02:40Republican State Representative Matt Krause of Fort Worth sent this list of 850 books to a number of public school
00:02:47districts.
00:02:48We were right there in the crosshairs of this rising call,
00:02:54so we felt like everything that we did was being watched.
00:03:17It'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 and authors of color and books
00:03:33about 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 due to sex
00:03:47or race.
00:03:48What struck me was, one, there was a list of 850 books.
00:03:55He 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.
00:04:14I 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 asking
00:04:32them to do something about pornography in our libraries.
00:04:37I'm calling for the immediate removal of this very pornographic material from our libraries and our schools and want to
00:04:45establish standards so that parents have the assurance that their children will not be exposed to it.
00:04:51I 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
00:05:09on the shelf.
00:05:19All books, Ulysses. I wonder what they say in all those books.
00:05:25Politicians are playing a very dangerous game when they try to make school libraries battlegrounds for their political war.
00:05:35Because 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.
00:05:58There 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.
00:06:35Well, 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.
00:06:44Especially new moms and dads taking that walk for the first time with those five-year-olds in the kindergarten.
00:06:50It's a great feeling.
00:07:03I've been getting some emails, concerns from parents.
00:07:09And they are going to trustees.
00:07:11And trustees come to me.
00:07:13And 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
00:07:26are responsible for in your library.
00:07:29We were going to pull books off the shelves, especially the 850 books that were put forth by, was represented
00:07:36in a house.
00:07:37And that'll keep you out of a bind, and that'll keep me out of a bind.
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.
00:08:01But Granberry is in a very, very conservative community.
00:08:07If it is not what you believe, you better hide it.
00:08:12Because it ain't changing.
00:08:14We spent the rest of the afternoon in that meeting and going through our catalogs and trying to figure out
00:08:19what 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
00:08:26to the librarians and they started saying,
00:08:28Where 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.
00:08:36Getting 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.
00:08:52When 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.
00:09:09Was very careful to let me know what I'm about to show you is behind three locks, so I feel
00:09:14like 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. I just started putting them on the carts and said no.
00:09:32Every 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. We've got to hide you back here in the dark.
00:09:44May I welcome the editor. Mr. Reed Harris, you wrote a book.
00:09:48And at the time you wrote this book, did you feel that marriage could be cast out of our civilization
00:09:56as 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.
00:10:07The 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.
00:10:42Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book.
00:10:48We do have a code of ethics.
00:10:51Around intellectual freedom.
00:10:54Around privacy.
00:10:55Around 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.
00:11:15It's not unreasonable to ask you to take out just this one book.
00:11:21If 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.
00:11:32Of course you're coming after school librarians first.
00:11:36Of 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.
00:11:57That was my office.
00:12:01Uh, 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.
00:12:14They asked us to put these behind the counter so that they weren't available unless you knew they were here.
00:12:24Now they've separated all of the pluses from the regular books.
00:12:28The LGBTQ books.
00:12:31They were all integrated before, but now they have separated them.
00:12:35But also, we went out of our way to get Christian books just for this group when they started making
00:12:42problems.
00:12:42So we got two series down here just so that their children, who were more Christian based, could have their
00:12:47books too.
00:12:48I have to show you our children's library.
00:12:50Oh.
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.
00:13:05So the 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
00:13:34the 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.
00:13:46When we take our oath to protect the country, it doesn't stop there.
00:13:52You 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.
00:14:17It says, no to decadence and moral corruption, yes to decency and morality in 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.
00:14:52A lot of the books that he burned were not just the Jewish authors, they were the LGBTQ+.
00:14:59They were those authors that they burned.
00:15:10Start throwing it in there.
00:15:11Start throwing it in there.
00:15:12Start throwing it in there.
00:15:13Start throwing it in there.
00:15:14Burn it.
00:15:15Burn it.
00:15:16Burn it.
00:15:21Hallelujah.
00:15:22Woo!
00:15:22I'll tell you.
00:15:24Mom, let me throw somebody.
00:15:51I pledge allegiance to you, Texas, one state under God, one in His Son of Man.
00:16:01I do want to clarify a couple of points on behalf of the district.
00:16:05As 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 is 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, you are failing at your job.
00:16:33Hi, guys. Come on in.
00:16:36We've all read Fahrenheit our freshman year, and we talk about the scariness of book banning.
00:16:44Literally on the windows of our library, our library has a big windowed wall,
00:16:48there are freshman students' drawings about Fahrenheit 451.
00:16:56These are all novels.
00:16:58All about people that never existed.
00:17:02The 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.
00:17:10So, we must burn the books, Montag.
00:17:15All 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.
00:17:25We have books in the library that are pretty heavy and have sexual assault, like a clockwork orange even.
00:17:31And that wasn't pulled, so.
00:17:34Had I not picked this book up, I don't think I would be sitting here now.
00:17:40If it's a cis, straight, white male or female, well, it's no issue.
00:17:45But 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 and we should all embrace each other with love, not
00:17:59blatant hate.
00:18:00I'm simply going to say that no government, and public school is an extension of government,
00:18:06has ever banned books and banned information from its public and been remembered in history as the good guys.
00:18:11Let's not misrepresent things.
00:18:13We're not taking Shakespeare or Hemingway off the shelves,
00:18:15and we're not going and grabbing every socially, culturally, or religiously diverse book and pulling them.
00:18:22That's absurd.
00:18:23And the people that are saying that are gaslighters, and it's designed to incite division.
00:18:34I 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 to help.
00:18:42I brought you some excerpts of books.
00:18:44I pray you really are able to stop this kind of content from going in the school.
00:18:48These people put sexually explicit content into your libraries.
00:18:55Get ready for truth and transparency from an ocean of liberal tears.
00:19:01Let'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.
00:19:25Tonight 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.
00:19:43I 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.
00:19:53So all the core classes.
00:19:55My concern was that there might have been stuff that they just didn't know was there.
00:20:00That they just weren't aware.
00:20:01Because 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.
00:20:30My 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.
00:20:45The books are worse than terrible.
00:20:48They are damaging.
00:20:49They are out to destroy, not, well, 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 if the book they have in their hand does that, it has to be kicked out.
00:21:05We first really encountered the Moms for Liberty organizations during COVID as they really pushed
00:21:13to open schools and unmask children.
00:21:16And that's when we started to hear about their parental rights.
00:21:20When 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.
00:21:39A true job is getting here right here, right now in God's place.
00:21:43You need to have an impact in culture and in the community that you're doing right now.
00:21:46And if you do that in Grandbury, then it's Frank-Steven County.
00:21:49And once you do that in the county, it's Frank-Steven County.
00:21:51It's Frank-Steven, Johnson, and Tarrant County.
00:21:52Once you do that, the whole state is on fire.
00:21:58And 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.
00:22:15They 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.
00:22:27I 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?
00:22:43Hold 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 and said,
00:22:59we're coming after you next.
00:23:00We're going to keep coming so hard.
00:23:02The only thing these walktards got to figure out
00:23:04is whether it's on their face, back, butt, or thighs.
00:23:07Woo!
00:23:11A Florida school district has pulled 176 books from its libraries
00:23:16to comply with the new state education reform law
00:23:19championed by Governor Ron DeSantis.
00:23:21We are going to make sure that parents have a seat at the table
00:23:24and that we protect their rights.
00:23:27Under Florida's HB 1467 law,
00:23:30school books have to be free of pornography
00:23:32or certain race-based teachings.
00:23:35Violating parts of the law could lead teachers
00:23:38to be charged with a felony.
00:23:45Librarians are pulling books without anyone challenging them.
00:23:50The teachers in Manatee County were told by Friday at 3 p.m.,
00:23:54you will either cover with paper,
00:23:57turn them to the walls, or take your books home.
00:24:00They thought they were erring on the side of caution,
00:24:04but the kids were so upset,
00:24:05they actually texted their parents and said,
00:24:08everyone's crying, everyone's upset,
00:24:10we need our books, we want our books.
00:24:12They wrote emails to the principal saying,
00:24:15please don't take away our books.
00:24:21Part of what I see as my calling
00:24:23is 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
00:24:40or to make our political points.
00:24:46Please 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.
00:25:04Librarians have heard from hundreds of kids
00:25:06that books have saved their lives.
00:25:08That's why, to me,
00:25:09I see this as the civil rights fight of our time.
00:25:16And they're not banning just any books.
00:25:19They're banning the best books.
00:25:35We reject woke ideology.
00:25:39We fight the woke in the legislature.
00:25:42We fight the woke in the schools.
00:25:44We fight the woke in the corporations.
00:25:46We will never, ever surrender to the woke mob.
00:25:49Florida is where woke goes to die.
00:26:05We've got down here a librarian of Auschwitz.
00:26:10Some people are challenging or flamer,
00:26:14which is actually a really good one.
00:26:15And then, of course, Handmaid's Tale.
00:26:19I had been at the school for nine years.
00:26:22It had been a dream job
00:26:24for 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
00:26:34had posted a video about the second book
00:26:37in the Court of Thorns and Roses series.
00:26:39And she tagged all of the schools
00:26:41that had the book in their library.
00:26:43So then the district decided
00:26:46to just quietly pull the books from the shelves
00:26:49and delete them.
00:26:50And I happened to notice a few days later
00:26:52when I went up to work.
00:26:53I was very concerned that this was kind of
00:26:56getting out of hand.
00:26:57So I went to the school board meeting.
00:26:59Hi, good evening.
00:27:01My name is Julie Miller.
00:27:02My address is on file.
00:27:04And I am a high school librarian.
00:27:08I know.
00:27:09We're kind of seen as the bad guy.
00:27:12So I just wanted to give you guys
00:27:14just a moment of hearing straight
00:27:17from one of us who are boots on the ground
00:27:20to let you know, like, a little bit about us.
00:27:24I am a Baptist minister's wife
00:27:27and daughter of a minister as well.
00:27:30It was at that same meeting
00:27:33where Bruce Friedman showed up.
00:27:35This year, at least 102 books
00:27:38have been banned in Clay County, Florida.
00:27:41They were removed from school libraries
00:27:43thanks in large part
00:27:44to this single conservative activist.
00:27:47I represent No Left Turn in Education.
00:27:50That's the Florida chapter.
00:27:51I also run the New York chapter.
00:27:53Also a member of Moms for Liberty.
00:27:55I spent like 45 minutes
00:27:57after that meeting talking to him.
00:28:00And it was a, you know, pleasant,
00:28:02weird, but pleasant conversation.
00:28:05And the next thing I know is
00:28:07Bruce essentially said in an article,
00:28:11I'm going to clean up the libraries in Clay County.
00:28:14Anyone who gets in my way,
00:28:15I'm going to run over them like a dead body.
00:28:18Which is like, first of all,
00:28:20who runs over a dead body?
00:28:21Like, what does that even mean?
00:28:24But very, like, triggering language.
00:28:27And then he started writing my name
00:28:30on challenge forms.
00:28:32Talk to Julie Miller.
00:28:34Julie Miller has this one.
00:28:36Surprise, surprise.
00:28:38Disgusting.
00:28:39It was like, what is going on?
00:28:54Julie was very helpful in research
00:28:57of the books that have been banned,
00:29:00the books that have been removed.
00:29:07To attempt to take black history
00:29:11and take a lot of our stories
00:29:13away from children
00:29:15is one of the most evil things
00:29:17I think a person can do.
00:29:20When it comes to the number
00:29:22of banned books at schools,
00:29:24Florida leased the nation
00:29:25in Clay County
00:29:25as number one in the state.
00:29:35These are some of the books.
00:29:37Stamp.
00:29:40Anybody ever seen the movie
00:29:42Color Purple?
00:29:43Yes.
00:29:44And of course, 1619 Project.
00:29:47Do you care whether books
00:29:51that are written by African-Americans
00:29:53or books like,
00:29:57this book was banned?
00:30:00As a kid, like,
00:30:02going to a predominantly white school,
00:30:04I was always questioning,
00:30:06questioning who I was.
00:30:08Like, hair, skin color.
00:30:11I feel like this new kid,
00:30:14Hair Love,
00:30:15I feel like that would have made me feel
00:30:16a little bit more comfortable
00:30:18in my own skin.
00:30:21What's dangerous
00:30:22with this book banning is
00:30:24it's being led by
00:30:27people who say they love God.
00:30:30And I call for the fire of God
00:30:32and the glory of God
00:30:33and the fear of the Lord
00:30:35to fall on Clay County, Florida
00:30:37in the name of Jesus.
00:30:41Next, we have Jeffrey Dove.
00:30:48I do not wish the fire of God
00:30:50to fall on you all.
00:30:55That's not the God I serve.
00:30:57I'm a lot of things.
00:30:58I'm a pastor.
00:30:59I'm a father.
00:31:00And most of all,
00:31:01I'm a strong black man.
00:31:03But when you start talking about
00:31:05removing African-American authors
00:31:07and African-American history,
00:31:09I got a problem with that.
00:31:11Because right now,
00:31:12we are an embarrassment
00:31:16in the state of Florida.
00:31:19We got the list of
00:31:20these books are to be removed immediately.
00:31:22So says the Oversight Committee.
00:31:27I wrote an email back
00:31:29and just asked, like,
00:31:32could you please provide us
00:31:34with the reason
00:31:35why each of these books
00:31:37is being removed?
00:31:38Some months had went by.
00:31:40I asked someone about Julie
00:31:42and how she was doing.
00:31:44That one thing that I dreaded the most
00:31:47had happened.
00:31:49I lost my job.
00:31:51I was removed from my library
00:31:54for asking questions.
00:31:57They're going to say
00:31:58it's because I was refusing
00:31:59to follow directives.
00:32:01That's not the case at all.
00:32:03It's really just because
00:32:04I kept pushing back.
00:32:12I sat there three hours.
00:32:14I 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,
00:32:24we move into
00:32:25school board member comments,
00:32:26I did have a question
00:32:26from the audience.
00:32:28Okay, Mr. Brown.
00:32:30Yeah, the reason I came back
00:32:31is because I saw
00:32:32one of you all's media specialists
00:32:35in Clay County
00:32:36was removed.
00:32:37It's wrong.
00:32:41Don't do people like that
00:32:43when they have a different view.
00:32:45It's not fair.
00:32:47If anybody has to be responsible
00:32:50for this cabalgo,
00:32:51we're leading the United States
00:32:53in books that are not on the shelf.
00:32:56It's y'all.
00:32:58Shame on you.
00:33:00Shame, shame, shame on you.
00:33:02Moms for Liberty
00:33:03are making a lot of ground.
00:33:07Very smart, young ladies.
00:33:09I call it wicked genius.
00:33:13It's a genius that
00:33:14curtails to
00:33:15oppressing people.
00:33:19It was like
00:33:20snuffing out a candle.
00:33:23It just happened so, like,
00:33:27quietly.
00:33:28And
00:33:29it's like
00:33:30you're dismissed.
00:33:32And it's all politically motivated, right?
00:33:37But I met the young man outside.
00:33:41I said,
00:33:42how you doing, brother?
00:33:45He says,
00:33:48I hate librarians.
00:33:51This can't be America.
00:33:57No, this can't be America.
00:34:09It feels like I'm living in a dystopian novel right now.
00:34:12Like, if you would have asked me 10 years ago
00:34:14if I was going to have, like, security concerns
00:34:16at a librarian conference,
00:34:18I would have been like,
00:34:19you're nuts.
00:34:22This is the highest number
00:34:24of attempted folk bans
00:34:25since we began compiling these lists 20 years ago.
00:34:29And I hate that censorship
00:34:31affects our professional lives,
00:34:33but it is a reality.
00:34:35Sometimes librarians are relocated
00:34:37to other buildings
00:34:38or grade levels,
00:34:39and sometimes librarians
00:34:40are outright fired
00:34:42for defending intellectual freedom.
00:34:45And then there are the cases
00:34:47where librarians feel
00:34:48for their physical safety
00:34:49and for those of their families.
00:34:52One librarian had her tires slashed
00:34:54during a library board meeting.
00:34:57We understand
00:34:58what's going on right now
00:34:59on a very real and personal level
00:35:02for some of us.
00:35:04But I know that as librarians,
00:35:06we continue to remember
00:35:08and focus on
00:35:10our professionalism
00:35:11and the work that we do.
00:35:13We want to make sure
00:35:14that we are reinforcing to you
00:35:16that even in the darkest of days,
00:35:18this is still
00:35:20what we do.
00:35:26We want to talk about
00:35:28a book-banning controversy
00:35:29underway in Island Trees, New York.
00:35:31For six years,
00:35:32The Naked Ape,
00:35:33Slaughterhouse-Five,
00:35:34and seven other books
00:35:35labeled by the school board
00:35:36as anti-American or obscene
00:35:38have been banned
00:35:39from Island Trees library shelves.
00:35:41Stephen Pico,
00:35:42you were one of the students
00:35:43to bring action, were you not?
00:35:44We filed suit
00:35:45because we believe
00:35:46that every American,
00:35:48regardless of age,
00:35:49has the right to be exposed
00:35:50to diversity of viewpoints
00:35:51and gain a number
00:35:52of perspectives on life.
00:35:53The Supreme Court today
00:35:54sharply curbed the authority
00:35:56of local school boards
00:35:57to ban books
00:35:58from school libraries.
00:36:01For laypeople,
00:36:02this is the Roe v. Wade
00:36:04of libraries.
00:36:06When the Krauss list came back,
00:36:08when Granbury boxed up
00:36:09hundreds of books,
00:36:10they were infringing
00:36:12on what Pico established.
00:36:14A book cannot be removed
00:36:16because of a disagreement
00:36:18with the ideas
00:36:18that are in the book.
00:36:22We're highly trained
00:36:23in the selection
00:36:24of age-appropriate material.
00:36:26Most of us have
00:36:27Library and Information Science
00:36:28master's degrees.
00:36:30We learned legal precedent.
00:36:32We take courses on it.
00:36:34The thing that truly concerns us
00:36:36is when an individual,
00:36:38whether it be a parent
00:36:39or a non-parent
00:36:40or a single group
00:36:41within the society,
00:36:42tries to determine
00:36:43what is correct
00:36:44for not only that child,
00:36:45but other children as well.
00:36:47That is what we fight.
00:36:56I'm not going to say
00:36:57my parents are white
00:36:58Christian nationalists,
00:36:59but when I started
00:37:00being targeted,
00:37:01they didn't speak to me
00:37:02for a week.
00:37:03It's kind of a mess in here.
00:37:08There we go.
00:37:09Turn this.
00:37:13All right.
00:37:15For 40 years,
00:37:16I've been wanting
00:37:16to build a cannon.
00:37:17See, it rolls real easy.
00:37:19It's called
00:37:20a Confederate mountain rifle.
00:37:23It's the exact replica
00:37:24of what you would say
00:37:25back to the Civil War.
00:37:33You know, I've done
00:37:34a lot of family history
00:37:35and research.
00:37:36My ancestors listed
00:37:38slaves as property,
00:37:39and I'm not proud of that.
00:37:42It's uncomfortable.
00:37:43But I think sometimes
00:37:44we have to be uncomfortable
00:37:45and face that fact.
00:37:46Why would you want
00:37:47to embarrass white kids,
00:37:51or...
00:37:51It's like she said
00:37:53that's the past
00:37:53and we can't change that.
00:37:55What you don't want to do
00:37:57is teach your kids
00:37:59to hate their country,
00:38:00because when they grow up,
00:38:02we won't have a country.
00:38:03I love my country,
00:38:04but I think we have to acknowledge
00:38:06that we're not perfect.
00:38:07Don't teach only
00:38:11the bad, the bad, the bad,
00:38:12the bad, the bad, the bad,
00:38:13the bad, the bad.
00:38:16While the rest of us
00:38:18were in lockdown,
00:38:19Live Oak Middle School
00:38:20librarian Amanda Jones
00:38:21and her students
00:38:22were traveling the world.
00:38:24I decided if they couldn't
00:38:25go out in the world,
00:38:26I was going to bring
00:38:27the world to them.
00:38:27She was awarded
00:38:28the 2021 National School
00:38:31Librarian of the Year.
00:38:32And I hope to use it
00:38:34as a platform to advocate
00:38:35for school libraries
00:38:36across the country.
00:38:40Here is Amanda Jones
00:38:41at the Livingston Parish
00:38:42Library Board meeting
00:38:43on Tuesday, July 19th.
00:38:45Why is she fighting so hard
00:38:46to keep sexually erotic
00:38:47and pornographic material
00:38:49in the kids' section?
00:38:58If a middle school teacher
00:38:59is promoting pornography
00:39:01and erotic content to kids,
00:39:03I don't care what kind
00:39:04of pedigree she has.
00:39:06And I've never promoted
00:39:07pornography and erotica
00:39:08to children.
00:39:11Our local representative
00:39:13came for a photo op
00:39:14when I got National School
00:39:15Librarian of the Year.
00:39:16She was there for that photo op.
00:39:18Two years later,
00:39:19she's perpetuating lies about me.
00:39:24Jones was the subject of harsh memes,
00:39:27comments, and threats.
00:39:29Police couldn't determine
00:39:30who was threatening her.
00:39:35I have made it very well known
00:39:37that I travel with a weapon,
00:39:40multiple weapons,
00:39:40and we got security
00:39:42all around our home.
00:39:43I have escape routes
00:39:45wherever I go in my head,
00:39:46and I get my groceries delivered.
00:39:48I don't go in public
00:39:49in my community.
00:39:52Because the things
00:39:53they say online
00:39:54are so horrible.
00:39:57You know,
00:39:58I should be killed,
00:39:59and I shouldn't be alive,
00:40:01and that's sad.
00:40:03It's just my life now.
00:40:08I don't think any of us
00:40:09imagined when we started out
00:40:11that one day our lives
00:40:12might be at risk.
00:40:13I reached out to a lawyer,
00:40:16just got some background
00:40:17information about our county DA,
00:40:19and who in Texas
00:40:21would want to be
00:40:22the first district attorney
00:40:24to try to prosecute
00:40:26a school librarian.
00:40:28That was an existential moment
00:40:30for me.
00:40:31Imagining my face
00:40:32on the wanted poster
00:40:33and my friend
00:40:35being taken away
00:40:35in handcuffs.
00:40:37You are obsolete,
00:40:39Mr. Wordsworth.
00:40:40A lie.
00:40:41No man is obsolete.
00:40:43You're a librarian,
00:40:44Mr. Wordsworth.
00:40:46I'm a human being.
00:40:47I exist.
00:40:48And if I speak
00:40:49one thought aloud,
00:40:50that thought lives,
00:40:52even after I'm
00:40:53shoveled into my grave.
00:40:55You waste our time,
00:40:57Mr. Wordsworth,
00:40:58and you're not
00:40:58worth the waste.
00:41:01How do you find,
00:41:02ladies and gentlemen?
00:41:05Obsolete.
00:41:06Obsolete.
00:41:07Obsolete.
00:41:08Obsolete.
00:41:09I concur.
00:41:24When I was first attacked
00:41:26back in 2021,
00:41:28a student who was not
00:41:30a library regular
00:41:32previously
00:41:34started showing up
00:41:35in the first couple
00:41:36of weeks in September
00:41:37every day
00:41:38during lunchtime
00:41:39and would just
00:41:40roam the stacks.
00:41:44And I'd go out
00:41:45and I'd say,
00:41:45can I help you
00:41:46find anything?
00:41:47And he would say no.
00:41:48And I would leave it at that.
00:41:49I don't want to,
00:41:50you know,
00:41:51nag a kid.
00:41:53After two weeks
00:41:54of this every day,
00:41:55I see the kid
00:41:55emerge from the stacks
00:41:57holding Lawn Boy
00:41:58by Jonathan Evason.
00:42:13I read the book myself
00:42:15and loved it.
00:42:17And I was kind of dumbfounded
00:42:19because it was not
00:42:20a wildly popular book.
00:42:22It wasn't on many
00:42:23people's radar.
00:42:24And of all the 20,000 books
00:42:26in the library,
00:42:26he emerges with that one.
00:42:27I said,
00:42:28how'd you learn about it?
00:42:30And he said,
00:42:31my parents sent me,
00:42:32my parents told me about it
00:42:34and said I should look
00:42:35for it in the library.
00:42:3724 hours later,
00:42:41that student's mother
00:42:42was standing in front
00:42:43of the Board of Education.
00:42:45Martha Hickson,
00:42:46our school librarian,
00:42:47remarked to my son
00:42:48as he was checking out
00:42:49the books,
00:42:50quote,
00:42:50I love that book.
00:42:52And calling me
00:42:53a pornographer,
00:42:54pedophile,
00:42:55and groomer of children.
00:42:56This amounts to an effort
00:42:57to groom
00:42:58our kids
00:42:59to make them
00:43:00more willing
00:43:00to participate
00:43:01in the heinous act
00:43:02described in these books.
00:43:04It grooms them
00:43:05to accept
00:43:05the inappropriate advances
00:43:07of an adult.
00:43:09My principal
00:43:10was in that room.
00:43:11The assistant superintendent
00:43:13was in that room.
00:43:14But they sat there
00:43:16in silence.
00:43:17And here's the pain,
00:43:18really painful part.
00:43:20They have maintained
00:43:21that silence
00:43:22for three years.
00:43:36being a librarian,
00:43:38I started researching.
00:43:42I was watching Texas
00:43:43and Florida
00:43:43both very carefully.
00:43:47I felt like
00:43:49that's sort of
00:43:49the petri dish
00:43:50of what could
00:43:51be coming up here.
00:43:54This started
00:43:55in Lano, Texas.
00:43:57About a week later,
00:43:59a woman in Virginia
00:44:00saw the Lano Challenge
00:44:02and picked up
00:44:03some of that language.
00:44:04Both of these books
00:44:05include pedophilia.
00:44:08This,
00:44:09do not interrupt
00:44:10my time?
00:44:12And then,
00:44:13about two weeks later,
00:44:15same claim showed up
00:44:16at our board meeting.
00:44:17And that suggested to me
00:44:18something was afoot.
00:44:20And I said,
00:44:21I don't think
00:44:22this is organic.
00:44:23I don't think
00:44:24this is spontaneous.
00:44:26This is organized.
00:44:32Moms for Liberty
00:44:33are having their town hall
00:44:34here tonight
00:44:34on the Upper East Side.
00:44:37Welcome, New York.
00:44:38We are thrilled
00:44:39to be here.
00:44:40Thank you so much
00:44:41for joining us tonight.
00:44:43It seems like
00:44:43there's a lot of
00:44:44misconceptions out there
00:44:45about who we are
00:44:46and what we do.
00:44:47We were founded
00:44:48in 2021
00:44:49by Tiffany Justice
00:44:50and I.
00:44:50We're both former
00:44:51school board members.
00:44:52What is Moms for Liberty?
00:44:54The New Yorker
00:44:54calls them
00:44:55the right-wing mothers
00:44:56fueling the school board wars.
00:44:57No one's going to fight
00:44:58for any issue
00:44:59like a parent.
00:45:00We're not in it
00:45:00for the money.
00:45:01There's no glory.
00:45:02We love our children
00:45:03and we're willing
00:45:03to do anything.
00:45:04Now, they'll tell you
00:45:05that their funding
00:45:06for these national conferences
00:45:09comes from selling
00:45:10their $15 t-shirts.
00:45:13You don't get Ron DeSantis
00:45:15to show up
00:45:15at your conference,
00:45:16Donald Trump
00:45:17to show up
00:45:18at your conference
00:45:19just from selling t-shirts.
00:45:21But this grassroots group
00:45:23is registered
00:45:23as a 501c.
00:45:25They are not required
00:45:25to disclose their donors.
00:45:27But we do know
00:45:28that their PAC
00:45:29received a $50,000 donation
00:45:30this year
00:45:31from Julie Fancelli,
00:45:32the largest single donor
00:45:34to the January 6th
00:45:36Stop the Steal rally
00:45:36that led to
00:45:37the Capitol insurrection.
00:45:38We asked the moms
00:45:39for liberty
00:45:40who else is among
00:45:40their donors
00:45:41and they did not respond
00:45:42with any specific names.
00:45:44What ideology
00:45:44are the children
00:45:46being indoctrinated into?
00:45:48I think parents' fears
00:45:49are realized.
00:45:50They're looking
00:45:51at these books
00:45:52where sexual discussions
00:45:53are happening
00:45:54with their children
00:45:54at younger and younger ages.
00:45:56And Tango Makes Three
00:45:58has been challenged
00:45:59in at least 32 states.
00:46:01It's about two male penguins
00:46:02who care for
00:46:03an abandoned baby penguin.
00:46:04The book has been labeled
00:46:06a tool for so-called grooming.
00:46:09Marie Sendak's
00:46:10in the night kitchen.
00:46:12They drew pants.
00:46:14You're getting to the point
00:46:16of talking about a period.
00:46:18It is sexually explicit.
00:46:20Under the new law,
00:46:22Lord of the Rings
00:46:22is considered
00:46:23being inappropriate.
00:46:25There are some
00:46:26Facebook moms group
00:46:28that said that
00:46:30pandas,
00:46:31symbolized something.
00:46:34The graphic novel
00:46:35of the Diary of Anne Frank.
00:46:40Yep, there's your nudity
00:46:41right there.
00:46:44And mouse,
00:46:46which has to do
00:46:47with mouse nudity
00:46:49in a concentration camp.
00:46:52When they go after the books,
00:46:55what they're really going after
00:46:56is those kids
00:46:58that come into my library
00:47:00for a safe space,
00:47:01and I cannot abide that.
00:47:09Part of the ethics
00:47:10of our profession
00:47:11to support the First Amendment
00:47:12government and to fight censorship.
00:47:16It's what I've been trained to do.
00:47:25The North Hunting-Borhees
00:47:27Regional High School
00:47:28District Board of Education
00:47:29meeting on Tuesday,
00:47:31January 30th
00:47:32is now called to border.
00:47:35If I were
00:47:36a younger person,
00:47:37I may have left by now.
00:47:40But I believe firmly
00:47:42in what's right,
00:47:44and then I also
00:47:45believe firmly
00:47:46in my students.
00:47:47If I were to say
00:47:48to the board
00:47:49or someone at school,
00:47:50you are a vile
00:47:51and disgusting C-word
00:47:53and a danger
00:47:53to young people,
00:47:54I could and should be
00:47:56escorted out of this building
00:47:57by the police.
00:47:58This is the exact language
00:47:59that has been sent
00:48:00to our school librarian
00:48:01by a group
00:48:03led by the spouse
00:48:03of someone on the board.
00:48:05If you want to get rid of
00:48:06and censor books,
00:48:07you are no different
00:48:08than fascist,
00:48:09for every fascist movement
00:48:11began the same exact way.
00:48:14You're here to ban books
00:48:15with gay characters.
00:48:17You might as well be here
00:48:18to start the Fourth Reich.
00:48:20You want them out.
00:48:22Yes!
00:48:23You guys cursed
00:48:24at my f***ing children
00:48:25and you f***ing bookbent.
00:48:27You guys cursed.
00:48:28You got to get rid of this.
00:48:29F***ing you.
00:48:30F***ing you.
00:48:32F***ing you.
00:48:32Thank you, Bart.
00:48:34My face, f***ing you.
00:48:36My face, f***ing.
00:48:50The book itself,
00:48:52querifully and wonderfully made,
00:48:55that's going against
00:48:56the scripture it's fearfully and wonderfully made and that's what we are i could go through the whole
00:49:02uh chapter of that of the bible this book is considered non-fiction and it is including
00:49:09christianity the bible doesn't support this so that already debunks the non-fiction status of
00:49:15this book so we're talking about pornography here i was born and raised in holden i am also
00:49:21trans feminine and i am a queer person i don't think y'all understand what it's like to grow up
00:49:27in an environment like this where even your family members are and constantly telling you that you're
00:49:31going to burn in hell books like this say hey you were loved there is a community that will be
00:49:40there
00:49:41for you sorry my anxiety is running very high because i can tell that y'all very much misunderstand
00:49:47us this gives much this requirement thank you
00:50:05hello my name is amanda jones the great thing about books is that we all have different ways that we
00:50:12interpret them i read this book and i interpret it as meaning a push for love and acceptance
00:50:22it was written by pastors and mental health professionals for christians this book is not
00:50:30in the children's picture book section it is in the teen non-fiction section where it belongs because
00:50:37it was written for teens monitor your own children don't let your children read it if you don't want
00:50:44to no one's forcing you to check it out lgbtq youth who report having at least one accepting adult are
00:50:5140
00:50:52less likely to accept suicide some kids don't have those adults in their life
00:50:58i have lost over 12 students who were ostracized because they were made to feel less than in this
00:51:08parish and i feel it right now even though i'm not from that community from the hate that's coming from
00:51:14some people in this room it would be easy to move this book and placate a few people for the
00:51:20sake of
00:51:21bypassing drama it would be easy but sometimes doing what's easy is not what's right
00:51:35the board would like to protect children from inappropriate material and would prefer to remove
00:51:40the challenge materials while the library processes its request
00:51:48i'll be damned if we're gonna lose another kid because of something our community has done to
00:51:53make them feel less i've had former students reach out to me that have told me books have saved them
00:52:02and then there's the kids that grew up and killed themselves because they were ostracized in our
00:52:07community for who they are and if i was silent my silence would be my compliance and i am not
00:52:16going
00:52:16to be complicit in the death of children or even the unhurt the hurtful feelings or i'm not going to
00:52:24participate in that anymore because even though i didn't actively participated in before i was silent
00:52:31and i saw stuff but i'm not going to do that anymore i'm going to speak out about it so
00:52:36this is my
00:52:37strong-willed child and i thought she's not going to lay down and take this
00:52:58our district was doing an okay job before this was it perfect no they were doing a pretty darn good
00:53:04job
00:53:05and they were watching out for our kids and they were trying to keep their own personal politics
00:53:09out of the decision making but that's not what we're doing anymore now it's all the the culture
00:53:14wars of america are just right smack dab right here in the middle of my kid's school district
00:53:20after more than a year of controversy keller isd voted to ban books about gender identity
00:53:43hi i'm laney i'm a mom of four kids in keller isd as soon as our new patriot mobile school
00:53:50board was
00:53:50selected your top priority was to disregard all the parent district and community input
00:53:54since then you've created a hateful contradictory nonsensical and unconstitutional book banning
00:54:00rubric you are also passing a policy tonight that gives you the power to hire and fire every employee
00:54:07in the district all the way down to the cafeteria workers you don't trust your admin you don't trust
00:54:12your principals you don't trust your teachers you don't trust the parents you're coming for teachers
00:54:17and librarians you've made it clear and they know it we have a movement within america
00:54:23that has decided that school boards are now where they want to push their agenda
00:54:33patriot mobile they aren't just a wireless provider they are a political movement up to
00:54:39five percent of every patriot mobile phone bill goes directly to supporting patriot mobile's political
00:54:44action committee we need to put our money behind companies that share our values i'm looking at
00:54:49glenn over here from patriot mobile we know that patriot mobile they admitted to coming into our
00:54:55communities and interviewing people and finding who they thought would best represent their interests
00:54:59and that's who they backed with the hundreds of thousands of dollars it wasn't until we started
00:55:06getting these mailers that we realized what was happening we're talking probably seven eight nine ten flyers
00:55:13these people are getting covered with images of crying children and saying they've been exposed
00:55:17to porn in school and your kid is being made to feel guilty for being white all of these things
00:55:23that
00:55:23are just simply untrue then we started sharing them online then we found out the school districts
00:55:29neighboring ours had the exact same flyers paid for by the exact same pack but just with the pictures of
00:55:37the candidates interswapped with theirs and we were like oh my goodness this is a large scale coordinated
00:55:44effort to take over school boards across the state of texas one of the keys is these school boards right
00:55:50the school boards are the key that picks the lot this was their blueprint and they succeeded
00:55:57they backed 11 candidates in north texas all 11 candidates won and now they hold a majority
00:56:04and the president vice president and secretary on all four school boards that they decided to fund
00:56:10and they're going to continue to spread it we're focused on school boards here for now but our goal
00:56:15is to spread this as large as we can to other states and other communities that are that are quite
00:56:20frankly they're wanting what we're what we're doing here in their communities
00:56:42they had that at the school board meeting completely packed oh i'm sure and sure
00:56:48uh somebody told me this morning to go online and look at the republican club they had some meeting
00:56:54i guess last week and it was all about book banning and they had speakers come in so they got
00:57:01them all
00:57:01riled up and gave them all their talking points so that they could all come to this meeting and completely
00:57:07drown anybody else's voices out that's what they did that's what they do well you know
00:57:14a lot of these people actually make threats you know about having a gun and yada yada yada
00:57:22it's just like just so ate up with your hate and there's not enough voices countering it
00:57:31of the united states and of this state of the united states and of this state
00:57:41i ran on this platform the porn and the grooming and pedophiles and schools
00:57:49i felt like it it was there people just didn't know or they didn't know where to look and i
00:57:55was
00:57:55gonna find it head of it so that's what i did you know that's why i ran and so i
00:58:03did the research
00:58:04i was expecting to find something that would
00:58:09relate to what they were saying but nothing even came close i mean it just it didn't even come close
00:58:15it just became very apparent that what they were trying to tell parents and what was actually
00:58:23happening in our schools were two completely different things this was just complete sexualization
00:58:31of the kids and it's not stopping it's not going backwards it's moving forward it pains me to say
00:58:38that gisd through the inaction of the board of trustees and the upper level administrators
00:58:44are grooming your children the aha moment for me was a conversation i had with one of my former
00:58:52co-hosts i felt we need to let our community know that it's not in the schools and he told
00:58:59me to stop
00:58:59talking to my fellow trustees just completely cut off communication
00:59:06i refused to do their bidding and i said no i'm not doing that that's not right now i'm enemy
00:59:14number
00:59:14one with them surprise surprise
00:59:21courtney gore has been a entire and complete and total disappointment yes i would say disappointment is
00:59:28is a big word and i go back to that culture of do you want to do the right thing
00:59:32and not be liked by
00:59:34everybody i guess courtney's woke she woke courtney's woke i guess she's woke now is what they're saying
00:59:44courtney yes
00:59:47you can't say there's not porn in schools because there is
00:59:52i knew i was going to get backlash but i never thought it was going to rise to the level
00:59:56that it
00:59:57did there was a june meeting where a gentleman it was actually his grandfather came with a firearm
01:00:05yeah i've got something for you too you just wait
01:00:11i don't pay for the rules anymore i haven't paid through the rules since vietnam
01:00:16and i'm not going to start now we have profile sheets on courtney door which is not here
01:00:23profile sheets we know what you do we know where you live
01:00:31one of my younger brothers came over here and actually slept on our front porch
01:00:35that night just to make sure we were safe i feel like by talking that is the only way i'm
01:00:41going to
01:00:42be able to protect myself like i have to be vocal and if i'm not that's when they get the
01:00:48power
01:00:57last day in granbury we're very excited to be leaving this is a place mindy and i both grew up
01:01:05in
01:01:06the world and came back to raise our kids in the world and i ran the baseball and softball association
01:01:12i served on the school board and this place changed people more willing to impose their religion
01:01:18on others discriminate against others we've been fighting for years the book ban is the the latest piece
01:01:27i have a proven conservative record always considered one of the top conservatives in the house
01:01:32where there's before the kraus list there had been zero parent requests to review books not even one
01:01:41so why are we doing this my texas house rep while i was serving on the school board the first
01:01:50time he
01:01:50got elected we met with him as a school board and said here's the things we care about in public
01:01:56education we'd love your support he told us yes yes absolutely and when it came time to vote he voted
01:02:06exactly the opposite i couldn't understand why you told us you were going to support our schools and then
01:02:14you you voted against them every time and honestly started to badmouth our schools and that's truly
01:02:20what made me start digging into money sixty percent seventy percent of his money was coming from one source
01:02:28which was a billionaire out in cisco texas a male on male or female on female is against nature
01:02:37so this lifestyle is a predatorial lifestyle in that they need your children and straight people having
01:02:44kids to fulfill their sexual habits they want your children the cornerstones of our government are
01:02:51crumbling and starting to come apart and it's because of the lack of morality the lack of belief in our
01:02:58heavenly father
01:03:01i did the thing that people do right when you discover something is
01:03:05you put it on facebook or you put it on twitter and you talk about it
01:03:09it on twitter and you talk about it our schools are not to be used for personal political agendas
01:03:15and our children are here for education not religious indoctrination go tell your pastor
01:03:22our schools are not your church thank you i'm good at spreadsheets so i built pie charts and
01:03:31yeah i i built a site to make it go we have chris tackett who is a former trustee
01:03:39of this school board pie chart guy for the texas right he does pie charts right um for all all
01:03:47the
01:03:47conservatives to show where all the dark money goes it was kind of an eye-opener for me to realize
01:03:53that
01:03:53there was this bigger agenda behind everything some of the people that are pushing this agenda believe
01:03:59it is their duty to take over everywhere government public schools media every aspect of our lives
01:04:06you're going to read about certain verticals or structures that the enemy is working on satan wants
01:04:14to occupy the seat of influence over the supreme court over the government over education with
01:04:20indoctrination we're the force that is hindering the devil from doing what he wants to do god takes what
01:04:28what the devil meant to harm us and he turns it into good he blesses us with it every time
01:04:36we're
01:04:36attacked at patron mobile our sales just go through the roof we increase our sales and so what does
01:04:42increasing our sales mean it means we can get more money back to organizations like moms for liberty
01:04:49this is a spiritual war not a political war
01:04:56is the agenda to gain power and money or is it to make our country a christian theocracy
01:05:03or are they one in the same
01:05:12thank you for having me all of you um i moved to granbury in 2020 and
01:05:19the word i have on my heart is repentance not 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 the last book i read was 600 plus
01:05:31pages and
01:05:32it was a whipping for poor quality number one but also sexual content and i'm sorry to point fingers
01:05:38but we have librarians who who are misunderstanding what is healthy and good for children i think you
01:05:43ought to have people of good moral standards people in the community that maybe even are voted on
01:05:49pastors like paul duncan he would never steer you wrong and he'll put you in a safety zone with your
01:05:54books you don't have to have these ultra controversial books in your library hey tiktok i got a wild one
01:06:00for
01:06:00you in 2018 i received this text from my mom after coming out and was effectively cut off my family
01:06:07and
01:06:07eight younger siblings i 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 to review and approve educational
01:06:17material she even filed charges against librarians in granbury texas literally you have thousands of
01:06:23books so what harm is it to let go of some of them and that's all i have to say
01:06:29in cubies brown
01:06:39your kids do not go school here no they don't you're on a political agenda everybody knows what
01:06:44you're doing you're trying to get school staff arrested you've already tried it that's what
01:06:49you're doing and we know that's what you're doing that's fine with me if you know it i'm not hiding
01:06:54anything i respect you notice i haven't hit a thing i'm not hiding anything and i do have a
01:06:58problem with sexually explicit books in the library i'm sure you do you can expose your trying to arrest
01:07:03librarians i have a library to expose children you're trying to arrest librarians you're trying
01:07:09to arrest librarians you're a fascist you're a fascist you're a fascist fascist sexually explicit fascist
01:07:17when i moved here to san diego i got a bunch of prints my siblings from a few years back
01:07:30um one of
01:07:31the last times i got to see them and my partner here his name's andrew
01:07:38growing up none of my siblings there's nine of us total none of us have stepped foot in a public
01:07:44school every piece of printed material that came into our home was curated by my parents
01:07:53i'm starting a little collection of um books it's off to a small start the book that started it all
01:08:02all um all boys aren't blue right off the bat this book is saying hey there are some heavy topics
01:08:08like
01:08:09be be aware
01:08:15it all seems so much smaller and like depressing
01:08:21i hope my siblings can make it out unscathed and i'm worried that they're growing up in um even more
01:08:28extreme circumstances and i'm you know i hope that they're able to find their own path as well
01:08:36what 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
01:08:50hello everyone my name is weston brown i was born and raised in texas and i'm grateful for the
01:08:55opportunity to speak here tonight a few months ago i saw my mom monica brown standing at this podium
01:09:00calling for the removal of books and asking the school to follow the guidance
01:09:17from a young age i was taught to give a voice to people who are disregarded elevate the marginalized and
01:09:23love my neighbor today 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
01:09:34growing 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
01:09:52inappropriate or too heavy to discuss i would have given anything to read a book with a character
01:09:58that felt the feelings i felt i asked the questions i couldn't ask and learned the lessons that i needed
01:10:05to learn it's been nearly five years since i came out to my family
01:10:14i'm not allowed to join in family celebrations or holidays or be a part of my eight younger siblings lives
01:10:21solely because i'm not straight i'm here today to implore you to listen to librarians educators and
01:10:30students not 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
01:10:43history will remember your decisions and demand accountability show the world that granbury will not
01:10:50succumb to fear
01:10:54publish shine brightly leading the way for the next generation of texans thank you for listening
01:11:09next up we have one thank you and i knew that was coming what came tonight it's no surprise
01:11:18not all true but it is true that we have said no in our home for what we expect in
01:11:24our family whether
01:11:26that matters to any of you or not just as an example you know in the scripture it says adam
01:11:31knew eve
01:11:31that's not the same as saying he stuck his in her body that's what you've got in your library listen
01:11:37that'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 years of messaging from extremist pastors and political
01:11:56leaders because 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 thank you so much wait let me get behind you just in case
01:12:10okay it's like the chances of getting hate crimes are low but never zero your mother has been involved
01:12:16in in this process what was it like to stand here tonight knowing she's here as well you know i
01:12:22in my mind that wasn't it's interesting it wasn't what was top of mind for me i don't have a
01:12:27message
01:12:28for my family uh or for my mom or my dad specifically i have brought and said everything
01:12:33that i have to say to them in many conversations many times over and so my perspective tonight isn't
01:12:39to try to reach through to my parents um that's a conversation that that they have the tools
01:12:43they need they know what they need to do to build the bridge but my goal is not my goal
01:12:48my plea
01:12:48is for librarians educators student and the boards uh to to pay attention to what matters
01:12:57do you have any comments this is
01:13:14i think as librarians we recognize that we're on a continuum but the swing between these polarizing
01:13:25views are having catastrophic effects on our social structures and our communities we are on the
01:13:33precipice of some very very bad things happening in this country i just hope and pray that people
01:13:40are waking up it's gone way beyond the cross list honey way beyond the cross list we are going to
01:13:48take
01:13:48back our schools this is what i will do to the grooming books when i become secretary of states
01:13:57being offended is the basis for house bill 666. they feel that this legislation could be used to
01:14:03threaten schools to remove books or face arrest just because someone does not like a book
01:14:09i think that there is going to come a time in some of these books where it crosses a criminal
01:14:14line
01:14:15it's called contributing to the delinquency of a minor
01:14:27i had been home for three days and in that last day i had people calling me left and right
01:14:37are you okay what's going on
01:14:39i was like what are you talking about
01:14:46the hood county constable attempted to bring felony charges against three librarians for providing
01:14:52students with library books the constable deemed obscene now i'm not one of those crazy overthrow the
01:15:01government anarchist types of government anarchist types but it is a legitimate question to ask
01:15:07what do you do when your government doesn't follow its own rules
01:15:17how 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 um about the books
01:15:29do you know if they use uh student aids in the libraries yes i was told that my library aids
01:15:37were
01:15:37going to be pulled because for every piece of pornography that was found in the library i would be served
01:15:45with
01:15:45one felony for every student constable london he was trying to tell the librarians that if minors
01:15:54had actually put those books on the shelves then it was then elevated to a felony i'm doing a criminal
01:16:02investigation into some of your staff obviously there's been an allegation of um books that were
01:16:09in conflict of the penal code in the library essentially the librarians are the 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
01:16:19that are carrying the criminal liability constable london was able to get the names of the miners
01:16:26that checked out those books to me as a parent that is extremely concerning
01:16:35so i got to tell those poor kids that they were not going to be allowed to be
01:16:40librarians 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 um and that is information that can be used in such a
01:16:59evil way if the student was underage was he going to go after the parents for the kids checking out
01:17:07pornography was he going to go after other students who may have been 18 at the time
01:17:14as someone who's not had anything to do with breaking the law and that i mean maybe a speeding
01:17:20ticket but who would have thought child pornography i fear that we are at the point now where
01:17:28we're going to see teachers in handcuffs
01:17:36there 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 that's why we're here
01:17:57librarians are the firewall
01:18:08i happen to come in contact last year with our state senator andrew zwicker who after hearing my
01:18:15story put forth the new jersey freedom to read act
01:18:22i 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
01:18:40being you know your vast experience over the years in your role so you see a distinction between book
01:18:46banning and restricting access to pornography for minors in my professional role there is no
01:18:51pornography for minors in a school library so there is no need to restrict it but restrictions
01:18:58are however a form of censorship your personal opinion about obscenity does not make it so
01:19:05thank you for sharing i believe a penis is inappropriate for fifth grade but thank you we can talk offline
01:19:10thank you had i been permitted to speak further i would have reminded her that
01:19:16fifth graders have penises
01:19:27a 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 i am in favor of closing the libraries
01:19:40temporarily until we find a solution to the pornographic filth we do have how do we think it's okay
01:19:46that the librarians would actually facilitate that and deal that like a drug dealer
01:19:52to our kids and now they're becoming important dealers is that what our librarians have to become
01:19:59my name is suzette baker i'm the former head librarian for kingsland texas i'm also a military veteran
01:20:07the books that are in the library are not pornographic none of them are i would like to know how
01:20:15the history
01:20:15of the kkk is pornographic how to be an anti-racist how's that pornographic it's not this is about taking
01:20:26away
01:20:26rights keep the libraries open keep the information available to all equally this is not a communist
01:20:38nation you do not get to pick our reading material it is ours so with that i'll take a motion
01:20:47i'll make a motion on a june die number one to remove the agenda i'll second the library will
01:20:54remain open we will try this in the courts not through social media or through news media libraries
01:21:01in lana will stay open after a passion-filled afternoon
01:21:10it's good to know we're not alone
01:21:26i'm proud of you i forgot my freedom shirt at home
01:21:34i couldn't be more delighted to introduce amanda jones to you author of that librarian the
01:21:40part memoir part manifesto no one should have to endure everything that amanda's had to endure and i
01:21:46fear that other people in this room may have had similar experiences we are so grateful for all you do
01:21:53on the front lines how can you stay oh stay in my town yeah oh it's my town they can
01:22:04all go to hell
01:22:11you my hero you know that right thank you you're absolutely my hero
01:22:25i don't know what's going to happen next i cannot imagine us being on a cliff that's just too much
01:22:37but i don't know maybe we are and we've gone over
01:22:46our stories have power
01:22:49i can't stay anonymous i can't stay anonymous i can't stay in the shadows anymore
01:23:01i can't let them keep my story in the dark
01:23:05i won't be censored just 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
01:23:20but now it's everyone's story
01:23:22i'm
01:23:37so
01:23:50i'm
01:23:51i'm
01:25:29Support for this Independent Lens presentation was provided by additional support for this series has been provided by the Corporation
01:25:37for Public Broadcasting and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you. Thank you.
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