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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.
00:02:35It's a Texas district that recently removed books from classrooms after parent complaints.
00:02:40Republican State Representative Matt Krause of Fort Worth sent this list of 850 books
00:02:46to a number of public school districts.
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.
00:03:20He says, and any other books.
00:03:23I'm just immediately angry because it's so obvious that he is targeting LGBTQ titles and
00:03:32authors 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
00:03:44someone due to sex or 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
00:04:06in schools.
00:04:07There are also books about gender identity, the LGBTQ plus community, and the history of
00:04:12Roe 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
00:04:30School Boards asking them to do something about pornography in our libraries.
00:04:37I'm calling for the immediate removal of this very graphic, pornographic material from our
00:04:43libraries and our schools and want to establish standards so that parents have the assurance
00:04:48that 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
00:05:07books and making them available on the shelf.
00:05:19All books, Ulysses.
00:05:22I wonder what they say in all those books.
00:05:25Politicians are playing a very dangerous game when they try to make school libraries
00:05:32battlegrounds for their political war because the only people that that is going to hurt
00:05:39are our kids.
00:05:46This space, these resources, they're supposed to be this magical entry point to the world.
00:05:54To stories, to ideas.
00:05:58There it is.
00:05:59See it?
00:06:01Something they're saying in there.
00:06:04Where, Lyle?
00:06:06There's an A.
00:06:07Yep, 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, Granbury High School.
00:06:38You know, it's always exciting.
00:06:40The first day of school, kids are dressed up, parents are excited, especially new moms and
00:06:46dads 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, and they are going to trustees.
00:07:11And trustees come to me, and when they come to me, I need to have a conversation with you.
00:07:18We were called into a meeting and told, anything that is sexually explicit that could meet
00:07:24the penal code, you are 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
00:07:35what's represented in a house.
00:07:37And that'll keep you out of a bind, and that'll keep me out of a bind.
00:07:41It's the transgender, LGBTQ, and the sex, sexuality in books.
00:07:46That's what the governor has said that he will prosecute people for, and that's what we're pulling out.
00:07:51And 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.
00:08:02But 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 and going through our catalogs
00:08:18and 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,
00:08:25and they went up to 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,
00:08:40going through books and just chunking them.
00:08:42They 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, and 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.
00:09:32Every 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.
00:09:39We'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 because those who went before you worked to give to us today, standing here, this
00:10:33pride.
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.
00:10:47We do have a code of ethics around intellectual freedom, around privacy, around representation and access to information,
00:10:59and a diversity of perspectives and issues. Those 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.
00:11:21If 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. Of course you're coming after school librarians first. Of 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, they asked us to put these behind the counter so that they weren't available unless you knew they were
00:12:20here.
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've 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. Have you seen that one?
00:12:59It's a story about a bunny rabbit.
00:13:01He meets another male bunny.
00:13:05So 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
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.
00:14:18It 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! Start throwing it in there! Start throwing it in there! Start throwing it in there!
00:15:14Burn it! Burn it! Burn it!
00:15:21Hallelujah!
00:15:21Hello!
00:15:22Woo!
00:15:22That's how you know!
00:15:24Mom, let me throw somebody!
00:15:25Wow!
00:15:30There you go!
00:15:39Mom, let me throw somebody!
00:15:41We out!
00:15:51I pledge allegiance to you, Texas, one 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, which essentially makes Governor
00:16:13Abbott 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
00:16:20in this district, but 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.
00:16:33Hey 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, there are
00:16:48freshman students' drawings about Fahrenheit 451.
00:16:56Look, these 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, makes them want to
00:17:05live in other ways, they can never really be.
00:17:10So, 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, it feels like it's blatant
00:17:23that there's a facade here.
00:17:25We have books in the library that are pretty heavy and have sexual assault, like a clockwork
00:17:30orange even, and 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, but as soon as you've got
00:17:46any 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,
00:17:59not blatant hate.
00:18:00I'm simply going to say that no government, and public school is an extension of government,
00:18:05has ever banned books and banned information from its public and been remembered in history
00:18:10as the good guys.
00:18:11Let's not misrepresent things.
00:18:13We're not taking Shakespeare or Hemingway off the shelves, and we're not going and grabbing
00:18:17every socially, culturally, or religiously diverse book and pulling them.
00:18:22That's absurd, and 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
00:19:22school 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
00:19:35for 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.
00:19:50I've taught third grade general education, so all the core classes.
00:19:54My concern was that there might have been stuff that they just didn't know was there, that
00:20:00they just weren't aware, because 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, you're teaching transgender issues, and children
00:20:21are moldable and influenced by that.
00:20:24In 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
00:21:12pushed to 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 given 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, and 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, and 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 walktards got to figure out is 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 to 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 and that we protect their rights.
00:23:27Under Florida's HB 1467 law, school books have to be free of pornography or 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.
00:23:50The teachers in Manatee County were told by Friday at 3 p.m., you will either cover with paper, turn
00:23:57them 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, everyone's crying, everyone's upset.
00:24:10We 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 or to make our political
00:24:42points.
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, and they did not want to be governed by a
00:24:57god.
00:24:59They wanted freedom.
00:25:04Librarians have heard from hundreds of kids that books have saved their lives.
00:25:08That'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.
00:25:19They'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.
00:25:50Florida 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, which 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 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
00:26:37in the Court of Thorns and Roses series, and she tagged all of the schools that had the
00:26:42book in their library.
00:26:43So then the district decided to just quietly pull the books from the shelves and delete
00:26:49them.
00:26:50And I happened to notice a few days later when I went up to work.
00:26:53I 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.
00:27:01My name is Julie Miller.
00:27:02My address is on file, and I am a high school librarian.
00:27:09I know.
00:27:09We'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
00:27:19boots
00:27:20on 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.
00:27:35This 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.
00:27:50That's the Florida chapter.
00:27:51I also run the New York chapter.
00:27:53I'm also a member of Moms for Liberty.
00:27:55I spent like 45 minutes after that meeting talking to him.
00:27:59And it was a, you know, pleasant, weird, but pleasant conversation.
00:28:05Um, and the next thing I know is Bruce essentially said in an article, I'm going to clean up the
00:28:12libraries in Clay County.
00:28:14Anyone who gets in my way, I'm going to run over them like a dead body.
00:28:18And it was just like, first of all, who runs over a dead body?
00:28:21Like, what does that even mean?
00:28:23But very, like, triggering language.
00:28:27And then he started writing my name on 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 of the books that have been banned, the books that have
00:29:01been removed.
00:29:07To attempt to take black history and take a lot of our stories away from children is
00:29:16one of the most evil things I think a person can do.
00:29:20When it comes to the number of banned books at schools, Florida leads the nation in Clay
00:29:25County as number one in the state.
00:29:35These are some of the books.
00:29:37Stamp.
00:29:40Anybody ever seen the movie Color Purple?
00:29:43Yes.
00:29:44And of course, 1619 Project.
00:29:48Do you care whether books that are written by African Americans or books like, this book
00:29:58was banned?
00:30:00As a kid, like, going to a predominantly white school, I was always questioning, questioning
00:30:07who I was, like, hair, skin color.
00:30:11I feel like this new kid, hair love, I feel like that would have made me feel a little bit
00:30:17more 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
00:30:29God.
00:30:30And I call for the fire of God and the glory of God and the fear of the Lord to
00:30:35fall on
00:30:36Clay 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.
00:30:58I'm a pastor.
00:30:59I'm a father.
00:31:00And most of all, I'm a strong black man.
00:31:03But when you start talking about removing African American authors and African American history,
00:31:09I got a problem with that.
00:31:11Because right now, we are an embarrassment in the state of Florida.
00:31:18We 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
00:31:35why 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.
00:31:43That one thing that I dreaded the most had happened.
00:31:49I 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.
00:32:12I sat there at 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
00:32:27the audience.
00:32:28Okay, is it wrong?
00:32:29Yeah, the reason I came back is because I saw one of you all's media specialist in Clay
00:32:35County was removed.
00:32:37It's wrong.
00:32:41Don't do people like that when they have a different view.
00:32:45It's not fair.
00:32:47If anybody has to be responsible for this cabalga, we're leading the United States and books that
00:32:55are not on the shelf, it's y'all.
00:32:58Shame 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.
00:33:13It's a genius that curtails to oppressing people.
00:33:18It was like snuffing out a candle.
00:33:23It just happened so, like, quietly.
00:33:28And it's like you're dismissed.
00:33:32And it's all politically motivated, right?
00:33:37But I met the young man outside.
00:33:41I said, how you doing, brother?
00:33:45He says, I hate librarians.
00:33:51This can't be America.
00:34:08It 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
00:34:16at a librarian conference, I would have been like, you're nuts.
00:34:22This is the highest number of attempted folk bans since we began compiling these lists 20 years ago.
00:34:29And 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.
00:34:39And sometimes librarians are outright fired for defending intellectual freedom.
00:34:45And 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.
00:34:57We 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
00:35:13do.
00:35:13We want to make sure that we are reinforcing to you that even in the darkest of days, this is
00:35:20still 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
00:35:37or obscene
00:35:38have 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,
00:35:49has 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 laypeople, this is the Roe v. Wade of libraries.
00:36:06When the Krauss list came back, when Granbury boxed up hundreds of books,
00:36:10they 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.
00:36:22We'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.
00:36:32We take courses on it.
00:36:34The thing that truly concerns us is when an individual, whether it be a parent or a non-parent
00:36:40or a single group within the society, tries to determine what is correct for 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 my parents are white Christian nationalists,
00:36:59but when I started being targeted, they didn't speak to me for a week.
00:37:04It'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, I've been wanting to build a cannon.
00:37:17See, it rolls real easy.
00:37:20It's called a Confederate mountain rifle.
00:37:23It's the exact replica of what you would have seen back to the Civil War.
00:37:33You know, I've done a lot of family history and research.
00:37:36My ancestors listed slaves as property, and I'm not proud of that.
00:37:42It's uncomfortable.
00:37:43But I think sometimes we have to be uncomfortable and face that fact.
00:37:46Why would you want to embarrass white kids, or?
00:37:52It's like she said, that's the past, and we can't change that.
00:37:54What you don't want to do is teach your kids to hate their country,
00:38:00because 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 do it 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.
00:38:40Here 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.
00:39:06And I've never promoted pornography and erotica to children.
00:39:10Our 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.
00:39:24Jones 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,
00:39:40and we got security all around our home.
00:39:43I 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.
00:40:07I don't think any of us imagined when we started out that one day our lives might be at risk.
00:40:12I reached out to a lawyer, just 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. No man is obsolete.
00:40:43You're a librarian, Mr. Wordsworth.
00:40:46I'm a human being. I exist.
00:40:48And 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.
00:41:24When I was first attacked, back in 2021, a student who was not a library regular previously started showing up
00:41:35in the first couple of weeks in September every day during lunchtime
00:41:39and would just roam the stacks.
00:41:44And I'd go out and I'd say, can 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.
00:41:53After two weeks of this every day, I see the kid emerge from the stacks holding Lawn Boy by Jonathan
00:41:59Everson.
00:42:13I read the book myself and I read the book and I read the book and I read the book
00:42:16myself and loved it.
00:42:17And I was kind of dumbfounded because it was not a wildly popular book, it wasn't on many people's radar
00:42:24and of all the 20,000 books in the library, he emerges with that one.
00:42:27And I said, how'd you learn about it?
00:42:30And he said, my parents sent me, my parents told me about it and said I should look for it
00:42:35in the library.
00:42:3724 hours later, that student's mother was standing in front of the Board of Education.
00:42:45Martha Hickson, our school librarian, remarked to my son as he was checking out the books, quote, I love that
00:42:51book.
00:42:52And calling me a pornographer, pedophile and groomer of children.
00:42:55This amounts to an effort to groom our kids, to make them more willing to participate in the heinous act
00:43:02described 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.
00:43:36Being a librarian, I started researching.
00:43:42I was watching Texas and Florida both very carefully.
00:43:48I felt like that's sort of the petri dish of what could be coming up here.
00:43:54This started in Lano, Texas.
00:43:57About a week later, a woman in Virginia saw the Lano Challenge and picked up some of that language.
00:44:04Both of these books include pedophilia.
00:44:08This, do not interrupt my time.
00:44:12And then, about two weeks later, same 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.
00:44:32Moms for Liberty are having their town hall here tonight on the Upper East Side.
00:44:37Welcome, New York.
00:44:38We are thrilled to be here.
00:44:40Thank you so much for joining us tonight.
00:44:43It seems like there's a lot of misconceptions out there about 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?
00:44:54The New Yorker calls them the right-wing mothers fueling the school board wars.
00:44:57No one's going to fight for any issue like a parent.
00:45:00We'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 for these national conferences comes from selling their $15 t-shirts.
00:45:13You don't get Ron DeSantis to show up at your conference, Donald Trump to show up at your conference just
00:45:19from selling t-shirts.
00:45:21But this grassroots group is registered as a 501c.
00:45:25They are not required to disclose their donors.
00:45:27But we do know that their PAC received a $50,000 donation this year from Julie Fancelli, the largest single
00:45:34donor, to the January 6th Stop the Steel rally that led to the Capitol insurrection.
00:45:38We asked Moms for Liberty who else is among their donors and they did not respond with any specific names.
00:45:44What 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 are 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.
00:46:08Marie 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, Lord of the Rings is considered being inappropriate.
00:46:25There's some Facebook moms group that 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, which has to do with mouse nudity in a concentration camp.
00:46:52When they go after the books, what they're really going after is those kids that come into my library for
00:47:00a safe space.
00:47:01And I cannot abide that.
00:47:09Part of the ethics of our profession to support the First Amendment and to fight censorship.
00:47:16It's what I've been trained to do.
00:47:25The North Huntington Voorhees Regional High School District Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, January 30th is now called to
00:47:33border.
00:47:34If I were a younger person, I may have left by now.
00:47:39But 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, you are a vile and disgusting C-word
00:47:53and a danger to young people,
00:47:54I could and should be escorted out of this building by the police.
00:47:58This is the exact language that has been sent to our school librarian by a group led by the spouse
00:48:03of someone on the board.
00:48:05If you want to get rid of and censor books, you are no different than fascist.
00:48:09For every fascist movement began the same exact way.
00:48:13You're here to ban books with gay characters.
00:48:17You might as well be here to start the Fourth Reich.
00:48:20Ford, you want him out.
00:48:21Yes!
00:48:23You guys cursed at my f***ing building and you f***ing book banning me.
00:48:27You guys cursed.
00:48:28You guys cursed.
00:48:29F***ing you.
00:48:30F***ing you.
00:48:32F***ing you.
00:48:32F***ing you.
00:48:32Thank you, Ford.
00:48:35F***ing you.
00:48:35F***ing you.
00:48:43F***ing you.
00:48:50The book itself, Queerfully and Wonderfully Made, that's going against the scripture.
00:48:57It's fearfully and wonderfully made, and that's what we are.
00:49:01I could go through the whole chapter of that, of the Bible.
00:49:05This book is considered non-fiction, and it is including Christianity.
00:49:10The Bible doesn't support this, so that already debunks the non-fiction status of this book.
00:49:16So we're talking about pornography here.
00:49:18I was born and raised in Holden.
00:49:20I am also trans-feminine, and I am a queer person.
00:49:24I don't think y'all understand what it's like to grow up in an environment like this,
00:49:28where even your family members are constantly telling you that you're going to burn in hell.
00:49:33Books like this say, hey, you were loved.
00:49:37There is a community that will be there for you.
00:49:43Sorry, my anxiety is running very high, because I can tell that y'all very much misunderstand us.
00:49:48This gives much, this requires, thank you.
00:50:05Hello, my name is Amanda Jones.
00:50:08The great thing about books is that we all have different ways that we interpret them.
00:50:14I 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.
00:50:29This book is not in the children's picture book section.
00:50:32It is in the teen non-fiction section where it belongs, because it was written for teens.
00:50:39Monitor your own children.
00:50:41Don't let your children read it if you don't want to.
00:50:44No one's forcing you to check it out.
00:50:48LGBTQ youth who report having at least one accepting adult are 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 who were ostracized because they were made to feel less than in this parish.
00:51:09And I feel it right now, even though I'm not from that community, from the hate that's coming from some
00:51:15people in this room.
00:51:16It would be easy to move this book and placate a few people for the sake of bypassing drama.
00:51:21It 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 the challenge materials while the
00:51:41library processes its request.
00:51:47I'll be damned if we're going to lose another kid because of something our community has done to make them
00:51:54feel less.
00:51:57I'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 community for who
00:52:08they are.
00:52:10And if I was silent, my silence would be my compliance, and I am not going to be complicit in
00:52:18the death of children,
00:52:20or even the hurtful feelings, or I'm not going to participate in that anymore.
00:52:27Because even though I didn't actively participate in it before, I was silent and I saw stuff.
00:52:33But I'm not going to do that anymore.
00:52:35I'm going to speak out about it, so.
00:52:37This is my strong-willed child, and I thought, mm-mm, she's not going to lay down and take this.
00:52:45.
00:52:58Our 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 out of the decision making.
00:53:10But that's not what we're doing anymore.
00:53:12Now it's all the culture wars of America are just right smack dab right here in the middle of my
00:53:17kids' 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 Lainey. I'm a mom of four kids in Keller ISD.
00:53:48As soon as our new Patriot Mobile School Board was elected, your top priority was to disregard all the parent
00:53:53district and community input.
00:53:54Since then you've created a hateful, contradictory, nonsensical and unconstitutional book banning rubric.
00:54:02You are also passing a policy tonight that gives you the power to hire and fire every employee in the
00:54:07district all the way down to the cafeteria workers.
00:54:10You don't trust your admin. You don't trust your principals. You don't trust your teachers. You don't trust the parents.
00:54:16You're coming for teachers and librarians. You've made it clear and they know it.
00:54:21We have a movement within America that has decided that school boards are now where they want to push their
00:54:27agenda.
00:54:34Patriot Mobile. They aren't just a wireless provider. They are a political movement.
00:54:39Up to 5% of every Patriot Mobile phone bill goes directly to supporting Patriot Mobile's political action committee.
00:54:45We need to put our money behind companies that share our values. I'm looking at Glenn over here from Patriot
00:54:51Mobile.
00:54:52We know that Patriot Mobile, they admitted to coming into our communities and interviewing people and finding who they thought
00:54:58would best represent their interests.
00:54:59And that's who they backed with the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
00:55:04It wasn't until we started getting these mailers that we realized what was happening.
00:55:10We're talking probably 7, 8, 9, 10 flyers. These people are getting covered with images of crying children and saying
00:55:17they've been exposed to porn in school.
00:55:19And your kid is being made to feel guilty for being white. All of these things that are just simply
00:55:24untrue.
00:55:25Then we started sharing them online. Then we found out the school districts neighboring ours had the exact same flyers
00:55:32paid for by the exact same pack.
00:55:35But just with the pictures of the candidates inter-swapped with theirs.
00:55:40And we were like, oh my goodness, this is a large scale, coordinated effort to take over school boards across
00:55:47the state of Texas.
00:55:48One of the keys is these school boards, right? The school boards are the key that picks the lot.
00:55:53This was their blueprint and they succeeded. They backed 11 candidates in North Texas. All 11 candidates won.
00:56:01And now they hold a majority and the president, vice president and secretary on all four school boards that they
00:56:08decided to fund.
00:56:10And they're going to continue to spread it.
00:56:12We're focused on school boards here for now, but our goal is to spread this as large as we can
00:56:17to other states and other communities that are quite frankly wanting what we're doing here in their communities.
00:56:42They had that school board meeting completely packed with people.
00:56:47For sure.
00:56:49And somebody told me this morning to go online and look at the Republican club.
00:56:53They had some meeting, I guess, last week, and it was all about book banning.
00:56:58And they had speakers come in, so they got them all riled up and gave them all their talking points
00:57:04so that they could all come to this meeting and completely drown anybody else's voices out.
00:57:09That's what they did.
00:57:11That's what they did.
00:57:12Well, you know, a lot of these people actually make threats, you know, about having a gun and yada, yada,
00:57:20yada.
00:57:22It's just like just so ate up with your hate and there's not enough voices countering it.
00:57:30Of the United States and of this state.
00:57:34Of the United States and of this state.
00:57:37So help me God.
00:57:37So help me God.
00:57:41I 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 or they didn't know where to look.
00:57:54And I was going to find it.
00:57:58So 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 that would relate to what they were saying, but nothing even came close.
00:58:13I 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 happening in our
00:58:24schools were two completely different things.
00:58:27This is just complete sexualization of the kids.
00:58:32And it's not stopping.
00:58:34It's not going backwards.
00:58:35It's moving forward.
00:58:37It pains me to say that GISD through the inaction of the board of trustees and the upper level administrators
00:58:44are grooming your children.
00:58:46The aha moment for me was a conversation I had with one of my former co-hosts.
00:58:53I felt we need to let our community know that 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.
00:59:06I refused to do their bidding.
00:59:09And I said, no, I'm not doing that.
00:59:11That's not right.
00:59:12Now I'm enemy number one with them.
00:59:15Surprise, surprise.
00:59:21Courtney Gore has been an entire and complete and total disappointment.
00:59:25Yes, I would say disappointment is a big word.
00:59:29And I go back to that culture of, do you want to do the right thing and not be liked
00:59:33by everybody?
00:59:35I guess Courtney's woke.
00:59:38She woke.
00:59:39Courtney's woke?
00:59:41I guess she's woke now is what they're saying.
00:59:44Courtney?
00:59:45Yes.
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 did.
00:59:57There 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.
01:00:07You just wait.
01:00:11I don't play with the rules anymore.
01:00:13I haven't played with the rules since Vietnam.
01:00:16And I'm not going to start now.
01:00:18We have profile sheets on Courtney Gore, which is not here.
01:00:23Profile sheets.
01:00:24We know what you do.
01:00:25We know where you live.
01:00:27It's threatening.
01:00:31One of my younger brothers came over here and actually slept on our front porch that night.
01:00:36Just to make sure we were safe.
01:00:38I feel like by talking, that is the only way I'm going to be able to protect myself.
01:00:43Like I have to be vocal.
01:00:45And if I'm not, that's when they get the power.
01:00:57Last day in Granbury.
01:01:00We're very excited to be leaving.
01:01:02This is a place Mindy and I both grew up in.
01:01:06Came back to raise our kids in.
01:01:09I 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, discriminate against others.
01:01:20We've been fighting for years.
01:01:23The book ban is the latest piece.
01:01:27I 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?
01:01:44My Texas house rep, while I was serving on the school board, the first time he got elected, we met
01:01:52with him as a school board.
01:01:54And said, here'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, he voted exactly the opposite.
01:02:08I 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 and honestly started to bad mouth our schools.
01:02:19And that's truly what made me start digging into money.
01:02:2460%, 70% of his money was coming from one source, which was a billionaire out in Cisco, Texas.
01:02:31Male on male, or female on female, is against nature.
01:02:36So this lifestyle is a predatorial lifestyle in that they need your children and straight people having kids to fulfill
01:02:45their sexual habits.
01:02:46They want your children.
01:02:48The cornerstones of our government are crumbling and starting to come apart.
01:02:53And it's because of the lack of morality, the lack of belief in our Heavenly Father.
01:03:01I did the thing that people do, right?
01:03:04When you discover something is you put it on Facebook or you put it on Twitter and you talk about
01:03:09it.
01:03:10Our schools are not to be used for personal political agendas.
01:03:15And our children are here for education, not religious indoctrination.
01:03:19Go 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.
01:03:34We have Chris Tackett, who is a former trustee of this school board.
01:03:41Pie chart guy for the Texas.
01:03:43Right, he does pie charts.
01:03:45For all the state reps.
01:03:45Right, pie chart man.
01:03:47For all the conservatives to show where all the dark money goes.
01:03:50It was kind of an eye opener for me to realize that there was this bigger agenda behind everything.
01:03:56Some of the people that are pushing this agenda believe it is their duty to take over everywhere.
01:04:02Government, 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.
01:04:13Satan wants to occupy the seat of influence over the Supreme Court, over 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.
01:04:56Is the agenda to gain power and money or 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, but we are the ones who are present to
01:05:27solve the issues.
01:05:28The last book I read was 600 plus pages and it was a whipping for poor quality, number one, but
01:05:35also sexual content.
01:05:37And I'm sorry to point fingers, but we have librarians who are misunderstanding what is healthy and good for children.
01:05:43I think you ought to have people of good moral standards, people in the community that maybe even are voted
01:05:49on.
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.
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 and was effectively cut off my family and
01:06:07eight younger siblings.
01:06:08I came across this video showing my mom speaking at a school board meeting in Texas,
01:06:13calling for the district to remove books, repent and appoint a pastor to review and approve educational material.
01:06:18She even filed charges against librarians in Granbury, Texas.
01:06:22Literally, you have thousands of books.
01:06:24So what harm is it to let go of some of them?
01:06:27And that's all I have to say.
01:06:30And Kimmy's brown.
01:06:39Your kids do not go to school here.
01:06:41No, they don't.
01:06:42You're on a political agenda.
01:06:43Everybody knows what you're doing.
01:06:45You're trying to get school staff arrested.
01:06:47You've already tried it.
01:06:49You've already tried it.
01:06:49That's what you're doing.
01:06:50And we know that.
01:06:51That'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.
01:06:57I'm not hiding anything.
01:06:58And I do have a problem with sexually explicit books in the library.
01:07:00I'm sure you do.
01:07:02You're trying to arrest librarians.
01:07:04I have nothing to say to you.
01:07:05You're trying to arrest librarians.
01:07:08You're trying to arrest librarians.
01:07:11You're a fascist.
01:07:12You're a fascist.
01:07:14Sexually explicit.
01:07:15You're a fascist.
01:07:15You're a fascist.
01:07:24I moved here to San Diego.
01:07:26I got a bunch of prints.
01:07:28My siblings from a few years back, one of the last times I got to see them.
01:07:32And 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.
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 even more extreme circumstances.
01:08:30And 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.
01:08:51My name is Weston Brown.
01:08:52I was born and raised in Texas, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to speak here tonight.
01:08:57A few months ago, I saw my mom, Monica Brown, standing at this podium, calling for the removal of books
01:09:01and asking the school to follow the guidance.
01:09:17From a young age, I was taught to give a voice to people who were disregarded, elevate the marginalized, and
01:09:23love my neighbor.
01:09:25Today, I strive to be the person I needed when I was young.
01:09:29Someone 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 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,
01:10:01ask the questions I couldn't ask, and learn the lessons that I needed to learn.
01:10:07It'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
01:10:20solely because I'm not straight.
01:10:24I'm here today to implore you to listen to librarians, educators, and students, not those speaking from a religious perspective
01:10:33or 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.
01:10:48Show the world that Granbury will not succumb to fear.
01:10:53The public will shine brightly, leading the way for the next generation of Texans.
01:10:58Thank you for listening.
01:11:09Next up, we have one for the real.
01:11:14And I knew that was coming what came tonight.
01:11:17It'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, years 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.
01:12:10It'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
01:12:54what matters.
01:12:57Monica, do you have any comments?
01:13:15I 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 cross list, honey. Way beyond the cross 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
01:14:07does 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.
01:14:14It's called Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor.
01:14:27I had been home for three days.
01:14:31And in that last day, I had people calling me left and right.
01:14:37Are you okay? What's going on?
01:14:38And I was like, what are you talking about?
01:14:46A Hood County constable attempted to bring felony charges against three librarians for providing students with library books the constable
01:14:55deemed obscene.
01:14:57Now, I'm not one of those crazy overthrow the government anarchist types.
01:15:03But 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 about the books.
01:15:29Okay.
01:15:29Do you know if they use student aids in the libraries?
01:15:32Yes.
01:15:34I was told that my library aides were going to be pulled because for every piece of pornography that was
01:15:43found 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,
01:15:58then 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
01:16:19carrying the criminal liability.
01:16:22Constable 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 I got to tell those four kids that they were not going to be allowed to be librarians because
01:16:40people are afraid that there's pornography in the library.
01:16:43I'm definitely on that list.
01:16:45I was in the library literally every single day of my senior year.
01:16:49That is really, really scary.
01:16:54And that is information that can be used in such a evil way.
01:17:00If 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?
01:17:14As someone who has 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?
01:17:25I fear that we are at the point now where we're going to see teachers in handcuffs.
01:17:37There 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.
01:18:09I happened to come in contact last year with our state senator, Andrew Zwicker, who after hearing my story put
01:18:16forth 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.
01:18:28There is a proposed committee substitute, which establishes requirements for library material in public school libraries and establishes protections for
01:18:37school library staff members and librarians.
01:18:40Being, you know, your best experience over the years in your role.
01:18:45So 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
01:18:55restrict it.
01:18:57But 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. I believe a penis is inappropriate for fifth grade, but thank you. We can talk offline.
01:19:10Thank you.
01:19:12Had I been permitted to speak further, I would have reminded her that fifth graders have penises.
01:19:28A county in Central Texas will consider shutting down its entire public library system because a federal judge ordered it
01:19:35to 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
01:19:44have.
01:19:45How do we think it's okay that the librarians would actually facilitate that and deal that like a drug dealer
01:19:52to our kids?
01:19:53And now they're becoming porn 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.
01:20:05I'm also a military veteran.
01:20:07The 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.
01:20:27Keep 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.
01:20:44So 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.
01:20:53The 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.
01:21:12It's good to know we're not alone.
01:21:14Girl.
01:21:22Hey, how are you?
01:21:24How are you?
01:21:25Good.
01:21:26I'm proud of you. I forgot my freedom shirt at home.
01:21:30Can you take a picture of me beside it?
01:21:34I couldn't be more delighted to introduce Amanda Jones to you.
01:21:38Author of that librarian, the part memoir, part manifesto.
01:21:42No one should have to endure everything that Amanda's had to endure.
01:21:46And I fear that other people in this room may have had similar experiences.
01:21:51We are so grateful for all you do on the front lines.
01:21:58How can you stay?
01:22:01Oh, stay in my town?
01:22:02Yeah.
01:22:03Oh, it's my town.
01:22:04They can all go to hell.
01:22:11You're my hero. You know that, right?
01:22:14You're absolutely my hero.
01:22:17You definitely are.
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.
01:22:37But 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.
01:22:52I 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.
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.
01:23:20But now it's everyone's story.
01:23:51When you're friends and friends,
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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