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00:00:28Transcribed by ESO, translated by —
00:00:42I never imagined that what's happening right now could ever happen.
00:00:48It didn't dawn on us that we would come under attack.
00:00:54Do you like people?
00:00:56Have you a real love of books?
00:00:59And learning?
00:01:02You may well consider the vocation of a librarian.
00:01:08We just never imagined we would be in the forefront.
00:01:13We're not supposed to necessarily be seen and felt.
00:01:18We're stewards of the space, stewards of the resources.
00:01:23We're the stewards for the people.
00:01:28Now, I think we've moved into a vanguard.
00:01:33We have to be out in front telling the story.
00:01:36It's about us.
00:01:39We're the firstborn, we're the firstborn, we're the firstborn, we're the firstborn, we're the firstborn, we're the firstborn, we're the
00:01:57firstborn, we're the firstborn, we're the firstborn, we're the firstborn, we're the firstborn, we're the firstborn, we're the firstborn, we're
00:01:58the firstborn, we're the firstborn, we're the firstborn, we're the firstborn, we're the firstborn, we're the firstborn, we're the firstborn,
00:01:59we're the firstborn, we're the firstborn, we're the firstborn, we're the firstborn, we're the firstborn, we're the firstborn.
00:02:28Texas Republicans are launching an investigation into what types of books school districts
00:02:33have specifically ones that pertain to race and sexuality in a letter to the Texas Education
00:02:38Agency lawmakers pointed to Texas districts that recently removed books from classrooms after
00:02:44parent complaints Republican State Representative Matt Krause of Fort Worth sent this list of 850
00:02:50books to a number of public school districts we were right there in the crosshairs of this
00:02:58rising call so we we felt like everything that we did was being watched
00:03:22it's not just 850 books which we've all fixated on
00:03:25he says and any other books I'm just immediately angry because it's so obvious that he is targeting
00:03:34LGBTQ titles and authors of color and books about race and books about sex education he is asking
00:03:43districts to remove these and any other books that might embarrass or shame someone due to sex or race
00:03:53what struck me was one there was a list of 850 books he wanted to know if school districts had
00:04:02them how much money had been spent on them the list includes titles like a book on the history of
00:04:09the
00:04:09KKK and another about desegregation in schools there are also books about gender identity the LGBTQ plus
00:04:15community and the history of Roe v Wade I didn't even think you know most school districts would
00:04:22entertain this I remember looking at it thinking they're singling us out again a couple days later our
00:04:31governor doubled down and sent a letter to the Texas Association of School Boards asking them to do
00:04:37something about pornography in our libraries I'm calling for the immediate removal of this very
00:04:45graphic pornographic material from our libraries and our schools and want to establish standards so
00:04:52that parents have the assurance that their children will not be exposed to it I remember seeing governor
00:04:59Abbott's letter and my district was mentioned specifically that was the first moment that I realized school
00:05:08librarians could be criminalized for selecting books and making them available on the shelf
00:05:23all books Ulysses I wonder what they say in all those books politicians are playing a very dangerous game
00:05:33when they try to make school libraries battlegrounds for their political war because the only people that
00:05:43that is going to hurt are our kids this space these resources they're supposed to be this magical entry point
00:05:58to the world to stories to ideas
00:06:02there it is see it something they're saying in there where Lyle there's an A yep that's an A right
00:06:13there
00:06:15sure would like to know what they're saying in there though
00:06:19every letter is different
00:06:40well ladies and gentlemen here we are Granberry High School you know it's always exciting the first day of school
00:06:45school kids uh kids uh kids are dressed up parents are excited especially uh new moms and dads taking that
00:06:52walk for the
00:06:53first time with those five-year-olds in the kindergarten it's a it's a great feeling
00:07:08I've been getting some emails concerns uh from uh parents and they are going to trustees
00:07:16and uh trustees come to me and uh and when they come to me I uh I need to have
00:07:21a conversation with you
00:07:22we were called into meeting and told anything that is sexually explicit that could meet the penal code
00:07:30you are responsible for in your library
00:07:33we were going to pull books off the shelves uh especially the 850 books that were uh put forth by
00:07:40was represented in a house and that'll keep you out of a mind and that'll keep me out of a
00:07:45mind
00:07:45it's the transgender lgbtq and the sex sexuality in books that's what the governor has said that he will
00:07:52prosecute people for and that's what we're pulling out and I popped up I said just the cross list
00:07:58and got the evil eye if you do not know this you've been probably under a rock
00:08:06but uh Granberry is in a very very conservative community if it is not what you believe
00:08:15you better hide it because it ain't changing we spent the rest of the afternoon in that meeting
00:08:21going through our catalogs and trying to figure out what we have and what we don't have
00:08:25I was sitting in the library reading and these men came in with this big cart and they were went
00:08:31up to the library and so they started saying where are the books we need to get these things out
00:08:35of here
00:08:35we were just told get rid of them get rid of them deal with it get rid of them getting
00:08:41them off the
00:08:42shelves putting them on carts putting them whatever going through books and just chunking them they had
00:08:49no room downtown the offices were full of books the high school was full of books when you have to
00:08:57go
00:08:58through like 10,000 books what are you gonna do to me as a librarian that was trauma
00:09:06I went to the campus of a librarian I particularly feared for and she took me into a closet
00:09:14was very careful to let me know what I'm about to show you is behind three locks so I feel
00:09:19like it's
00:09:19safe librarian unlocks each of those when we get to the cabinets and open the cabinets
00:09:26it's shelves and shelves of books harmless books I just started putting them on the carts and said no
00:09:36every book that was on that shelf felt like a student that we were saying we've got to put you
00:09:42behind
00:09:42three locks we've got to hide you back here in the dark
00:09:49many welcome director mr reed harris you wrote a book and at the time you wrote this book did you
00:09:56feel that marriage could be cast out of our civilization as antiquated and stupid religious
00:10:03phenomenon you put an implication on it and you feature this particular point out of the book which
00:10:08of course is quite out of context does not give a proper impression of the book as a whole
00:10:12the american public doesn't get an honest impression of even that book
00:10:16well then let's continue to read your own writing if we would go back in history to
00:10:22McCarthyism it felt like that happened to them it wouldn't happen to us it wouldn't happen now
00:10:28our hearts swell with pride because those who went before you worked to give to us today standing here
00:10:37this pride don't join the book burners don't think you're going to conceal faults by concealing
00:10:44evidence that they ever existed don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book
00:10:52we do have a code of ethics around intellectual freedom around privacy around representation and
00:11:02access to information and a diversity of perspectives and issues those are all part of our code
00:11:10i couldn't remove a book because it has ideas we don't like can't we look at this from a practical
00:11:17point of view
00:11:18take my word for it it's not unreasonable to ask you to take out just this one book
00:11:26if you can control the library you can control the community because if you can control the flow of
00:11:32information if you can control the ideas you've got it you've got everything of course you're coming
00:11:38after school librarians first of course you are
00:11:47Texas leaders and parents continue to argue over what kids should be allowed to read in the classroom
00:11:53and now we're hearing from a local librarian who says she lost her job because of it
00:12:01that was my office
00:12:06uh where is it
00:12:13these are two books that i was asked to be removed and i would not remove them
00:12:18now they asked us to put these behind the counter so that they weren't available unless you knew they
00:12:25were here
00:12:29now they've separated all of the pluses from the regular books the lgbtq books
00:12:36they were all integrated before but now they have separated them
00:12:39but also we went out of our way to get christian
00:12:44books just for this group when they started making problems so we got two series down here
00:12:49just so that their children who were more christian based could have their books too
00:12:52i have to show you our children's library oh you know that's where our porn lives
00:13:01a day in the life of marlon bundo have you seen that one it's a story about a bunny rabbit
00:13:06he meets another male bunny so that bunnies end up getting married
00:13:14they don't know that's here
00:13:16why don't they
00:13:18because they're just looking on their list
00:13:21so yes there are books here that they may not like but they're here
00:13:30this is the actual rules of the lano county library
00:13:33in no case should any book be excluded because of race or nationality or the political or religious
00:13:38views of the writer i followed these rules and i got fired for it
00:13:46that's me when i was in the u.s army
00:13:51when we take our oath to protect the country
00:13:54it doesn't stop there
00:13:56you protect the constitution of the united states
00:14:00from attacks
00:14:01both external
00:14:04and internal
00:14:08did you know this book existed
00:14:11everybody's afraid to say what these people are acting like
00:14:16but if you read history you know what they are acting like
00:14:22it says
00:14:23no to decadence and moral corruption
00:14:26yes to decency and morality and family and state
00:14:31you do well to commit to the flames the evil spirit of the past
00:14:35this is a strong great and symbolic deed
00:14:38the ancient future
00:14:40the ancient ancient intellectualism is now at the end
00:14:57A lot of the books that he burned were not just the Jewish authors, they were the LGBTQ+.
00:15:04They were those authors that they burned.
00:15:16Start throwing it in there.
00:15:17Start throwing it in there.
00:15:18Start throwing it in there.
00:15:19Burn it.
00:15:20Burn it.
00:15:21Burn it.
00:15:25Hallelujah!
00:15:27Woo!
00:15:27There you go!
00:15:28Mom, let me throw some of them.
00:15:56I pledge allegiance to you, Texas, one state under God, one indivisible.
00:16:06I do want to clarify a couple of points on behalf of the district.
00:16:10As you know, Texas education is the responsibility of the state, which essentially makes Governor
00:16:18Abbott our CEO.
00:16:20I want to start this out simple.
00:16:22The job of the superintendent and the school board is to not only protect the students
00:16:25in this district, but to make them feel like they have a place in this community.
00:16:29But I've got to tell you, from what I've seen so far, you are failing at your job.
00:16:32Here you go.
00:16:38Hi, guys.
00:16:39Come on in.
00:16:41We've all read Fahrenheit our freshman year, and we talk about the scariness of book banning.
00:16:48Literally on the windows of our library, our library has a big windowed wall, there are
00:16:53freshmen students' drawings about Fahrenheit 451.
00:17:01Look, these are all novels.
00:17:03All about people that never existed.
00:17:07The people that read them and makes them unhappy with their own lives, makes them want
00:17:10to live in other ways that can never really be.
00:17:15So, we must burn the books, Montag.
00:17:19All the books.
00:17:21And seeing that and knowing what is going on within that library, it feels like it's blatant
00:17:28that there's a facade here.
00:17:30We have books in the library that are pretty heavy and have sexual assault like A Clockwork
00:17:35Orange even.
00:17:36And that wasn't pulled, so.
00:17:39Had I not picked this book up, I don't think I would be sitting here now.
00:17:45If it's a cis, straight, white, male, or female, well, it's no issue.
00:17:49But as soon as you've got any kind of diversity.
00:17:52Got a gay person, a brown person, cut it out.
00:17:58Stop the censorship in our district.
00:18:00Wake up to the reality that we are all different and we should all embrace each other with love,
00:18:04not blatant hate.
00:18:05I'm simply going to say that no government, and public school is an extension of government,
00:18:11has ever banned books and banned information from its public and been remembered in history
00:18:15as the good guys.
00:18:16Let's not misrepresent things.
00:18:18We're not taking Shakespeare or Hemingway off the shelves.
00:18:20And we're not going and grabbing every socially, culturally, or religiously diverse book
00:18:26and pulling them.
00:18:27That's absurd.
00:18:28And the people that are saying that are gaslighters and it's designed to incite division.
00:18:39I might need somebody else to help me.
00:18:41I need to pass these out.
00:18:42Maybe somebody else to help Karen.
00:18:44You can give them to the board.
00:18:46Definitely she needs help.
00:18:47I brought you some excerpts of books.
00:18:49I pray you really are able to stop this kind of content from going in the school.
00:18:53These people put sexually explicit content into your libraries.
00:19:00Get ready for truth and transparency.
00:19:02From an ocean of liberal tears.
00:19:06Let's talk about Superintendent Dr. Jeremy Glenn and the smut and porn in the library books.
00:19:13And it's not just his position.
00:19:15It's the position of the school board.
00:19:17It's the position of this community at large.
00:19:20Bottom line, this is about removing pornographic, sexually explicit, and vulgar materials from school libraries.
00:19:28I want you to know this.
00:19:30Tonight I'm going to go home and I'm going to get a great night's sleep.
00:19:32Because unlike you, I've actually read what's in those books.
00:19:36And I'm proud that they've been removed from our shelves and we've made the right decision for kids.
00:19:48I taught for about five years.
00:19:50I've taught in a private school setting.
00:19:52I've taught sixth grade social studies.
00:19:54I've taught third grade general education.
00:19:57So all the core classes.
00:20:00My concern was that there might have been stuff that they just didn't know was there.
00:20:04That they just weren't aware.
00:20:06Because they didn't know, they didn't know where to look.
00:20:09And at first I didn't know where to look.
00:20:13I had gone to a Moms for Liberty event where we had a preview to a documentary.
00:20:19You are teaching children adult child sex.
00:20:23You're teaching transgender issues.
00:20:25And children are moldable and influenced by that.
00:20:28In my humble opinion, it will be worse before it gets better.
00:20:35My kids go to the schools here.
00:20:38My family's kids go to the schools here.
00:20:41My friends' kids go to the schools here.
00:20:43It was disheartening to think that that was actually happening in my hometown.
00:20:50The books are worse than terrible.
00:20:53They are damaging.
00:20:54They are out to destroy, not, well they're out to wreck the heterosexual relationship.
00:21:01That's not okay.
00:21:03That's distribution of sexual materials to children.
00:21:06And the book they have in their hand does that.
00:21:09It has to be kicked out.
00:21:10We first really encountered the Moms for Liberty organizations during COVID
00:21:16as they really pushed to open schools and unmask children.
00:21:21And that's when we started to hear about their parental rights.
00:21:25When that crisis was over, they turned to the books.
00:21:30The things that Moms for Liberty is fighting against is pornography in school.
00:21:34Teaching young children scientific ideologies that have, or non-scientific ideologies.
00:21:40This stuff is coming into your schools and it's probably already there.
00:21:44But your job is getting here right here right now and God's place is due to have an impact
00:21:49in the culture and in the community that you're in right now.
00:21:51And if you do that in Grandbury, then it spreads to Yvonne County.
00:21:54And once you do that in Yvonne County, it spreads to Palmer Johnson and Tarrant County.
00:21:57Once you do that, the whole state is on fire.
00:22:03And it just spread.
00:22:06We could almost see a preview of what was to come and this playbook emerged.
00:22:14We were afraid.
00:22:16We were told not to tweet.
00:22:17We were told not to put things on Facebook.
00:22:20They came after me and they came after our library.
00:22:23They came after our library board.
00:22:26We were called evil specialists instead of media specialists.
00:22:32I know they're going to fire me.
00:22:33I know they're making a case to fire me.
00:22:35I know it's coming, but I'm not going to shut up.
00:22:37I'm just not going to do it.
00:22:39You continue to speak out.
00:22:41You will be on the chopping block.
00:22:43You will lose your job.
00:22:44We have guns.
00:22:45When can we start killing liberals?
00:22:47When could they start hunting us?
00:22:49Hold the line against the LGBT mafia and their dang pedo fans.
00:22:55We had to bring in law enforcement to meetings.
00:22:58This white truck pulled up behind us.
00:22:59And the guy rolled down his window and he yelled at me.
00:23:03He said, we're coming after you next.
00:23:05We're going to keep coming so hard.
00:23:07The only thing these booktards have to figure out is whether it's on their face, back, foot or thighs.
00:23:12Woo!
00:23:16A Florida school district has pulled 176 books from its libraries to comply with the new state education reform law
00:23:24championed by Governor Ron DeSantis.
00:23:26We are going to make sure that parents have a seat at the table and that we protect their rights.
00:23:32Under Florida's HB 1467 law, school books have to be free of pornography or certain race-based teachings.
00:23:40Violating parts of the law could lead teachers to be charged with a felony.
00:23:50Librarians are pulling books without anyone challenging them.
00:23:55The teachers in Manatee County were told by Friday at 3 p.m. you will either cover with paper, turn
00:24:02them to the walls or take your books home.
00:24:05They thought they were erring on the side of caution.
00:24:08But the kids were so upset, they actually texted their parents and said, everyone's crying, everyone's upset, we need our
00:24:16books, we want our books.
00:24:17They wrote emails to the principal saying, please don't take away our books.
00:24:26Part of what I see as my calling is taking care of children.
00:24:32Elizabeth Ann Seton was the patron saint of teachers.
00:24:39I do not believe that scripture is there for us to use as a weapon or to make our political
00:24:47points.
00:24:51Please do some research as to our founding fathers.
00:24:55Their biggest fear was that we become a theocracy.
00:24:58They did not want to be governed by a king and they did not want to be governed by a
00:25:02god.
00:25:03They wanted freedom.
00:25:08Librarians have heard from hundreds of kids that books have saved their lives.
00:25:13That's why to me, I see this as the civil rights fight of our time.
00:25:21And they're not banning just any books.
00:25:24They're banning the best books.
00:25:40We reject woke ideology.
00:25:44We fight the woke in the legislature.
00:25:46We fight the woke in the schools.
00:25:48We fight the woke in the corporations.
00:25:51We will never ever surrender to the woke mob.
00:25:55Florida is where woke goes to die.
00:26:10We've got down here a librarian of Auschwitz.
00:26:15Some people are challenging or flamer, which is actually a really good one.
00:26:20And then of course, Handmaid's Tale.
00:26:24I had been at the school for nine years.
00:26:27It had been a dream job for the first seven of those nine years.
00:26:32The governor says this is child pornography.
00:26:36In June, one of the Moms for Liberty in our area had posted a video about the second book in
00:26:42the Court of Thorns and Roses series.
00:26:44And she tagged all of the schools that had the book in their library.
00:26:48So then the district decided to just quietly pull the books from the shelves and delete them.
00:26:54And I happened to notice a few days later when I went up to work.
00:26:58I was very concerned that this was kind of getting out of hand.
00:27:02So I went to the school board meeting.
00:27:04Hi, good evening.
00:27:06My name is Julie Miller.
00:27:07My address is on file.
00:27:09And I am a high school librarian.
00:27:13I know.
00:27:14We're kind of seen as the bad guy.
00:27:17So I just wanted to give you guys just a moment of hearing straight from one of us,
00:27:24who are boots on the ground, to let you know, like, a little bit about us.
00:27:29I am a Baptist minister's wife and daughter of a minister as well.
00:27:35It was at that same meeting where Bruce Friedman showed up.
00:27:40This year, at least 102 books have been banned in Clay County, Florida.
00:27:46They were removed from school libraries thanks in large part to this single conservative activist.
00:27:52I represent no left turn in education.
00:27:55That's the Florida chapter.
00:27:56I also run the New York chapter.
00:27:58I'm also a member of Moms for Liberty.
00:28:00I spent like 45 minutes after that meeting talking to him.
00:28:04And it was a, you know, pleasant, weird, but pleasant conversation.
00:28:10And the next thing I know is Bruce essentially said in an article,
00:28:16I'm going to clean up the libraries in Clay County.
00:28:19Anyone who gets in my way, I'm going to run over them like a dead body.
00:28:23And it was just like, first of all, who runs over a dead body?
00:28:26Like, what does that even mean?
00:28:28But very, like, triggering language.
00:28:32And then he started writing my name on challenge forms.
00:28:37Talk to Julie Miller.
00:28:39Julie Miller has this one.
00:28:41Surprise, surprise.
00:28:43Disgusting.
00:28:44It was like, what is going on?
00:28:59Julie was very helpful in research of the books that have been banned,
00:29:05the books that have been removed.
00:29:12To attempt to take black history and take a lot of our stories away from children
00:29:20is one of the most evil things I think a person can do.
00:29:25When it comes to the number of banned books at schools,
00:29:28Florida leads the nation in Clay County as number one in the state.
00:29:40These are some of the books.
00:29:42Stamp.
00:29:45Anybody ever seen the movie Color Purple?
00:29:47Yes.
00:29:49And of course, 1619 Project.
00:29:52Do you care whether books that are written by African Americans
00:29:58or books like, this book was banned?
00:30:05As a kid, like, going to a predominantly white school,
00:30:09I was always questioning, questioning who I was.
00:30:13Like, hair, skin color.
00:30:16I feel like this new kid, hair love,
00:30:20I feel like that would have made me feel a little bit more comfortable
00:30:22in my own skin.
00:30:26What's dangerous with this book banning is
00:30:29it's being led by people who say they love God.
00:30:35And I call for the fire of God and the glory of God
00:30:38and the fear of the Lord to fall on Clay County, Florida,
00:30:42in the name of Jesus.
00:30:45Next we have Jeffrey Dove.
00:30:53I do not wish the fire of God to fall on you all.
00:31:00That's not the God I serve.
00:31:02I'm a lot of things.
00:31:03I'm a pastor.
00:31:04I'm a father.
00:31:05And most of all, I'm a strong black man.
00:31:08But when you start talking about removing African American authors
00:31:12and African American history, I got a problem with that.
00:31:16Because right now we are an embarrassment
00:31:21in the state of Florida.
00:31:23We got the list of these books are to be removed immediately,
00:31:27so says the Oversight Committee.
00:31:32I wrote an email back and just asked, like,
00:31:37could you please provide us with the reason
00:31:40why each of these books is being removed?
00:31:43Some months had went by.
00:31:45I asked someone about Julie and how she was doing.
00:31:49That one thing that I dreaded the most had happened.
00:31:54I lost my job.
00:31:56I was removed from my library for asking questions.
00:32:02They're going to say it's because I was refusing to follow directives.
00:32:06That's not the case at all.
00:32:08It's really just because I kept pushing back.
00:32:17I sat there for three hours.
00:32:19I wasn't giving up.
00:32:21I wasn't budging.
00:32:22I don't care how long it was.
00:32:24They were going to hear me that day.
00:32:27All right.
00:32:27So before, actually, we move into school board member comments,
00:32:31I did have a question from the audience.
00:32:34Yeah, the reason I came back is because I saw one of you all's
00:32:38media specialists in Clay County was removed.
00:32:42It's wrong.
00:32:46Don't do people like that when they have a different view.
00:32:50It's not fair.
00:32:52If anybody has to be responsible for this cabalgo, we're leading the United States and books that are not on
00:33:00the shelf.
00:33:01It's y'all.
00:33:03Shame on you.
00:33:05Shame, shame, shame on you.
00:33:07Moms for Liberty are making a lot of ground.
00:33:11Very smart young ladies.
00:33:15I call it wicked genius.
00:33:17It's a genius that curtails to oppressing people.
00:33:23It was like snuffing out a candle.
00:33:28It just happened so, like, quietly, and it's like you're dismissed.
00:33:37And it's all politically motivated, right?
00:33:42But I met the young man outside.
00:33:46I said, how you doing, brother?
00:33:50He says, I hate librarians.
00:33:55This can't be America.
00:34:01No, this can't be America.
00:34:14It feels like I'm living in a dystopian novel right now.
00:34:17Like, if you would have asked me 10 years ago if I was going to have, like, security concerns at
00:34:22a librarian conference, I would have been like, you're nuts.
00:34:27This is the highest number of attempted vote bans since we began compiling these lists 20 years ago.
00:34:34And I hate that censorship affects our professional lives, but it is a reality.
00:34:40Sometimes librarians are relocated to other buildings or grade levels, and sometimes librarians are outright fired for defending intellectual freedom.
00:34:50And then there are the cases where librarians feel for their physical safety and for those of their families.
00:34:57One librarian had her tires slashed during a library board meeting.
00:35:02We understand what's going on right now on a very real and personal level for some of us.
00:35:09But I know that as librarians, we continue to remember and focus on our professionalism and the work that we
00:35:18do.
00:35:18We want to make sure that we are reinforcing to you that even in the darkest of days, this is
00:35:25still what we do.
00:35:31We want to talk about a book banning controversy underway in Island Trees, New York.
00:35:36For six years, The Naked Ape, Slaughterhouse Five, and seven other books labeled by the school board as anti-American
00:35:42or obscene have been banned from Island Trees library shelves.
00:35:46Stephen Pico, you were one of the students to bring action, were you not?
00:35:49We filed suit because we believe that every American, regardless of age, has the right to be exposed to a
00:35:55diversity of viewpoints and gain a number of perspectives on life.
00:35:58The Supreme Court today sharply curbed the authority of local school boards to ban books from school libraries.
00:36:06For laypeople, this is the Roe v. Wade of libraries.
00:36:11When the Crouse List came back, when Granbury boxed up hundreds of books, they were infringing on what Pico established.
00:36:18A book cannot be removed because of a disagreement with the ideas that are in the book.
00:36:27We're highly trained in the selection of age-appropriate material.
00:36:30Most of us have library and information science master's degrees.
00:36:35We learned legal precedent. We take courses on it.
00:36:39The thing that truly concerns us is when an individual, whether it be a parent or a non-parent or
00:36:45a single group within the society, tries to determine what is correct for not only that child, but other children
00:36:51as well.
00:36:52That is what we fight.
00:37:01I'm not going to say my parents are white Christian nationalists, but when I started being targeted, they didn't speak
00:37:07to me for a week.
00:37:09It's kind of a mess in here.
00:37:13There we go.
00:37:14Turn this.
00:37:18All right.
00:37:19For 40 years, I've been wanting to build a cannon.
00:37:22See, it rolls real easy.
00:37:24It's called the Confederate Mountain Rifle.
00:37:28It's the exact replica of what you would see back through the Civil War.
00:37:38You know, I've done a lot of family history and research.
00:37:41My ancestors listed slaves as property, and I'm not proud of that.
00:37:46It's uncomfortable.
00:37:48But I think sometimes we have to be uncomfortable and face that fact.
00:37:51Why would you want to embarrass white kids or...
00:37:56It's like she said that's the past and we can't change that.
00:38:00What you don't want to do is teach your kids to hate their country, because then when they grow up,
00:38:07we won't have a country.
00:38:08I love my country, but I think we have to acknowledge that we're not perfect.
00:38:13Don't teach only the bad, the bad, the bad, the bad, the bad, the bad, the bad.
00:38:21While the rest of us were in lockdown, Live Oak Middle School librarian Amanda Jones and her students were traveling
00:38:28the world.
00:38:29I decided if they couldn't go out in the world, I was going to bring the world to them.
00:38:32She was awarded the 2021 National School Librarian of the Year.
00:38:37And I hope to use it as a platform to advocate for school libraries across the country.
00:38:45Here is Amanda Jones at the Livingston Parish Library Board meeting on Tuesday, July 19th.
00:38:50Why is she fighting so hard to keep sexually erotic and pornographic material in the kids' section?
00:39:03If a middle school teacher is promoting pornography and erotic content to kids, I don't care what kind of pedigree
00:39:09she has.
00:39:11And I've never promoted pornography and erotica to children.
00:39:15Our local representative came for a photo op when I got National School Librarian of the Year.
00:39:21She was there for that photo op.
00:39:23Two years later, she's perpetuating lies about me.
00:39:29Jones was the subject of harsh memes, comments, and threats.
00:39:34Police couldn't determine who was threatening her.
00:39:40I have made it very well known that I travel with a weapon, multiple weapons, and we got security all
00:39:47around our home.
00:39:48I have escape routes wherever I go in my head, and I get my groceries delivered.
00:39:53I don't go in public in my community.
00:39:57Because the things they say online are so horrible.
00:40:02You know, I should be killed, and I shouldn't be alive.
00:40:06And that's sad. It's just my life now.
00:40:13I don't think any of us imagined when we started out that one day our lives might be at risk.
00:40:17I reached out to a lawyer, just got some background information about our county DA,
00:40:24and who in Texas would want to be the first district attorney to try to prosecute a school librarian.
00:40:33That was an existential moment for me.
00:40:36Imagining my face on the wanted poster and my friends being taken away in handcuffs.
00:40:42You are obsolete, Mr. Wordsworth.
00:40:45A lie. No man is obsolete.
00:40:48You're a librarian, Mr. Wordsworth.
00:40:51I'm a human being. I exist.
00:40:53And if I speak one thought aloud, that thought lives, even after I'm shoveled into my grave.
00:41:00You waste our time, Mr. Wordsworth, and you're not worth the waste.
00:41:06How do you find, ladies and gentlemen?
00:41:10Obsolete.
00:41:11Obsolete.
00:41:12Obsolete.
00:41:13Obsolete.
00:41:14I concur.
00:41:29When I was first attacked back in 2021, a student who was not a library regular previously
00:41:39started showing up in the first couple of weeks in September every day during lunchtime and would just roam the
00:41:45stacks.
00:41:49And I'd go out and I'd say, can I help you find anything?
00:41:52And he would say no.
00:41:53And I would leave it at that.
00:41:54I don't want to, you know, nag a kid.
00:41:57After two weeks of this every day, I see the kid emerge from the stacks holding Lawn Boy by Jonathan
00:42:04Edison.
00:42:18I read the book myself and loved it.
00:42:22And I was kind of dumbfounded because it was not a wildly popular book.
00:42:27It wasn't on many people's radar.
00:42:29And of all the 20,000 books in the library, he emerges with that one.
00:42:32I said, how'd you learn about it?
00:42:34And he said, my parents sent me, my parents told me about it and said I should look for it
00:42:40in the library.
00:42:4224 hours later, that student's mother was standing in front of the Board of Education.
00:42:50Martha Hickson, our school librarian, remarked to my son as he was checking out the books, quote, I love that
00:42:56book.
00:42:57And calling me a pornographer, pedophile, and groomer of children.
00:43:01This amounts to an effort to groom our kids, to make them more willing to participate in the heinous act
00:43:07described in these books.
00:43:09It grooms them to accept the inappropriate advances of an adult.
00:43:14My principal was in that room.
00:43:16The assistant superintendent was in that room.
00:43:19But they sat there in silence.
00:43:22And here's the pain, really painful part.
00:43:24They have maintained that silence for three years.
00:43:41Being a librarian, I started researching.
00:43:47I was watching Texas and Florida both very carefully.
00:43:52I felt like that's sort of the petri dish of what could be coming up here.
00:43:59This started in Llano, Texas.
00:44:02About a week later, a woman in Virginia saw the Llano Challenge and picked up some of that language.
00:44:09Both of these books include pedophilia.
00:44:13This, do not interrupt my time.
00:44:17And then, about two weeks later, same claim showed up at our board meeting.
00:44:22And that suggested to me something was afoot.
00:44:25And I said, I don't think this is organic.
00:44:28I don't think this is spontaneous.
00:44:31This is organized.
00:44:37Moms for Liberty are having their town hall here tonight on the Upper East Side.
00:44:42Welcome, New York.
00:44:43We are thrilled to be here.
00:44:45Thank you so much for joining us tonight.
00:44:47It seems like there's a lot of misconceptions out there about who we are and what we do.
00:44:52We were founded in 2021 by Tiffany Justice and I.
00:44:55We're both former school board members.
00:44:57What is Moms for Liberty?
00:44:59The New Yorker calls them the right-wing mothers fueling the school board wars.
00:45:02No one's going to fight for any issue like a parent.
00:45:04We're not in it for the money.
00:45:06There's no glory.
00:45:07We love our children and we're willing to do anything.
00:45:09Now, they'll tell you that their funding for these national conferences comes from selling their $15 t-shirts.
00:45:18You don't get Ron DeSantis to show up at your conference.
00:45:21Donald Trump to show at your conference just from selling t-shirts.
00:45:25But this grassroots group is registered as a 501c.
00:45:29They are not required to disclose their donors.
00:45:32But we do know that their PAC received a $50,000 donation this year from Julie Fancelli,
00:45:37the largest single donor to the January 6th Stop the Steal rally that led to the Capitol insurrection.
00:45:43We asked Moms for Liberty who else is among their donors and they did not respond with any specific names.
00:45:48What ideology are the children being indoctrinated into?
00:45:52I think parents' fears are realized.
00:45:55They're looking at these books where sexual discussions are happening with their children at younger and younger ages.
00:46:01And Tango Makes Three has been challenged in at least 32 states.
00:46:06It's about two male penguins who care for an abandoned baby penguin.
00:46:09The book has been labeled a tool for so-called grooming.
00:46:14Marie Sendak's in the night kitchen.
00:46:16They drew pants.
00:46:19You're getting to the point of talking about a period.
00:46:23It is sexually explicit.
00:46:25Under the new law, Lord of the Rings is considered being inappropriate.
00:46:30There's some Facebook Moms group that said that pandas symbolized something.
00:46:39The graphic novel of the Diary of Anne Frank.
00:46:44Yep, there's your nudity right there.
00:46:49And mouse, which has to do with mouse nudity in a concentration camp.
00:46:57When they go after the books, what they're really going after is those kids that come into my library for
00:47:05a safe space.
00:47:06And I cannot abide that.
00:47:14Part of the ethics of our profession to support the First Amendment and to fight censorship.
00:47:21It's what I've been trained to do.
00:47:30The North Carolina Voorhees Regional High School District Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, January 30th is now called to
00:47:38border.
00:47:39If I were a younger person, I may have left by now.
00:47:45But I believe firmly in what's right.
00:47:48And then I also believe firmly in my students.
00:47:51If I were to say to the board or someone at school, you are a vile and disgusting C word
00:47:57and a danger to young people, I could and should be escorted out of this building by the police.
00:48:03This is the exact language that has been sent to our school librarian by a group led by the spouse
00:48:08of someone on the board.
00:48:09If you want to get rid of and censor books, you are no different than fascist.
00:48:14For every fascist movement began the same exact way.
00:48:18You're here to ban books with gay characters.
00:48:22You might as well be here to start the fourth rank.
00:48:25Ford, you want him out?
00:48:26Yes!
00:48:27Yes!
00:48:28You guys cursed!
00:48:29I might f***ing kill you!
00:48:30I do f***ing cook ban on me!
00:48:32You guys cursed!
00:48:33You guys cursed!
00:48:34You guys cursed!
00:48:34I f***ing kill!
00:48:35I f***ing kill!
00:48:36I'm out!
00:48:37Thank you, Bart!
00:48:39I'm out!
00:48:41I'm out!
00:48:43I'm out!
00:48:44I'm out!
00:48:55The book itself, queerfully and wonderfully made, that's going against the scripture.
00:49:02It's fearfully and wonderfully made, and that's what we are.
00:49:06I could go through the whole chapter of that, of the Bible.
00:49:10This book is considered nonfiction, and it is including Christianity.
00:49:15The Bible doesn't support this, so that already debunks the nonfiction status of this book.
00:49:21So we're talking about pornography.
00:49:23I was born and raised in Holden.
00:49:25I am also trans-feminine, and I am a queer person.
00:49:29I don't think y'all understand what it's like to grow up in an environment like this,
00:49:33where even your family members are constantly telling you that you're going to burn in hell.
00:49:38Books like this say, hey, you were loved.
00:49:42There is a community that will be there for you.
00:49:47Sorry, my anxiety is running very high, because I can tell that y'all very much misunderstand us.
00:49:53This gives much, this requires...
00:50:10Hello, my name is Amanda Jones.
00:50:13The great thing about books is that we all have different ways that we interpret them.
00:50:19I read this book, and I interpret it as meaning a push for love and acceptance.
00:50:27It was written by pastors and mental health professionals for Christians.
00:50:33This book is not in the children's picture book section.
00:50:37It is in the teen nonfiction section where it belongs, because it was written for teens.
00:50:44Monitor your own children.
00:50:46Don't let your children read it if you don't want to.
00:50:50No one's forcing you to check it out.
00:50:52LGBTQ youth who report having at least one accepting adult are 40% less likely to accept suicide.
00:50:59Some kids don't have those adults in their life.
00:51:03I have lost over 12 students who were ostracized because they were made to feel less than in this parish.
00:51:13And I feel it right now, even though I'm not from that community, from the hate that's coming from some
00:51:20people in this room.
00:51:21It would be easy to move this book and placate a few people for the sake of bypassing drama.
00:51:27It would be easy.
00:51:29But sometimes doing what's easy is not what's right.
00:51:40The board would like to protect children from inappropriate material and would prefer to remove the challenged materials while the
00:51:46library processes its request.
00:51:52I'll be damned if we're going to lose another kid because of something our community has done to make them
00:51:59feel less.
00:52:02I've had former students reach out to me that have told me books have saved them.
00:52:07And then there's the kids that grew up and killed themselves because they were ostracized in our community for who
00:52:13they are.
00:52:15And if I was silent, my silence would be my compliance, and I am not going to be complicit in
00:52:22the death of children or even the hurtful feelings.
00:52:28I'm not going to participate in that anymore.
00:52:31Because even though I didn't actively participate in it before, I was silent and I saw stuff.
00:52:37But I'm not going to do that anymore.
00:52:40I'm going to speak out about it.
00:52:41So this is my strong-willed child, and I thought, mm-mm, she's not going to lay down and take
00:52:46this.
00:53:03Our district was doing an okay job before this.
00:53:06Was it perfect?
00:53:07No.
00:53:08They were doing a pretty darn good job.
00:53:10And they were watching out for our kids, and they were trying to keep their own personal politics out of
00:53:14the decision-making.
00:53:15But that's not what we're doing anymore.
00:53:17Now it's all the culture wars of America are just right smack dab right here in the middle of my
00:53:22kids' school district.
00:53:25After more than a year of controversy, Keller ISD voted to ban books about gender identity.
00:53:31I pledge allegiance to the Texas.
00:53:35I pledge allegiance to the Texas.
00:53:49I'm Lanie.
00:53:50I'm a mom of four kids in Keller ISD.
00:53:52As soon as our new Patriot Mobile School Board was elected your top priority was
00:53:56to disregard all the parent district and community input. Since then you've
00:54:00created a hateful contradictory nonsensical and unconstitutional book
00:54:05banning rubric. You are also passing a policy tonight that gives you the power
00:54:10to hire and fire every employee in the district all the way down to the
00:54:14cafeteria workers. You don't trust your admin, you don't trust your principals,
00:54:18you don't trust your teachers, you don't trust the parents. You're coming for
00:54:21teachers and librarians. You've made it clear and they know it. We have a
00:54:26movement within America that has decided that school boards are now where they
00:54:31want to push their agenda.
00:54:39Patriot Mobile. They aren't just a wireless provider, they are a political movement.
00:54:43Up to 5% of every Patriot Mobile phone bill goes directly to supporting Patriot
00:54:48Mobile's political action committee. We need to put our money behind companies
00:54:53that share our values. I'm looking at Glenn over here from Patriot Mobile.
00:54:57We know that Patriot Mobile, they admitted to coming into our communities and
00:55:00interviewing people and finding who they thought would best represent their
00:55:04interests and that's who they backed with the hundreds of thousands of
00:55:07dollars. It wasn't until we started getting these mailers that we realized
00:55:13what was happening. We're talking probably seven, eight, nine, ten flyers these people
00:55:18are getting covered with images of crying children and saying they've been exposed to
00:55:23porn in school and your kid is being made to feel guilty for being white. All of
00:55:27these things that are just simply untrue. Then we started sharing them online and then we
00:55:33found out the school districts neighboring ours had the exact same
00:55:37flyers paid for by the exact same pack but just with the pictures of the
00:55:42candidates inter-swapped with theirs and we were like oh my goodness this is a
00:55:47large-scale coordinated effort to take over school boards across the state of
00:55:52Texas. One of the keys is these school boards right? The school boards are the
00:55:56key that picks the law. This was their blueprint and they succeeded. They backed
00:56:0211 candidates in North Texas. All 11 candidates won and now they hold a
00:56:08majority and the president, vice president, and secretary on all four
00:56:12school boards that they decided to fund and they're going to continue to spread it.
00:56:17We're focused on school boards here for now but our goal is to spread this as
00:56:21large as we can to other states and other communities that are that are quite
00:56:25frankly wanting what we're what we're doing here in their communities.
00:56:47They had that at the school board meeting completely packed.
00:56:50Oh I'm sure. I'm sure. And somebody told me this morning to go online and look at the
00:56:57Republican Club. They had some meeting I guess last week and it was all about
00:57:02book banning and they had speakers come in so they got them all riled up and gave
00:57:08them all their talking points so that they could all come to this meeting and
00:57:11completely drown anybody else's voices out. That's what they did. That's what they do.
00:57:17Well you know a lot of these people actually make threats you know about having a gun and yada yada
00:57:25yada.
00:57:27It's just like just so ate up with the hate and there's not enough voices countering it.
00:57:35Of the United States and of this state. Of the United States and of this state. So help me God.
00:57:42So help me God. Thank you.
00:57:46I ran on this platform. The porn and the grooming and pedophiles in schools.
00:57:54I felt like it it was there. People just didn't know or they didn't know where to look and I
00:58:00was going to find it.
00:58:03So that's what I did. You know that's why I ran.
00:58:07And so I did the research. I was expecting to find something that would relate to what they were saying.
00:58:15But nothing even came close. I mean it just it didn't even come close.
00:58:20It just became very apparent that what they were trying to tell parents
00:58:26and what was actually happening in our schools were two completely different things.
00:58:32This is just complete sexualization of the kids. And it's not stopping. It's not going backwards. It's moving forward.
00:58:42It pains me to say that GISD through the inaction of the Board of Trustees and the upper level administrators
00:58:48are grooming your children.
00:58:52The aha moment for me was a conversation I had with one of my former co-hosts.
00:58:58I felt we need to let our community know that it's not in the schools.
00:59:02And he told me to stop talking to my fellow trustees. Just completely cut off communication.
00:59:11I refused to do their bidding. And I said, no, I'm not doing that. That's not right.
00:59:18Now I'm enemy number one with them. Surprise, surprise.
00:59:26Courtney Gore has been an entire and complete and total disappointment.
00:59:30Yes, I would say disappointment is a big word.
00:59:34And I go back to that culture of, do you want to do the right thing and not be liked
00:59:38by everybody?
00:59:40I guess Courtney's woke. She woke.
00:59:44Courtney's woke?
00:59:45I guess she's woke now is what they're saying.
00:59:49Courtney?
00:59:50Yes.
00:59:52You can't say there's not porn in schools because there is.
00:59:57I knew I was going to get backlash, but I never thought it was going to rise to the level
01:00:01that it did.
01:00:02There was a June meeting where a gentleman, it was actually his grandfather, came with a firearm.
01:00:10Yeah, I've got something for you too. You just wait.
01:00:16I don't play with the rules anymore. I haven't played with the rules since Vietnam.
01:00:21And I'm not going to start now.
01:00:23We have profile sheets on Courtney Gore, which is not here.
01:00:28Profile sheets. We know what you do. We know where you live.
01:00:36One of my younger brothers came over here and actually slept on our front porch that night, just to make
01:00:42sure we were safe.
01:00:43I feel like by talking, that is the only way I'm going to be able to protect myself.
01:00:48Like I have to be vocal. And if I'm not, that's when they get the power.
01:01:01Last day in Granbury.
01:01:04We're very excited to be leaving.
01:01:07This is a place Mindy and I both grew up in.
01:01:11Came back to raise our kids in.
01:01:14I ran the baseball and softball association.
01:01:17I served on the school board and this place changed.
01:01:19People more willing to impose their religion on others, discriminate against others.
01:01:25We've been fighting for years.
01:01:28The book ban is the latest piece.
01:01:32I have a proven conservative record.
01:01:34Always considered one of the top conservatives in the house.
01:01:37Before the Krauss list.
01:01:38There had been zero parent requests to review books.
01:01:43Not even one.
01:01:46So why are we doing this?
01:01:49My Texas house rep, while I was serving on the school board,
01:01:54the first time he got elected, we met with him as a school board
01:01:59and said, here's the things we care about in public education.
01:02:02We'd love your support.
01:02:05He told us, yes, yes, absolutely.
01:02:07And when it came time to vote, he voted exactly the opposite.
01:02:13I couldn't understand why.
01:02:15You told us you were going to support our schools.
01:02:18And then you voted against them every time and honestly started to bad mouth our schools.
01:02:24And that's truly what made me start digging into money.
01:02:2960%, 70% of his money was coming from one source, which was a billionaire out in Cisco, Texas.
01:02:35A male on male or a female on female is against nature.
01:02:42So this lifestyle is a predatorial lifestyle in that they need your children and straight people having kids to fulfill
01:02:50their sexual habits.
01:02:51They want your children.
01:02:53The cornerstones of our government are crumbling and starting to come apart.
01:02:58And it's because of the lack of morality, the lack of belief in our Heavenly Father.
01:03:06I did the thing that people do, right?
01:03:08When you discover something is you put it on Facebook or you put it on Twitter and you talk about
01:03:13it.
01:03:15Our schools are not to be used for personal political agendas.
01:03:20And our children are here for education, not religious indoctrination.
01:03:25Go tell your pastor, our schools are not your church.
01:03:32I'm good at spreadsheets.
01:03:33So I built pie charts and yeah, I built a site to make it go.
01:03:38We have Chris Tackett, who is a former trustee of this school board.
01:03:46Pie chart guy for the Texas, for all the state reps.
01:03:49Right, he does pie charts, right?
01:03:50For all the conservatives to show where all the dark money goes.
01:03:55It was kind of an eye opener for me to realize that there was this bigger agenda behind everything.
01:04:01Some of the people that are pushing this agenda believe it is their duty to take over everywhere.
01:04:07Government, public schools, media, every aspect of our lives.
01:04:11You're going to read about certain verticals or structures that the enemy is working on.
01:04:18Satan wants to occupy the seat of influence over the Supreme Court, over the government, over education with indoctrination.
01:04:27We're the force that is hindering the devil from doing what he wants to do.
01:04:31God takes what the devil meant to harm us and he turns it into good.
01:04:38He blesses us with it.
01:04:40Every time we're attacked at Patriot Mobile, our sales just go through the roof.
01:04:44We increase our sales.
01:04:46And so what does increasing our sales mean?
01:04:49It means we can get more money back to organizations like Moms for Liberty.
01:04:54This is a spiritual war, not a political war.
01:05:01Is the agenda to gain power and money?
01:05:04Or is it to make our country a Christian theocracy?
01:05:08Or are they one and the same?
01:05:18Thank you for having me, all of you.
01:05:20I moved to Granbury in 2020 and the word I have on my heart is repentance.
01:05:26Not all of us had a hand in what's happened here, but we are the ones who are present to
01:05:32solve the issues.
01:05:33The last book I read was 600 plus pages and it was a whipping for poor quality, number one, but
01:05:40also sexual content.
01:05:42And I'm sorry to point fingers, but we have librarians who are misunderstanding what is healthy and good for children.
01:05:48I think you ought to have people of good moral standards, people in the community that maybe even are voted
01:05:53on.
01:05:54Pastors like Paul Duncan, he would never steer you wrong and he'll put you in a safety zone with your
01:05:58books.
01:05:59You don't have to have these ultra controversial books in your library.
01:06:03Hey, TikTok, I got a wild one for you.
01:06:06In 2018, I received this text from my mom after coming out and was effectively cut off my family and
01:06:12eight younger siblings.
01:06:13I came across this video showing my mom speaking at a school board meeting in Texas, calling for the district
01:06:18to remove books, repent and appoint a pastor to review and approve educational material.
01:06:23She even filed charges against librarians in Granbury, Texas.
01:06:27Literally, you have thousands of books.
01:06:29So what harm is it to let go of some of them?
01:06:32And that's all I have to say.
01:06:35And Kibbe's brown.
01:06:44Your kids do not go to school here.
01:06:47You're on a political agenda.
01:06:48Everybody knows what you're doing.
01:06:49You're trying to get school staff arrested.
01:06:53You've already tried it.
01:06:54That's what you're doing.
01:06:55And we know that.
01:06:56That's what you're doing.
01:06:57That's fine with me if you know it.
01:06:58I'm not hiding anything.
01:06:59You notice I haven't hit a thing.
01:07:01I'm not hiding anything.
01:07:02And I do have a problem with sexually explicit books in the library.
01:07:05I'm sure you do.
01:07:07You're trying to arrest librarians.
01:07:09I have nothing to say to you.
01:07:10A librarian to expose children to...
01:07:11You're trying to arrest librarians.
01:07:12Are you understanding the question?
01:07:13You're trying to arrest librarians.
01:07:15I do not understand.
01:07:16You're a fascist.
01:07:17You're a fascist.
01:07:18You're a fascist.
01:07:18You're a fascist.
01:07:19You're a fascist.
01:07:19Sexually explicit books.
01:07:29When I moved here to San Diego, I got a bunch of prints.
01:07:32My siblings from a few years back, one of the last times I got to see them.
01:07:37And my partner here, his name's Andrew.
01:07:43Growing up, none of my siblings, there's nine of us total, none of us have stepped foot in a public
01:07:49school.
01:07:52Every piece of printed material that came into our home was curated by my parents.
01:07:58I'm starting a little collection of books.
01:08:03It's off to a small start.
01:08:05The book that started it all, All Boys Aren't Blue.
01:08:10Right off the bat, this book is saying, hey, there are some heavy topics, like, be aware.
01:08:20It all seems so much smaller and, like, depressing.
01:08:26I hope my siblings can make it out unscathed.
01:08:29And I'm worried that they're growing up in even more extreme circumstances.
01:08:35And I'm, you know, I hope that they're able to find their own path as well.
01:08:41What my parents, the people that my parents learned from, are doing is so harmful.
01:08:46And they deserve to be put back in their lane.
01:08:55Hello, everyone. My name is Weston Brown.
01:08:57I was born and raised in Texas, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to speak here tonight.
01:09:01A few months ago, I saw my mom, Monica Brown, standing at this podium, calling for the removal of books
01:09:06and asking the school to follow the guidance of the privileges.
01:09:10Weston Brown.
01:09:22From a young age, I was taught to give a voice to people who were disregarded, elevate the marginalized, and
01:09:28love my neighbor.
01:09:30Today, I strive to be the person I needed when I was young.
01:09:33Someone who would stand up, speak out, and protect the kid that felt alone.
01:09:39Growing up, we read the Bible cover to cover from the earliest age I can remember.
01:09:44We repetitively read graphic depictions of sex, violence, genocide, sexual assault, and incest.
01:09:51However, topics related to dating, safe sex, drugs, alcohol, or sexual identity were deemed inappropriate or too heavy to discuss.
01:10:00I would have given anything to read a book with a character that felt the feelings I felt,
01:10:06ask the questions I couldn't ask, and learn the lessons that I needed to learn.
01:10:11It's been nearly five years since I came out to my family.
01:10:19I'm not allowed to join in family celebrations or holidays or be a part of my eight younger siblings' lives
01:10:25solely because I'm not straight.
01:10:29I'm here today to implore you to listen to librarians, educators, and students,
01:10:36not those speaking from a religious perspective or at the bidding of a political group.
01:10:42If you choose to marginalize difference and remove representation, you will only cause harm.
01:10:48History will remember your decisions and demand accountability.
01:10:53Show the world that Granbury will not succumb to fear.
01:10:58The Pope will shine brightly, leading the way for the next generation of Texans.
01:11:03Thank you for listening.
01:11:14Next up, we have Lange for Doyle.
01:11:19And I knew that was coming what came tonight.
01:11:21It's no surprise.
01:11:23It's not all true, but it is true that we have set now in our home
01:11:27for what we expect in our family, whether that matters to any of you or not.
01:11:33Just as an example, you know, in the scripture it says Adam knew Eve.
01:11:36That's not the same as saying he sucked his in her body.
01:11:40That's what you've got in your library.
01:11:42Listen, that's what you've got in your library.
01:11:46That's my mom who birthed me, who raised me and fed me and took care of me.
01:11:53Is it some sort of religious psychosis?
01:11:57Years of messaging from extremist pastors and political leaders?
01:12:04Because when I look at my mom, I see someone who absolutely believes what she's saying.
01:12:07And I see someone who looks scared.
01:12:11Thank you so much.
01:12:13Let me get behind you just in case.
01:12:15Okay.
01:12:15It's like the chances of getting hate crimes are low, but never zero.
01:12:20Your mother has been involved in this process.
01:12:23What was it like to stand here tonight knowing she's here as well?
01:12:27You know, in my mind that wasn't, it's interesting, it wasn't what was top of mind for me.
01:12:32I don't have a message for my family or for my mom or my dad specifically.
01:12:36I have brought and said everything that I have to say to them in many conversations, many times over.
01:12:42And so my perspective tonight isn't to try to reach through to my parents.
01:12:45That's a conversation that they have the tools they need.
01:12:48They know what they need to do to build the bridge.
01:12:51But my goal, not my goal, my plea is for librarians, educators, students, and the boards to pay attention to
01:12:59what matters.
01:13:02Monica, do you have any comments?
01:13:19I think as librarians, we recognize that we're on a continuum.
01:13:25But the swing between these polarizing views are having catastrophic effects on our social structures and our communities.
01:13:36We are on the precipice of some very, very bad things happening in this country.
01:13:43I just hope and pray that people are waking up.
01:13:46It's gone way beyond the cross list, honey.
01:13:49Way beyond the cross list.
01:13:52We are going to take back our schools.
01:13:55This is what I will do to the growing books when I become Secretary of State.
01:14:02Being offended is the basis for House Bill 666.
01:14:05They feel that this legislation could be used to threaten schools to remove books or face arrest just because someone
01:14:12does not like a book.
01:14:14I think that there is going to come a time in some of these books where it crosses a criminal
01:14:19line.
01:14:20It's called Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor.
01:14:32I had been home for three days.
01:14:36And in that last day, I had people calling me left and right.
01:14:42Are you OK?
01:14:42What's going on?
01:14:43And I was like, what are you talking about?
01:14:51A Hood County constable attempted to bring felony charges against three librarians for providing students with library books the constable
01:15:00deemed obscene.
01:15:02Now, I'm not one of those crazy overthrow the government anarchist types, but it is a legitimate question to ask.
01:15:11What do you do when your government doesn't follow its own rules?
01:15:22How does a sheriff arrest someone for violating your constitutional rights?
01:15:26I had some complainants come in on Friday and talked about making a report about the books.
01:15:34Do you know if they use student aides in the libraries?
01:15:38Yes.
01:15:38I was told that my library aides were going to be pulled because for every piece of pornography that was
01:15:48found in the library, I would be served with one felony for every student.
01:15:54Constable London was trying to tell the librarians that if minors had actually put those books on the shelves, then
01:16:03it was then elevated to a felony.
01:16:06I'm doing a criminal investigation into some of your staff.
01:16:09Obviously, there's been an allegation of books that were in conflict of the penal code in the library.
01:16:17Essentially, the librarians are my suspects.
01:16:19If they're the ones that are choosing books and putting them in there, you know, they're the ones that are
01:16:24carrying the criminal liability.
01:16:26Constable London was able to get the names of the minors that checked out those books.
01:16:33To me, as a parent, that is extremely concerning.
01:16:40So I got to tell those four kids that they were not going to be allowed to be librarians because
01:16:45people are afraid that there's pornography in the library.
01:16:48I'm definitely on that list. I was in the library literally every single day of my senior year.
01:16:54That is really, really scary.
01:16:58And that is information that can be used in such a evil way.
01:17:06If the student was underage, was he going to go after the parents?
01:17:10For the kids checking out pornography, was he going to go after other students who may have been 18 at
01:17:16the time?
01:17:19As someone who has not had anything to do with breaking the law and that, I mean, maybe a speeding
01:17:25ticket, but who would have thought child pornography?
01:17:30I fear that we are at the point now where we're going to see teachers in handcuffs.
01:17:42There are forces that want to manipulate and to control the dissemination of information.
01:17:51Some of us feel that depth of responsibility to help our communities navigate.
01:18:01That's why we're here. Librarians are the firewall.
01:18:13I happened to come in contact last year with our state senator, Andrew Zwicker, who after hearing my story, put
01:18:21forth the New Jersey Freedom to Read Act.
01:18:27I went down to Trenton to testify in front of the Education Committee in favor of the bill.
01:18:34There is a proposed committee substitute which establishes requirements for library material in public school libraries and establishes protections for
01:18:42school library staff members and librarians.
01:18:45Being, you know, your vast experience over the years in your role, do you see a distinction between book banning
01:18:52and restricting access to pornography for minors?
01:18:55In my professional role, there is no pornography for minors in a school library, so there is no need to
01:19:00restrict it.
01:19:02But restrictions are, however, a form of censorship. Your personal opinion about obscenity does not make it so.
01:19:10Thank you for sharing. I believe a penis is inappropriate for fifth grade, but thank you. We can talk offline.
01:19:15Thank you.
01:19:17Had I been permitted to speak further, I would have reminded her that fifth graders have penises.
01:19:32A county in Central Texas will consider shutting down its entire public library system because a federal judge ordered it
01:19:40to return banned books.
01:19:41I am in favor of closing the libraries temporarily until we find a solution to the pornographic filth we do
01:19:49have.
01:19:50How do we think it's okay that the librarians would actually facilitate that and deal that like a drug dealer
01:19:57to our kids?
01:19:58Now they're becoming porn dealers? Is that what our librarians have to become?
01:20:04My name is Suzette Baker. I'm the former head librarian for Kingsland, Texas. I'm also a military veteran.
01:20:12The books that are in the library are not pornographic. None of them are.
01:20:18I would like to know how the history of the KKK is pornographic. How to be an anti-racist. How
01:20:26is that pornographic?
01:20:27It's not. This is about taking away rights. Keep the libraries open. Keep the information available to all equally.
01:20:41This is not a communist nation. You do not get to pick our reading material. It is ours.
01:20:49So with that, I'll take a motion. I'll make a motion on June 9, number one, to remove the June
01:20:569.
01:20:57I'll second. The library will remain open. We will try this in the courts, not through social media or through
01:21:04news media.
01:21:06Libraries in Atlanta will stay open after a passion-filled afternoon.
01:21:15It's good to know we're not alone.
01:21:26It's good to know we're not alone.
01:21:27Hey, how are you? I'm proud of you. I forgot my freedom shirt at home. Can you take a picture
01:21:36of me beside it?
01:21:39I couldn't be more delighted to introduce Amanda Jones to you, author of that librarian, the part memoir, part manifesto.
01:21:47No one should have to endure everything that Amanda's had to endure.
01:21:50And I fear that other people in this room may have had similar experiences.
01:21:56We are so grateful for all you do on the front lines.
01:22:03How can you stay?
01:22:06Oh, stay in my town?
01:22:07Yeah.
01:22:08Oh, it's my town. They can all go to hell.
01:22:16You're my hero. You know that, right?
01:22:19You're absolutely my hero.
01:22:22You definitely are.
01:22:30I don't know what's going to happen next.
01:22:33I cannot imagine us being on a cliff that's just too much.
01:22:42But I don't know, maybe we are and we've gone over.
01:22:51Our stories have power.
01:22:54I can't stay anonymous.
01:22:57I can't stay in the shadows anymore.
01:23:06I can't let them keep my story in the dark.
01:23:10I won't be censored.
01:23:12Just like we can't let them keep censoring the stories in our books.
01:23:19What I do know is that our story is still being written.
01:23:25But now it's everyone's story.
01:23:41Hey, how can we tell them?
01:23:42Oh, God.
01:23:43Oh, God.
01:23:44Oh.
01:23:50Yeah.
01:24:07He's right.
01:25:39Additional support for this series has been provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
01:25:43and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.
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