by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
Parents in the western Massachusetts community of Great Barrington can rest easy knowing that their adolescent children are being protected from reading material deemed inappropriate by Karen the Crank who lives down the street and stays up to her eyebrows in everybody else's business. A little over two weeks ago word apparently reached Karen that there was a copy of a book that she disapproved of in a classroom at the local middle school, and she took the sensible approach to the matter by calling the police. The police, in turn, did their duty and went to the school to search for the book that had Karen so upset.
On December 8th, late in the school day, a plainclothes policeman entered a classroom at the W.E.B. Dubois Middle School in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and began searching for a copy of the book, "Gender Queer: A Memoir," by Maia Kobabe. That book has been "banned" in some communities and schools due to complaints from individuals who are uncomfortable with the content, but news articles (at least the ones I was able to find) did not state that it had been barred in Great Barrington. The book which caused the excitement was not found in the classroom that was searched.
The local chief of police later apologized for the search of the classroom, and the police department along with the local district attorney determined (belatedly) that the matter should be referred to the school district rather than handled as a police matter.
In his apology, the police chief said that his department's actions were not intended to "disenfranchise anyone or influence school curriculum." The school district superintendent also issued an apology, apparently for the school's cooperation with the search, and said that his school was "committed to supporting all students, particularly vulnerable populations."
The matter will be taken up with the local school committee next month, which sounds like where it should have been handled in the first place.
This deplorable incident in Great Barrington is what public education will look like after control of the schools is completely ceded to the Karens and other malcontents of the world who are committed to the ultimate demise of education for all - and to the rise of ignorance, bigotry, and hatred.
America has done better, and it needs to do better again.
1 comment:
Totally agree with you. She is free to own her outrage but not to impose it on others. I’m thinking the right to free speech may cover the right to freely listen. If so, she is also free to not read or listen to things that make her squirmy. She has no right to dictate what I read! Back in the 1970s we often said, “If it makes you uncomfortable, you need it! Btw, Gender Queer is a great book. If she actually read it, and/or without her bigotry blinders, she would know that. 🫡
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