What a difference a teachers’ union can make. Just when a parent thinks they can send their children off to school without the fear they will come back a Marxist, the opposite sex, or a non-binary aquatic mammal, the heavy hand of Leftism intervenes to ensure that the indoctrination will proceed as ordered. On Aug. 9, the Clyde-Savannah Board of Education in Clyde, N.Y., voted to remove books that featured sexual content, including sex between minors and adults. The titles included “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” “Red Hood,” “People Kill People,” “Jesus Land: A Memoir,” and “It Ends With Us.” The Daily Caller notes that the move came after local father Jacob Marchitell lodged a complaint. This past Wednesday, the board reversed that decision, and those books and likely others like them will be returned to the stacks in the district’s school libraries.
The impetus for the reversal seems to have come from a demand from Robert Reilly. Reilly is the general counsel for New York State United Teachers. Reilly said that removing the books was an “arbitrary act of exclusion.” He also threatened the board with an appeal to the Commissioner of Education to “vindicate the intellectual freedom rights of the District’s students and the academic freedom rights of the District’s professional educators.” So, New York professional educators are demanding the right to have kids read sexually explicit material? Well, not overtly. From the Caller:
Reilly referenced the New York Department of Education’s guidance for diversity, equity, and inclusion, which was released on Aug. 9. An example of violating this policy would be, according to the guidance, “banning books that highlight the diverse histories and perspectives of Black people.”
Okay, I’m not black, I’ll give you that. But what does the history of black people have to do with sexually oriented material? Actually, it has nothing to do with it. This, of course, raises the question of why tolerance and diversity cannot be taught without including material about graphic sex acts and child molestation. Marchitell told the Caller that the vote was held under duress because the board feared legal action. But we still do not have an answer as to why the teachers’ union is so devoted to providing sexually oriented material to kids.
Related: ‘Equitable Weeding’ in School Libraries and Replacing History With Perversion
Moving south, the Caller also reports that on Thursday, the Amherst County School Board in Virginia voted against implementing Gov. Glen Youngkin’s parental rights policy with regard to transgender issues. Among the provisions in the policy is that membership on sports teams will be based on biological sex and that parents can have their child use a single-sex bathroom if there are privacy and safety concerns. Three out of five community members at Thursday’s meeting spoke in support of Youngkin’s policy, but the board still voted 6-1 to reject it. One would think that with everything that transpired in Loudoun County, the Amherst board would have been more thoughtful in its deliberations. But apparently, the board has decided “Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead.”
Some of this is pride. Much of it is a love of power. As an ex-Leftist, I can tell you that Progressives fiercely cling to their beliefs, which are held together by the idea that the opposition, whether it is capitalism, the patriarchy, heterosexuality, religion, or whatever, must be destroyed by any means necessary. The collateral damage to people’s lives is just part of the cost of doing business. And the result of the revolution, no matter how destructive, is still better than the status quo that has been replaced. At least, that is what they tell themselves. And despite what happened in Loudoun County, or perhaps because of it, Leftists will never admit that they are wrong about anything. This is in part because they cannot stand self-examination. But it’s also because if they admit that they are wrong about one thing, they may have to admit that they were wrong about another thing, followed by another and another. Ruined children eventually go away, even though that means they become ruined adults. But the smug satisfaction of rebellion can provide enough emotional fuel to last a lifetime.
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