Books Topic of Discussion at SCSD#2 Board Meeting Monday Night

Mark Bergman

At the February 6 SCSD#2 Board of Trustees meeting around 15 people signed up to speak, most talking about their concerns about the books in the school libraries.

The first speaker was Julie Weitz, retired librarian at SCSD#2 spoke about the book controversy. She worked for SCSD#2 for over 20 years. She said that everyone here chooses this community to raise our families.

She added that some of what is in the library might be uncomfortable to some people, but that gives parents an opportunity for discussions with their children.

She said she sees sharing out of context information on social media and with emails, and feels it is a disservice to our children and the authors of the books.

Mark Bergman, a concerned parent said this about content and context.

Most of the parents echoed these sediments about the books, free speech and censorship, but Shannon Rankin had a different perspective on the topic. She mentioned several studies about how pornography affects the brain of children, and how people have to answer to higher powers.

Rosemary Rieder spoke about censorship and the separate of church and state, and the fact that parents have a choice. She said that the intent was not to debate on how or why books should be banned, but more important was the control of public information. Goals of dictators are to discourage free thinking and depress dissent. Banning and burning of books is one of the tools of their control.

“We must oppose those who would attempt to impose their beliefs and moral principles on us by banning books.” She said that everyone has other choices to achieve their goals. They can use opt-out or restrict their own children to books that they find objectionable. She added that they can homeschool. They can do these things without demanding that everyone else comply with one person’s choice.