At the November 18, 2021 Board of Education meeting, an agenda item titled “Reconsideration Committee Report” was included, but not discussed by the board. You might be asking just what a reconsideration committee is — the title is curiously vague. All but the most actively engaged will undoubtedly ignore this heading as some routine bureaucratic committee report and skip right over reading it. In fact, it is the one page decision “report” of a committee formed to review the high school library book All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson. A concerned father objected to the book’s availability on school library shelves. His objection read: “it is pornography.” This should not have been a routine/informational piece of business for the FHSD Board of Education.
The book, which multiple members of Francis Howell Families have read, comes right out of the gate challenging a parent’s right to assign a gender to their child at birth and to socialize their child and raise them as they see fit. The book openly admits that it uses Critical Race Theory (CRT). It describes, in detail, the author’s pre-high school sexual abuse with his elder first cousin, including performing oral sex on one another, dry humping, and masturbation while the other watched. This is abuse because the author was so young, despite his participation. The book also describes the author’s first sex experiences in college with full graphic detail about both the oral and anal sex. The author describes both his first time “on top” and “on bottom.” Despite the many controversial topics and positions the author takes in this book, the challenge was due, specifically, to the very explicit sexual stories the author retells.
The FHSD policy 6241 allows for book challenges. As part of the procedures for said policy, a very specific committee must be formed to read the book and make a decision on it. The committee must include certain administrators, a member of the Board of Education, librarians, teachers, laypersons, parents, and students. Yes, you read correctly—students. In the case of All Boys Aren’t Blue, the district was presented with a book challenge which alleged that the book was “pornography.” Whether the committee ultimately found it to be pornographic or not is beside the point. What is concerning is that the district thought it was appropriate to evaluate a pornography challenge with a student on the committee. When the committee was formed, we expect that the district took the challenge seriously; therefore, providing the student a copy of the book that may have been pornographic is, at the very least, troubling. If the district felt the book was not pornographic before forming the committee and, therefore, thought nothing of including a student, then we can conclude that the committee was all for show. The procedure for forming a reconsideration committee to review challenges to materials states that the membership should include the persons mentioned above, including students, “as appropriate.” The district clearly felt it was appropriate to give potentially pornographic material to a minor in the case of All Boys Aren’t Blue, because a sophomore student was on the reconsideration committee. In instances of book challenges alleging pornography, we expect the administration to exercise better judgement and make use of the “as appropriate” clause in their own procedures.
The list of committee members was published on the district’s web page in the agenda of the November 18, 2021 Board of Education meeting. Sometime shortly after, the district revised the document to remove the names of the committee members. The committee was comprised of the president of the Board of Education, the district’s Director of Curriculum and Assessment, a high-school assistant principal, two high-school librarians, a single student, four parents, and, as reported, two teachers, although one of the persons listed as a parent is also a teacher; therefore, there were three teachers on the committee and three laypersons. The Board’s own procedures require four laypersons; therefore, this committee did not even meet the district’s own criteria.
How was the committee selected? We aren’t sure yet. However, given the district’s recent fanaticism about so-called “equity” in all things, one might think that this committee would be made up of something approaching a representative sample of the community at large—and one would be wrong. Just like cutting a recipe for cookies in half, the district falsely thinks we can match the proportion of each “under-represented” identity group in things like advanced placement math classes, among other things. However, during the formation of this book challenge committee, matching the proportion of men to women in our community, arguably the easiest metric to mirror, proved either too difficult, or unimportant for this book challenge. The committee was made up of nine women and three men. The vote of 11 to 1 to keep the book, with the lone dissenter being the father who challenged the book, speaks volumes. There is hardly an issue in the world that a representative group of 11 would agree on unanimously. The district’s policy is not only inappropriate for allowing students to sit on such a committee, but ineffective at obtaining a representative sample of the community. Interestingly, the superintendent of our neighbors in the Wentzville School District removed the same book immediately after a parent challenged it, citing that it is inappropriate for students.
The committee’s decision cited the rationale that the overall message of the book was “particularly in need for a group of students that is under-represented in the school library.” The “report” also rolls out the FHSD’s favorite library policy that allows parents to contact the school librarian and ask that certain titles be restricted for their child. This absurd statement means that it is incumbent upon every single parent in the district to not only know every library book on the shelf, but also its content. Parents have enough to do without having to worry if a library book their child brings home will be describing the taste of a penis. It used to be common sense that school districts would keep obscene and vulgar material off of their library shelves and out of classrooms, but it seems those days have come to an end in Francis Howell. Make no mistake, All Boys Aren’t Blue is hardly the only book, or the most concerning book, on the library shelves at FHSD. Francis Howell Families has written about several other books of concern in FHSD.
In this personal memoir and manifesto of George M. Johnson, he recounts how his family called him by his middle name, Matthew, until he was eight years old at which point, he learned that his real first name was George, which he did not know and was not told prior to this point in his life. (The book explains the story well.) He talks about how it was his choice to go by either George or Matthew in school from that point forward, but he had to pick one. Just like he had to pick a name, FHSD residents must pick Board of Education members that will implement a policy that makes sure obscene sexual content is not normalized to adolescents whose brains are still developing (not to mention the drug use and alcohol abuse, among other vices normalized in this book). Francis Howell Families will support Board of Education candidates committed to making common sense policies regarding book materials in our school buildings.
If you share our concern for protecting our students from sexually graphic and inappropriate material, here’s what you can do:
- Please contact us to find out more, volunteer in a school board campaign, or to let us know your concerns about our schools.
- Consider making a donation to help us elect better school board members.
- Attend a FHSD School board meeting and voice your concerns –
12/16/21 6:30pm – 810 Westwood Ind. Park Dr., Weldon Spring, MO 63304