A school board meeting in the US was plunged into uproar yesterday after officials were called on to ban a “pornographic book available to students” in the wake of a country-wide censorship row.
At a sitting of the Moore County School Board in North Carolina, a local resident had come forward to address a committee about the inclusion of “Life is Funny”, a teen coming-of-age novel by ER Frank, in school libraries.
The resident, who gave his name as Jim Peterson, read a number of explicit excerpts from the book to the board members – which left a number feeling “uncomfortable”, sparking a fierce debate over its presence in the county’s schools.
Peterson could be seen sporting a t-shirt emblazoned with the phrase “if you don’t like Trump, then you probably won’t like me – and I’m OK with that” as he rallied against a number of sexual phrases contained in the book, which he claimed had been approved for use in libraries despite its “vulgarity”.
The row follows a spike in “book bans” across the US
Moore County Schools/Getty
Moore County Schools had been the subject of an official complaint from gay rights groups Pflag and Public School Advocates (PSA) over its literary guidance – which the groups called “harmful” and “discriminatory” – which he said had drawn his attention to the book, and led him to voice his concerns at the meeting.
He said that despite the county’s enforcement of the rules, the schools had approved the book based on its “really good life lessons” – before listing a range of quotations from the novel he deemed inappropriate for students.
Peterson rattled through lines which referenced a litany of sex acts and vulgar phrases like “I don’t want my brother’s d*** touching me on my privates” and “sweaty fingers reaching into my pants” as the board members watched on.
While Moore County Schools’s public comment guidelines only allow for a three-minute address per individual, Peterson managed to include “wet hot p**** f***ing my fingers” and “rock hard d***” in his allotted time slot.
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Peterson decried the “vulgarity” in ER Frank’s novel
Amazon/Moore County Schools
As his three minutes came to a close, and board members could be heard awkwardly coughing, Peterson tailed off, saying “you get the point”.
In response, the board’s chair, Robert Levy, took aim at his fellow members, saying: “While certain things are uncomfortable, this is free speech, and that’s the First Amendment… It’s better not to cut someone off.”
Levy then said: “I’m very very sorry if that made people feel uncomfortable – it certainly made me feel uncomfortable.”
But then, a fellow board member leapt to Peterson’s defence, saying: “I think the speaker’s point was that that’s uncomfortable – our take-away from that should be that if it’s not appropriate to read out loud at a school board meeting, then maybe it’s not appropriate for it to be in our library – that’s exactly the speaker’s point.”
In response, right-wing social media commentators voiced their own outrage over the book; one, Libs of TikTok, jabbed: “Make it make sense!”, while another called the move “indoctrination”.
Chair Robert Levy (right) said the excerpts “certainly made me feel uncomfortable”, sparking outrage
Moore County Schools
Elsewhere in the board’s comment guidelines, Moore County Schools states: “Obscene, vulgar, indecent, abusive, threatening, or profane statements or statements reasonably perceived to be disruptive or imminently threatening to the orderly operation of the meeting shall not be permitted.”
The row follows a spike in “book bans” across the US – which American Library Association president Emily Drabinski has slated as an “attack on our freedom to read”.
In North Carolina, the state’s controversial Senate Bill 49 has prompted outrage from activist groups like the Campaign for Southern Equality, which has urged locals to “push back, speak out, and take action against this shameful law”.
Another book by ER Frank, “America”, was banned in schools in Florida’s Martin County under the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” Parental Rights in Education Bill – which prohibits “classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels”.
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