KIRKWOOD, Mo. (KMOX) - A parent in the Kirkwood School District is explaining what had her so upset and caused her to be banned from attending school board meetings for a year. She says it's because the school has books available to students "that are nothing short of pornography."
Jessica Crandell joined our partner station 97.1 FM Talk to discuss a book that has prompted heated exchanges at school board meetings throughout the country. She says she first learned from a Rockwood School District meeting that Kirkwood was "aware of several pornographic books and literature in all public schools."
Crandell says she went to the meeting with an image from the book "Gender Queer." It’s a graphic novel that deals with sexual orientation and gender identity.
"I left the podium just to show the board members the filth," Crandell said. "They told me that I needed to get behind the podium, I could email them, I could call them, in which I said, 'I have emailed, I have called, they don't listen to what we have to say.'"
"On my way out, I was showing them the pictures, and they told me that I needed to be removed," said Crandell.
At a Chicago-area school, students and parents argued both for and against the book in school libraries. One resident read part of the Illinois Criminal Code as evidence against the book being allowed.
"Material is harmful, if, to the average person - applying contemporary standards - its predominant appeal, taken as a whole, is the prurient interest that is a shameful or morbid interest in nudity, sex, excretion..." he said. "We have some signs up here. Pages from that book. Tell me how these pictures are educational in any purpose. This is pornography, plain and simple, and it does not belong in our schools!"
Crandell received this letter last week, stating that she has been banned from meetings for a year:
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