1. Earlier this month, a mysterious woman appeared before a school board in Texas and claimed that, when she was 11, she READ A SCHOLASTIC BOOK THAT SPARKED A DEBILITATING PORN ADDICTION.
We investigated.
And it's ABSOLUTELY WILD what is happening.
🧵
2. The woman was 20-year-old Lanah Burkhardt.
Burkhardt said after reading a Scholastic book that depicted a "single kiss," she "looked for other books that gave me pleasure." This "led to internet searches" that she will "never forget."
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3. Burkhardt cited her story as a reason to restrict access to Drama, a novel published by Scholastic. The book includes this image of two people kissing:
4. But Burkhardt went further, arguing that Conroe should remove all Scholastic books from schools and stop hosting Scholastic book fairs.
According to Burkhardt, "getting rid of Scholastic books and their book fairs will inevitably protect kids."
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4. Burkhardt's appearance was promoted by SkyTree Book Fairs, a newly formed organization marketing itself as "an alternative to the sexually explicit content distributed in Scholastic's book fairs."
5. SkyTree Book Fairs presents itself as an independent non-profit. But it appears to be a hastily assembled offshoot of Brave Books, which publishes children's books by right-wing pundits
The president of SkyTree Book Fairs was recently an "Executive Assistant" at Brave Books
6. Burkhardt's appearance at the Conroe school board was also promoted by Brave Books. The company called it a "must watch" and a "powerful message that needs to be heard."
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7. Neither Brave Books nor Burkhardt disclosed that Burkhardt is an employee of Brave Books. According to her LinkedIn profile, Burkhardt is the company's "public relations coordinator."
8. The Conroe school board, after listening to Burkhardt's story, voted to restrict access to Drama from all students in the 8th grade and below. One of the school board members, Melissa Dungan, suggested replacing Scholastic with SkyTree Book Fairs.
9. More on Brave Books/SkyTree and their scheme to replace Scholastic with kids' books written by right-wing Pizzagate conspiracy theorists in today's newsletter
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