Thread by @WGTransparency

The 7 Board of Education directors in @WebsterGrovesSD vote as a unit, and in lockstep with the @WGSD_Supt

What influences their decision making? Without diversity of opinion, are we sure that the best decisions are being made?

Their handling of SB 775 gives us some insights

#moleg bill 2022 SB 775 seeks to keep sexually explicit materials out of public schools, defined as pictorial representations of sexual intercourse, direct physical stimulation of genitals, or sadomasochistic abuse.

@WebsterGrovesSD removed several books meeting this criteria:

To further set the background context, here are a few images from the books that were removed.

Visual depictions of oral sex, masturbation, and violent rape:

Many parents do not like the idea of their public school furnishing pornographic materials to their children

None of the @WebsterGrovesSD BOE directors could sympathize with or understand this point of view for parents, instead collectively lamenting the law passed by #moleg

They referred to removal of the pornographic materials as “book banning”, which is a politicized term used by those opposing the #moleg bill

BOE president @doll_jo, also a MO house representative, opposed SB 775 along with all but one @MOHouseDems

All but 3 @MOHouseGOP approved

If parents from @WebsterGrovesSD had asked @doll_jo to remove pornographic books from the library, her answer as a BOE director would be “No”.

If parents asked their MO representative… wait that’s also @doll_jo! And she votes “Nay”.

Conflict of interest here? @MOEthics

Use of the term #bookbanning is an attempt to intertwine the removal of pornographic materials from public schools with an issue of free speech.

But as BOE Prez @doll_jo points out, the school will not stop a child from bringing books containing pornographic images from home:

BOE Vice President Christine Keller is primarily concerned with a potential “journalist tweet” that calls out the district for book banning.

And not so concerned about furnishing pornographic imagery to the students in her district.

A bizarre ranking of priorities.

@WebsterGrovesSD BOE director Allen Todd doesn’t “like the loss of local control and the state telling us [the board] what to do”

He adds, #moleg involvement “is not in the spirit of what I think our public education should be”

Are we still talking about pornography in schools?

Quick recap:

The @WebsterGrovesSD Board of Education equates removal of pornography from school libraries to “book banning”.

Like many public school boards, they don’t like being told what to do.

Listening to what parents want is not an option, because Politics.

There is also a straw man argument used by the BOE that these books being removed will limit children from “seeing themselves” reflected in literature.

SB 775 bans all pornographic imagery, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

So again, this is BOE politics.

For what reason does the BOE think the removal of just 11 books should trigger a full scale review “to be sure our entire population is represented”?

Were these pornographic books the only literary representation for LGBTQ students in the @WebsterGrovesSD library?

In conclusion, the @WebsterGrovesSD BOE discussion around MO SB 775 is a perfect example of political groupthink and illustrates their unwillingness to see alternative points of view

Echo chambers like these are precisely why #moleg is working to protect families with new laws