Opinion
By George Miller, 3-28-24
The local News Leader publication appears to be part of a left-wing hit team by leading with a front page, top of the fold, screaming banner headline, featured opinion article disguised as news, in their March 27 hard copy edition. The title was: “Concerned Democrats, parents and citizens unite against the threat of book bans.” It’s the same people and M.O. they employed in attacking opponents of the LGBTQ parade and expo last year. They want to keep obscene books in public school libraries and promote drag queens in a children’s parade and celebrate near a children’s playground.
Local and out of town extreme leftist Democrats, LGBTQ advocates and the News Leader pulled a surprise attack at the 3-14-24 Nassau School Board meeting. The article’s title conjured up images of vast, angry crowds marching on the school board bearing torches and pitchforks, but just seven speakers attacked what they said was the inappropriate removal of “more than 35 books” from Nassau Country Schools (removal was actually was based on obscene content in violation of Florida laws).
Here are the meeting Video & Agenda (item J)
“A small, extremist, highly vocal activist group of locals goes from issue to issue, from City Commission meetings to the School Board meetings, and the local News Leader promotes their leftwing agenda,” said Nassau CDF Executive Director Jack Knocke.
This attack was delivered during the “not on the agenda comments” section of the school board meeting to publicize/communicate their protest against removing offensive and pornographic books. Pro-removal Citizens and the general public were not made aware of this non-agenda item, so comments at the meeting were totally one-sided, which the News Leader used to imply that there was only support for their position. Some speakers’ comments were particularly virulent against Citizens Defending Freedom, a civic organization which formed a Nassau County Chapter in 2022 and which locals have coalesced around to lead the fight against inappropriate materials in the schools, and other local issues.
This local coalition of radical Democrats, LGBTQ-ers and people desiring to reverse accepted moral standards, are organized, passionate, and misguided. They are also very vocal…many times spreading lies as if they are facts. Since these powerful revisionist forces have activated, perhaps it is time for “The Silent Majority” to.
Assertions of the attackers/speakers, in summary, with CDF responses:
1.Leftist talking point: This ban is like Nazi book burning
Response 1. The Nazi’s actually did indoctrinate the children, seeking to make them hate the Jews. The famous quote “give me the children”
2. Violation of First Amendment, abridges intellectual freedom and educational diversity
Response 2. Removing obscene and pornographic content from public schools actually supports schools in the goal of educating rather than distracting children with disturbing content
3. The books were fine literature and hardly any obscenities sullied them
Response3. Not one of the books removed could remotely be referred to as fine literature (Use the links below, read and decide for yourself. Facts matter.)
4. Zero books have been challenged by a parent or guardian
Response 4. Not sure why they think Nassau parents were not involved. In fact, Nassau parents led the charge. They just didn’t want to be public because of feared retaliation from the School District
5. FL law change will block banning of school library books
Response 5. Florida law had a few modifications, but for the most part, challenging obscene and pornographic materials in schools remains intact.
6. Bans were done by an out of county political group, not trained educators or librarians- zero expertise
Response 6. In fact, former teachers, administrators and other experts are part of the Nassau CDF team. All were disgusted by what they saw in these books. We’re sure that many of the trained educators in our Nassau County School system are also disgusted – but they remain silent to protect their jobs. CDF gets the wink of approval from most.
7. We want diversity, they want bigotry, racism, Naziism, yada, yada, yada (all the usual left-wing attack dog rhetoric).
Response 7. For some reason when our CDF team leans on faith, family values, parents rights, transparency to the public, protection of children and decency, they like to paint CDF as the villain. We’ll let the readers to decide what to make of that.
8. It should be Citizens Defending Freedom prohibited, not books.
Response 8. Nassau Citizens Defending Freedom is here for “We the People”. We seek to protect the God given rights and freedoms of everyone.
More feedback from CDF Nassau Director Jack Knocke
Since he was a target of the protesters’ ire, I called CDF Nassau Executive Director Jack Knocke to inquire about all this. He was not surprised by the attacks- some vicious and personal- and the position of the speakers that the materials either weren’t obscene, or weren’t that obscene. Knocke stated “Every one of the statements you noted are false. But, our First Amendment allows people to speak out – even if what they say is totally false.”
According to Knocke, this group seems to want to eliminate accepted moral standards, family values, and protections of children.
Knocke continued: “this is all part of a nationally coordinated movement. We have all watched the spectacle of Citizens in other school jurisdictions reading excerpts from some of these books out loud at numerous school board meetings, then being silenced because the words were deemed inappropriate to be spoken at the meetings. But yet these books should be allowed in public, taxpayer funded school libraries….- truly absurd.”
He remarked that the books were removed months ago, but opponents of this waited until March 14 to stage their attack/protest, then the News-Leaders activist Editor waited until Easter week to publish their article, which they obviously put a great deal of effort into.
Knocke also stated that an email was sent to him from News-Leader Editor and article author Tracy Dishman just over one hour before her self-imposed deadline, asking for his comments. He saw it hours after the deadline and told us that it didn’t seem like a serious attempt to solicit his response.
CDF is a multi-state organization, but CDF Nassau and this program are a local effort by local people, even including the attorney who filed the lawsuit because the District has refused to provide most of the curriculum info legally requested by CDF local people.
Speaking of curriculum, none of CDF’s efforts on inappropriate materials targeted curriculum, yet. They have only worked on library books. They are just getting into curriculum in recent months, but have already run into a brick wall of opposition erected by Supt. Kathy Burns and staff. Hence the lawsuit, made necessary by the District’s opposition to transparency.
Established legal procedures were followed
Local parents and Citizens have brought evidence to Nassau CDF about inappropriate materials in the schools. CDF has also obtained list of suspect books from others pursuing similar efforts. CDF has communicated with the School District on the matter for some time. According to the News-Leader, Assistant Supt. of Instruction Mark Durham confirmed that CDF had challenged 34 books and said that district employees added three more. It was our understanding that materials were removed from the libraries with mutual consent between the district and CDF, once cases were made. So, blaming Jack Knocke and CDF solely isn’t warranted, when state law and the District all supported legal removal.
Mr. Knocke pointed out that the law used to eliminate inappropriate materials is Statute 847.001 and 847.012, not HB 7 as stated in the News-Leader article.
The absurdity of comments suggesting a “ban” and Nazi-like book burning, violation of First Amendment, abridgement of intellectual freedom and educational diversity are ridiculous. No books were burned, all are available in local stores, or online on Amazon, etc. Parents have a right to ensure their children are not exposed to such materials and can make their schools comply, under state law. Having to promote alternative lifestyles and false “science” does not constitute intellectual freedom and educational diversity. If parents want to do this to their kids, let them do it on their own time, with their own resources and not force this into our public schools and our children. The books are all available…just not at our public, taxpayer funded schools.
State law will not prevent challenges to school library books but if organizations are restricted to one book challenge per month, then the challenges could be brought by individuals.
To say that only educators and librarians are qualified to object/rule on this is absurd. No one is more qualified to determine if something is harmful to children than parents and taxpayers whose money is extracted from them to pay for all this, although, CDF does have some professional expertise on board. It is already evident that the professionals in schools all over have failed us in many areas and state law provides remedies, which are being utilized. Thankfully, District administration followed the law and right is prevailing.
How book removal was accomplished, Per CDF
By conferring with peers in other areas of Florida, a list of approximately 150 books was compiled. Local volunteers checked to find out if these were in school district libraries, then checked against sources, such as BookLookswhich exposes inappropriate school books, and applicable state statutes, such as 847. CDF only went after the books that had the strongest cases against them, then challenged them with District Superintendent Kathy Burns. There were 36. This is much simpler than having to go though “236,664 books” as was suggested in the News-Leader article. Knocke said that the stated procedure is to have to challenge each book in each school with that school’s principal, but that the Superintendent can handle challenges district-wide, which she did.
So, Supt. Burns turned over the challenges to the Book Review Committee, which Knocke said consists only of school district employees, with no other parents, Citizens, or interested organizations participating. He said that CDF has not been invited to participate. The Committee agreed with CDF on 34 of the 36 books. The other two were then restricted to high school use only. So arguably, CDF had a 100% success rate. This contrasts greatly with the state challenge success rate of only about a third. On the whole, it does not appear that the school district resisted following the procedures and did follow the law. The opposition now wishes to challenge the book removals.
Knocke is receptive to pursuing challenges initiated by parents/Citizens. CDF will also investigate other works by the same authors whose books have already been subjected to challenges.
Worst books removed– click on the book links below, and decide for yourself if you believe these books are appropriate for young kids to read.
Tricks, Hopkins, Ellen
A Court of Mist and Fury, Maas, Sarah
A Court of Thorns and Roses Maas, Sarah
The Haters, Andrews, Jesse
The Infinite Moment of Us, Myracle, Lauren
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Chbosky, Stephen
If you’d like to see the longer list, contact [email protected]
Relevant
Explicit Books Removed from Nassau County Public Schools After …
Feb 8, 2024 Press Release By Citizens Defending Freedom 02-08-24 ***For a full list of the removed books, please contact Peter D’Abrosca at [email protected] or 720.639.0066.*** NASSAU COUNTY, Fla. — After a months-long effort led […]
Nationwide Nonprofit, County Citizens Defending Freedom-USA, Inc, and Local Leader, Jack Knocke Sue Nassau County School Board Over Concealed Adult-Themed Curricula
News/Education By George Miller, 2-9-24 Local civic activist and County Citizens Defending Freedom USA and its Nassau County Director Jack Knocke filed a lawsuit in 4th…
George Miller is Publisher and Co-Founder of Citizens Journal Florida, based in Fernandina Beach. He is a “retired” operations management consultant, software and publishing executive (10 years) and manufacturing management professional. He and his wife left California after 41 years, in part, because of some of the very same things this article addresses- and much more- were happening there and not being so effectively resisted as they are here.
The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal Florida.
