The recent election may have brought out the “mama bears” in droves in places like Virginia over controversial school board policies, but recent evidence suggests that the problems haven’t gone away.
In Fairfax, Virginia, for example, Stacy Langton, a mother of six, made news in September by reading aloud portions of books available in the high school library, at a school board meeting. The books, including Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison and Gender Queer: A Memoir, by Maia Kobabe include explicit illustrations of oral sex and masturbation, as well as graphic descriptions of sex between men and children.
The Fairfax school board was apparently so embarrassed at the meeting by the books’ contents that they ordered Langton to stop reading the books aloud and promised that the two books would be suspended immediately pending a review.
If the story stopped there, you might be tempted to conclude that Langton was successful in acting as a watchdog for her children, and perhaps deserving of the school board’s gratitude. After all, the school board did remove the objectionable books, at least temporarily.
However, fast forward to November, and Langton recently learned that as thanks for the research she did on the school library’s contents, she has now been banned from entering the library at all.
Langton told the Washington Examiner that when she inquired of Principal Maureen Keck of Fairfax High School as to why she was being forbidden to enter the library, she was told that it was a school policy that applied to all parents, not just her.
However, the written school policy Langton was provided makes no mention of restricting visitor access to parts of campus anywhere, provided all visitors sign in at the front entrance and obtain a visitor pass, according to the Examiner. In fact, when Langton and her son visited the library to check out a book recently, the librarian made no mention of such a policy and even helped her and her son find the book they were looking for.
Langton’s recent treatment makes us wonder whether the school board will follow through after its “investigation” of the pornographic books and actually remove them from the school library’s shelves.
She should be hailed as a hero by the school board for her initiative. As a result of her effort to protect the children of Fairfax County, Langton and her family have received anonymous death threats.
Instead, Langton is being treated as a menace, and her banishment sends a message to other parents: Don’t get involved. And that’s not right.
Langton told the Examiner that she plans to attend this week’s school board meeting and finish what she had attempted to tell the board in September.
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