By Chrissy Clark
A Florida school board muted the microphone of a concerned parent attempting to read a “pornography” book available to students in the district’s library, according to video footage of a school board meeting.
The Clay County School Board barred an unnamed parent from “sampling” three books allegedly available to students in high school libraries during a school board meeting. The parent claimed that a district employee was paid to review and input pornographic books into the school libraries.
One book he attempted to read was “Lucky,” by Alice Sebold. The book discusses the brutal rape and beating of Sebold as an 18-year-old college freshman, according to a book description from Amazon. The book is available at Fleming Island High School and Orange Park High School, according to the district’s Library Media resources.
“If there’s children watching, cover their ears,” the parent said. The school board immediately cut his microphone and told him to “hush [his] mouth.”
“Turn off his microphone, please. I told you, I’m stopping you,” the school board attorney said. “The reason I’m stopping you is because these meetings are — if you’ll hush your mouth for a minute, and listen, instead of just talking, you may learn something.”
When the parent requested his time back, the school official said that the parent will get his time back to discuss something other than “pornography.” (RELATED: South Dakota Parents Torch School Board Over ‘Pornographic,’ ‘Marxist’ 12th-Grade English Novels)
“You’ll get it back. But, you’ll get it back to talk about something besides reading pornography into a public television set,” the school official said.
UNREAL. A dad says he’s gonna read from graphic books available to children in school and gets shut down by @oneclayschools board before he even starts because it might be against the law to read from these books in front of children.
These books are in school libraries. pic.twitter.com/PCJSMCttq5
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 12, 2022
Christina Pushaw, the spokeswoman for Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, told the Daily Caller that under the state’s curriculum transparency law parents “have the right to inspect materials in their kid’s school and file challenges to anything that they find inappropriate.”
“We encourage all parents to know their rights in this regard and work with their child’s school to ensure that no pornographic material is accessible to kids,” Pushaw said. “Any content that is too explicit to be read to a room full of adults at a school board meeting is also inappropriate for children.”
Ashley Gilhousen, a Clay County School Board member, told the Daily Caller that the board is working to remove the content that this parent brought forth “prior to the return of students in August.” Gilhousen condemned the school board attorney’s tone, but also noted that she speaks only for herself and not the entire school board.
“The School Board Attorney should not have responded in the tone and manner in which he did,” Gilhousen said. “It was condescending and disrespectful to the speaker … I have every confidence that any objectionable material will be removed.”
Clay County School District did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.
