What Happens When One Parent Speaks Out at a School Board Meeting About a Controversial Book Assigned to His Daughter

From TheBlaze.com:

by Oliver Darcy

A New Hampshire parent was arrested at a Monday night school board meeting after he voiced outrage his ninth grade daughter was assigned a book that contains a page detailing a graphic sexual encounter.

Frankly, let me state this up front:

In my opinion  this is a completely unnecessary display of force by a small-town police department.  I am a cop.  I state that up front.  I have worked in LE for 40+ years.  But I expect my fellow officers to follow the foundational documents to include the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights.  I do not expect them to abrogate — primarily — our First and Second Amendment rights.

The Gilford Police Department embarrasses me.  In my opinion they will be sued and deservedly so.

Watch the video:

Gilford school officials claim the book, “Nineteen Minutes” by Jodi Picoult, contains important themes about a school shooting. But some parents believe a scene described in the book is inappropriate for their children.

According to WCVB-TV, the book contains a graphic description of rough sex between two teenagers, which parents were unaware of until the book had already been distributed to their kids.

That passage includes, in part:

“‘Relax,’ Matt murmured, and then he sank his teeth into her shoulder. He pinned her hands over her head and ground his hips against hers. She could feel his erection, hot against her stomach.

” … She couldn’t remember ever feeling so heavy, as if her heart were beating between her legs. She clawed at Matt’s back to bring him closer.

“‘Yeah,’ he groaned, and her pushed her thighs apart. And then suddenly Matt was inside her, pumping so hard that she scooted backward on the carpet, burning the backs of her legs. … (H)e clamped his hand over her mouth and drove harder and harder until Josie felt him come.

“Semen, sticky and hot, pooled on the carpet beneath her.”

Why yes, that would be precisely what I would want my daughter to read as an ASSIGNED BOOK in her high school.  Wouldn’t you?

He (William Baer) went to the school board meeting to express his objections.

“It’s absurd,” he told the school board.

“Sir, would you please be respectful of the other people?” a school board member responded.

“Like you’re respectful of my daughter, right? And my children?” he countered.

America, get ready for the rest of this story:

A police officer then arrived at the scene, instructing Baer to leave with him.

Moments later, Baer was escorted outside and placed in handcuffs. According to WMUR-TV, he was charged with disorderly conduct because he did not immediately leave when asked by an officer.

Fine.  First question: why were police officers there in the first place?  Do you, in your school meetings, customarily have LE officers assigned there?

A second video:

So speaking your mind constitutes a threat.  And going over your allotted time constitutes a threat.

“Many people in education and government truly believe our children are theirs,” William Baer told EAG News. “That parents are only the custodians who feed them and put a roof over their head. These school incidents are a byproduct of this ‘we know best’ philosophy. They believe they have the authority to do this. If people were more complacent, which is hard to imagine, it’d be even worse.”

But even further, into the insidious abrogation that occurred:

Understandably, Baer doesn’t want his daughter exposed to this kind of material, and says the school “has no business introducing such themes” to his daughter.

He’s also disturbed by school officials’ failure to notify parents that this novel was assigned, and there was no opportunity to “opt out.”

Baer, who is an attorney, believes that if someone stood outside the school and handed out copies of the novel’s sexually charged passage to students, he would likely be arrested and prosecuted.

He questions why it’s acceptable for “the state, through its schools and agents,” to mandate reading and discussing this same material.

In a written response to an EAGnews inquiry, Gilford school leaders admit they didn’t warn parents of the book’s controversial nature like they have in previous years, and promised to send a letter to the home “of all students who are currently assigned the book.”

I have re-written this final paragraph, because I believe the videos above speak for themselves.  This is sad, embarrassing, and unfortunately indicative of the path that many departments have chosen to take regarding personal freedoms.

I suspect that department will be sued in short order.

BZ