Natrona School District Parents Upset Over Certain Books in Schools
At the Natrona County School District board of trustees meeting on Monday, nine people came up to speak about certain books they find issues with that they claim are available in various elementary, middle, and high schools in the district.
Some of the people that came up to speak about books in schools brought with them passages from those books, and one had pictures from a graphic novel that they claim is available in a middle school.
Among the books brought up, there are: Mondays Not Coming, Crank, Traffick, Glass, Burned, Exquisite Captive, You Me and Him, and Gender Queer.
Many of the books cover difficult subject matters such as gender, sexuality, poverty, bullying, addiction, sex trafficking, and slavery.
One of the parents that came to speak, Sarah Bieber, said she believes the books being available in libraries is corrupting children.
"We no longer trust you, we no longer have faith that you will work with us in educating our children," Bieber said. "We no longer trust that you keep the gates and help protect our kids. Ethical frailty and moral corruption is responsible for these atrocities against our children. This is not education, this is simply disgusting sickness. We're not your enemies, we're the parents and the families that would fight for you. We're the parents and families that fight for our children."
Mary Schmidt, one of the concerned parents, said parents in the district began looking into whether these books were available in schools after some of those books were found in the Laramie County School District.
Schmidt, along with other parents, said that they do not want to ban books, but instead get rid of books that they believe aren't proper for schools.
"Please let it be known, we're not into banning books," Schmidt said. "And we're not against other people's lifestyles. But these books are not proper content for school. We're not asking to ban them and burn them, but they're not appropriate for school. It doesn't have anything to do with education or reading or writing."
Trustee Debbie McCullar responded at the end of the meeting by asking the parents to tell them which books they had issues with and the board will go through a process to determine whether or not the books are appropriate.
Many other trustees agreed with McCullar, though Trustee Clark Jensen said the kind of language parents used was not "helping their cause."
The group that came up to speak out about the various books that they take issue with are also some of the same people that came out in May to protest against masks being required in schools.