A Florida school board was made to cut off a dad’s microphone after he read ‘pornography’ in an attempt to demonstrate the kind of books that may be found in schools.
Bruce Friedman attempted to read an extract from Alice Sebold’s 1999 memoir ‘Lucky,’ which details her rape as a college student and the effects it had on her.
Friedman is the president of the Florida chapter of No Left Turn in Education, a non-profit organisation committed to “reviving in American public education the fundamental discipline of critical and active thinking based on facts, investigation, logic, and sound reasoning.”
Before reading, Friedman told the Clay County School District board he wanted them to discuss ‘the process by which these books get on the shelves.’
He also warned viewers ‘if there’s children watching, cover your ears,’ as the meeting was being broadcast on YouTube.
Friedman’s microphone was cut off as he launched into a portion of the book, presumably one of the more graphic sequences in which Sebold describes what happened to her.
After questioning why he was cut off, a member of the board explains ‘the problem is, sir, that these meetings are broadcast, there are people at home that are watching it on YouTube. There are people that are watching it on community television.’
The board member continued: ‘There are federal and state laws that prohibit you from saying the things that you’re getting out to say on television. There are state laws that prohibit in federal communications laws that prohibit you from publishing these things to a child. You don’t have the ability at this point to determine who’s watching the television show. And for you to say, “everybody cover your ears” just doesn’t cut it.’
Friedman, who had brought in a triboard poster that he had glued excerpts of the book to, then went and placed the poster directly in front of a board member, who told Friedman he got ‘where he is coming from.’
Last year, Clay County removed ‘All Boys Aren’t Blue’ by George M. Johnson, which chronicles Johnson’s experiences growing up as a gay black man in New Jersey and Virginia.
Some students feel the book provides a unique coming-of-age story with which underrepresented groups may identify, however it was taken from the libraries following a parent complaint.
In an interview with Fox News, Friedman said he is so outspoken because ‘people don’t work to protect their children until they’re harmed.’
Friedman says he has ‘skin in the game’ as his 15-year-old son was previously enrolled in a New York public school that did ‘considerable harm’ to him.
‘I never shook it off. I never stopped fighting. We got him into a private school promptly after first grade, but the damage was done. It took five years, in my opinion, to put him back on the right track,’ said Friedman.
He also said he refuses to put his son into a school that has ‘groomers and pedophiles and twisted sick people.’
Friedman called books like Sebold’s memoir ‘poison,’ and said there’s ‘no literary value to any of this.’
‘Lucky’ has sold over a million copies, and Sebold has also written another well-known book called ‘The Lovely Bones,’ which was adapted into a film starring Saoirse Ronan and directed by Peter Jackson in 2009.
Banning books in schools has seen a dramatic rise in the last year, especially books centered around difficult subjects like racism and sexuality.
Over 700 book challenges targeting 1,597 titles were proposed in 2021, according to the American Library Association — more than double the previous year’s figures and the highest since 2000.
The top three most challenged titles of 2021 were ‘Gender Queer’ by Maia Kobabe, ‘Lawn Boy’ by Jonathan Evison and ‘All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson.
On the topic of drag queen story hours, Friedman said people ‘shouldn’t be asking whether or not it’s okay for our children to sit in on a drag queen story hour, we should be asking why the drag queens want an audience of children.’
He also chimed in on the debates surrounding critical race theory, highlighting it as another threat to children receiving education in the US.
‘It is so much worse than anyone could possibly believe that it’s mind-boggling. To be prepared for that battle, I took courses as if I was going to be required to teach critical race theory. I know it that well. I know exactly how bad it is, and it is bad for children of every color,’ said Friedman.
‘No good comes of this poison. Thank God Ron DeSantis is helping us get it out,’ he added.
Friedman says that critical race theory can be hidden by alternative names such as inclusion, diversity and equity and believes its part of an attempt at ‘Marxist’ indoctrination.
‘They won’t be happy until we’re all equal. Socialism is shared misery. But we’re going to do better. We have a constitution.’