Can anyone explain what is driving the obsession with sexualizing children through our education system, while cutting parents out of many facets of their lives?
This attack on parental rights and minor children in New Jersey shows no sign of letting up.
First there was Bill A-5342 euphemistically known as “the weed bill” which initially prohibited police from notifying the parents of a minor child when they are caught with marijuana. It was only after an enormous outcry from the public that a corrective bill was quickly passed. Then there was Bill A-4454 which mandated sex education to all public school students grades K-12. Now, we have the horribly misnamed “Freedom to Read Act” which among other things, seeks to protect school librarians from laws prohibiting the exposure of minor children to obscene material. Somehow, proponents of this disastrous legislation have attempted to falsely paint any objection to exposing young children to pornography as “censorship” or “book banning.”
Ironically, if there is any censorship or book banning going on in this country, it can be found in the absurd attacks on classic works that have been staples in curricula from elementary schools to colleges and beyond. Classics such as Huckleberry Finn, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, Animal Farm and many other treasured literary works have been banned from school libraries. The reason? Somehow, somewhere, someone or some group, after over a hundred years found something with which to be offended. Because of such petty selfishness, many young people will be denied the beauty of exposure to the literary giants of American literature. The “Freedom to Read Act” does nothing to address these outrageous attacks on classics that have educated and entertained generations of Americans.
How bad then, is the Freedom to Read Act?
According to the bill synopsis, the “Freedom to Read Act”; establishes requirements for library material in public school libraries and public libraries; protects school library staff members and librarians.” The operative words there are “requirements” and “protects.” The requirements would be to mandate materials currently deemed inappropriate be placed into school libraries and protect librarians from obscenity laws for allowing access to such materials by minor children. This protection for librarians and staff who follow the new policy from “civil and criminal liability” is especially troubling, since the bill acknowledges that there are criminal and civil laws that will be broken to follow this policy. Among these are laws dealing with providing obscene material to minors. Mind you, this is from a bill impacting K-12 school libraries and staff.
It is beyond comprehension that anyone would think legislation circumventing obscenity laws with regard to minors is not only needed, but a benefit to New Jersey schoolchildren as well. New Jersey has a huge percentage of children across the state who are not even performing up to grade level, with many still dealing with learning loss from the catastrophic shutdown during the covid years.
In a hyper-competitive, global job market, we need to put all of the emphasis on academics in our education system, and leave personal subjects and discussions of sexuality where it has always been and still belongs – with parents and guardians in the privacy of their own homes.
