The West Chester Area School District pulled a book from its high school libraries after a parent confronted the school board at a Monday meeting about sexual imagery the book contained.
The book, “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe, has also been recently pulled in other districts around the country, including Fairfax County, Virginia, Atlanta, and Orlando.
A parent identified as Chris Manos passed out copies of images from the book to WCASD members during the public comment portion of the board meeting.
“The three illustrations that you see there are from a book called ‘Gender Queer,’ and this book is being distributed in kindergarten through 12th grade learning environments,” Manos said. “And I would like by a show of hands, each school member, school, board member to, uh, indicate whether by raising your hand, yes, this looks like it’s pornographic,” Manos said.
The school board attorney advised the members not to comment, and the board went into a brief recess.
When the meeting reconvened, School Board Director Chris McCune said: “that book is not in our district. That book is not in a district in our county. That book is not in a district in our state. Um, so therefore it’s not really material to our board meetings.”
Contrary to McCune’s assertions, however, an email was circulated on Twitter Tuesday afternoon showing District Superintendent Dr. Robert Sokolowski telling a parent that the book had been removed, at least temporarily.
“I want to let you know that I have removed the book from our high school libraries while it undergoes our administrative review process,” Sokolowski wrote.
“With tens of thousands of books in each of our high school libraries, I was not aware this book was part of our collections,” he continued. “Similarly, it would be highly unusual for our Board members to be familiar with all of the books in our school libraries.”
“We do take very seriously our duty to provide age-appropriate reading materials in our school libraries, and we will diligently review this book. This is an administrative responsibility and I can assure you that we will follow through in accordance with the proper procedures,” Sokolowski concluded.
In an email shared exclusively with Broad + Liberty, McCune told a parent in the district one day after the board meeting that he discovered the book was indeed available through the schools, and that he realized he was in error. But he had a different explanation for his comments about the book not being in the district.
“Mr. Manos handed the board content and an article from Loudon County. My statement was directed at that. This is the first time this issue has been brought to the attention of the board,” McCune wrote.
“To your point, I have confirmed that the book in question was part of the 2020 recommended leading list for grades 10th through 12th grade on our Equity page. The board will be reviewing this list with the administration.
“On a personal note as a father of five, I have concerns with any graphic sexual content,” he concluded.
Emails to the school district requesting comment were not returned.
Two examples of the images Manos presented to the district can be viewed here, and here. Please be advised the images depict sexual acts.
Manos, whose two children have been in the district for two years, told Broad + Liberty “the type of sexually explicit content is irrelevant.”
“Presenting sexually explicit content to minors is a form of child abuse, and it’s a felony,” he said. “And in the state of Pennsylvania, if you suspect child abuse and do not report it, you can be considered an accessory to criminal activity and I’m mandated to report it. And I reported it to the school board.”
Besides the book being available in the district’s high school libraries, it had also been recommended on some of the district’s web pages devoted to its equity goals.
“I support the Westchester Area School District’s stated intent with the equity mission personally,” Manos said. “I believe in meritocracy, equality, and equal rights for all, and that as Americans, we all enjoy the natural right to freedom of expression. I also believe that every one of us has the natural right, and freedom to be whatever each individual wants to be.”
By pulling the book for an administrative review, WCASD is following in the footsteps of the other school districts around the country who have faced similar criticism over the same book.
The National Coalition Against Censorship is condemning the pulling of the book by the Fairfax County, Virginia, school district.
“We are particularly concerned that, under current regulations, a challenge can take 120working days to be adjudicated if the person who files the challenge takes advantage of all appeals permitted by the District’s regulations. Thus, under current district regulations, a parent who objects to the political views of a book can prevent its use for most of the school year,” the NCAC wrote in its letter.
Todd Shepherd is Broad + Liberty’s chief investigative reporter. Send him tips at tshepherd at broadandliberty.com, or use his encrypted email at shepherdreports at protonmail.com.
I am receiving texts from this group in breach of my data privacy and against my wishes.
I don’t subscribe to your attempts at politicising schools with prudish and puritan curbs on what should be an opportunity for broad education. Anyone who wishes to have their children receive an education revolving around their faith should enrol their children in a faith-based school.
Free thinking is about truth – the whole truth, not about your version of the truth or one edited to your comfort. This phoney organisation purports to shut down ‘wokeness’ in pursuit of freedom – never has there been a greater oxymoron. The only way you are getting funding is by conning people into thinking you stand for liberty, while the complete opposite is true. Cheap parlour tricks.
Please remove me from your lists and take a look at how you are buying your data. You do not have my contact by permission.
Mr Hulse,
The deliberate sexual confusion of children and the planting of pornographic material for children to find is not “education,” and it is not moral panic to fight such perversion, it is ordinary decency.
As for parlor tricks, the real trick being played here is by the gay lobby, which went in just 3-5 years from from “a law-abiding adult should be free to love whom he chooses” (I agree…) to “We have a right to groom and acclimate children into our lifestyle at the youngest possible age, using the power of taxpayer money and public corporations to do it. The display of male genitalia in the girl’s locker room is a human right. And you’re a bigot to say otherwise.”
The latter (indoctrination, recruitment and social engineering) does NOT follow from the former (humane tolerance of private behavior).
This agenda is sick, and normal people are shoving back. Tell me where I’m wrong.
@DanielHulse: Do you condone the promotion and distribution of sexually explicit content and material to minors in K-12 learning environments? Are you aware that the promotion and distribution of sexually explicit content and material to minors is a felony? Are you aware that the promotion and distribution of sexually explicit content and material to minors is a form of child abuse?
…you realize that the content in these books is nothing compared to the violence, hate, and sexually explicit content on social media right? Yet the people who want to force private social media companies to publish this kind of content want the same content to be censored by state bureaucrats? Hm… 🤔
It’s very brave of this parent to make sure these government officials censor this material (and anything else that isn’t deemed appropriate!)
Censorship is great, especially when it’s the government doing it, right?
@Will: Do you condone the promotion and distribution of sexually explicit content and material to minors in K-12 learning environments? Are you aware that the promotion and distribution of sexually explicit content and material to minors is a felony? Are you aware that the promotion and distribution of sexually explicit content and material to minors is a form of child abuse? You may want to review the statutes for child abuse in the PA state criminal code before you respond again.
No one is talking about censoring content. You (and Mr. Hulse) have totally missed the mark. The issue is the criminal act of promoting and distributing of sexually explicit content to minors. If an individual has children, he or she has the choice to purchase sexually explicit content and provide it to his or her children in his or her own home. That is the choice of that individual parent. That parent can be arrested for child abuse, too.