By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Some residents of the Cameron R-1 School District contend the district fails to protect children from books containing sexually explicit content.
Dan Landi of Kidder, Heath Gilbert of Cameron, and Paula Allen of Cameron further claim the Cameron school administration and school board have restricted their ability to discuss the issue.
Gilbert insists the group isn’t attempting to ban any books.
“We are not trying to ban the books,” Gilbert tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post in a phone interview along with Landi and Allen. “We just don’t believe that many of these books that we’re fighting against are appropriate for children to read.”
Gilbert says the school district does not have policies in place to protect children from sexually explicit content. The three say as many as 80 books in the Cameron school library contain graphic depictions of rape, incest, and molestation.
Landi says the graphic, detailed nature of some books speaks to an author’s motive.
“You don’t need to be so graphic to get the point across and that’s where the school district has failed the students in my opinion, because they allow this kind of garbage in the school,” Landi says.
Allen claims the Cameron school district is usurping the role of the parents and is failing to protect students who have suffered sexual abuse.
“We don’t need to be desensitizing kids and oversexualizing them,” Allen says. “We need to be protecting them, bottom line.”
Gilbert is a parent to a high school student. Allen has an elementary student in the district. Landi does not have any children in the district.
The three further contend they have been restricted in their ability to raise the issue during school board meetings. A committee formed to look into the issue is moving too slowly, according to the three. The group says it wants the school district to adopt a policy that students receive access to the books only when they receive their parents’ permission.
Some of the books under fire contain LGBTQ content, but Gilbert insists he objects to the graphic nature of the books, not the sexual orientation of the characters.
“Our problem with the books, all of the books, are the ones that are sexually explicit,” according to Gilbert. “Whether that is girl on girl, boy on boy, trans, whatever it is, if it is sexually explicit, I firmly believe that it has no place readily accessible to every child in the school district.”
Cameron school administration has not responded to requests for comment.