After hearing from nearly 40 residents Monday night, the King George County School Board voted against an appeal of the checkout process for sexually explicit material at the middle school library.
The board voted 4-1 during a tense meeting held at King George Middle School to maintain the process established by Superintendent Jesse Boyd, which includes locking away books deemed to be sexually explicit and requiring parental consent before students can check them out.
Vice Chair Matthew Roles of the James Monroe District was the only board member to support the appeal filed by a county resident. If the appeal was granted, the board could have removed the two books in question altogether or come up with another solution.
Roles made an amendment to board member Ed Frank’s original motion to maintain the process by requesting that one book in question — entitled “Sold” — be moved to the high school library and another, “ttfn,” be taken out of the school division entirely.
Roles then settled on a compromise to move both books to the high school library, but the amendment failed, 3-2, with only him and Frank supporting it.
Roles launched several criticisms at “ttfn,” a young adult novel by Lauren Myracle written in the form of an instant messaging conversation. He said it included a “fair amount of profanity,” discussed sexual tension between a teacher and student, sexual activity between minors, planted ideas about how to rebel against parents and featured minors engaging in alcohol and marijuana use.
“A total misuse of taxpayer dollars,” Roles said. “At worst, it’s corrupting our youth we’re supposed to be investing in to develop their character and their minds.”
School Board Chair David Bush and others who voted to keep the books in the middle school library said they did not agree with all the content of the material, but rather that leaving the decision in the hands of parents is the best outcome.
They pledged to closely examine the process that initially allowed the books to be housed in the library.
Bush also said “Sold,” a young adult novel about a young girl sold into sex slavery in Nepal, had more educational value than “ttfn,” but he was alarmed that several pages described sexual abuse of the girl in a graphic manner.
“It was more upsetting because I could see the value of having these discussions, but we don’t have to get into that nitty gritty … those horrific descriptions of sexual behavior from a child’s point of view,” Bush said.
Boyd said there are 133 books labeled sexually explicit in King George school libraries, and they require 30 days of advanced notice to parents before they are checked out by students.
Frank noted that “Sold” was only checked out twice in the past four years, and “ttfn” was checked out nine times since 2021.
The residents who spoke expressed mixed feelings about the books. Many said they have no place in a school setting, where students should be focused on learning the basics and good citizenship. One resident called on Boyd to resign because she does not believe he is holding accountable staff members who do not follow policy on the books.
“I’m a taxpayer, so my money buys dirty books for the schools,” county resident Molly Roberts said.
Roberts referred to the books as “smut” and said they are a form of grooming in that they desensitize children to sexually-deviant behavior.
Other speakers — including multiple students — said reading certain books is a personal decision that should be left to children and their parents.
Madelaine Perrotte, who works in human resources for the military specializing in sexual assault victim advocacy and suicide prevention, said she was disturbed by comments at previous meetings that suggested librarians are “groomers and pedophiles.”
“I wanted to weigh in on that as someone in the field,” Perrotte said. “Groomers generally do not give children books that illustrate what they’re doing is wrong, and getting a college degree to groom and mistreat is generally a lot more effort than most pedophiles want to put in.
“I’m not saying there are no predators in school, but I would be surprised to see any peddling books telling children what to look out for. Most are content running youth groups and waiting for uneducated on the topic, lonely or neglected kids to come around.”
Perrotte said she did not agree with the compromise to lock the books away, but she understood it. She said parents should talk to children about human trafficking and other potentially dangerous topics rather than push for books on the subjects to be removed from libraries.
“What I have heard tonight is people concerned about sexual assault and grooming,” Perrotte said. “For those interested in helping kids, instead of this lazy and ineffective attempt, the Rappahannock Council on Sexual Assault is always looking for volunteer advocates. I’ll go ahead and let them know about the deluge of calls they are about to get.”
