Good evening Hamilton County Board Members,
My name is Tonya Dodd, chair of Hamilton County TN Moms for Liberty. The school system and local news does not report the full story of what is happening in our schools, so it is my obligation to shed light on the reality of the situation. I get phone calls, emails, and messages daily from local citizens, parents, and educators who provide information to Moms for Liberty about issues currently happening in HCS.
This evening I will address the current policy for reconsideration of books in school and classroom libraries. Our local policy states a stakeholder is a parent of a student or a teacher in HCS. The local news covered this story and asked for my input. I called to give them my perspective, but they did not answer my phone call. Therefore, I am here to report on the reason for lack of requests for reconsideration of books.
I have gotten feedback from many community members on how disgusted they are that nothing has been done about the pornographic books in our schools. You can probably remember the public readings of some of those books from prior school board meetings. I am here to talk about this topic, because I would rather spare us all the time of public reading of books that most adults can barely stomach, much less children.
I will always stand for protecting a child’s innocence. Students are at school to learn and can do so without these disgusting books put on shelves and shoved in their faces in the one place they should be safe from harm. I tell those who ask about the policy the requirement to submit a request for reconsideration is to be a teacher or parent. Most of the time those teachers and parents bring up the personal attacks that I have been subjected to on local and national news outlets, then tell me that is why they are not submitting book reconsideration requests.
If you remember back to the Mother’s Day Lesson that was canceled after a librarian wanted to use books that did not include a representation of a biological woman, you will also remember because I was the spokesperson for community concerns, my name was used in a national media campaign to slander and harass me. I was asked by multiple parents from that school to inform the public about what books were included in this lesson plan. It was also requested to find out what the alternate lesson plan would be and where that alternate lesson plan would take place. I put out a personal public statement, by choice, of why I did not support the lesson since I believed people needed to know where I stand on government schools promoting gender ideology. In response to my public statement, I received emails that told me to hang myself, phone calls telling me to go away, and constant harassment from local activists which has all been documented.
Additionally, a volunteer of Moms for Social Justice, was able to pull and review my HC employee file from when I was a teacher, it was documented that she reviewed my file, and I never received notification. She viewed the file right after this Mother’s Day lesson was canceled. Some information she retrieved from my file was embellished and used to publicly slander me on social media platforms. Some of my open records requests have not been responded to for many months, so I wonder how this person got in to see my file in such a short amount of time.
Knowing that these types of activists exist in our community who will go to great lengths to slander people, do you think parents and teachers are going to be willing to endure that kind of harassment? As a former teacher, I understand why a teacher would be terrified of the harassment they are going to receive from administration, central office staff and local activists in our community if they were to ask for reconsideration of a book in their school. They would be attacked, doxed and ostracized.
The definition of stakeholder is a person with an interest or concern in something. Taxpayers are stakeholders in this school system. It is a great disservice to taxpayers, who elected you and pay you wages, to not be allowed to submit reconsideration requests on behalf of teachers and students. If you do not amend this policy and allow citizens to speak on behalf of students and teachers, you will continue to see teachers resign and parents pull their children out of HCS, as many have already.
Tonya Dodd
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What is explicit or pornographic to one might not be the same to others.
Libraries do not just arbitrarily purchase books to fill up shelves, they just do not have the money. Schools, in particular, select books that their students want because they tend to answer questions which the students have that they do not feel that they should bring up with their parents.
Students, early on, are curious. They are hearing terms like LBGTQ and do not know what they mean. You cannot stop them from finding out, however, there are a lot of ways to find out and you probably supplied one each for your own children. If you have blocked something out, the probability is that one of their friends’ parents have not locked them out. Children past the third or fourth grade can figure out quickly how to unlock the features you have locked on your TV, computer, and their cell phones.
Today they are hearing terms that you did not know about when you were that age. They may well have questions about their sexuality early on in life. They are going to find out whether you like it or not.
I saw a picture on the TV the other day of a family at dinner. Mother and father were talking to each other, the daughter who was at the table was texting on her cell phone, paying her parents no attention whatsoever. The parent has the distinct responsibility to see that their family, their children, communicate of the nature of which I am speaking and get realistic answers and the parents are not turned off to talking about it.
What I am talking about is communication, communication. Honestly, the children have to have the respect from their parents and they have to be given reasonable answers. My siblings and I had open communication with my mother and her parents, but not with my father and his parents. She would give frank answers and not to try to intimidate us. The respect has to be two sided with the children, they should feel free to talk about all issues. If they do not get answers it is off to Google. You simply do not want your child to have Google as their first option. Of course, Google was not available when I was young so my mother or the library were my main sources of information.
One of the major social problems that we have today is that both parents have to work to keep up with inflation and have some of the luxuries of life. Children are left on their own to a great extent. I would hire students from the local high school to do certain clerical tasks. One was 17 years old, her younger sister was 14. Her younger sister was a “latch key” child. Her parents both worked and were gone when she woke up and not at home until after the childrens’ dinner. The 14-year-old was dating a 22-year-old man and her parents did not know. The problem is that there are too many latch key children today. To me, the real Board of Education was the dining room table. When my children came home, we had cookies and ice cream and were open to any and all conversations. Today, in many homes, the dining room table does not play the same role.
As for banning books, I would not approve of that at all. There are examples throughout the course of history of book banning and, to be truthful about it, it did no good. It did not stop learning about everything, thus it was a fruitless venture in all cases. There was a great library in Alexandria, Egypt that burned in 48 BC. It is not known whether burning the library was deliberate or just something that happened accidentally. It contained many of the books of ancient Greece and now, for over 2000 years, we are still finding books that were in that library, but in the strangest of places. The Arabic Intellectuals have recovered from their sources.
The English philosopher, John Stuart Mill, is quoted as saying, “He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side….”
I read about 25 different articles on the computer concerning Moms For Liberty and some of the stuff that is said is rather disturbing. Specifically, a couple of sites mention an alliance with the Proud Boys, the heads of which have recently been imprisoned for up to 18 years for one. I suggest that you either read the Heritage Foundation’s PROJECT 2015 or go to Google and look it up. It is quite disturbing.
I have been reading since I was four. My interests are varied. My wife reads all the time, my daughter also. My son reads off a screen. Following the advice of John Stuart Mill, I read both sides of every issue.
Raleigh C. Perry
Buford, Ga.
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I recently came across your post about books and was intrigued by the topic. However, I found the statement to be quite vague and lacking in detail.
Could you please provide us with more information on the titles of the books and specific passages that are of concern? As you mentioned, it is important for parents to be aware of any potentially inappropriate content in books, and I believe it is necessary to have all the facts before making any judgments.
Additionally, I agree with your point that simply calling out individual publishers or authors will not solve the issue of children accessing inappropriate content in the digital age. Instead, we should focus on educating our children on what is appropriate and what is not.
Christopher Cooper
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The issue of book banning requires some genuine context. During times of cultural stress or political strain, we become convinced that we must be protected - in some cases from ourselves.
In the 1950s, Indiana attempted to ban any mention of Robin Hood because he followed the "communist line" of robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. In that same decade, the American Legion attacked the Girl Scouts (the Girl Scouts!) for being a subversive organization. Texas's governor called for the death penalty for membership in the Communist Party, while the town of Providence, RI did not allow a statue of Tom Paine because he was considered "too controversial a figure."
Also, what would Ms. Dodd suggest we do about the following sections of the Bible?
Ezekiel 23:20
Lot's Daughters
David and Bathsheba
Song of Solomon
Book of Ruth
Joshua (8, 10:40)
If she argues that religious books should be exempted from the ban, could the Kama Sutra be taught in the schools?
Lastly, as someone mentioned, should the famous Melville novel about Captain Ahab and whales change its title to Moby Thingy?
Michael V. Woodward, Ph.D.