Why are we letting a few off the rails people ruin everything for the rest of us normal people. Can anyone tell me why these people are making decisions for everyone else kids when they don’t have children on those schools, that go to those libraries, or are in public office? See how they act behind the scenes to get a law past to “protect the children” so they can then exploit them to push their fundamentalist extreme agenda on everyone. I hate this. We need to find a way to fight back. Hugs. Scottie
The Guardian reports:
A book about book bans has been banned in a Florida school district. Ban This Book, a children’s book written by Alan Gratz, will no longer be available in the Indian River county school district since the school board voted to remove the book last month.
Gratz’s book, which came out in 2017, follows fourth-grader Amy Anne Ollinger as she tries to check out her favorite book. Ollinger is told by the librarian she cannot, because it was banned after a classmate’s parent thought it was inappropriate.
In a peculiar case of life imitating art, Jennifer Pippin, a parent in the coastal community, challenged the book. Pippin is also the chair of the local Moms for Liberty chapter, a far-right organization that has been behind many of the book bans that have swept across the US in recent years.
The Tallahassee Democrat reports:
Gratz, its author, called the Indian River County decision “incredibly ironic.” “They banned the book because it talks about the books that they have banned and because it talks about book banning,” he said in an interview. “It feels like they know exactly what they’re doing and they’re somewhat ashamed of what they’re doing and they don’t want a book on the shelves that calls them out.”
Board members Jacqueline Rosario and Gene Posca, who voted in the majority, were backed by Moms for Liberty during their campaigns, according to Treasure Coast Newspapers. The third “yes” vote came from Kevin McDonald, who was recently appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“The title itself and the theme challenges our authority. And it even goes so far as to not only to mention books that are deemed inappropriate by school boards, including ours, it not only mentions them but it lists them,” McDonald said.
As you’ll see in the many tweets below, Ms. Pippin is as batshit crazy as you’d expect. She last appeared here in March 2023 when she successfully pressured the same school board to ban a book about a Holocaust survivor.
The laughable thing about all this is that they literally (see what I did there?) do not understand the IRONY of banning a book about banning books.
It’s true it’s ironic, to those of us on the outside. But according to the DeSantis appointee to the board, they felt the need to ban the book because it challenged their authority! So they have a completely political agenda, having nothing to do with religion or morality. One wonders if they will next ban the local newspaper that wrote about this incident.
And yet they shrug their shoulders if kids are mowed down with an assault rifle
Nope. They just blame liberals, gays, liberals, trans, liberals, Mexicans, liberals, atheists, liberals…
…..challenges our authority.
Yep. That’s it. That’s exactly it.
Fucking moronic 🤡
Example A in why books like these are necessary and appropriate for kids.
The idea of authority for its own sake deserves ridicule and disobedience.
Likewise, kids’ access to books and topics in school that make Christian nationalists and white supremacists uncomfortable, appropriate medical care including reproductive and gender-affirming care, and so on, and so forth, are not about parental rights. They’re about THE KIDS’ RIGHTS as people in their own right, whether or not their individual parents support them.
They all need to stop this nonsense and get part time jobs to pay for their Florida flood insurance.
In 10 years’ time, it’ll be a wonder if any child from the Florida education system can read or write.
Thats exactly what the 1% want. A permanent, uneducated underclass working slave labor wages
As Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza put it:
I don’t want an educated population. I want oxen.
It should come as no surprise that Alan Gratz, whose book on book banning Pippin wants banned, has won a National Jewish Book Award. So like Anne Frank and Holocaust survivors, he has “forsaken God.”
Had her two kids out of wedlock, yet considers herself a defender of virtue and family values.
So predictable.
“Do as I say, not as I do” – the conservative motto.
And then they had a little BBQ.
The title itself and the theme challenges our authority.
Politicians should not dictate school curricula or library content! Period!
Where TF are the so-called “Libertarians” on this?
Coincidentally, the seemingly well meaning Germans NAZIs started off by banning books too …
Peak anti-Jewish insanity wasn’t bad enough, that now they are claiming that Ann Frank’s diary is a Jewish plot and a threat the Christian children?
Scottie's Playtime 
Well, 1st, the statement about the board’s authority is in error. The actual families of actual students-our districts call those “patrons,” are the authority. Usually in cases of policy, like books or banning of books, the squeakiest wheels get the grease. That said, of course I know that in FL, especially, there are plenty of M4L board members. The board does set agenda rules, and decides who speaks about what for how long and when discussion must close. It’s not authority, it’s meeting protocol. So, not only do more people who disagree with these boards and with M4L need to get out and show up for meetings, they need to become candidates and challenge the board members who are there grinding their own axes instead of the students’s axes. Yikes, axes sounds bad. We know what I mean.
It is fun and funny to laugh at school boards who would ban a book about banning books, while whining about their “authority” and how the book not only mentions but lists the banned books. I don’t think an English teacher would appreciate the redundance in that sentence. And meanwhile, the students miss out on education. (I’m sorry for making fun of that guy, but what a whiner.)
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Hi Ali. Sorry I just got up and I am a bit groggy, what about the board’s authority is in error. Here in Florida is a district school board rules something the schools have to do it unless it is overturned in court. Hugs. Scottie.
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Oh, yeah, and then I neglected today to include that it is the whiney board member’s statement about authority that is in error, due to all the other words I wrote!
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Yes, the schools follow the guidelines voted upon by their boards. But the authority lies with those who are school patrons. But that means they have to show up at the meetings and direct their elected board members, same as the M4L do. That’s what I meant. I have a bad habit of using a lot of words later at night, and then being confusing. blahblahblah…
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Hi Ali. All good. I understand now. Sadly in a lot of red states the pro LGBTQ+ sides show up and are either ignored or simply not allowed to speak. The right / fundamentalist are not willing to compromise or play fair. They demand everything their way and only their way. I have said before that they want to rule, not serve. Hugs. Scottie
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