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Last week, I penned a lengthy column decrying the proliferation of taxpayer-funded “porn propaganda” being pushed on South Carolina school children by the state’s woke-educational complex.
This week, the Palmetto State’s top educrat is taking action to combat this epidemic …
State superintendent of education Ellen Weaver is preparing to unveil a comprehensive new policy for the “selection or reconsideration of instructional materials,” according to a draft executive summary obtained exclusively by this media outlet.
“South Carolina must establish a clear, transparent and uniform process that provides certainty for local educators, respects the legitimate prerogatives of parents and protects students from materials that are not age or developmentally appropriate,” the summary noted.
The new policy is an effort S.C. Department of Education (SCDE) to address “the current patchwork of district policies and practices” which afford stakeholders an “uneven opportunity to have their concerns addressed in a uniform, transparent manner.”
“This has created concern and frustration for parents and has caused fear, uncertainty and distraction from the paramount academic mission of South Carolina schools for educators,” the summary noted.
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A mission at which South Carolina’s government-run schools are failing miserably despite record funding increases, incidentally …
The new SCDE policy would establish a two-pronged “threshold test” for determining whether materials available to students in public schools were 1) age and developmentally appropriate and 2) educationally suitable and aligned with the purpose of South Carolina’s instructional program.
The policy would also create “a uniform process for local school boards to review and hold public hearings on complaints raised within (each) district” while at the same time establishing an “appellate process” to the S.C. State Board of Education (SCSBE).
That end result of that process? The statewide board would have the authority to “keep, remove or restrict the item to require parental consent” – a decision which would “be conclusive and binding on all districts in South Carolina.”
Specifically, the policy would prohibit schools from using materials which included “descriptions or visual depictions of ‘sexual conduct’ as defined in longstanding South Carolina law or which would be considered ‘obscene’ or ‘indecent’ for daytime broadcast by the Federal Communication Commission.”
It would also require materials to be “closely tailored” to the state’s “rigorous, standards-based instructional program.”
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RELATED | ‘PORN PROPAGANDA’ IN SOUTH CAROLINA SCHOOLS
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Parents across the state who have been fighting to rid schools of inappropriate materials praised the new policy.
“For over a year now my local school board has been voting to put lewd and obscene books back on the shelves in Beaufort County,” said Ivie Szalai, a Lowcountry parent. “As one of the original complainants, I am thrilled with this proposed regulation. It not should have had to come to this as common sense should dictate that these books are not appropriate for minors but I am incredibly grateful to state superintendent Ellen Weaver for making this bold but needed move.”
Grassroots education reformers were also pleased with SCDE’s new direction. Maggie Marlow is founder of United Parents of South Carolina (UPSC) – a group which aims to empower parents willing to take a stand for their children’s rights. According to Marlow, the new SCDE directive “sets a clear policy to follow and will help us get back on track to educating our children, not indoctrinating them.”
“This gives parents who have been fighting to protect our children from obscene and lewd material in public schools a gleam of hope for the SC public school system,” Marlow said. “The book review process was broken with a biased review process in place. It’s nice to see a little common sense come from our State House and the leaders of SCDE.”
Ellen Abramo, a former public school teacher, also praised the proposed policy.
“Time and time again, in order to bring this issue to light and share actual quotes from books that contain lewd and vulgar content, parents are silenced at board meetings because minors may be present or viewing the livestream,” she said. “Likewise, news stations cannot recite the passages on air because minors may be watching, and newspapers cannot print said passages because their papers get placed in school libraries. The irony is not lost on us. If it isn’t appropriate in those forums, it isn’t appropriate on school or classroom library shelves. Shelf space is limited, and South Carolina schools really need to focus on presenting the best appropriate , educational, and inspiring literature possible.”
The new policy concurred, specifically referring to “finite (state) resources, space and time.”
Weaver’s office was not immediately available to comment on the proposed policy, but the superintendent – who has been a leader in the pushback against these materials – made it clear at the last SCSBE meeting her agency was going to take action.
(Click to View)
“I’m a proponent of local control, but I also know that half of the education budgets come from the state,” Weaver said. “With that investment comes responsibility. It is well within the purview and responsibilities under state law of this board to advise on the age appropriateness and the alignment with South Carolina instructional standards. That is what we will bring before this board for your consideration in the months to come.”
Weaver will find many local school district leaders supporting her new policy.
Earlier this year, our media outlet published a guest column from Rebecca Blackburn Hines, chairwoman of Lexington-Richland School District 5 – which is located in the Midlands region of the Palmetto State. Hines has been critical of previous superintendent Molly Spearman‘s failure to address this issue – as well as the reflexive attacks on parents seeking to keep explicit materials out of their children’s hands.
“I have continually expressed my concerns about sexually explicit materials in our schools,” Hines told me. “I have reinforced the fact that it isn’t an attack on a certain class of individuals or students. It isn’t an issue about sexual preferences, identity, race, religion, etc. The issue is about state standards, curriculum, and exposing minors to materials containing obscenity and extreme sexually explicit depictions. Superintendent Weaver has heard my concerns and the concerns of all parents in South Carolina. I appreciate her willingness to work together with trustees, parents and educators to present reasonable solutions to assist every district appropriately address inconsistencies and protect our students.”
My media outlet has made its position on this issue abundantly clear …
“Adult material should not be accessible to children under any circumstances,” I wrote just last week. “And it sure as hell shouldn’t be accessible to children at taxpayer expense – without parental consent.”
“This isn’t just about porn – it’s about propaganda. It’s about institutional grooming … it’s about amplifying the programmatic woke onslaught being mainlined into our children’s minds via their smart phones, tablets and televisions 24/7/365,” I added.
Don’t get me wrong: No one is saying the state should ban books. Buy whatever book you want. And share whatever you feel is appropriate with your kids in your own home. All I’m saying is don’t make other people pay for your kids to read porn – and don’t expose it to other people’s kids without their consent.
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THE POLICY …
(Via: Text)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven (soon to be eight) children.
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5 comments
Finally, the bible will he banned from all public schools in SC.
Well done, South Carolina!
And the election returns last night indicate that real Americans do NOT like being told what they can read or love and that they very much want to keep control of their own reproductive choices. In short, the Dems rolled last night. That should give these radical Christian Nationalists’ food for thought. America is not a majority right nation. Meanwhile, the GOP has doubled down on chaos and stupidity, and it’s not working to get them elected.
The election returns had NOTHING to do with allowing sexually explicit material in our schools.
The Left is doing all they can to groom / brainwash kids and destroy the family unit. It is being done on purpose.
America is NOT a majority Left country. Sorry.
Books like Gender Queer appeared on school library shelves in part because they were donated to school libraries at all levels by GLSEN Rainbow Library, and SCASL encouraged their acceptance. Instead of reading reviews and examining them personally, as a professional should, some librarians added them to their collections immediately.
Others simply joined the rush to be considered “inclusive” and jumped on the trendy DEI bandwagon. Now all find themselves possibly being removed from the process of selecting books for their students, if legislators vote to approve Weaver’s proposal.
South Carolina has always been a leader in this aspect of education by requiring all schools to have a library and a certified librarian. Hopefully this requirement will remain. Our students deserve this.
A “certified librarian” does not mean sane or moral or appropriate judgment. The American Library Association stripped Laura Ingalls Wilder of due recognition as an outstanding writer of children’s historical fiction, drawing millions of readers to the love of reading. Why? Apparently the ALA doesn’t like the few paragraphs where she mentions her child experience of “Indians” in her “Little House on the Prairie” series. Why do we let librarians be the conduit of what is and is not appropriate in our public libraries and public school libraries? A book which graphically shows a boy s–k–g on another boy’s d–k (the book’s words, not mine) into middle school libraries seems perfectly acceptable to sex-obsessed perverts making decisions for our children. STOP. THE. INSANITY. Parents have every right to know the material being presented in the classroom and in school libraries. And pornographic erotica has ZERO place in public libraries, no matter the age level.