Forsyth County Georgia Board of Education - Jere Krischel - 10/18/2022

Over 4 million new books are published every year. Amazon lists 32.8 million books for sale. If we were to pick the top 1% of these books, we would have over 300,000 - and our school libraries only have room for a fraction of that. It was claimed last month, that the Supreme Court decided that children have a 1st amendment right, to have any book they want in their school library - but this is obviously impossible. Our libraries can't even hold a fraction of the best books written, much less all the books any individual student may be interested in. All libraries represent a carefully curated selection, and can only hold a very, very small number of books compared to all of those available out there.

Left-wing woke organizations want to be in charge of curating those selections. They want books that sexualize children, and books that demonize Martin Luther King's dream of a colorblind society. Rather than addressing the concerns of parents who are worried about inappropriate sexual content in libraries, they insist that the only parents who should have a voice, are those who want more sexual content, at earlier and earlier ages. Instead of embracing the ideals of racial equality of treatment, they demand racial equity of outcome, imposed by unequal treatment based on skin color. The "Forsyth Coalition for Education" claims to be representing parents, but thus far are unwilling to talk with parents who don't agree with their point of view, although the invitation has been extended time and time again.

We all have to live together, and taking away the voices of concerned parents is much worse than taking away the hyper-sexualized voice of a colored-transgender-muslim-non-binary-furry author from our school libraries. Hyper-sexualized content can still be found in our larger public libraries, and even on amazon.com, but we can keep our schools a safe space for our young, innocent children. If as a parent, you feel it is important that your kindergartener learn about sexual fetishes, you can still give those books to your children, even if those books aren't in our school libraries.

Also last month, a speaker said, "Schools can and must be safe places, even for difficult topics." And largely, I agree - but we have to go further. We need to have safe places for *both* sides of difficult topics. All too often, "difficult topics" are only presented with the politically correct answer. Youth with gender dysphoria must always be affirmed. The United States is systemically racist, and white people are fragile. Sexual kinks must be celebrated at all ages.

I would ask - can we invite doctors who oppose the surgical and hormonal mutilation of mentally ill youth to school? Can we have a real conversation about black on black violence? Can we have a real conversation about the damage pornography and sexual content can do to children? Is there a safe space for black men who wear "white lives matter" shirts? Can we address the difficult topic of voter fraud in the 2020 election, or the deadly side effects of ineffective vaccines in young people? Will we give safe space to talk about a president, who used his drug addicted son, to launder money through Ukraine, and is now bringing us to the brink of nuclear war?

Or maybe, just maybe, we need to be a little more focused in school. Maybe we should emphasize reading, writing, and arithmetic, and create spaces outside of school where difficult topics, under the guidance of loving parents, can be addressed. Maybe we could even have parents who disagree with each other, get to know each other, and talk about these difficult topics, and find ways to share both sides with their children.

And so on that note, thank you very much for your time, and again, I'd love to have lunch with anyone who disagrees with me.