Ronald F Owens Jr addresses Elk Grove Unified School District Board Meeting on July 18, 2023.

“Good evening. It’s the first Board meeting of the fiscal year, and its imperative to review what we have done the past several weeks.

“We have grimaced reading publicly pornographic school library books.

“We have blown up pornographic illustrations of these books.

“We have mounted them on poster board.

“We have unabashedly, yet embarrassingly, brandished these poster boards at Board meetings for all to see.

“We have shared how pornographic material and pornographic illustrations in these pornographic school library books is contrary to the District’s own anti-sexual harassment policy.

“We have informed that any of the District’s more than 6,500 employees, serving more than the District’s 63,000 students at the District’s 68 separate work sites, can sue the District for breaking the District’s own anti-sexual harassment policy, which is based on federal and state law.
“We have intimated that the District is breaking the law.

“We even suggested two solutions: These pornographic school library books be distributed to public libraries; or These pornographic school library books be given to parents who have no problem with their children viewing them.

“While the issue is not about us —the issue is, has always been and will continue to be about children— opponents have made it about us.

“They have called us white supremacists. They have characterized us as being oppressors and colonizers. They have said we’re white Christian nationalists, book banners and Christian right-wing extremists.

“These are ad hominem attacks. And ad hominem is defined as attacking an opponent’s character or motives, rather than answering the argument or claim.

“To date the collective response of this board and this administration about pornographic school library books has been…

[I stand silently for 21 seconds.]

“…Yes, the serious sound of silence is very loud and deafening.”

—Ronald F Owens Jr
<https://ronaldfowensjr.com>