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FALLS CHURCH, Va. – Parents gathered outside the Fairfax County School Board meeting on Thursday, voicing their opposition to what they term pedophilia and “porn in schools” after Fairfax County Public Schools reintroduced two books containing depictions of sexual activity.
“They’ve doubled down on porn in the schools. They’ve all got to go,” Stacy Langton, the Fairfax County mother who confronted the school board with images from the books in September, told Fox News. “Who’s in favor of porn in the schools?”
Parents protested outside of Luther Jackson Middle School, holding signs reading, “No porn in our schools,” wearing t-shirts reading, “Mama Grizzly” and “Papa Grizzly,” and holding signs featuring the photos of school board members with the text, “Resign FairfaXXX.”
Fairfax County parents protest outside a school board meeting, holding signs reading, “Resign FairfaXXX.” Photo credit Tyler O’Neil/Fox News Digital. (Tyler O’Neil/Fox News Digital)
Thursday marks the first school board meeting since FCPS reintroduced the controversial books. “Lawn Boy” by Jonathan Evison includes long sections of a boy reminiscing about explicit experiences he had at 10 years old, and “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” by Maia Kobabe includes photos of sexual acts between a boy and a man.
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Fairfax County Public Schools announced that it had restored the books to libraries after two committees — consisting of librarians, administrators, parents and students — had reviewed them. The committees claimed the books are not obscene and do not contain pedophilia.
“We’re here because we don’t want any porn in the schools,” Angela Boyer, whose daughter graduated from a Fairfax public school, told Fox News outside the board meeting. “We’re sick of them trying to put labels on it and call it what it isn’t. Stop playing word semantic games. It’s ridiculous and insulting.”
Fairfax County parents protest outside a school board meeting. Photo credit Tyler O’Neil/Fox News Digital. (Tyler O’Neil/Fox News Digital)
“As a parent of kids that go to Fairfax County schools, it doesn’t matter if it’s ‘Lawn Boy,’ gay sex, straight sex, it shouldn’t be in schools,” Justin, a father of two, told Fox News. “We don’t need to be paying tax dollars for sexual books.”
“The school board is failing our children,” Maria Sherwell, a mother of two children in FCPS schools, told Fox News.
“The attendance is down, the grades are down, children are being subjected to sexual surveys that are completely out of line,” she said, referring to an official FCPS survey asking students questions about their sex lives. She lamented “that porn is allowed in school, even for middle schoolers.”
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Julie Perry, a history teacher at a Fairfax County public school who ran for a seat in the House of Delegates this year, told Fox News that she risked being ostracized and worse by speaking up. She claimed that she “was terrorized for being a Republican” at a previous school where she worked. Yet she said she felt compelled to protest.
Julie Perry, a history teacher at a Fairfax County public school who ran for a seat in the House of Delegates this year. Photo credit Tyler O’Neil/Fox News Digital (Tyler O’Neil/Fox News Digital)
“Child pornography is so dangerous for a child’s mind,” Perry said. “Their frontal lobes aren’t developed yet, so what they see sticks in their minds.”
During the school board meeting, some students and parents spoke in favor of the books, arguing that they provide important representation for LGBTQ students. Other parents said that doesn’t justify “porn” in schools.
When Langton spoke, she brought up two additional books, “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson and “Decelerate Blue” by Adam Rapp. She said the first book includes a description of a 13-year-old boy being sodomized by his 18-year-old cousin and the other book includes obscene pictures of sex acts.
Langton argued that such books “violate the FCC’s regulations on obscenity,” so media outlets cannot carry them, but FCPS allows them in libraries.
“How is it that these materials, which cannot be shown to America, magically become legal when you step inside a school library?” she asked.
Chris Henzel, a father of three, claimed that the committees reviewing Lawn Boy and Gender Queer consisted of “teachers and administrators who work for the school board and who could be counted on to give the answers they wanted.”
Pornographic books that mother Stacy Langton objected to.
“You’re not fooling anyone with your insider committees,” he said.
Asra Nomani, a mother and vice president at Parents Defending Education, told Fox News that the school board’s actions helped Republican Glenn Youngkin win the Virginia governor’s race last month.
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“These twelve Democrats helped elect Glenn Youngkin because they treated us so badly,” Nomani said. Even so, she added that “the parents tonight reveal that we are not an overnight political operation. We are here to stay. Parents are wearing ‘Momma Grizzly’ t-shirts because we are fierce.”