Last night, in a self-righteous fit, the Penfield school board stormed out.
The room was packed, parents were pissed, and the board was having none of it.
And so, after snottily informing the audience that this was the board’s meeting and that the public’s presence was disruptive, the president called for a motion to adjourn and after a few mumbled words of parliamentary procedure the board en masse stood up and walked out.
That’s how democracy works on the woke eastside.
The commissars decide how things are going to be and anybody who doesn’t like it can pound salt.
Take this gay book for example.
“The Rainbow Parade.” It’s a children’s book, about a girl whose two mommies take her to a lavishly illustrated gay parade where men walk around naked or wear leather sado-masochism harnesses, sometimes while holding hands.
This book is in the Penfield, New York, elementary school library. It played a prominent part in a recent gay pride display in the library.
And that bothers a lot of parents.
Which makes them book-burning bigots.
At least the way the story gets told on the evening news.
And last night, again, parents packed the large school board meeting room and decried the fact that this book and others like it are being bought at taxpayer expense and put in a library for little children. The board responded by saying the topic wasn’t appropriate for its meeting and if parents didn’t like a particular title they could submit a written complaint to the superintendent, who promises not to laugh before she throws the complaint in the trash.
That last part is just a guess, but given that her last three jobs were in DEI, I think it’s a safe one.
There are two issues here: Decency and democracy, and the school board is wrong on both.
First of all, in regard to decency, any book promoting any sexuality is wrong in a public school library. Likewise, any book depicting sexual nudity is wrong in a public school library.
Further, this book is wrong in that if you showed it to 100 random people, 75 of them would say that it was inappropriate for an elementary school library. It violates community standards for decency, which are a reflection of majority view, not progressive orthodoxy.
And finally, it is simply wrong. As in right and wrong, good and evil.
The book is a sinister attempt to normalize and promote behaviors which violate the moral teachings of most followers of the world’s monotheistic religions. Those behaviors are for consenting adults, they are not for little kids, and schools must not be in the business of grooming and recruiting.
That book isn’t telling a story, it is selling a lifestyle. And schools are not to do that type of social engineering. Just as schools may not proselyte for a religion, they may not promote for a social movement.
Parents who wish their children to read such books can purchase them themselves, the taxpayer should not be forced to do so.
Again, the book is objectively wrong for an elementary school.
And the board is objectively wrong in its understanding of its role.
Elected school boards, like all elected bodies, are to represent the interests and wishes of the people. There is no power in an elected body that is not delegated to it by the people. Serving involves listening, and a board that will not listen is a board that is not serving.
To have a roomful of constituents, and to berate and then walk out on those constituents, is the doing of tyrants, not public servants. Even in disagreement, elected officials must have the courtesy and character to listen. Good elected officials create opportunities for the public to be heard, not try to silence dissent.
In its pride and arrogance, the Penfield school board has failed to protect its children or heed its constituents – which is about par for the course when progressives hold power.
And if the school board won’t listen, it’s time to go over its head.
Because Donald Trump will listen. And he controls the $2.5 million in federal aid that comes to the Penfield Central School District each year.
The board doesn’t care about protecting children, but it does care about protecting dollars.
So it’s time to ask the president to remind the board and the superintendent who’s in charge.
