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M4L Hernando County - Curriculum Review Committee

Committee Chair - Julia Thomas ([email protected])
Committee Size = 5 Members (Including 1 retired teacher & 1 current teacher)

 

Purpose: Founded in 2021, the CMRC was formed shortly after the founding of the Chapter in response to a cascade of complaints about CRT materials and "porn" books in the school libraries within the Hernando County School District.

Over the past 2+ years, our Committee has engaged in a steady fight with the Hernando County School District, namely Board Members Susan Duval, Linda Prescott, and Kay Hatch, Superintendent John Stratton, and various administrative staff to have these inappropriate books removed and for the District to follow its own policies and State Law. Regardless of your political views, it is illegal to expose minors to sexually graphic content and topics.

To date, our Committee has discovered over 150+ books that contain sexually age-inappropriate content that is not suitable for underage children. Out of these 150+ books, roughly 50-60 of them contain extremely graphic sexual content such as incest, and rape. These books also glorify the use of alcohol, recreational drugs, every heavy illegal drug known to man, and even suicide.

Pornographic books aside, we have also uncovered a disproportionate amount of books and materials that also contain very woke anti-American subject matter that focuses on various aspects of Neo-Marxist doctrines such as Critical Race Theory (CRT), Social Emotional Learning (SEL), and Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI).

Between November 2021 and October 23, 2023, the Hernando County School District has received over 67 challenges, and to date, the District has only voted to remove 3 of those books. Keep in mind that under Florida Law (847.013), exposing minors to harmful exhibitions, shows, presentations, or representations of sexual or pornographic content is a third-degree felony.  

Highlight: Given the refusal of the Hernando County School District to comply with its own policies, let alone State Statute, as well as its dishonest attempts to hide inappropriate books (sexual or otherwise), and to knowingly use dishonest tactics to even gaslight the public about our efforts to remove them, our Committee has decided to add an official Committee Page to our website so that we can better inform the public about how their tax dollars are being spent and what their elected Board members are up to.

👇 A full detailed list accompanied by copies of the official challenges, emails between the Committee and District, and other supporting materials can be found below (This is a work in progress, so please bear with our Committee as we painstakingly expose everything)  👇

Exposing the "Book Ban Hoax": Sadly, at nearly every Hernando County School Board meeting a tiny yet vocal minority of District Staff shows up (at the request of the Board) to not only defend these inappropriate books but also to defend the Board on why they have a right to discuss sexual topics with minors. The most common phrase used by these "groomers" is that Moms for Liberty is trying to "ban books".

For the record, at no point has our Chapter EVER called for a book ban. This is a lie. We are simply asking our School District and others to follow the law and more importantly remind the District that it's not their duty or their job to discuss sexually age-inappropriate materials or promote hard-left Marxist anti-American political topics with children. Our Public Schools need to educate, and not indoctrinate!

Here's what we are NOT doing:

  • We are NOT telling authors to stop publishing their work.
  • We are NOT contacting public (non-school) libraries to censor their non-children selections.
  • We are NOT asking retailers to stop selling these books.
  • We are NOT concerned with classic titles that the media wants you to believe (i.e., Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, Dr. Seuss, Ian Flemming's James Bond, etc. etc. were all "canceled" by political left-leaning groups and the K12 Cartel who are both stuffing our school libraries, both locally in Hernando as well as nationwide, with what can only be described as porn - Source 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).

Here's what we ARE doing:

  • We ARE asking districts to have a clear and unbiased review process for books with extreme content (Hernando has a barely existing yet functional process, that - based on the track record so far - is hopefully biased in favor of exposing children to adult materials).

  • We ARE seeking the titles with the most explicit content (graphics with images of sex etc) to be removed from school libraries. Period. Florida law is crystal clear on this topic and Hernando County has purposefully remained in violation of its own policies and State Law regarding this topic.

  • We ARE proposing that "explicit content" stickers be placed on covers so parents have more knowledge of content (like CDs). We ARE working nationally to have a book-rating system that would help prevent School Districts from violating the law and to give parents to make educated decisions.

When is a Book Actually Removed:

  • A "bad book" is only removed from consideration after the School Board votes to remove it, OR, if someone publicly reads from the bad portions of a "bad book" at a School Board Meeting and is stopped at any point by the Board Chair or Board Attorney from reading said book. These are the ONLY two methods for legally removing a book from consideration by the District for good.

  • IF the District decides to secretly erase books out of Alexandria and hide them in a supply closet for a few years until Moms for Liberty goes away, and the children of various upset parents graduate out of the District, then this IS NOT removing a book from consideration. Instead, this is called preserving a book for future reconsideration. It's a very dishonest tactic that the Hernando County School District uses a lot to skirt the law and keep the public in the dark about what is actually going on. 

Hernando County School District (Book Challenges to Date)

The following titles have been found and challenged using the online library search tool, Alexandria, which can be found on the website for each School in the District. This information is not accurate and as mentioned above, we are in the process of updating every, single, challenge, along with all supporting materials, links to video reviews about the books, and anything else connected with the Challenge. 

Clicking the title links will bring you to a full breakdown of each book challenge which contains a full synopsis of the content that we object to. If a link is missing, then that means we are still in the process of uploading the documents.

⚠️⚠️ WARNING - 18+ YEARS OF AGE ONLY ⚠️⚠️

The titles below have varying degrees of obscene material including but not limited to:

  • Graphics showing sex acts (not in a medical/educational way)
  • Extreme profanity
  • Detailed descriptions of masturbation
  • Oral, anal & vaginal sex
  • Forced oral sex
  • Rape & sexual assault
  • Incest
  • Pedophilia
  • Teaching kids how to use sex apps, and what websites to use
  • Alcohol abuse
  • Drug abuse 
  • Kidnapping and sexual abuse
  • Sexual exploitation/blackmail
CHALLENGE #  TITLE RATING SCHOOL STATUS
⛔1-2021 3 "Looking for Alaska" by John Greene 3 out of 5 Fox Chapel Middle School ⛔ HCSD REFUSED TO REMOVE ⛔ 
 ⛔2-2021 3 "Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie 2 out of 5 Fox Chapel Middle School ⛔ HCSD REFUSED TO REMOVE ⛔
✅3-2021 3 "Thirteen Reasons Why" by Jay Asher 3 out of 5 Fox Chapel Middle School ✅ REMOVED ON X/X/23 ✅
 ⛔4-2021 3 "Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie 2 out of 5 Spring Hill Elementary   ⛔ HCSD REFUSED TO REMOVE ⛔
5-2021 2 "Tango Makes Three" by Justin Richardson 1 out of 5 Deltona Elementary RE-CHAL
6-2021 2 "Julian is a Mermaid" by Jessica Love 1 out of 5 Deltona Elementary RE-CHAL
7-2021 2 "The Family Book" by Todd Parr 1 out of 5 Deltona Elementary RE-CHAL
8-2021 2 "This Day in June" by Gayle Pitman 2 out of 5 Deltona Elementary RE-CHAL
9-2021 2 "Boy 2 Girl" by Terrance Blacker 3 out of 5 Powell Middle School RE-CHAL
⏸️10-2021 1 M4L CMRC COMMITTEE REVIEW UNRANKED Powell Middle School ⏸️ N/A ⏸️
11-2021 2 "Drama" by Raina Telgemeier 2 out of 5 Westside Elem RE-CHAL
12-2021 2 "L8rG8r" by Lauren Myracle 3 out of 5 Challenger K8 RE-CHAL
⏸️13-2021 1 M4L CMRC COMMITTEE REVIEW UNRANKED Challenger K8 ⏸️ N/A ⏸️
14-2021 2 "The Hate You Give" by Angie Thomas 3 out of 5 Challenger K8 RE-CHAL
 ✅15-2021 3 "Thirteen Reasons Why" by Jay Asher 3 out of 5 Challenger K8 ✅ REMOVED ON X/X/23 ✅
⏸️16-2021 1 M4L CMRC COMMITTEE REVIEW UNRANKED JD Floyd Elementary ⏸️ N/A ⏸️
⏸️ 1-2022 (17) ⏸️ 1 M4L CMRC COMMITTEE REVIEW UNRANKED JD Floyd Elementary ⏸️ N/A ⏸️
002-2022 (18)          
003-2022 (19)          
004-2022 (20)          
005-2022 (21)          
006-2022 (22)          
007-2022 (23)          
008-2022 (24)          
009-2022 (25)          
010-2022 (26)          
011-2022 (27)          
012-2022 (28)          
001-2023 (29)          
002-2023 (30)   Lucky (Alice Sebold)   Central High REMOVED
003-2023 (31)   Lucky (Alice Sebold)   Hernando High REMOVED
004-2023 (32)   Lucky (Alice Sebold)   Nature Coast High REMOVED
005-2023 (33)          
006-2023 (34)          
007-2023 (35)          
008-2023 (36)          
009-2023 (37)          
010-2023 (38)          
011-2023 (39)          
012-2023 (40)          
013-2023 (41)          
014-2023 (42)          
015-2023 (43)          
016-2023 (44)          
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           

KEY:

Challenge # = The cataloged challenge number assigned by M4LHC CMRC
#                  = The number of times M4LHC CMRC has challenged this book with the District
Title             = Title and Author of the book challenged (Many contain a hyperlink to a synopsis of the book)
Rating          = The agreed-upon rating for this specific book which was assigned by a consortium of                                    librarians, teachers, and parents. The ratings system is a simple 1 to 5 range with 1 being
                      questionable content, and 5 being hardcore 18+ XXX graphic pornographic content 
School          = The Hernando County School where the book was located.
Status          = The current disposition of the challenged book with the School District. Please note that 
                      the ONLY WAY to remove a book is for the board to vote to remove a book. 

The above list is a work in progress. Please bear with us as we update it, and then link all of the documents. This task will take some time, and we hope to have everything updated by Spring 2024.