By ALEX GIMARC
Must Read Alaska ran a couple stories about investigation and removal of a book from one public school library.
The book, “Gender Queer,” is a graphic voyage of self-discovery for the fledgling gay. Think of it as an instruction manual.
As with most instruction manuals, it is loaded with illustrations. Graphic illustrations. Calling it gay porn isn’t far off the mark.
For some reason, this book has started showing up in the public schools nationwide. This includes right here in the Anchorage School District. One story by Downing carried a video of a parent reading the book in front of a school board meeting in Orange County, Calif. He was forcibly removed from the meeting.
The Texas Tribune a couple weeks ago ran a piece decrying parental outrage over the book’s presence in Texas public schools.
Must Read Alaska ran a second story about the South Carolina Governor ordering his Superintendent of Education to investigate how the book made its way into the public schools. Now that we have state governors getting involved, where, oh where is Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy in all this? Enquiring minds want to know.
Apparently, its introduction nationwide in the public schools has been underway for some time. So far, when caught, the public schools have grudgingly removed the book, which is much the approach taken by ASD Superintendent Deena Bishop.
So far, there is no word about who is actually behind its introduction, though my best guess would be the “Usual Suspects” from the teachers’ unions and the librarians.
Bishop ordered a report on the presence of the book. It was delivered sometime before Nov 13. Bishop claims only a single copy existed in the ASD public school libraries and that copy was supposedly removed, transferred to a Municipal Library.
It is clear that both Anchorage School District leadership and the School Board want this little controversy to disappear just as quickly and quietly as possible. I wrote the following e-mail to our Learned Elected Officials requesting additional information. So far, I have received no response.
Howdy from South Anchorage –
I note with no small amount of dismay and disgust that gay porn has made it onto the public school library shelves of the Anchorage School District. From the CRT recommended reading list to gay porn, you guys have had yourself quite the year.
Per the article, a single copy has been removed from ASD to the shelves of the Municipal public libraries. I have several questions, first and foremost, when will the report that Superintendent Bishop commissioned on this book be made public in its entirety? How might we get a copy?
The incident raises several other questions, all of which I would like an answer to:
- Which ASD school had this book on its shelves?
- How many students checked it out?
- Specifically, who authorized the purchase and display of this book?
- What was the rationale for its purchase?
- When was the book put on the shelves?
- When was it pulled?
- What has been done to discipline whomever made the decision to purchase and display this book?
- Finally, and most importantly, how many similar books exist on the ASD library shelves today?
Thank you for your assistance. I am asking these questions at two levels. First, as a concerned taxpayer. Second, as a local blogger preparing an article on this for one of the local online resources. I really want to get the story right. And if ASD and the School Board choose to stonewall this request, I will write about that also. Either way, there will be an article.
Thank you for your assistance. Cheers – AG
Due to the lack of response, I filed a public records request for the report given Superintendent Bishop on or before Nov 13 on the book. I’ve received response out of ASD as yet but will keep the readership up to date on the process.
While I have been told that the School Board briefly discussed the issue toward the end of a recent meeting, likely Nov 16, I have not yet found the discussion on video as yet. The School Board was apparently more concerned with underserving the gay population in ASD than exposing underage students to porn. Note that for some reason, they don’t expose straight kids to porn. And they shouldn’t.
Where we sit with this today is a stonewall of information to parents and taxpayers by ASD leadership and the Anchorage School Board. Perhaps they are simply hoping the issue will go away. Perhaps they think we will forget about it. Perhaps it is something else.
Either way, Board Chair Margo Bellamy has something new on her plate in addition to a proposed $111 million bond package and actively recruiting candidates to split the vote between challengers to the reelection of her majority this coming April.
We can do better. Perhaps it is time we did, as this School Board clearly doesn’t represent either the needs or interests of Anchorage parents and children.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
