Sending Cops To Search Classrooms For Controversial Books Is Just Something We Do Now, I Guess

Free Speech

from the bigots-sure-love-them-some-fascism dept

Thanks to politicians (including a former president) being overly willing to scratch the bigoted itch of a voting bloc that appears to prefer the brutal caress of fascism to the freedoms of a democratic republic, far too many state and local legislators are crafting and enacting laws designed to relegate a whole lot of the nation to the lower echelons of society.

These are people who believe they’re Norman Rockwell characters residing in disturbingly lit Thomas Kinkade houses. They believe they have the moral high ground, if only because they say weird stuff about God while going about government business. They claim they’re worried about the children. But they don’t actually care about the children. They only care whether this supposed concern can be leveraged to demean and destroy people they don’t like.

The same people who claimed to care so much about children that they worked tirelessly to enact abortion bans are the same people that would rather see underprivileged children go hungry than accept federal funding for food programs. They believe children should be discouraged and destroyed if they question the status quo being erected by this disturbing group of politicians — ones who appear to believe the road to hell is paved with open minds.

All over the nation we’re seeing book bans targeting (almost exclusively) LGBTQ+ writers and/or content. We’re seeing expansions of existing obscenity laws to cover artistic performances by and for LGBTQ+ people.

And now, in Massachusetts, we’re seeing something we haven’t seen elsewhere. At least not yet. But, rest assured, this definitely won’t be the last time we see something like this:

Someone called the police last Friday.

About a book.

What happened next outraged the school community and left them in disbelief.

After the complaint, Great Barrington police and the Berkshire District Attorney’s Office began investigating whether the illustrated novel, “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe, was inappropriate content for an eighth grade classroom at W.E.B. Du Bois Regional Middle School.

The book was made available as a resource by an English teacher.

The new thing isn’t some idiot thinking the best way to handle a complaint about a book is to call the cops. No, the new thing we (in the royal sense) definitely shouldn’t be doing is what happened during the course of this investigation that never should have been initiated in the first place.

After the call came in, Police Chief Paul Storti notified Peter Dillon, superintendent of the Berkshire Hills Regional School District, that police were investigating the complaint and referring it to the DA’s Office.

After school let out, Principal Miles Wheat escorted a plainclothed town police officer to the classroom to investigate the potential crime of “obscenity.”

The search failed to turn up the supposedly “obscene” book. The officer (who has not been identified) left empty-handed. Later that same day, the district attorney’s office told the school the investigation was closed and that any questions about whether the book was appropriate for eighth graders was something the school itself needed to address, which is what should have happened in the first place.

When the Great Barrington PD received this complaint, they should have told the caller to take it up with the school. What it definitely should not have done is open an investigation. It very fucking definitely shouldn’t have sent an officer to a classroom to search for the book.

More details continue to emerge as The Berkshire Eagle digs into this:

The plainclothed police officer who entered an eighth grade classroom to search for a book wore a body camera and recorded the incident, leading to more legal questions and concerns. 

The American Civil Liberties Union and other free speech advocates say they are alarmed by the recording, as well as the entire Dec. 8 incident that took place after classes let out at W.E.B. Du Bois Regional Middle School.

They also say they cannot recall any instances of police going to a school to search for a book. Schools and libraries have internal procedures for book challenges. 

As for the school district, it has issued an apology for not handling this better.

“Faced with an unprecedented police investigation of what should be a purely educational issue, we tried our best to serve the interests of students, families, teachers and staff. In hindsight, we would have approached that moment differently. We are sorry,” the letter said.

I guarantee this sort of thing won’t remain an anomaly. There are groups being formed for the sole purpose of raising challenges targeting LGBTQ+ content and creators. They’re the sort of people who complain about being “censored” when they’re kicked off social media services but are more than willing to truly censor others by getting the government involved every time they come across content they don’t like. Those who don’t lack the self-awareness to recognize this hypocrisy simply don’t care how they come across or what they do, just as long as it hurts the people they hate.

Filed Under: 1st amendment, berkshire hills regional school district, book banning, books, gender queer, great barrington, libraries, massachusetts, miles wheat, obscenity, paul storti, peter dillon, police, school libraries, schools, w.e.b. du bois regional middle school