In US, parents protest outside school over inclusion of alleged 'porn' in syllabus

Noting that it’s “ridiculous and insulting”, parents protested outside the Fairfax County School Board meeting on Thursday to express disagreement over what they called ‘paedophilia and “porn in schools”, stated a Fox News report. The disagreements came after Fairfax County Public Schools reintroduced two books that contained depictions of sexual activity. Stacy Langton, the Fairfax County mother who questioned the school’s board with images from the books in September, told Fox News that the authorities in school “doubled down on porn in the schools”.

Langton also questioned who is in favour of “porn in schools?” As per the report, parents demonstrated outside the Luther Jackson Middle School, and held signs that read, “No porn in our schools.” Some of them also wore t-shirts reading, "Mama Grizzly" and "Papa Grizzly," while holding signs that featured the photos of the school’s board members with the text “Resign FairfaXXX."

Thursday meeting marked the first since the introduction of books

It is pertinent to note that Thursday marked the first school board meeting since the authorities introduced the books with controversial images that triggered a furious response by parents. ‘Lan boy’ by Jonathan Evison included long sections of a boy reminiscing about explicit experienced he had at the age of 10. Another book, ‘Gender Queer: A Memoir’ by Maia Kobabe included photos that depicted sexual acts between a boy and a man, stated Fox News. 

However, despite the anger expressed by parents, Fairfax County Public Schools announced that it had restored both the books to libraries after the review of two committees which consisted of librarians, administrators, parents and students. The media outlet quoted a parent, Angela Byer, whose daughter graduated from a Fairfax public school, as saying, “We're here because we don’t want any porn in the schools…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."

(IMAGE: Unsplash/Representative)