MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Va. – Montgomery County Public Schools is responding after a parent voiced her concerns of what she called, pornographic material in one of the school libraries. It’s an issue that has been brought up in schools across the country, but one local mom explained that this problem is also too close to home.
“So if you have children or if you’re listening via web, I want to warn you, this is going to be graphic,” said the parent Tuesday night.
She went in front of the Montgomery County School Board and read excerpts from Flamer, a book by Mike Curato that she said was in her child’s library. The content in the book is considered by some other parents to be graphic, sexually explicit and inappropriate for students.
Flamer is about a 14-year-old Filipino boy struggling with his body image as well as his identity as a gay, Catholic teenager.
“We have an internet policy that says we’re not allowed to have our students look at porn and other stuff, and I signed off on that. But this is the book that’s in there and we’re okay with it sitting in our school libraries. That shouldn’t be,” she added.
The mother asked the school board for a screening process for books in the library and for a policy to be put in place. Brenda Drake, the Director of Communications and Community Relations for Montgomery County Public Schools provided 10 News with this statement in response to the parents concerns:
That process is listed in the MCPS policy manual. It also says the review and selection of materials are the responsibility of each school librarian, but the ultimate responsibility for the selection rests with the school board.
The next Montgomery County School Board meeting is March 21 at 7 p.m.