JAY — Roger Moulton of Livermore Falls shared several concerns at the Regional School Unit 73 board of directors meeting on Thursday night, Jan. 11, held at Spruce Mountain High School.
His first concern was inappropriate reading material in school libraries.
Roger Moulton of Livermore Falls shared several concerns with Regional School Unit 73 board of directors at the meeting on Thursday, Jan. 11, in Jay. He is seen addressing the directors and members of the public Nov. 10, 2022, at Spruce Mountain High School in Jay. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal file
“I haven’t been back here since the Gender Queer debate and vote,” he said. “After leaving, I discovered the most shocking image yet. I didn’t pay much attention to the image the first go round.”
Moulton shared a picture of the image with board members, said it depicted an illegal pedophilia act. “If it were a photograph as opposed to an illustration, two people would be going to prison,” he stated. “Why is this acceptable as a drawing in an academic institution?”
He brought the illustration to a board member and couldn’t believe changes hadn’t been made since then to prevent such things going forward.
“Now we found out there is a book, possibly several with inappropriate wording and situations available at the elementary school for eight year olds,” Moulton said. “We are well aware of the response we will get from some board members, staff and community that will call this an attack on the LGBTQ community. If there are cis or straight books, or however you want to word it, that have similar materials for eight-year-olds we would beg and plead you to remove those from the library as well.”
Since it is obvious some parents can no longer trust the library department to properly screen reading materials, Moulton said they were asking for them to be screened by the board and a parent group.
“I don’t think that is an unusual request as ultimately parents should decide what their children are viewing anyway,” he noted. “There are books that are LGBTQ -related and have characters that don’t show pedophilia in a positive light. I don’t know why we can’t commit to searching those books out and bring those in to support those students.”
“Spruce Mountain has the GSA [Gay Straight Alliance] which we are told is our largest extra-curricular group,” Moulton stated. “We have more rainbows than any other symbols on the grounds, with the exception of the Phoenix and I’m honestly not sure if we have more Phoenix symbols in this building than we do rainbows. I would love the opportunity to count them.”
Moulton said LGBTQ students are well represented in the district, nobody is asking to change that. He is glad those students have a voice and resources available to them. “As a parent, I have got to think that chess club, math club and basketball look better on an application to college than four years of GSA,” he said.
Moulton’s concern is with inappropriate material, hopes to sway the focus back to academics.
Another concern is bullying, although his children haven’t personally experienced it. “For the last three or four years I have heard many stories of bullying at the middle school with no results or punishment of students,” he noted. “The vast majority of parents are saying it is not being handled or changed. A lot of them have moved their kids or have gone to different classes.”
“With the amount of energy spent on welcoming all people, why are we still having these bullying issues and how do we stop it,” Moulton asked.
He indicated he will be seeking a seat on the board of directors and will be sharing images and situations of concern [such as the parent survey on masks being ignored] with the community while campaigning for election.
“This is your notice to shape up and start respecting parents’ wishes,” Moulton stated. “Have some actual adult discernment for what is and is not appropriate or we will have you all unseated one by one until there is at least a majority of board members with common sense and decency,” he said.
“I know that the big thing this year has been bullying,” Chantelle Woodcock, a director representing Jay said later during the board comment section of the meeting. Bullying has been seen in all schools, she noted. “The thing we don’t talk about is we are seeing it with adults on social media,” she stated. “We are seeing it towards our teachers, towards our administrators.”
Woodcock hopes to have an open forum on bullying. “When we think about where are the kids getting the audacity to be bullies, we need to remember they learn from the adults around them,” she stressed.
In his report, Superintendent Scott Albert said the book Rick has been challenged at the elementary school. The district is in the early stages of that challenge, will follow district policy for challenges to remove library books, he noted.
According to Amazon, Rick is written by Alex Gino, the award-winning author of Melissa. Rick explores what it means to search for your own place in the world . . . and all the steps you and the people around you need to take in order to get where you need to be, the site states.
After the meeting, Albert distributed copies of the book for board members to read.
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