A South Florida Democrat on Wednesday appeared to support allowing pornographic books to remain in school libraries, partly because parents are not “qualified” to judge which books may fall in that category.
Sen. Tina Polsky, a Boca Raton Democrat, spoke against an education bill that further defined a review process for books containing sexual content.
The bill says “any material” that becomes subject to an objection action must be removed from student access within five school days of the objection and remain unavailable to students until the process is resolved. It adds, “Parents shall have the right to read passages from any material that is subject to an objection. If the school board denies a parent the right to read passages due to content … the school district shall discontinue the use of the material.”
In the news: Rep. Matt Gaetz Says Left-Wing Florida Woman “Crossed The Rubicon” After Wine Assault
Polsky opened her comments by complaining that health and sexual education in public schools had become “politicized” — even as many, if not most, in her party promote no restrictions on sex-change procedures for children, argue that biological men should be allowed to compete in women’s sports, and criticize efforts to prevent children from seeing sexualized drag-queen performances.
The Democrats’ pushback against such efforts is so strong that the Republican-led Legislature had to define “sex” in the bill Polsky complained about. The bill states that sex “means the classification of a person as either female or male based on the organization of the body of such person for a specific reproductive role, as indicated by the person’s sex chromosomes, naturally occurring sex hormones, and internal and external genitalia present at birth.” Moreover, it declares that sex “is an immutable biological trait.”
Polsky then moved on to the alleged “book bans,” complaining that “any resident” in a county would be allowed unlimited attempts to object to questionable materials.
In the news: Bud Light Now Asserts Dylan Mulvaney Marketing Debacle Was Work From The Outside
“This ban first, review second is a terrible policy,” Polsky said.
“The fact that I as a parent, and anyone else who’s testifying, are suggesting books don’t belong in school libraries or classroom libraries, is not qualified to make the decision like a school librarian, or the teacher of those students,” Polsky added.
Polsky tried to set up a straw man by noting that a biography of baseball legen Roberto Clemente was pulled from some schools and put back only under public pressure.
Polsky also complained about a section of the bill that outlaws “preferred” pronouns. She said any teacher or student who did not want to use such pronouns must “get over themselves.”
“It’s an attack on trans kids. That is what this is all about,” she said.
Polksky also argued that it was “too bad” for students who may be uncomfortable around classmates who have “transitioned.” “That’s too bad. Welcome to the world. Everything is not easy-peasy. And you have to learn to get along with people who are different than you.”
“We don’t need to protect our poor-baby students from somebody changing their pronouns. … It’s so not a big deal.”
Android Users, Click To Download The Free Press App And Never Miss A Story. Follow Us On Facebook and Twitter. Signup for our free newsletter.
We can’t do this without your help; visit our GiveSendGo page and donate any dollar amount; every penny helps.