By Steve Levy
A recent commentary piece issued to the New York Post from a parent concerned about the pornographic reading assignment given to his child is worthy of reading. https://nypost.com/2024/07/01/opinion/school-reading-assignments-are-sexually-harassing-my-child/
As I was reading the op-ed from parent Bill Santiago entitled “School reading assignments are sexually harassing my child,” I harkened back to the incredible obstacles that I experienced in trying to remove pornographic materials from the school library within my sleepy suburban community in Bayport, New York
The parent in the Post article told the story of how outraged he was when he stumbled upon some of the books that were required reading for his child.
Normally, he wouldn’t be paying attention and would just assume that the teachers and administrators within his school district were making decisions based upon the best interest of his child. He never would think in a million years that the people to whom he entrusted his children would promote the distribution of pornographic materials to be read by the students within this district. But that’s exactly what happened when this parent and others just like him weren’t paying attention.
It was eerily familiar to what I discovered when a parent in the Bayport-Blue Point School District called me out of the blue asking for assistance when she discovered that books with drawings of children engaged in oral sex were being made available to children as young as 13.
I thought she had to be mistaken or was at least exaggerating. But no, it was as bad as she said. When I actually saw the books, my jaw dropped. So I figured I’d be able to nip this in the bud with a quick call to the superintendent and the school board president, who would agree wholeheartedly that this type of pornography should not be made available to our children.
I was floored when they started hemming and hawing, and realized that they were not going to remove these books. Apparently, they have been intimidated by one or two woke members of the board who were pushing this trash on our kids. They were fearful of being written up in the local newspaper as being anti-gay, anti-trans or, worst of all, book burners.
Then, when we tried to get parents to run for the school board, they backed out in fear of being doxxed, canceled, fired, or having their children retaliated against.
So, Mr. Santiago, we feel your pain.
The trend will not stop until we stop electing out-of-touch liberal woke leaders who would allow this pornography to be available to our kids.
Steve Levy is president of Common Sense Strategies, a political consulting firm. He served as a Suffolk County Executive, a NYS Assemblyman, and host of “The Steve Levy Radio Show.” He is the author of “Solutions to America’s Problems” and “Bias in the Media.”