Leon County Schools’ book checkout plan empowers parents
A recent opinion piece published by the Democrat and penned by Priscilla West — the chair of the Leon County chapter of Moms for Liberty — suggests that Leon County Schools should “simply remove” books from its libraries that some parents may find morally objectionable rather than implement a parent-approval process for students to check out such books. However, her voice and moral sensitivities should not limit my parental rights and the books and information that my children can access in their public-school libraries.
Short of preserving students’ access to material that some parents may find objectionable, a measured approach that respects the rights of parents to allow their children free — or much more limited — access to books on a family-by-family basis is required here.
I don’t agree with the school district’s plan to require parental permission for children — including high school seniors that are soon to enter the greater world as adults — to check-out certain titles that some folks like Ms. West apparently find objectionable. I continue to trust my children and believe that access to more information, particularly books, won’t corrupt them. After all, the United States Supreme Court has confirmed that “[n]either students [n]or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” See Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Comm. School Dist., 393 U.S. 503, 506 (1969). And students should be free to explore and express themselves through the books they choose to read.
To that end, the district’s plan strikes a balance that I can live with. I’ll be able to approve my children’s library requests while Ms. West can limit her children’s consumption of information however she sees fit.
At bottom, the district’s plan empowers parents to make choices for their own children — without allowing some parents to dictate what information all other children can access. On the other hand, Ms. West’s proposed solution to instead censor even more material in school libraries strikes no such balance, and limits what my children will be able to read based on her beliefs regarding what is “appropriate” for my children. Her proposed solution clearly violates my parental rights.
I yearn for the days when parents were excited to find their children absorbed in a book. We now live in a world where some parents believe they can control the information that all children are allowed to access and are attempting to remove children’s books from school libraries because they mention that a character is, among many other more-defining characteristics, gay.
More: Here’s a simpler solution: Rid schools of inappropriate materials
Although I personally disagree with the school district’s chosen solution in this instance, I commend it for at least bringing sanity to a discussion where a small number of parents in our community believe they should be able to interfere with my parental rights and decide what books my children are allowed to access in publicly funded and administered schools.
Respectfully, Ms. West does not know what is best for my children and my family — she should have no say in what books my children can access at their public school.
Ian E. Waldick is a local attorney and serves on several local municipal advisory boards. In addition to his professional and civic service, he has school-aged children who attend Leon County public schools.
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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Leon County Schools’ book checkout plan empowers parents
