DV Journal

A mother with a teenager in the Great Valley School District filed a federal lawsuit against the district over obscene materials in school libraries where her son is a student.

Fenicia Redman filed the suit without a lawyer on behalf of her minor son, a student at Great Valley High School, asking the court to issue an injunction to remove the books and other materials.

But said she believes the case will eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court because the books are in schools nationwide.

Image from “Gender Queer”

“I’m a determined Puerto Rican American advocating for the protection of my minor son and all minor children from obscene graphic sexual material distributed in the public school system. In the last 10 months,” she said in the introduction to her litigation. “I’ve publicly appealed to educators, administrators, directors, law enforcement, district attorneys, legislators, and the governor, asking each to remove obscene sexual material from my minor son’s school library.”

She mentioned the book “Gender Queer” with graphic pictures of sexual acts, “Tantric Sex,” which is a manual describing sexual acts, “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” which also shows details of sexual acts, and “PUSH” that includes a female child who is raped by her father. In “Fun House” there are scenes of women having sex with women.

The complaint filed by Redman includes excerpts of various books available in the Great Valley High School library that students are also able to download on their home computers, which she claimed is a violation of federal law.

The lawsuit detailed Redman’s months-long saga of talking to the Great Valley School Board, the local police, the Chester County District Attorney’s office and the state legislature, where some legislators were sympathetic to her cause. She said she was rebuffed by Gov. Tom Wolf and Attorney General Josh Shapiro.

Both the police and Chester County District Attorney’s office told Redman they did not believe the pornographic material in the books was a criminal matter, the suit said.

“Finding no support from the school district, police, or attorney general, friends and I took our appeal to the (state) capitol, stood in the rotunda silently with posters I made of content from “PUSH,” “Tantric Sex,” “Gender Queer” and “All Boys Aren’t Blue.”” There she was told by a capitol police officer to remove the most graphic posters because ‘There are children walking these halls. Get rid of it now!’”

The lawsuit might receive an X rating for all the graphic photos of sexual acts included. However, they are the graphic photos that are in students’ library books for minor children to view, she noted.

On May 15, 2022, Redman alleges her First Amendment rights were violated by the Great Valley School District at a school board meeting. As Redman pressed her case with the board, Superintendent Daniel Geoffredo had her removed by security officers and then called the police.

In an interview with the DVJournal, Redman said she has no recourse except to sue, since everyone from the school board and school officials to Wolf ignored her complaints about the graphic books.

“This is a national issue,” said Redman. “On June 29, the governor had these posters in his office. The police removed them from the capitol hallway. He did not care. The governor looked at posters of a child giving (oral sex) to another child and he didn’t care. Minimally, he could have called his attorney general to investigate. All of them do not see this as a problem.”

“The transfer of obscene materials to minors is a crime,” said Redman. “This has no place in our schools. What is the educational value of two minors having sex with each other? This is criminally extreme. The kids have no say in the matter. They’re sitting ducks.”

“The Office of the Attorney General has no standing in a school board matter of this nature and this lawsuit includes no allegations directly levied at the attorney general, that being said we are aware of the lawsuit and our office plans to represent the attorney general,” a spokeswoman for Shapiro said.

“How does (Attorney General Josh) Shapiro (who is running for governor) have the nerve to run ads saying he’s protecting children and does nothing?” she said. “This isn’t even a moral issue. It’s a criminal issue.”

Redman added, “This is not ‘The Twilight Zone,’ and the governor of our commonwealth and the attorney general, the senior law enforcement officer of our state, says it’s not a criminal act,” Redman said.

The other defendants’ institutions, including the Great Valley School District spokeswoman, did not respond to requests for comment Monday.

Redman has a Go Fund Me page to fund her legal representation.

Please follow DVJournal on social media: Twitter@DVJournal or Facebook.com/DelawareValleyJournal

The Central Bucks School Board voted 6-3 Tuesday night to enact a new policy of reviewing school books for inappropriate sexual content. The policy was widely debated for weeks.

Protesters, including the ACLU and Education Law Center, opposed the restrictions on library materials that would keep books with “visual depictions of sexual acts” and “written descriptions of sexual acts” out of elementary and middle schools.

Superintendent Abram Lucabaugh, an advocate of the policy, explained guidelines will now be developed to implement the policy and that the district previously had no policy for reviewing library materials.

In a letter to parents from Lucabaugh and Board President Dana Hunter last week, they said the policy has been “mischaracterized.”

“A major mischaracterization of the proposed library policy is that it’s a book ban. That is unequivocally untrue. The policy is intended to prioritize materials that support and enrich the curriculum and/or student’s personal interests and learning.”

“The administration, not the school board, came to us and said, ‘We need a process,” said Hunter. “And so we are giving them a policy to create a process that we will all be made aware of.”

Opponents dismissed the explanation, arguing that any restriction on children’s access to books is problematic.

“As PFLAGers,  we support policies that lead to honest, accurate, and inclusive education to help every child learn and thrive,” said Rachel Fitzpatrick, co-leader of PFLAG Bucks County. “Removing the resources that empower our children to learn and ask questions removes a critical function of education. Let’s give schools and libraries more books, about more topics and people. Let’s empower kids to learn and ask questions.” She urged people to vote, educate, and “lead with love.”

Another opponent called the policy “evil and abhorrent.”

Parent Pam Masciotro of Warrington appeared taken aback by the opposition.

“It’s disturbing to me that some of you are fighting so hard for their children to be exposed to some of this material. An earlier speaker said our library coordinator, Melissa Burger, chose books without political or personal bias. That’s not true. She has previously denied books written by Candace Owens, Justice Antonin Scalia, Ben Shapiro, Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, the list goes on. Are we seeing a pattern here? Yes. They’re all conservative authors… And speaking of majorities, despite the turnout of people opposing the library policy, please know most CBSD parents are appreciative of you all looking out for their children and protecting them.”

She also decried board members and opponents of the policy who had said derogatory things about the district on social media. “For people who preach ‘hate has no home here,’ it sure does get nasty online,” she said.

Her comments drew angry remarks and boos from some other audience members.

Another Warrington mother who noted that one of her children is LGBT, said “sexually explicit material has no place in schools. It happens that some books in question are about LGBT kids. That fact does not make the books unacceptable for school libraries.” Instead, it is ‘graphic’ pictures and explicit descriptions,” she said. She said it was the graphic content of the book “Gender Queer,” and not the transgender character — that make it “inappropriate to have in a school library. If it were art depicting a heterosexual couple engaging in oral sex it should also be excluded,” she said.

“This is not a ban, this is not censorship. It’s common sense.”

According to the new policy passed Tuesday night, “The District recognizes there exists a vast array of materials with rich educational content. It is the District’s objective to choose material that provides such rich educational content appropriate to students in the District over material that may provide similar content but with elements that are inappropriate or unnecessary for minors in a school setting.”

The policy also notes parents are free outside the school setting to choose whatever materials they want for their children, no matter how graphic.

Parent Paul Martino blamed the media for the brouhaha that swept through the district over the library book policy.

“The way that the press has completely obfuscated the real issue here is a disgrace. How many parents actually want pornographic — yes, pornographic — materials in their elementary school libraries?”

Elana Fishbein of Lower Merion, founder of the national parents-rights group No Left Turn in Education, issued a statement “applaud[ing] the Central Bucks School District for a good faith effort to create a healthy, common sense policy for selecting books for their libraries. They include parents on the committee that makes the recommendations.

“The district recognizes that there are boundaries regarding sexualized content that is ‘inappropriate and unnecessary for minors in school.’ Unfortunately, the ACLU, the Library Association, and the LGBTQ community know no such boundaries. They apparently feel that a good education includes a healthy dose of pornography,” she said.

Please follow DVJournal on social media: Twitter@DVJournal or Facebook.com/DelawareValleyJournal

In the face of parent complaints, the West Chester Area School District continues to keep controversial books on its middle and high school shelves, including extreme adult language and graphic images of sex.

At the April school board meeting, parents read some of the more explicit content of the books. Superintendent Bob Sokolowski responded by reiterating his support for keeping the controversial content in schools. “I’m standing, students. I’m standing with you and some of the things I heard tonight, we’re talking about freedom of speech. We’re talking about choice. We’re talking about choice and we’re talking about listening to the voice of our students and students, my pledge to you: We’re going to turn that volume up and you’re going to hear the student’s voice.”

Anita Edgarian, a mom, told Delaware Valley Journal that the “superintendent of WCASD pledges to ‘turn it up’ to LGBTQ students after many parents read from sexually explicit materials in our library. The rest of the students don’t matter.”

Mike Winterode told the board that when concerned parents, grandparents, and residents spoke about the books at a previous meeting, they were accused of being intolerant and transphobic. But many of the books they are complaining about include explicit scenes of heterosexual sex as well.

“Those speakers are missing the point. They’re only focused on the transgender characters in the books and not the content of the book itself,” said Winterode. “The fact is, along with [the book] “Gender Queer,” there are a large amount of school district library books containing graphic and obscene content, with heterosexual characters, as well as homosexual and transgender characters. Our concern is with the content, not the characters.”

Image from “Gender Queer”

Winterode noted that the books don’t just “sit innocently on library shelves.” In January, one of his neighbors told the board about his 6th-grade daughter being given a book about gender transition by her teacher.

Winterode noted schools are protected from charges of giving pornography to minors because of a law that exempts education institutions. He called on the state legislators to change that law.

Parent after parent spoke about the library books, some reading shockingly graphic scenes of sexual acts.

“There are many books in our libraries that are not appropriate for even high school-age children,” said Leanne Smith. “Some books include both physical and sexual abuse and even some child grooming.” There are “books listed 18-plus like, ‘The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Tantric Sex.’ Do high schoolers need to read that? You need to take a fine-tooth comb to the libraries in the district.”

Lisa Mansueto said she is concerned about “lack of communication with parents” and “lack of common sense.” She read excerpts from “Tricks” that she called “straight-up pornography with a hefty dose of heroin and cocaine and prostitution and rape, all available to high schoolers.”

Alexis Cooper said, “School librarians seem to feel that minors should have access to all sorts of content even if it’s not age-appropriate.” She cited “Milk and Honey” and the book about tantric sex.

“If this happened in any other setting, adults would be facing charges,” she said. “Yet schools have zero accountability.”

“Leave controversial matters to the parents,” Cooper urged the board.

Several parents, a student, and an author also spoke, telling the board they are in support of keeping the books in the school libraries.

Julie Moyer leads a support group for parents of transgender children. She said most of the books that other parents are objecting to involve LGTBQ-plus information. Transgender youth are four times as likely to commit suicide, she said.

“I am grateful to the school board for voting to keep books like “Gender Queer” on the shelves…We shouldn’t make these books unavailable to the people that need them.”

Edgarian later said those parents who spoke against the pornographic books “respect and love” the LGBTQ students but do not believe these books are age-appropriate.

“I look at the total individual, not only their sexual or gender part, their interests, talents, personality, desires, goals. We need to stop categorizing people,” she said.

Parents in several other Delaware Valley school districts, including Central Bucks, Radnor, and Great Valley have also complained about books with graphic content in their schools. The issue was highlighted in the Republican governor race when former Congressman Lou Barletta recently held a press conference on the topic.

Follow us on social media: Twitter: @DV_Journal or Facebook.com/DelawareValleyJournal