Why A Kentucky School Official Compared A Parent To Hitler
In a contentious battle, a Kentucky district official compared an opposing parent to Adolf Hitler, instead of merely voicing his opposition.
The ongoing battle over what books are appropriate for school children has mounted. While some states have laws against distributing pornographic materials to students, a Kentucky district is fighting to keep a controversial LGBTQ+ title in school libraries despite its depiction of graphic sex acts. One mother who opposed this campaign was recently compared to Hitler for organizing to remove the content from these schools.
Miranda Stovall is a concerned mother. She also serves as the vice president of Kentucky’s branch of the No Left Turn in Education organization. After reviewing the material in question, she found that the Kentucky district’s campaign to allow the graphic novel Gender Queer in school libraries to be obscene. The popular comic depicts sex acts, sex toys, and advertises pornographic websites within its pages.
Unfortunately, instead of just disagreeing with Stovall, and other concerned parents, the executive director of Library Media Services at Jefferson County Public Schools, Dr. Lynn Reynolds,” compared Stovall to Hitler. At a July 28th hearing on the matter, she likened families wishes to prevent pornography from being shelved in the Kentucky district libraries to book burnings. She went so far as to state that, “Hitler banned and burned over 25,000 books… because they were viewed as representing ideologies opposed to Nazis.”
The sexualization of minors is a serious concern within communities. Parents have come to school board meetings to express their opposition to sexually charged content in schools, yet despite being funded by these taxpayers, many school board members and school officials have fought to silence and even demonize parents who do not wish for children to have access to graphic sexual content. The Kentucky district is one of these schools, which claim that Gender Queer has literary value because it supports the LGBTQ+ community.
Not once has Stovall, or any concerned parents involved in this public debate suggested that Gender Queer should be burned or removed from stores. While activists continue to decry the removal of this content from schools as bigoted censorship, the content is easily accessed through booksellers. Parents in the Kentucky district and other public schools merely do not believe it is appropriate to distribute mature content to underage students who are not legally allowed to buy pornography or engage in sex acts.
This point was completely overlooked by the Kentucky district official as she worked to use horrific historical events to promote giving children access to pornographic materials. Nazi Germany committed some of the worst human rights atrocities in recorded history. Hitler conducted medical experiments on his own people and attempted to exterminate an entire population of minorities.
For this Kentucky school district official to compare a mother and community leader to a man who murdered and maimed countless people during WWII is not only inaccurate but also displays a lack of proper judgment and regard for parental rights. Instead of working to listen and find common ground with Stovall (and others who oppose allowing sexual materials into school libraries), Reynolds chose to personally attack and defame a mother during a district hearing. This is unlikely to unify parents and teachers in an already divided school system.
