Police Officer Searches Childs Classroom For A Book

[Untitled]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/massachusetts-book-police-gender***-b2468069.html
 

a police officer in massachussets was called into a 8th grade (year 9 equivalent in uk) classroom in order to seize a single reported copy of the book "Gender Queer" by Maia Kobabe. the officer was told by a single anonymous report that the book contained obscene and pornographic images. 
 

what's the greater threat to schoolchildren? a book about gender identity or a person who sends police into their classrooms? 

[Untitled]

"

No one 'needs' to read it"

that really isn't for you to say... some people - people who are different from you - do need to read  books like Gender Queer. 
 

how very interesting that you would rather send in the police than allow a 13 year old to read something that you disagree with. a rather intolerant attitude i would say. 
 

a school board also banned Maus on the grounds of "nudity" so i would question the motives of such people

[naomi24]

Untitled, firstly thirteen year olds are children and children need guidance which is why responsible parents do their utmost to shield them from harm and guide them in the right direction.  Secondly I see no tolerance whatsoever from you or the causes you support towards people who won't sing the same tune, so you have no room to talk about that.  

[royfromaus]

How did the child get hold of the book?

[Untitled]

a 13 year old is also going to start asking questions about sex and possibly about identity... while it isn't the average it is not unheard of for people to start having sex at 14. Gender Queer is a memoir written by a person about being asexual and struggling with their gender identity... it's not hard to see why some children of year 9 age would be interested in that... i would suggest that sending in police officers to seize copies will only make the book more interesting and encourage young people to be less open about what they want to read. 

[Old_Geezer]

Clearly not that clear. The senior officer at the station would have sent the police in, based on the report.

[Old_Geezer]

One assumes pornography at a school must be illegal as otherwise no action would have been taken.

[chelle7272]

The book was not banned or illegal. Police have apologised.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/12/21/us/gender***-memoir-middle-school-police-search-reaj/index.html#:~:text=Massachusetts%20police%20apologize%20after%20officer%20searched%20a%20middle%20school%20for%20LGBTQ%20book,-By%20Nicole%20Chavez&text=Police%20in%20western%20Massachusetts%20apologized,Maia%20Kobabe%2C%20following%20a%20complaint.

[naomi24]

As I said earlier, it has been banned in several areas.

 

//Gender Queer has been banned from shelves in more states than any other book.//

 

https://www.npr.org/2023/01/04/1146866267/banned-books-maia-kobabe-explores-gender-identity-in-gender***#:~:text=The%20book%20has%20been%20praised,states%20than%20any%20other%20book.

 

 

[Mozz71]

I'm not familiar with the contents of the book, but from Untitled's description, it seems like somebody making a complaint against something the consider "woke". Can't blame the police, they have to follow up a complaint of that type.

//a school board also banned Maus on the grounds of "nudity" so i would question the motives of such people//

As a comic book devotee, I'd suggest that Maus is one of the most important works that medium has ever produced. I personally think it should included in the school curriculum. It provides a better understanding of the horrors of the holocaust than any other source I've seen.

[Peter Pedant]

Can't blame the police, they have to follow up a complaint of that type.

no they dont

they say they do but - - they are fibbing - tney don't HAVE to follow up ( and anyon who has tried it, will be WELL aware) every complaint.

[ our local hard man 77 y r old knocked out a home invader and was told that since there was no viddie, it didnt occur]

[Peter Pedant]

Untitled, firstly thirteen year olds are children and children need guidance which is why responsible parents do their utmost to shield them from harm and guide them in the right direction. 

christ a bit roman catholic innit?

index librorum and all that ( et cetera) - at skool I had to get permission to read Voltaire's  Candide from a master

[ToraToraTora]

Naomi is bang on, what possible reason can their be to have an obscene deviants publication in any school library? It's a place of learning not TROB propaganda. To answer your yes it is better that plod is involved rather than have this muck fall into the hands of children.

[naomi24]

//our local hard man ...//

 

Your local police weren't involved in this one.

[douglas9401]

Yes, these children need guidance, as long as it meets with the approval of the self-appointed arbiters of taste and decency and their extremely flexible, sometimes downright bizarre, views on the lives of others.

 

Some might say this was a handy distraction from the insanity running through the Western world for this kind of thing while leaving desperately serious matters to sort themselves out, or not.

[Untitled]

"To answer your yes it is better that plod is involved rather than have this muck fall into the hands of children."
 

what muck? why specifically do you object to it?

i was curious and so i have spent the past couple of hours reading a digital copy of "Gender Queer" (it is a very quick read). i can't say that it's for me but the allegations that is "pornography" is completely unfounded and dishonest. as mozz says people are trying to get it banned because they object to it ideologically and nothing else. it portrays nightmares and sexual fantasies that the author had while a young teenager and portrays the uncertain feelings which they experienced in response to them... which is not at all uncommon at that age. 

[Mozz71]

Tora, what makes you say it's "muck" or an "obscene deviants publication"? Have you read the article or are you just objecting because it's about gender fluidity and you morally object to it's existance in general?

 

Sounds like you're jumping to conclusions.

[Untitled]

worth mentioning that although Gender Queer has been banned by some school boards of the USA (mostly by people with far-right political motives) but it has not been banned in the area where the event in the OP took place

[naomi24]

Why on earth would anyone want to read about someone else's nightmares and sexual fantasies - let alone expose a child to them?  Not for me thanks.  That's unhealthy.

[Untitled]

because nightmares and sexual fantasies are a normal part of being a human being, especially one that is starting puberty and by seeing them depicted you can feel less alone and less afraid of them. that's not unhealthy at all.

[naomi24]

I have a sneaking suspicion that what you regard as 'normal' is not what I regard as 'normal'.  Exposing children to other people's sexual fantasies is not 'normal'.