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Georgia school district is banning books, citing sexual content, after firing a teacher

https://apnews.com/article/library-book-bans-explicit-content-georgia-school-4ebc873ca36ae398a2c3bc506db578c2

Georgia’s second-largest school district says it has removed two books from 20 school libraries, saying the books had “highly inappropriate, sexually explicit content.”

Georgia school district is banning books, citing sexual content, after firing a teacher

Georgia’s second-largest school district says that it has removed two books from 20 school libraries, saying the books had “highly inappropriate, sexually explicit content.”

The announcement, sent in an electronic message to parents in some Cobb County schools on Monday, comes days after the Republican-majority school board voted 4-3 along party lines to fire a teacher for reading a book about gender identity to fifth-grade students.

Although not new, book removals have surged since 2020, part of a backlash to what kids read and discuss in public schools. Conservatives want to stop children from reading books with themes on sexuality, gender, race and religion that they find objectionable. PEN America, a group promoting freedom of expression, counted 4,000 instances of books banned nationwide from July 2021 to December 2022.

36 comments

nadram

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I wonder if they included the bible, koran and torah since they cite sexual content and much worse.

charles

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I see this commented a lot, and I don't get what the idea is. Are the expected outcomes:

They will get Gotcha'd so hard they see the error of their ways?
They will get the Bible removed from schools and lead a consistent crusade against anything sexual?
They will just keep the Bible and ignore the hypocrisy?

Never underestimate the capacity for Republicans to remain willfully hypocritical. It's literally the foundation of today's Supreme Court.

manicvelocity

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WindyRebel

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Exactly this. You want to ban because of content you don’t like, well you don’t get to cherry pick. The content is or isn’t what it is. They learned that.

charles

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Did they learn it? A Republican would eat their own shit if it meant a Democrat had to smell it on their breath.

This is not leading to better policies. Just expanded bannings. The physical Bible doesn't play a role in day to day schooling. But some of the banned books would make real differences to people. Republicans lose nothing here, in fact they're getting vocal support for more bannings from people on the left.

WindyRebel

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I see your point, but I offer this:

This happened in a school, but it could happen at a higher level too. If it truly didn’t affect them that much in day to day schooling, then why the reversal at the school level after this ban went into place?

My thoughts:

It sent a message and despite them not wanting to admit it, they know deep down that the same bullshit hate they are spewing can be used against them at a content level. It didn’t change their minds on how they feel about the issues - no, that will never happen but perhaps it’ll curb some frivolous grass root efforts when the logic is applied to them.

PebbleGamer

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This article only mentions that the school district reversed the ban on the Bible because it “has significant, serious value for minors which outweighs the violent or vulgar content it contains.” It does not indicate that the banning process was removed altogether, or that any other books were unbanned.

charles

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This is exactly my point. They don't care about being hypocritical, they'll update laws to be explicitly and overtly hypocritical to get their way. This gotcha means nothing to them.

FlyingSquid

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Malicious compliance is a form of protest.

GCanuck

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It’s not an argument made to convince the opponent, rather it’s a comment to highlight the oppositions glaring hypocrisy and bigotry.

charles

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Right. They don't care.

treefrog

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“Flamer” is a graphic novel about a boy who is discovering he is gay and how he is treated at summer camp. “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” contains some discussion of sex and a lot of profanity, but is mainly about two high school boys who befriend a girl dying of cancer.

From the article.

gabe

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I’ve read flamer and it’s kind of telling how people want it banned. It makes me wonder if people who are deeply opposed to it feel called out by it’s core messaging

givesomefucks

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You act like they read it before banning it...

gabe

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Cognitive dissonance is one of hell of a drug for some people, don’t underestimate it

JackbyDev

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The irony of this statement is that it is not a hell of a drug for people. Cognitive dissonance does not refer to the state of having contradictory beliefs, it refers to the feeling of discomfort one should experience from hold contradictory beliefs.

gabe

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You get what I mean at least I think though 🤷‍♀️

JackbyDev

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Yeah of course, I don't think we should stop using it the colloquial way

givesomefucks

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They think too...

It's just about stuff they dont understand. So at least you have something in common with them

gabe

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Dude it’s 9am where I am, I just woke up and posted a comment without fully proofreading it. Maybe consider not being an aggressive asshole and gently correct me instead? My intention was to say that they likely do read it and reach the conclusion they want and the irony of that goes over their head. I simply stated I assumed you understood what I actually meant

Bread

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You act like they have read any book before...

treefrog

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If the message is understanding for gay children it stands against their whole fascist agenda.

elbowdrop

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These people want to white wash the gay away. What is the end goal. To make people forget that being gay is a thing. Ugh like 10-15 more years and most of the bigots will be too old to remember why mad.

Endorkend

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Then go in and remove all Bibles, see how they like that.

But, yeah, they don't know what's in their bible as 99.99% of these fucks never read a book, let alone actually read the book they are ready to kill people over.

brothershamus

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Fascism has arrived waving a flag and a bible. As the legends foretold.

RGB3x3

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"So this is how liberty dies...with thunderous applause."

Padme Amidala the Philosopher

trackcharlie

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I mean, I'm surprised any teachers are left when the government is run by incompetent fucktards

mihnt

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I'm from that county and spent most of my childhood in that district. Not really surprising, tbh. Had a biology teacher in high school that was a staunch creationist and refused to teach anything other than what aligned with his beliefs. Failed that class pretty hard. Which started a snowball effect which lead to me quitting high school. The only class that I had that I felt comfortable in was art and that's because the curriculum wasn't laced with religious doctrine.

reddig33

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Be sure to use a photograph of early readers when discussing banning books aimed at young adults.

At least it wasn’t a photo of “Gender Queer” for the umpteenth time — which is a book aimed at college age readers.

Ghyste

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Now do the Bible.