WND VIDEO
DAD HANDCUFFED FOR PROTESTING GRAPHIC-SEX BOOK
Cop goes bonkers at school-board meeting
A parent who complained about a book assigned to his daughter at Gilford High School in Gilford, New Hampshire, was arrested and taken away in handcuffs from a school board meeting for refusing to “be quiet” when repeatedly admonished by a board member.
William Baer, whose ninth-grade daughter last week was assigned the book “Nineteen Minutes,” came to the meeting to protest the book’s assignment and the district’s failure to notify parents the book contained graphic descriptions of “rough sex” between teens.
According to a report in the Laconia Daily Sun, Baer challenged the board to actually read aloud that portion of “Nineteen Minutes” during the meeting, but school officials refused.
Before speaking, Baer was told he had two minutes.
Baer spoke beyond the time limit and then sat down, but then exchanged words with another parent who approved of the book.
“So what is the remedy here?” Baer asked.
The board said it would not take questions on the matter.
“Sir, would you please be respectful of the other people?” a school board member responded.
“Like you’re respectful of my daughter, right? And my children?” he countered.
“Please, be quiet,” admonished the board member.
A police officer then arrived at the scene, instructing Baer to leave with him.
“You are going to arrest me because I violated the two-minute rule?” the father said. “I guess you are going to have to arrest me.”
But Baer did get support from other parents.
Sarah Carrignan said, according to the Sun, that she was “‘utterly appalled that this was acceptable. My son should never have had the book in his hand.”
Part of the problem was that when the book was used previously in the school, parents were notified and asked for permission for their children to participate.
The school this year didn’t notify parents until after students already were assigned the book and given access to the material.
Gilford Police Lt. James Leach, who was at the meeting, ordered Baer to leave the meeting, and then handcuffed the parent. Reports say Baer was ticketed for disorderly conduct.
The report said Baer had challenged Principal Kent Hemingway to read aloud the controversial section. But board chairman Sue Allen said no one from the board or administration would do that.
“Nineteen Minutes,” published in 2007 by best-selling author Jodi Picoult, was described by a reviewer on Good Reads as not having “the artistic writing that Picoult’s earlier novels did.”
“In ‘Nineteen Minutes,’ Picoult told a story – a good one. But the nuance and magic of her earlier writing is gone,” the review said. It’s about, “Peter Houghton, picked on by school mates from the first day of kindergarten, enters Sterling High, and in nineteen minutes kills ten and wounds another nineteen students.”
The reviewer recommended it “for someone desperate for anything to read.”
The Leader reported Allen later issued a statement concerning the assignment: “The board apologizes for the discomfort of those impacted and for the failure of the school district to send home prior notice of assignment of the novel.”
The statement continued, “The school district policies IGE, IJ, IJA, KEC (available on the school district website) refer to the procedures for the use of novels controversial material. The district will take immediate action to revise these policies to include notification that requires parents to accept controversial material rather than opt out. Furthermore, the notification will detail more specifically the controversial material. These policies will be revised prior to the 2014-15 school year.”
See the video footage here: http://www.wnd.com/2014/05/dad-handcuffed-for-protesting-graphic-sex-book/#Rj2JbTM1elB6icqK.99
Okay, here it is. The Nazis are back, this time looking like liberal school administrators. But don’t be fooled. They have a place planned for all of us. ~TD
Here’s the Gilford, NH school board web page. I urge you to contact them with reasoned and respectful responses to their actions.
http://www.sau73.org/school-board
