Dear Dr. Melbye, Dr. Mitchler and Members of the Bloomington School Board,I want to thank you for hearing my concerns on September 11th, 2023.
I would like to reiterate that we are parents and residents of Bloomington. The people who signed the petition are residents of Bloomington. True Stake holders in this community. Can you say the same for the other petition? I know some of the people showing up to board meetings are from surrounding areas and have no stake in what happens in our city.
We are not a Mom’s for Liberty group and have no ties with any other group other than a couple of us who have attended a couple of RFABB- Residents for a Better Bloomington meetings. Many lies are being thrown out there to sensationalize and divert this conversation from its focus. The health and safety of all children. All minors are classified as vulnerable and from there you have varying degrees of vulnerability depending on personal circumstances that are known and unknown to the school staff.
The materials we have presented as explicit, are explicit. Scenes are fully and clearly expressed; leaving nothing implied. Books on transgender have been identified due to the topic of sexuality at inappropriate ages. The topic of transgender quickly accelerates from labeling feeling different as Transgender, at the K-1 grades, to the topic of puberty blockers, breast binding, and trans-surgeries by 4- 6th grade. This is so harmful and destructive. Very few studies, if any, have been conducted on minors and trans gendering. It is important to not thrust this on minors that do not have the maturity to fully understand and process how this has lifelong physical complications of sterility and becoming a lifelong pharmaceutical customer, among other mental health complications. The elementary books serve as the beginning of the grooming process and furthermore pigeonholes a child into believing that they must be transgender because trusted adults are telling them so. Why are people labeling small children as transgender? Please ask yourself that question and where it could possibly lead too.
I want to recap what we have presented so far to the board:
1. Explicit Materials are in the schools
2. School policies this is inconsistent with- 904, 525, 904.1
3. State Statues this is in violation of – 617.291, 617.241, 609.352
4. Professional Licensed Professional and Clinical Counselor- Discussed harmful effects of sexually explicit books and introducing sexual concepts to minors. And I brought up some of the harmful effects as well.
5. Petition- 334 Bloomington Resident signatures opposing explicit content and the sexual orientation content/topic in materials at the schools.
6. Explicit, vulgar materials are not protected by the first amendment
7. Policy is needed - the population you serve in the school setting is the most vulnerable and deserves protection from harmful materials.
Schools are the ONE place parents should not have to worry about sending their children to.
