we are live streaming Miss up he thank you thank you for joining us today for the District library book objection committee meeting the purpose of today's meeting is to review an objection to the book titled storm and fury by Jennifer Armen trout I'm Don Sapp associate superintendent for curriculum and instruction Mr forson has designated me as chair of the committee and I'll be facilitating today's meeting school-based and District staff as well as parent and community volunteers are invited to participate on each committee today's meeting will result in a recommendation that will be forwarded to Mr forsen St John's County School District superintendent this committee meeting is a public record and therefore subject to Sunshine Law is being live streamed for public viewing committee members are not required to have their camera on during the meeting we are committed to Civility and deorum please assist us in maintaining a constructive meeting environment by remaining respectful of each participant during the meeting and afterwards additional discussion of the objecting party or committee members outside of the meeting is discouraged disparaging comments are contrary to District expectations regarding character and civility committee members received several resources in advance of the meeting the resources included the objecting parties request for reconsideration a copy of the book Florida Statutes Florida Department of Education guidance for library media Services professional Source reviews St John's County School Board roles the library Bill of Rights and a copy of the School library media material evaluation checklist the process for today is as follows first the objecting party will have the opportunity to address the committee they will provide any information they deem compelling or new regarding their request next the committee will have a discussion utilizing the school library media material evaluation checklist keep in mind that our final task on the form is to make a recommendation to superintendent forson there are two options retain the book for a designated level or remove the book from all St John's County School District Libraries again statute is clear that we must recommend to remove the title if the majority of the committee determines a viol violation of question four on the checklist the floor will be open to discussion and each Committee Member will have the opportunity to share oh you know what I apologize I was on the wrong page so let me go back a step the process for today is as follows first the objecting party will have the opportunity to address the committee next the committee will have a discussion utilizing the school library media material evaluation checklist finally the decision by majority vote will determine a recommendation for superintendent forson there are two options retain for designate a level or remove from St John's County School District Libraries for our meeting today both agreeable and opposing viewpoints are welcomed are there any questions before we begin okay let us begin Gan Moore is the objecting party for St storm and fury Miss Moore this is your time to address the committee you have up to five minutes to share your objection good afternoon and thanks for the opportunity for me to share my thoughts my suggestions to this book is that it contains obssed and sexual activities sexual nudity profanity and violence If This Were A Movie it would be at least rated R which is not for minors an R-rated movie is not appropriate for school so why would the same content in a book be okay for school as stated by Miss sap you have all received copies of the Florida Statutes that clearly State obscene content in school libraries is now illegal the State of Florida describes the following as sexual conduct in 84701 to section 19 sexual conduct means actual or simulated sexual intercourse deviate sexual interourse sexual bestiality masturbation or sadomasochistic abuse actual or simul simulated Lew exhibition of the genitals actual physical contact with a person's clothed or unclothed genitals pubic area buttocks or such a person is a female breasted with the intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of either either party or any act or conduct which constitutes sexual battery or simulates that sexual battery is is being committed or will be committed this committee has no other option than to recommend the removal the book from our district what saddens me and what has been extremely frustrating for me on this journey over the last two and a half years is that it took the passing of a law to get obscene materials to remove from schools before that no one saw anything wrong with it including the school board as a culture we've lost our way it's no longer the common consensus that adult content is for adults not for minor children every student that walks into a school library as a minor child parents have almost no ability to monitor or protect their child from what lies in Media Center the fet system does not provide enough information for parents to compile lists to opt out and that opt out list does not stop a child from pulling a book from the shelves without checking it out it's an ineffective way for parents to try and protect their child from graphic sex violence rape pedophilia profanity etc etc parents alone determine if they want their child to have access to adult materials not the child and certainly not the school district you will walk through the checklist but those questions alone do not determine if a book is inappropriate I sincerely hope that this committee will also use common sense a moral cbass and courage to stand up for childhood innocence and parental rights thank you for your time today thank you Miss Moore Committee members we will refer to the school library media material evaluation form for our discussion as a reminder Florida statute sorry about that Florida statute states that any material used in a classroom made available in a school or classroom library or included on a reading list may be objected to for four specific reasons reason number one the material is pornographic or prohibited under section 847.011 of Florida statute the material must be removed if the majority of the committee agrees with the objecting party that the material is pornographic or prohibited for the remaining three reasons the committee will determine if there is an appropriate grade level or if the material should be removed these three reasons are material depicts or describe sexual conduct as defined in 847.011 19 of Florida statute the material is not suited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material or the material is inappropriate for the grade level and age group for which the material is used keep in mind that our final task on the form is to re make a recommendation to superintendent forson there are two options retain the book for the designated level or remove the book from St John's County School District Libraries again statute is cleared we must recommend a removal of the title if the majority of the committer determines a violation of question four on the checklist the floor will be open to discussion and each Committee Member will have the opportunity to share comments will be summarized to provide an overall committee response for each question please remember to raise your hand to provide a comment for our meeting today both agreeable and opposing viewpoints are welcomed we will now go through the check checklist together I will read each question ask if anyone has comments and then we will vote are there any questions before we begin okay we are going to now go through the school library media material evaluation question number one States the objecting party's challenge of the material cites that and what we will do is we will take um from the um objection form that Mrs Moore submitted um she has indicated her grounds for objection she has indicated all four of the reasons so we will um place that into um question number one so we'll go on to question number two for question numbers two and three this is just for Mr forson to um know um that the committee was able to review the different um resources that were provided so for question number two specific pages in the materials cited by the objecting party were reviewed if you did review those um specific Pages please vote Yes at this time if you did not vote no missa I have eight yes votes you may now remove your vote thank you we'll move on to question number two which is similar or question number three I apologize which is similar so on question number three professional Andor crowdsource reviews were considered if you did review those um reviews that we provided please indicate with a yes vote if you did not review those please indicate with a no vote Miss sa for question three we have eight yes votes you may now remove your vote thank you as we move on to the next series of questions I will read qu these questions give a chance for anyone to raise a hand if they'd like to make a comment and then we will vote so question number four is the material pornographic or prohibited under Florida statute 847.011 are there any comments go ahead miss Trey um hi yeah I just want I feel like there's been some confusion about this question in the past so I just want to explain why I'm going to vote no um the Florida statute 84701 two I feel that this work storm of Fury does not meet the definition of harmful Dom miners it does not in order to do so it would need to appeal to predominantly to a puant shameful or morbid interest which I do not think it does it's also not patently offensive and taken as a whole it absolutely has literary and artistic value thank you are there any other comments before we vote on question four okay we'll move to a vote is the material pornographic or prohibited under Florida statute 847.011 please vote we're just waiting for one more vote is the material pornographic or prohibited under Florida statute 84701 two Miss sap for question four we have eight no votes you may now remove your vote okay question number five we just need to get one more vote removed question number five does the material depict or describe sexual conduct defined in Florida statute 8471 Bren 19 are there any comments miss Trey go ahead sorry I had another one I just um you know full I was wasn't really looking forward to reading this book it's not normally what I would pick up um but I actually found a lot of value in it and was surprised by it I feel like the bookl excerpts um really misrepresent the nature of the sexual content that is supposedly in the work um for example one of the first things that it draws attention to is an opening scene um which I actually feel like that scene if you leave out the end of it it actually has a really strong message about Dating Violence and AB use and consent and it's a message that I would feel very comfortable and something that I hope we would teach our children and I certainly would love to teach my children um there's another excerpt where he's actually putting medicine on her back because she's injured um and there's there's a few things in there where I'm just confused as to why they're even being misconstrued sexual content at all like she said something about kissing someone and it was super gross like kissing her brother I'm not sure why that would not be appropriate um I do see some representation of lgbtq characters in this book and I'm suspicious as to why given I thought there would be more sexual content given the objection so I'm suspicious as to maybe this book was called out in particular because of the lgbtq characters who are represented in a very innocent way like his husband entered the room um and that that was just something that I thought was interesting I I don't think I feel like the bookl experts they really misrepresent the sexual content um that is in the book Thank you miss Trey any additional comments before we vote on question five okay we'll go ahead and vote does the material depict or describe sexual conduct defined in Florida statute 8471 perin 19 does the material depict or described sexual conduct defined in Florida statute 847.011 19 Miss sap we have three yes votes and five no votes for question number five you may now remove your vote question number six is the material unsuited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material presented are there any comments we'll go ahead and vote is the material unsuited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material presented Miss saap question six has eight no votes you may now remove your vote Miss Sakowski could you tell us where is this material currently available hello the material is currently housed in grades 99 through 12 which is our high school collections thank you so for question number seven we'll consider that this material is currently used in grades 9 through 12 is question number seven is the material inappropriate for the grade level and age group for which the material is used are there any comments seeing No Hands we'll go ahead and vote is the material inappropriate for the the grade level and age group for which the material is used Miss Miss saap for question seven we have eight no votes you may now remove your vote we have we will now um determine the recommendation that we'll make to the superintendent uh this material is currently available um to students in grades nine and up is there anyone who would like to make a recommendation other than the material is appropriate for grades nine and up please raise your hand okay seeing No Hands we will go ahead and vote our recommendation to the superintendent will be the material is appropriate for grades nine and up please vote Yes if you agree with this recommendation the material is appropriate for grades nine and up Miss sap for the recommendation of grades nine and up we have eight yes votes you may now remove your vote thank you are there is there anyone who would like to make a comment that you want um included in the summary in our recommendation to Mr forson go ahead Elizabeth or I don't know if this is your hand up or you're clapping oh I'm s um it was supposed to be a hand up okay go ahead Elizabeth um I just want to say that you know this wasn't exactly the type of book that I personally would normally pick up and read I approached the book differently because I had heard you know chitter chatter out and about different comments and so I actually didn't read the complaint first I just started plowing through the book and it took me a bit to kind of figure out why the book was actually coming up for review and I I really struggled a lot with it for a variety of reasons one I don't think that this book is pornographic I think that it's depicting two consensual adults and I think that that's an important piece of information and that's why I'm saying this it's two consenting adults the beginning scene again that's an opportunity to have a conversation about what consent actually means and that's an important conversation that needs to take place so we're talking about two consenting adults and we're talking about the opportunity to discuss consent is the book violent yeah um but that's also depends depends upon your imagination and how you're reading the book though I don't think it's pornographic I think anyone who's in the nth through the 12th grade can handle this book and should be able to understand what consent is so I think this book offers offers opportunities for good conversations thank you Elizabeth Jen W go ahead yeah I just want to those sentiments as well I was um I actually really I had no idea going into the book I read the whole book I really enjoyed it actually and I felt like it was very similar to a Twilight kind of series that is very normal and appropriate for this age group so I think what we're all kind of trying to say is I guess anybody can just put in this kind of request with any book and we have to follow through with this there's no checks and balances to be like no this is a little um uncalled for every book objection has to go through this process is that the question is that that's the question I'm asking yes if we receive a book objection um it does go through this process okay yes okay Nancy go ahead I just want to Echo what everyone else was just saying I I like I said I was really surprised I did not think I would like this book I would not normally have picked it up I did read the whole thing I thought it was really well done I thought it was very suspenseful I thought the characters were really well developed I thought it had a lot of really strong powerful messages um for kids it's something I wish I you know my kids took a look at it since I've been walking around with it and they thought it sounded silly but you know I kind of wish that they had maybe um taken a pause and not written It Off by its cover and maybe it's not something they normally would have read either but it it had really really great messages and really great things I think for young readers to think about out um and it's unfortunate that these few excerpts were taken out of context um and sort of skewed a little bit so I think I just like to Echo what they were saying I think I I was surprised it's actually a really good book okay thank you for those comments so I just have a few closing statements um to share thank you to all of our committee members for your participation today there are two final actions steps to conclude our work the first your acknowledgement as a participation on the committee is needed on the recommendation to Mr forson the recommendation which includes notes from today's discussion will be emailed to you you may acknowledge participation by responding with an email or you may review and sign the document in person at our Media Services office at 10 hildr in St Augustin the second thing we need you to do is to return your book and any notes from your work in preparation for our meeting to the location where you picked up your book we'd like to make sure that um we get um the email back from you and the books and materials back um by the end of this week so if everyone can please make that your deadline and are there any questions before we close today's meeting this concludes the meeting thank you very much