there we are now live streaming thank you Miss up good afternoon 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 a stolen Life by JC Dugard 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 forson St John's County School District superintendent this committee meeting is public record and therefore subject to Sunshine Law it is being live streamed for public viewing committee members are not required to have their camera on during during the meeting we are committed to Civility and decorum please assist us in maintaining a constructive meeting environment by remaining respectful of each participant of each participant during the meeting and afterwards additional discussion of the objecting party or committee members outside 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 party 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 rules 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 compell telling or new regarding their request next the committee will have a discussion utilizing the school library media material evaluation checklist finally the committee will determine a recommendation for superintendent foron there are two options one retain the book for a designated level or two remove the book from all St John's County School District Libraries for a meeting today both agreeable and opposing viewpoints are welcome I neglected to introduce myself but I'm Don zpp associate superintendent for curriculum of instruction and I'm serving as your facilitator for today's committee meeting are there any questions before we begin hey Gan Moore is the objecting party for a stolen Life by JC Dugard um 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 to share my thoughts a stolen Life the Story of JC Dugard with an immensely sad account of a young girl kidnapped sexually assaulted and abused emotionally abused and held captive I felt a heavy sorrow for this young woman and it broke my heart as I read what she went through in her formative years being brainwashed and tortured her captors literally stole her life my objection to this book being in a school library is the graphic descriptions of the rapes and other sexual assaults that JC had to endure from Phillip and the absolute cruelty inflicted by both Philip and Nancy the content is very mature and is rated five out of five by rated books.org the highest rating for inappropriateness for minors it is rated five for a barent sexual activities including child molestation and rape Al also references to beastiality where Philip thinks about subjecting JC to having sex with a dog while he watches this is not new information for you you've read the book for yourselves I do feel compelled feel compelled to say out loud that the content of the book is not for schoolage children not even for high school the term adherent sexual behavior is defined as deviating from the accepted Norm such as sexual sadism such sexual masochism pedophilia fetishism exhibition exhibitionism and voyerism the book describes in detail such such activities an 11-year-old girl is stripped naked and raped she is strapped and hung in various sexual positions a child is forced to masturbate an adult man an adult is secretly taking pictures of little girls doing split so an adult man can masturbate to their split open legs etc etc obscene can be defined as disgusting to the senses and repulsive I think people need to remember that every student that utilizes as a social a school media center is a minor child a school library is not the same as a public library in that school districts should be scrutinizing closely what they bring into media centers age appropriateness is a term that has been Loosely tossed around by the district yet anyone who has been following this issue over the last several several years has seen over and over that the that the district is completely fine with allowing books with sexual content profanity underage drinking drug use suicide abortion child ratee pedophilia and other adult content into our schools parents alone should be deciding if they want their child to have access to or read adult content not the child themselves and certainly not the school district the digital catalog and the opt out process does not provide parents with any assurance that their child will not pick up books with adult content I strongly believe the content of a stolen Life is for adults and does not belong in a school library and thank you for your time thank you Miss Moore Committee members we will now begin our discussion utilizing the school library media material evaluation checklist Florida statute states that any materials 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 the first reason is that the material is pornographic or prohibited under section 847.011 of Florida statute the second reason the material would depicts or describe sexual conduct as defined in 847.011 19 of Florida statute the third reason the material is not suited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material and the final reason the material is inappropriate for the grade level and age group for which material is used for reason for that first reason which references um pornographic or prohibited material if the majority of committee finds that um this material is pornographic or prohibited under Section 847.011 then the material must be removed for the remaining three me reasons the committee will determine if there is an appropriate grade level for this material or if the material should be removed keep in mind that our final task on the form is to make a recommendation to superintendent forson and there are two options retain the book for a designated level or remove the book from all St Johnny County School District Libraries statutes clear that we must remove the title if the majority of the committee feels there is a violation of question number four the floor will be open to discussion and each Committee Member will have the opportunity to sh sh comments will be summarized to provide an overall committee response for each question please remember to raise your hand to provide a comment at any time for our meeting today both agreeable and opposing viewpoints are welcome let's begin so now we're going to go to the school library media materials evaluation checklist we're going to work our way through the questions on question number one it says the objecting party's challenge of the material cites that and then there's a blank area and so we will refer to miss Moore's um formal objection form and she did check all four of the reasons is reasons that she believes that we should um remove this material so that will be noted for question number one for question number two we are this just serves as a way to um share with Mr forson whether the members of the committee had the chance to review all the materials that were cited by the objecting party so for question number two please vote Yes if you were able to review the materials and vote no if you were not please vote Yes if you were able to review the material cited by the objecting party vote no if you were not able to review the materials Miss sap we have eight yes votes for question number two you may now remove your vote thank you question number three um similar to question number two we are just giving Mr forson information on uh whether we were able to review the professional Andor crowdsource reviews that came along with this objection please vote Yes if you did review the professional Andor crowdsource reviews vote no if you did not miss sap we have eight yes votes for question number three you may now remove your vote you may remove your vote at this time thank you for the questions four through seven um I will call for anyone who would like to make a comment prior to the vote so for question number four please raise your hand if you would like to provide a comment before we vote is the material pornographic or prohibited under Florida statute 847.011 I don't see any hands so we'll go ahead and call for the vote is the material pornographic or prohibited under Florida statute 847.011 Miss sap for question number four we have three yes votes and five no votes you may now remove your vote question number five are there in please raise your hand if you like to make a comment related to question number five before we vote does the material depict or describe sexual conduct defined in Florida statute 847.011 19 I guess we don't see any hands so we'll go ahead and vote does the material depict or describe sexual conduct defined in Florida statute 8471 for 19 Miss sap for question five we have five yes votes and three no votes you may now remove your vote question number six please raise your hand if you'd like to make a comment before we vote on question number six is the material unsuited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material presented anyone have a comment seeing no hands will vote is the material unsuited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material presented Miss saap for question six we have two yes votes and six no votes you may now remove your vote thank you for question number seven uh can someone from Media Services please tell us at what grade level is this material currently um available this material is currently available in grades 9 through 12 thank you so for question number seven we'll use reference to this being available for grades 9 through 12 is the material inappropriate for the grade level and age group for which the material is used any comments raise your hand we'll go ahead and vote is the material inappropriate for the grade level and age group for which the material is used Miss sap for question seven we have three yes votes and five no votes you may now remove your vote okay we have completed the questions and at this time we need to as a committee um determine our recommendation for superintendent bson um is there anyone on the committee who would like to um state where where you think this material is appropriate we have a couple votes that need to be removed missed up so if everyone could remove their vote at this time thank you okay seeing No Hands we'll go ahead and have a vote for where the C material currently um is available so if you um would like to vote that our recommendation is the material is appropriate for grades nine and up please indicate yes you do not agree that we should make the recommendation the materials appropriate for nine up vote vote no Miss sap for the vote to keep in grades nine and up we have five yes votes and three no votes you may now remove your vote the majority of the committee has determined that our recommendation will be that the material is appropriate for grades nine and up um at this time please raise your hand if you'd like any comments included with our recommendation to superintendent forson okay seeing No Hands thank you to all committee members for your participation today there are two final steps to conclude our work number one your acknowledgement as a participant on the committee is needed on the recommendation of Mr forsen the recommendation which will include notes from today's discussion will be emailed to you you may acknowledge participation by responding with an email or you may review um and sign the documents in person at our Media Services office at 10 hildr in St Augustine second thing we need to you to do is to return your book and any notes from your work in preparing for today's meeting to the location where you picked up your book uh we need you to please complete both of these tasks um by Friday of this week are there any questions before we close the meeting this concludes the meeting thank you