Miss sap we are live streaming now thank you Dr Lawson good e 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 Freedom Writers diary by Aaron guell 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 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 the meeting we're committed to Civility and decorum 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 requests 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 the school library media materials 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 finally the committee will determine a recommendation for superintendent forson there are two options number one retain the book for a designated level or number two remove the book from St John's County School District Libraries for our meeting today both agreeable and opposing viewpoints are welcome and we look forward to attaining consensus are there any questions seeing none let us begin Jee Moore is the objecting party for Freedom Writers diary Miss Moore this is your time to address the committee you have up to five minutes to share your objection good afternoon and thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts and concerns with you all this book contains sexual activity sexual nudity profanity and derogatory terms violence including child abuse and molestation hate including racist commentary also alcohol and drug use and abuse Florida house bill 1069 is the law that says any material used or made available in a school library cannot contain pornography or content that is prohibited under Florida statute 847.011 depicts or describes sexual conduct as defined in Florida statute 847.011 19 Florida statute 84719 points back to the section 16 which describes in more detail what is considered sexual conduct section 19 says that sexual conduct includes any act or conduct which constitutes sexual battery or simulates that sexual battery is being or will be committed in this section is an example of that hm what is that who's touching me whatever it was I didn't like it it was Uncle Joe what was he doing to me whatever it was I wanted it to stop I open my mouth to tell him to stop but the words wouldn't come it was as if ton a ton of bricks had fallen on Me Knocking the air from my lungs making me unable to speak I felt his body right next to mine and his breathing got stronger and stronger he was touching me in places I didn't know could make me feel so dirty I didn't move a muscle and made my body as hard as a rock as he slowly SL slid his hand up my shirt caressing my back in the side of my breasts he kept on trying to make me lie on my back but he was unsuccessful he got closer and closer I could actually feel his skin touching mine the feel of his sweat and his lips on my skin made me want to cry a gigantic lump formed in my throat and to this day nothing makes it go away Uncle Joe wasn't being rough with me which made it hard for me to decide whether or not what he was doing to me was wrong it tore me up inside to think he would actually do me any harm I was only a little girl but I knew what he was doing was wrong but why Uncle Joe is the most righteous person I've ever met after Uncle Joe invaded me he got up for a drink of water section 19 also says that sexual conduct includes actual physical contact with a person's clothed or unclothed genitals an example is as his penis twirled in my mouth thoughts of the popcorn he promised me ran through my mind I stood in shock listening to the young girls sing jingle balls jingle balls jingle all the way I couldn't believe it I watched as the pledges on their knees inches away from the guys standing in front of them with their balls H and balls out of their pants The Freshman girls were singing this song in disgust as the high school particip iants crowded around to watch the  are closing their eyes make them open their eyes the senior girls disregarded their comments and continue watching when they went through this ceremony four years ago the males were allowed to wipe their balls on the pledgees faces but this year the girls were spared the rest of the book is loaded with racial slurs hate speech alcohol use and you alcohol use and abuse drug use and abuse the law is clear when it describes uh what is obscene this committee has no other choice than to remove the 100 copies of this book from the shelves and thank you for your time thank you Miss Moore Committee members we will now begin our discussion utilizing the school library material evaluation checklist Florida statute states that any material used in a classroom made available in a school or classroom library or or included on a reading list may be objected to for four specific reasons the first reason is that the material is found to be pornographic or prohibited under section 847.011 of Florida statute if the uh the majority of the committee finds that the material is pornographic it must be removed from all libraries for the remaining three reasons the committee will determine is there an appropriate grade level where um the material could be used so the remaining three reasons the material depicts or describ sexual conduct as defined in statute 8471 pin9 uh the material the next reason the material is not suited to the 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 the material is used hence someone from Media Services please tell the committee where is this um material currently available and which grade levels the material is currently available out of middle school and in our high school collections so I miss grade and up eighth grade and up is that correct okay thank you it was a little bit hard to hear you okay so keep in mind that our final task on the form is to make a recommendation to superintendent forson and there will be two options we can either retain the book for a designated level or remove the book from all St John's County School District Libraries again the statute is clear that if there is if the majority of the committee believes that there is a violation of question four um we must remove the title The Floor will be open to discussion and each Committee Member will have the opportunity to share please remember to raise your hand to provide a comment you may raise your hand at any time and comments will be summarized to provide an overall committee response for each question for our meeting today both agreeable and opposing viewpoints are welcome and we look forward to attaining consensus let's begin so for question number one on our media materials evaluation checklist um question number one says the objecting Pary challenge of the material cites that and so um we would go back and look at the reconsideration from Mrs Moore and on her reconsideration for this title Freedom Writers diary she cites um contains sexual activity sexual nudity alternate sexualties profanity and derogatory terms violence including child abuse and molestation hate including racist commentary alcohol and drug abuse um also she has a concern about the number of copies that our County has of this book so we will take that language and place it into um the library media materials evaluation checklist that um so that will go along with our recommendation to Mr forson so we will move to question number two uh for question numbers two and three this is to give Mr forson um a picture of did the members of the committee view the specific pages that were cited by the objecting party so for number two if you did review the pages that were cited by the objecting party you would vote Yes if you did not review those specific Pages you would vote no please vote now Miss up we have eight yes votes for question number two thank you Dr you're welcome you may now remove your vote if we can have everyone remove their vote at this time thank you okay question number three it's similar um for question number three you're going to indicate basically did you review the professional Andor crowdsource reviews for this title so if you did review those professional Andor crowd Source reviews please vote Yes if you did not review um the crowd Source reviews you would vote vote no miss saap that is six yes votes and two no votes okay thank you you may now remove your vote for question number four is the material pornographic or prohibited under Florida statute 84701 two you're voting on is the material pornographic or prohibited under Florida statute 847.011 please vote miss saap that is three yes votes and five no votes you may now remove your vote just a quick reminder if anyone ever would like to share a comment just raise your hand and we will acknowledge all hands that are raised so we are moving on to question number five so just as a reminder um for number four the majority of the committee did not feel that the book was pornographic so we're moving on to question number five for five six and seven we are answering the question and then then we will determine um is there a grade level where this material may be appropriate and just as a reminder the material is currently um in grades 8 9 10 11 12 okay so for number five does the material depict or describe sexual conduct defined in Florida statute 847.011 19 so you would you're voting yes or no to does the material depict or describe sexual conduct defined in Florida statute 8471 Miss Sapp that is seven yes votes and one no vote you may now clear your vote okay we're moving on to question number six is the material unsuited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material presented is the material unsuited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the materal the material presented please vote Miss sap we have one yes vote and seven no votes you may now clear your vote thank you question number seven is the material inappropriate for the grade level and age group for which the material is used is the material inappropriate for the grade level and age group for which the material is used we do have a hand up do we need to go ahead and um hang on let me um okay let me sure you had the voting um I did capture the voting um our votes were four yes votes and three no votes for question seven I'm sorry that's five yes and three no votes okay some votes are gone so I have to go back and check the original tally we do have one hand uh K Gowens go ahead I'm not sure if this is the place to say it but while um I don't think it's suitable for Middle School I do think it's appropriate for high school so it was hard for me to say it clear like currently it's eight and up but I think it's high school so that's my two cents thank you you may now remove your vote if you haven't done so already okay so we are now at the point where we will vote on our recommendation for Mr forson as far as at which level um this title would be appropriate um is there someone from the committee who would like to offer where they think we should start with the grade level that's appropriate go ahead Jen I think we should start with ninth grade okay so we have a request to start with um a vote on the material is appropriate for grade nine and up so if you agree that the material is appropriate for grade nine and up please indicate with a yes if you disagree or you think we should do something different please vote no the material is appropriate for grade nine and up Miss sap the vote for keeping it for grades nine and up is seven yes votes and one no vote okay you may now remove your vote all right so the committee's recommendation um will be that the material is a we we are recommending to Mr forson that the material is appropriate for grades nine and up and just as a reminder um Mr foron will see this in its entirety and he also sees a summary of any comments that were made during the meeting meeting and we have just a few more things um to close out this meeting first of all thank you very much for your participation today we have two final action steps to conclude our work number one your acknowledgement as a participation on the committee is needed on the recommendation to Mr forsen the recommendation which includes notes from today's discussion will be email to you you may acknowledge participation by responding with an email or you May review and sign the documents in person at our Media Services office at 10 hildr in St Augustine we ask that you complete that please um by the end of this week uh the notes typically go out within a day or so so if you can please just review those and respond back by the end of the week the second action is to please return your book and any notes from your work that you used in preparing for this meeting to the location where you picked up your book because this um meeting is um done in the sunshine as part of that law any Preparatory notes should be included and returned with your book and we also ask that you please try to also complete that task by the end of this week that would be very helpful are there any questions before we close the meeting okay thank so sorry I know there's a you said we could email the form is that correct um we you you can return your book and any notes that you used um in in preparing for the meeting you can return those to the location where you originally picked up your book um we're going to email out the recommendation and all the notes that go along with our recommendation for Mr forsen and you can simply respond to that email um that you agree with the summary and and we'll use that as note that you participated awesome thank you so much you're welcome okay that concludes our meeting thank thank you --------- Miss sack we are now streaming live okay thank you Dr Lawson thank you everyone 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 slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt vut school-based and District staff as well as parent and community volunteers are invited to participate in 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 public record and therefore subject to Sunshine Law it is being live streamed for public viewing committee members are not required to have their C CA on during the meeting we are committed to Civility and decorum please assist us in maintaining 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 receive several res resources in advance of the meeting the resources include the objecting party's 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 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 meting material evaluation checklist finally the committee will determine a recommendation for superintendent forson there are two options retain the book for a designated level or remove the book from St John's County School District Libraries for our meeting today both agreeable and opposing viewpoints are welcome and we look forward to attaining consensus are there any questions okay let us begin Jean Moore is the objecting party for slaughterhouse 5 Miss Moore this is your time to address the committee you have up to five minutes to share your objection good afternoon um thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts my concerns with this book are it contains violence including animal cruelty inexplicit beastiality and sexual nudity the following exert is completely sick and disturbing and what a horrible mental picture it creates we told Billy about the to neat tortures he'd read about or seen in the movies or heard on the radio about other neat tortures he himself had invented one of the inventions was sticking a dentist drill into a guy's ear but the correct answer turned out to be this you sake a guy out on an antill in the desert sea he's facing upward and you put honey all over his balls in pecker and you cut off his eyelids so he has to stare at the sun until he dies another sick and disturbing excert with another horrible mental picture is you should have seen what I did to a dog one time a dog said Billy son of a bit me so I got me some steak and I got me the spring out of a clock I cut the spring up into little pieces I put points on the ends of the pieces they were sharp as razor blades I stuck them into the steak way inside and went past where they had the dog tied up he wanted to bite me again I said to him come on doggy let's be friends let's not be enemies anymore I'm not mad he believed me he did I threw mistake and he swallowed it down in one big gulp I raided around for 10 minutes now Lazaro's eyes twinkled blood started coming out of his mouth he started crying and he rolled on the ground as though the knives were on the outside of him instead of on the inside then he tried to bite out his own insides I laughed laughed and I said to him you got the right idea now tear your own guts out boy that's me with in there with all of those knives other concerning content and he'll pull out a gun and shoot his pecker off the stranger will let him think a couple seconds about who Paul Lazaro is and what life's going to be life without a like without a pecker Lazaro was talking to himself about people he was going to have killed after the war the rackets he was going to work and the women he was going to make him whether they want wanted to or not he had dirty picture of a woman attempting sexual intercourse with a Shetland pony he made Billy Pilgrim admire the picture several times the naked Americans took their places under the many showerheads along a white tiled wall there were no faucets they could control they could only wait for whatever was coming their penises were shriveled and their balls were retracted Billy took out his pecker out right in the prison night and peed and peed on the floor man said said the porter you sure had a heart on in my present cell I sit with my britches full of and my balls are bouncing gently on the floor and I see the bloody snag when she bit me in the bag I will never a poock anymore a sign in there said the adults only were allowed in the back there were peep shows in the back that showed movies of young women and men with no clothes on it cost a quarter into a machine for one minute there were still photographs of naked young people for sale back there too you could take take those home those Stills were a lot more tram morian than the movies since you could look at them whenever you wanted to and they wouldn't change 20 years in the future those girls would still be young would still be smiling or smoldering or simply looking stupid with their legs wide open some of them were eating lollipops or bananas and they would still be eating those and the peckers of the young men would still be semierect and their muscles would be bulging like cannonballs the magazine which was published for Lonesome men to jerk off to ran the story so it could print pictures from the blue movies which Montana had made as a teenager the Master of Ceremonies asked people to say what they thought the function of the novel might be in modern society and one said to describe artistically is there anything illegal in this book I think parts of it flirt with the obscenity laws is there graphic violence yes the part about the dog just sticks with me and then throughout the book until weary dies he is physically and emotionally abusive it's still back me how how people go on and on about how great this book is it was a chore to read and so it goes 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 please note Florida statute states that any materials used in a classroom made available in a school school or classroom library or included on a reading list may be objected to for four specific reasons reason number one the material is found to be pornographic or prohibited under section 847.011 of Florida statute if the committee um if the majority of the committee finds that material is pornographic it must be removed there are three other reasons reason number two the material depicts or describes sexual conduct as described in uh statute 8471 number three the material is not suited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material or Reason number four the material is inappropriate for the grade level and age group for which the material is used uh could someone from Media Services at this time let us know what at what grade level is this material currently available for H this material is currently available for our high school students and our high school collections okay thank you Amelia um so just as we go through the review just keep in mind that this material is currently available for grades 9 through 12 in the St John's County School District and just going back to our reasons just a reminder that if the majority of the committee finds that the material to be pornographic then we would um remove the material if the committee finds that one of the other three reasons is a reason um that we need to consider the material then we are making a decision on whether or not there is a grade level that it would be appropriate okay keep in mind that our final task on the form is to make a recommendation to superintendent foron and 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 remove any title if there is a violation of question number four the floor will be open to discussion and each Committee Member will have the opportunity to share please remember to raise your hand if you'd like to provide any comments comments will be summarized to provide an overall committee response for each question for our meeting today both agreeable and opposing viewpoints are welcome and we look forward to attaining consensus let's begin okay question number one on the school library media material uh evaluation is um really just to clarify that we all understand why the objecting party is um has submitted this request so the objecting party's challenge of the material cites that and we would refer right back to the um reconsideration form that has been filed by Miss Moore and we will take um what she has placed on our form and we'll place it into our summary so miss Mo indicated um sensitive material ratings um document uh so there was a document in in your um materials where you could see those sensitive material ratings um explicit violence animal cruelty and inexplicit sexual activities including bestiality sexual nudity profanity and inflammatory Rel just commentary so like I said we'll take her answer to um why she's objecting to the material and we'll place it as the answer for question number one so moving to question number two questions number two and three these are just to give Mr forson an indication of um what was reviewed by the committee so that you you know he had he understands kind of did the committee review the specific pages that were cited um and any of the crowdsource reviews so for number two if you reviewed the pages that were cited by the objecting party please vote Yes if you did not review the specific Pages please vote no you may now remove your vote the vote was eight yes votes thank you following that similar line of thought for question number three if you reviewed the professional Andor crowdsource reviews that were provided please vote Yes if you did not review those um professional Andor crowdsource reviews vote no the vote for question three is eight yes votes you may now remove your vote thank you question number four is the material pornographic prohibited under Florida statute 847.011 if if you believe this material is pornographic you will vote Yes if you believe it is not pornographic you will vote no Miss Z that is eight no votes for question four you may now remove your vote we do have a hand raised Miss saap go ahead Miss welborne okay so should we give any notes or comments about our vote right now or will we discuss that at the end you can yep if you have a comment to share you absolutely can go ahead and share that at this time okay question number so the definition of prohibited materials me uh in the statute says that it is both obscene and harmful to minors um that is in uh 84701 2 parentheses 2 parentheses a I was in the weeds of the laws for this one um and the definition of harmful to miners is 8471 parentheses 7 and the definition for obscene is 8471 par2 and if you would like me to copy that into the chat that is totally fine um and both the definition of harmful to minors and obscene includes and taken as a whole is without serious literary artistic political or scientific value for minors and that and is why I chose to vote no that it is not pornographic and subject to removal okay thank you Miss welborne okay we will move on to question given that the committee um unanimously voted that this is not there's um you don't believe that it is pornographic or prohibited under Florida statute 847.011 we're going to move on to question number five so as a reminder um when we look at questions five six and seven um we're looking at if we vote that we do believe there are some of this material we would have to determine then at what is there a level within the St John's County School District where we would think it would be approp still be appropriate for students so I'm trying to make sure we get clarity before we vote so on question number five does the material depict or describe sexual conduct defined in Florida statute 8 8471 so if you believe that it does depict or describe sexual conduct you would vote Yes here if you believe it does not depict or describe sexual conduct you would vote no miss that is um seven yes votes and one no vote let me make sure I got that we do have a hand raised I might need everyone to get their ohpe I got it um everyone can remove their vote now um so yes it was sorry seven yes votes and one no vote and Billy has his hand raised go ahead Billy hi Miss out um I voted no on this because and this might just be my misunder understanding of the question um I was Voting no in my belief that while there is sexual content mentioned in here it's not in violation of Florida State Statute 847.011 19 um so that was the reason that I that I voted no for that because I do not believe it's in violation of those statutes okay understood and on this one um just to give the committee a little bit of context we do have people who vote Yes they believe um in some of our books there may be a degree of sexual um conduct as defined in the statute but it doesn't always result in them deciding that the book is inappropriate for high school students so this one this one um really is all about what's the community um interpretation so um but we'll keep moving along we have our vote on number five so we'll get to number six is the material unsuited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material presented so we're remember we're looking at this through the lens of it's currently available to students in grades 9 through 12 so you are voting is the material unsuited to students um grades 9 through 12 their needs and ability to comprehend the material yes or no is the material unsuited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material Miss sap we have one yes vote and seven no votes for question six you may now remove your vote okay moving on to question number seven um which we acknowledge is somewhat similar but because it's in the statute we're we're going to go ahead and continue so for question number number seven is the material inappropriate for the grade level and age group for which the material is used so again this is is the material inappropriate for the grade level and age group which in St John's County is 9 10 11 and 12 for the uh group for which it is used is the material inappropriate if you believe it is inappropriate you would vote Yes if you believe it is not inappropriate you would vote no Miss we have three yes votes for question seven and four no I'm sorry five no votes for question seven three yes and five no okay thank you we do have a hand up um and everyone else can please remove their vote we have Abigail first go ahead Abigail hello for the notes for number seven uh my opinion is that uh I didn't actually enjoy reading the book either but I think it is a very important uh it's important perspective from someone who has lived through a lot of wars a lot of War some torture p and if students are old enough to be recruited by the military which they can do starting at 17 and uh old enough to sign binding contracts which they can do at age 18 um and there are many students in high school that are 17 or 18 then they deserve to have access to uh perspectives on both sides of war and in this case it would be in very anti-war sorry anti-war perspective thank you Abigail Billy all right so um for number six I voted know that I don't believe this material is unsuited um but I do believe that for grade level nine through uh 9 through 12 for the younger grade levels that um there is some material that is more mature in content um and while I do not support in any way removing this book from um St John's County Libraries and classroom use I do believe that the the mature themes make it probably more suitable um for our upper level grade 11 and 12 students um and that also ties in with our AP and Ace curriculum um the this book is not currently on uh the reading list for AP or Ace but it does periodically appear um in some of this the self- selected readings that students can then use for uh for those tests um so by moving that AC you know if we REM moved it across the board I think that would harm our AP Anda students but by limiting it to 11th and 12th grade um I think it it might relieve some of that concern about the content especially for our younger students who may not be um ready for that um again it's not my favorite book um I agree that with Miss Moore that there is some content that is disturbing uh but just because a book is disturbing does not mean that it needs to be removed from our colle thank you Billy Elizabeth hi sorry I I was having a coughing fit um I didn't particularly enjoy reading this book either and there are particular elements that are disturbing in the book however it is a criticism of War and the difficult parts that came up in the book the way that I believe they were presented was a challenge it wasn't it wasn't saying that you should harm animals or you should have sex with a pony it was putting it out there in a way to I believe make a reader think about what's right and what's wrong so it it is a difficult book to read I do have to agree with Billy as well that the older end of the high school age group would be more suited for this um but I I don't think it should come off the shelves thank you Elizabeth Katherine uh yeah I just I did want to stick up for vonet a little bit um I first read this book as a 16-year-old high school student in the state of Florida um and I didn't really enjoy the book then although I did find it pretty um kind of engaging to read as far as what we were assigned and this is when I was 16 um when I reread it for this committee I actually did enjoy it more just in the sense that I could um I could follow it a lot better um and so essentially I have a 16-year-old currently in school um I really don't think that there's any difference between 16year old then and now um with the exception that they have exposure to many more things that are out there um than I did um 30 years ago uh so I really uh could never see myself saying that high school students are not able um to handle this material because I am living proof that we have for generations and that's all I want to say thank you Katherine okay I don't see any other hands raised we are now going to move forward with um what our recommendation will be for superintendent forsen um given the conversations that we've had in the group and the and the the voting um I'd like to um recommend that we start with a vote on the material is appropriate for grades nine and up the material is appropriate for grades nine and up if if you agree if you'll vote Yes if you disagree if you'll vote no and just so that you'll know if we get a no we'll move forward with um okay misstep that is five yes votes and three no votes Okay so so given that we do have a majority who would like um to recommend that the book is appropriate for grades nine and up that is what we will indicate to Mr forson um just a reminder to all of you that we we do have someone who is taking notes and all of the summary of notes will be included in the recommendation Mr forsen and um see let me so thank you to all of our committee members for your um input and discussion uh respectful discussion for today's meeting we do have two final actions that we need to um complete in order to conclude our work the first one is your acknowledgement as a participation on the committee is needed on our recommendation to Mr forcan the recommendation which will include notes from today's discussion s will be emailed to you you may acknowledge participation by responding with an email or you may review and sign the documents at our Media Services office at 10 hildr in St Augustine we would like to make sure that everyone completes this step um by the end of this week so if you could please just go ahead as soon as you get the email if you could respond um with your acknowledgement and that way um we can make sure that we have record of uh participation and agreement with the notes the second step is that we need you to return your book and any notes that you may have used in your work to prepare for the meeting because this is um considered a open noticed public meeting and it happens in the sunshine we do need to make sure that we include any notes that were used in preparation for the meeting so if you'll please return your book and those notes to the location where you picked up your book that would be great and also if you could do that by the end of the week that would be very helpful to us just to get all of our books on back are there any questions before we close the meeting okay this concludes the meeting thank you very much thank you