Letter to the editor: Graphic books should not be in our schools

Removing books that have graphic scenes of rape and explicit sexual violence from our school libraries and keeping them out of the curriculum should not be controversial or partisan.

In the Hempfield Area School District, a few educators, one school board member (former counselor) and a few candidates running for the school board are fighting to work around current child abuse laws and against parental wishes to keep this material not only in the library but pushing to be used in the curriculum.

The district has removed “Blankets” and “This Book is Gay” due to the content pushing against child abuse laws under public pressure.

“This Book is Gay” had step by step directions for the children to download either Grindr or OkCupid apps meant for people over 18. Many consider these apps “hook-up” sites, where convicted sex offenders are known to frequent. Whether a child is LGBTQ+ or a heterosexual, this puts them all in danger.

As a child sex abuse victim myself, I know that simply throwing a book at a child without a licensed mental health child trauma counselor to discuss the content further exasperates the trauma.

Many of these types of books are being pushed into our school curriculum. I can’t fathom as a former victim getting up to read paragraphs of detailed rape in front of my class. It takes years for many victims to be able to speak of their trauma publicly, if at all, and an English class is not the place.

Suzanne Kerlin Ward

Hempfield