Citizens Challenge Obscene Materials in Fayetteville School Libraries
by Jim Brown
August 26, 2005
(AgapePress) - A retired teacher involved in Arkansas policy is urging the governor, state lawmakers, and school officials to protect children by removing pornographic books from the shelves of Fayetteville public school libraries. More than 50 books in Fayetteville's school library system contain sexually explicit passages that alarmed parents and citizens have deemed not merely inappropriate but pornographic. One book called Push, for example, contains a graphic description of a character having sex with a baby. And another book called Deal With It offers young adolescent girls instructions on how to perform perverse sexual acts.
Debbie Pelley is a retired teacher who runs www.wpaag.org, a website that alerts parents to the content of controversial books like these that are being made available to impressionable school children. The educator-turned-activist believes such books may actually violate state law. "For instance," she says, "one of the codes in Arkansas says no person shall knowingly exhibit, display, or receive for the purpose of sale or distribution any visual or print medium depicting a child participating or engaging in sexually explicit conduct."
The office of Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has declined to comment publicly on the books in question. Meanwhile, Pelley has responded to the governor's silence with criticism. She says a Southern Baptist minister and a man who claims to be concerned about children's health should have no problem addressing this matter.
The retired teacher suspects she knows why Huckabee may be hesitant to weigh in on the school library porn issue. "I think that it's something he knows will be controversial," she says, "and it's something that doesn't fit into his plan right now as he's running for president."
Pelley says Huckabee seems to have time to fly to California to appear on HBO, campaign in New Hampshire, sponsor a "socialized" medical program called Kids First, and back a program giving illegal aliens prenatal care. However, she says the governor apparently has no time to speak out on destructive pornographic school library books and the health problems they will generate.
Although the Arkansas Governor's Office has put forth no official statement on the library book porn problem, State Senator Jim Holt has asked Attorney General Mike Beebe to issue an opinion on the legality of the library materials. Meanwhile, Laurie Taylor, a parent who is challenging the obscene library books in Fayetteville is urging concerned citizens to sign an online petition opposing the materials.
The petition calls upon the Fayetteville School District to initiate a formal audit of the city's entire school library system, to appoint a parent led committee to review objectionable material, and to remove the offensive material from student access, making it unavailable to students without parental consent.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
