Sexy Books in Neighboring School Districts?
Part 4 - Deadline for District Dodging
Don’t be insulting my school district now, Y’all! :)
Today I bring you some data and some context. Are there also sexually explicit books in neighboring school districts?
First let me tell you why it matters - especially today.
Two Looming Deadlines
Open Enrollment - April 28
is the deadline to request that your children attend a different Wisconsin public school district in the fall. You will be responsible for transporting your child.
Wisconsin Parental Choice Program - April 21
is the deadline to apply to attend a local private school tuition-free in the fall. St. Joe’s (Catholic) and St. Paul’s (Lutheran) schools of Menomonie participate in the WPCP, and both report that they still have some openings for “Choice” students next year. Many other (mostly religious) schools participate in the surrounding area as well.
There is a lot of paperwork involved, though, and there are income requirements to meet. Interested families have only one more week to apply.
Neighboring School Districts
What is in their libraries? Here is some data.
tinyurl.com/dunnbookswi - A link entered in a cell of the spreadsheet indicates that that book was found in that school library. Go to the tinyurl links to see the review for each book and why it received that rating. The material at these links is (ironically) not appropriate for minors.
This is only the material I was able to locate by using publicly published online library links. Books come and go. There may be other problematic material that was not on my list. Teachers, counselors or librarians trying to be “helpful” might have who-knows-what materials in the desk for “medicinal” sharing with students. See Part 3.
Also note that Boyceville is not included because their library link is password protected. Credit where credit is due, it makes me appreciate the “curriculum transparency” steps the SDMA took last year in sharing that information with the public.
Photo by Daniel Lloyd Blunk-Fernández on Unsplash
So what do you think? Is the grass greener on the other side of the district boundaries? Here are some of my general observations.
Three Categories of Materials
Sexually explicit books (3s to 5s, equivalent to R, NC-17 and X rated material) are present in all the libraries I checked at the middle and high school level.
Kiddie gender books (like the ones sent to the school and public library reconsideration committees in Menomonie - see Part 2 for the list) are not found in any elementary school except in the SDMA and in Elk Mound.
Bold, edgy, racy titles and themes at the upper grade levels are pretty much limited to the SDMA. Experiment: put words like “gay,” “sex,” “gender,” and “queer” into your library search bar. You won’t get much from our neighbor’s libraries.
Shared Libraries
Colfax and Spring Valley seem to have single libraries for all middle and high school students in their respective districts. Unless age-appropriate restrictions are in place, this could give seventh graders access to some pretty graphic material.
Durand High School shares a library catalog with the city public library, which could potentially cause the same problem. (See how books too sexy for schools end up in public libraries in Part 3.) I did find that to be the case in Durand. I don’t know what protections are in place there.
Paper Books
In general, there seems to be much less digital material in the neighboring school districts. The SDMA goes to a lot of trouble to try to get kids to read “books” and it just ends up being that much more screen time. I see digital material as a big problem in Menomonie. But that is for another post.
Conclusion
Dunn County Education Alternatives
Today the conclusions are your own. Feel free to add your comments and corrections below. If you would like information on local alternatives to the public school system, please check out the website below.
