Heated anti-porn school book discussion occurs at Santa Rosa County meeting
SANTA ROSA COUNTY, Fla. (FLV) – The Santa Rosa Board of County Commissioners did not vote on a resolution during a tense Thursday meeting that would’ve encouraged the school board to remove pornographic books in public school libraries.
While commissioners agreed that porn should not be in schools, several of them did not think the board should vote on the resolution, saying they interpreted it as interjecting into school matters.
The meeting got heated as debate flared surrounding whether people should continue speaking on the topic of condemning explicit material in schools, during the regular agenda session.
Before the general meeting, the board hosted a public forum where many of the citizens spoke in support and against the book removal request.
A speaker from Navarre voiced her support with the resolution as someone who had been “fighting to remove obscene material” from the county’s schools for over a year.
”We’re not banning books,” the speaker said. “Books are still available. Books are still out there where parents can buy them for their children if they want them to be read.”
A former U.S. government and history teacher from Gulf Breeze spoke against the resolution because she believed it was decisions like these that made it “extremely difficult” for her to do her job.
She argued that organizations like Moms for Liberty have “weaponized” social media to “vilify” teachers and “bring their political agendas into our schools.”
Commissioner James Calkins, the sponsor of the legislative work, responded to some of the criticisms during the general meeting.
He believed that taking a stand on the issue is necessary because the school board is yet act on “pornographic, horrible books” that concerned parents have come across in the school libraries.
“This not about book banning. This is about pornography in schools,” he stated.
He emphasized that all the measure does is send a “message” to the school board that the commission does not support explicit material in the libraries for children to view.
Commission Chairman Colten Wright said that he does not believe taking a stand against pornography in schools “requires a resolution.”
Commissioner Ray Eddington also expressed his position against pornography in schools, while sharing that he doesn’t want to step outside of his responsibilities.
“Thants not my job. I’m not a school board member,” said Eddington. “Let them handle their job and you all can work it out with them.”
Commissioner Kerry Smith and Commissioner Sam Parker spoke unfavorably about the resolution.
“It’s definitely not our lane,” Smith said. “I didn’t run for this office with promises to clean up the school system.”
“I don’t come to the board and say ‘hey, I want to pass a resolution,’” Parker said. “Because quite frankly, to me it starts getting to be political grandstanding.”
After each commissioner spoke, Wright assured Calkins that “overwhelmingly” the board does not support pornography in school libraries.
“That is absolutely sufficient,” Calkins said in response.
The commission moved on to other items on the agenda, such as another Calkins-sponsored resolution. This time, to recognize June as “Pro-Life Month.”
In the aftermath of the meeting that was filled with controversial issues, many of the commissioners expressed that they were bothered by Calkins’ proposals.
“I’ve got people that have serious problems with flooding and drainage issues and infrastructure issues.” Smith said. “These are the things that keep your kids here. These are things that are important.”
Calkins then repeatedly requested for the public to be able to speak their opinions on the two resolutions.
“Commissioner Calkins, your items have already passed.” Wright said. “Just like any other agenda item, once an item is voted on and passed, we move on from it.”
Several words were exchanged back and forth between the chairman and Calkins. Finally, Wright adjourned the meeting in the midst of the heated comments.
