Waukee School District Pulls LGBT Books From Library Shelves

WAUKEE, IOWA — (10-29-21) — Attacks on the LGBTQ Community in the USA continues as the Waukee School District have become the latest to pull LGBT themed books off its library shelves following parents complaining that the books had “exposed their students to inappropriate content”.

In a Waukee School Board meeting held last Monday, parent Amber McClanahan read passages from several books she said were available in the Northwest High School library. The cherry picked excerpts selected were from “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson, “Lawn Boy” by Gary Paulsen and “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe.

Amber McClanahan said that the books contained graphic written and visual depictions of sexual acts between boys and in one case, relatives.

Another parent identified as Courtney Collier had to get her two cents in by bringing up concerns with books containing same-sex relationships in the board’s Oct. 11 meeting. Collier said her 10-year-old allegedly told her that a book about a boy discovering he was gay was brought up as a suggested reading item during a library class.

“This is a topic we explicitly told the school we did not want discussed with our children and, as parents, I think that’s our right,” said Collier. “… I didn’t realize you, as a district, could go above us and expose our children to content about sexual orientation and things like that that we had said we do not want to be part of their education at Waukee schools.” said Collier.

In a statement emailed to the JRL CHARTS LGBT Politics Division, the district said the books in question are under review and are currently unavailable in school libraries.

“A process of review, per Board policy, will determine if each or any of these titles are returned to the library shelves,” the statement reads. “Specifically, upon the conclusion of the review of each title, a recommendation will be made to the superintendent as to the future availability of these books in school libraries.”

JRL CHARTS will continue to follow this story and bring you developments as they become available.

If you would like to let the Waukee Community School Board know your thoughts on their decision, visit them on Facebook and Twitter.

Article by: Paul Goldberg, Staff Writer

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