More Police nonsense. Father arrested for Speaking Against Sexually Explicit Book
 

What the??? He violated the 2 minute rule.

You can jump to around 5:00 in the video.




Gilford, NH- A father of a high school student was arrested at a school board meeting Monday night after protesting the school’s sexually explicit required reading assigned to his 9th grade daughter at Gilford High School.

The book in question, ”Nineteen Minutes” by author Jodi Picoult, is about a school shooting taking place in a fictitious New Hampshire town, and it contains themes of student violence, bullying, and sexual aggression. There is one particularly provocative and graphic depiction of violent, drunken sex between two teens in the story on page 313. Click here to read the passage (warning: graphic language and explicit sexual content).

William Baer came to the meeting to voice his opposition to the school’s failure to send home notification alerting parents of the graphic content. “I’m outraged that Gilford High School would require my daughter to read this kind of material,” Baer told the Laconia Daily Sun.

Josh Youssef, a friend of Baer, spoke with Benswann.com about what preceded the school board meeting and Baer’s arrest. Youssef was at Baer’s home when they were talking about a reading assignment given to Baer’s daughter. Youssef opened the book and came across page 313, and they were shocked by the graphic description of rough sex. “His jaw dropped,” Youseff told Benswann.com.

Baer then contacted Principal Peter Sawyer of Gilford High School last Wednesday to arrange a meeting, but was told by Sawyer it would not be possible to meet before the weekend. Baer attended Monday’s meeting to make his concerns known to the school board. There was a police officer present at the meeting, Gilford Lt. James Leach. Youssef said that he had been told by other parents that it’s not common for police to be present at Gilford school board meetings.

The school board meeting allowed for public comment only; no discussion, questions or speaking more than once was permitted.

After Baer spoke for two minutes- the maximum speaking time dictated by the school board- another parent, Joe Wernig, spoke in support of the book’s content. Baer responded to Wernig’s comments, and it was then that he was asked to leave by Leach. When Baer asked if he was going to be arrested, he was escorted from the meeting by Leach and handcuffed before being placed in a police cruiser. After Baer’s arrest, Lt. Leach was not replaced by another officer for the duration of the meeting.



Baer was not the only angry parent at the school board meeting. Another parent, Sarah Carrigan, said that she was “utterly appalled that this was an ‘oversight’”. Baer’s wife, Barbara Baer, shares her husband’s frustration. “They can discuss this some other way,” she said. “They don’t need that kind of imagery.”

“Nineteen Minutes” has been part of Gilford’s 9th grade AP English curriculum since 2007 when it was published. The school issued a statement that concluded the district “will take immediate action to revise these policies to include notification that requires parents to accept controversial material, rather than opt out.” The school sent out a notice stating that the book assigned “depicts high school relationships, some of which are unhealthy.”

Baer told Benswann.com that the school’s notice was only sent out after he went to the principal to discuss it, and that the notice failed to disclose the graphic passage in the book. “I can’t believe the school requires this as reading material,” he said. “There’s no reason to expect this kind of thing.”

While some parents say that this book opens up critical dialogue between parents and their children, Baer noted that when he asked Sawyer to discuss the passage in context with the rest of the book, Sawyer said he was uncomfortable doing so.

In the extended video below, given to Benswann.com by Youssef, Baer is shown being arrested after speaking out. Youssef believes, and the video shows, at minute 5:05 the superintendent signalling Lt. Leach to confront Baer to remove him from the building.



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School boards. Yet another ridiculous bureaucratic construct.

I'd like to read page 313.

EDIT

http://benswann.com/?attachment_id=12291

Lone wolf in 5...4....3....2....
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LoneWolf will be here momentarily, to defend the arrest.

Son of a... LMAO

Simply looks like there is going to be an ex-school superintendent soon.

Damn. No way I'd let my 9th grade daughter read this..

http://i62.tinypic.com/prcyb.jpg

Wow, I don't remember reading any books like that when I was in school.

I can't roll my eyes hard enough at every person involved in this story.

Overprotective dad.

Teacher should have known better.

Principal should have handled immediately.

School board should have never had father removed.

Cop should have laughed in their face when they wanted him arrested.

But most importantly...

That writer should be ashamed for writing about hot sticky cum on the carpet. Doesn't move the story forward and is completely pointless. Needlessly graphic and takes you out of the scene. I'm not offended as a parent. I'm offended as a writer. Pure shock value. Stupid.

Oy vah...that doesn't even sound like a good time...to me.

School Board gets a finger waving
Officer is suspended 1 week with no pay
Book is removed
Teacher suspended 1 week no pay
Principle documented in performance review
Father compensated per a law suit.

You're out of your ****ing mind.

When the boys turn their copies in, all the pages will be stuck together...

Over protective? You would allow your 9th grade daughter (hypothetical if need be) to read that?

Stanley Steemer approves of this book...

No one had previously complained. Perhaps they were underprotective parents?

Do you ever hear of school boards doing things well?

You're right. A 9th grade girl plays with unicorn dolls and has never ever ever thought about sex one time or ever talked to her friends and no one in 9th grade has had sex or touched another person sexually and if I keep her from reading two paragraphs in a book about sex she will stay a virgin forever and be daddy's little girl until I ascend to heaven without dying.

Horrible editor. They spelled cum wrong.

Come on dummy... there's a huge difference between that and school required reading. Nobody is saying teens don't think about sex or get exposed to sex.

That line of thought becomes a slippery slope then. Maybe they should start reading about this kind of stuff in 8th grade, I mean it's only one year's difference.

An institution doesn't need to be pushing that kind of material on students. If they want to learn about sex that's for their own time out of school.

By all means, lets educate them about force and coercion. Completely healthy...

I agree. I listed the teacher as stupid for requiring the reading, too. But of course everyone is ignoring that.

This. No fuggn' WAY I would have sat still for that crap being given to my kid to read by the school.

I'm at a bit of a crossroads when it comes to these types of situations.

On the one hand, I understand that this book was definitely "unnecessarily graphic" and probably shouldn't be a required reading..

But on the other, I would never want to be the overprotective parent that shelters his children.

I remember knowing and even fantasizing about sex as far back as elementary school. Perhaps that's due to my lax upbringing, but even my friends knew and talked about t often. You can shield your kids only for so long. At some point they're going to start hearing about it more and more from their peers and then there will be nothing you can do for them. I guess the best thing is to be open and talk about the dangers involved and hope they make the best decision about it when the time comes.

I think it's because calling the father overprotective is more stupider...

Exactly why I hide my Barely Legal's under my mattress so my kids can't see this kind of filth. Plus, they're only here every other weekend, so...

Oh no, semen! Hide your children, quick. All parties are dumb. For the record, I have a 9th grade daughter

I read the article 3 times and still don't know exactly why he was arrested.

He violated some asinine "2 minute" speaking rule.
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Hot sticky cum was the name of my freshman punk band

Yup.

Meh. 9th grade is what? 14? 14 years old is pushing it, so I can kind of see it being ok, but honestly I wouldn't push it quite that far.

By 14 I had a collection of not just Playboys, but Penthouse and Hustlers, and some Penthouse Letters. I had read, far, far, FAR worse, and it only left me the tremendously mentally scarred person that I am today.

And with a deep and abiding affection for Mindy Farrar, but I digress..

No, he followed that rule according to the article. He was removed because he was trying to argue against another speaker by taking a second turn himself. I would imagine that the rule was set up to prevent conflicts.

I was selling Playboys (etc.) in 9th grade. There was an old guy that supplemented his income by dumpster diving and I bought a stack of about sixty off of him for five bucks. I sold them for fifty cents per pictorial. Made some good money.

Uhhh, yeah.....I would not allow my kids to be reading that in 9th grade.

Disorderly conduct. He knew the rules going into the meeting and he violated them after another parent spoke in favor of the book. If the guy would have just shut the **** up and listened to other people's viewpoints, there would be no story.

^

"Dear Penthouse"....

Perhaps other parents didn't think to skim through a book called "Nineteen Minutes" looking for sexually explicit material.

Perhaps if the book had been titled "Nineteen Seconds"...

So they did it twice in the book? I didn't read much of it.

The difference between what you describe and what this book apparently portrays is that the characters are of the same or similar age to the intended audience. They can be identified with and come across as being more "real" and more imitable. To make it a required reading without parental consent would definitely upset me as well.

By the time they reach 9th Grade, kids know all about sex. I don't see anything particularly attractive literature-wise on that particular page, but it's not like it's going to make the class room instantly turn into an anal rape orgy.

As a teacher, I'd be hesitant to assign a book with that content as required reading unless it had overwhelming and necessary educational merit, which I can tell you that nothing by Jodi Picoult does.

That being said, I wouldn't doubt if the dad's behavior in the meeting is being minimized.

My dad had a big sack of books one of his buddies had given him that had erotic passages in them. That was my spank bank from about 12.

Beat me to it.

BTW, For those that are OK with this, saying they are thinking/reading/talking about it anyway. How would you feel if the school REQUIRED the reading of Penthouse Letters. They are about the same. In the 9th grade I was reading them as well. But required by the school??

The required part bothers me because it seems to condone underage and violent sex.

The school at the very least should get permission from the parents that their kid is about to read a book like this at that age. I'm assuming this book was just a yearly required reading for the class and nobody before had taken the time to really read through what the book involved.

'Youssef opened the book and came across page 313'...

yech

Exactly

What is the point of the book exactly? Why would something like this be considered required literature?

I agree, most 14 year olds are going to be familiar with "Hot Sticky Cum", i'm just curious as to why something like this would be required?

Whatever happened to the good ol' "Controversial" books like "Catcher in the Rye"?

Yes, over protective.

A lot of kids are sexually active by 9th grade (and if they have cell phones or internet access, they've already seen worse at that point).

From Amazon...

Eh.

Catcher in the Rye. Stick with the classics.

Just because one kid has a ton of experience and knowledge doesn't mean the other kid does so making something such as this required reading without consent is not appropriate and does not constitute someone as automatically being overprotective if they wouldn't allow it.

I support the jailing of book banners on principle.

We're talking about 14-15 year olds here. I started getting blow jobs at that point and I wasn't even close to being the only one.

If we were talking about 8th grade, then I'd be inclined to agree a little more (although not sure if I would completely agree).

With the spread of internet access and kids knowing how to circumvent just about any type of filter, it's ridiculous that someone would make an issue out of this book.

Also, American attitudes about sex in general are very prudish and ridiculous.

Better to take it to the school board than take it as an opportunity to talk about issues of underage drinking and pre-marital sex with your actual kid though.

The physical age is not what matters when talking about experience and knowledge related to this subject. Again, the experiences and knowledge of some students, whatever number that is, does not mean that the material is appropriate for all of them, especially without the parents consent.

Eh. I get what your saying. I was getting BJ's at that age too, but like others have said, just because you weren't sheltered doesn't mean others weren't. I agree that most kids are familiar with sexually explicit content, but that doesn't mean that their parents want to push more of it on them.

My stance on it:

It's explicit but not overly explicit. If the book doesn't have a particularly important message, or if that message can be covered in another way, then it's really not necessary. I'm willing to bet there's plenty of other books out there regarding bullying that don't have a page dedicated to some forceful ****ing and cum stains.

This book doesn't sound like something that should be required. So if it's not required, then why bother rocking the craddle and pissing people off? If parents don't want to further expose their teen daughters to 50 Shades of Grey, then why do it? What makes this book worth fighting for to keep it in the curriculum?

The key. Forced AND violent.

Ridiculous. Talk about "war on women".

burn all the books!@

Why are you racist against books?

Good thing high school kids aren't exposed to real life school shootings, student violence, bullying or sexual aggression.

In 9th grade most of them are already watching porn so it's cool if the teacher requires them to watch porn in class right?
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We all know that kids are exposed to this...but why continue pushing it in a School?

What makes this book NECESSARY?

Why couldn't this topic be covered in a different way or with a different book?

meanwhile, on Cinemax after midnight...

Softcore is for wussies.

Sounds like the book was trying to teach young women how to be good wives to their husbands. Let your husband do what he wants to you and clean up the mess afterwards. Positive life lessons for any young woman.

**** it. Let the 6th graders read it. I was having wet dream by then I'm sure...might as well let me read all about it.

Jeez...

Wow. You have swayed my opinion. There should be an page about being cleaned off with her mouth too.

gateway porn.

WAR ON WOMEN!

Bull.
****ing.
Shit.

This.

What is the reading of page 313 supposedly going to lead to? The entire debate is just silly.

From an educational administrative standpoint, the problem is that it's required reading. If I were to assign something of that nature, even to high school seniors, I'd send home a note letting them know that the work would have some mature content and an alternate assignment would be available for the student. This is what we have to do anytime we show R rated movies in our classes (such as V for Vendetta).

What other stuff do you put in the curriculum that the fundies get all weird about?

Science

You are completely missing the point.

They are taking the decision out of the parent's hands.

You can place safeguards on their home computer.

If your child had a friend over, would you subject them to this, without their parent's consent?