July 14, 2023 – West Bend, WI – Witnessing the West Bend School District book review committee make a recommendation concerning The 57 Bus for Badger Middle School was exasperating. The committee had little public oversight as it was entirely school district personnel plus one parent. There was no real dialogue about educational value except opportunities for student-led discussions on issues they all agreed might be above the children’s maturity level. One teacher was concerned about the n-word, but welcomed a chance to discuss why we can’t say it unless we’re black. The Assistant Principal reminded her that discussion groups are student-led so it likely wouldn’t go well.
The Principal and Assistant Principal already spent a good portion of the school year trying to end the usage of the n-word by immature boys while profanity in general has been an overwhelming issue, and they were afraid this book might make matters worse. Although profanity was enough reason to remove the book from the middle school, the administrators couldn’t muster the courage to do what was right.
Furthermore, the librarian talked about a child passing around the perverted Fifty Shades of Grey book to students who apparently did not have parental consent to read it.
No one correlated that if The 57 Bus is a choice book requiring parental and teacher consent (even from a teacher who wanted to know what’s wrong with the F-word), students will have access to it with or without consent as long as it’s at Badger.
It seems the reason removal of this book was not recommended is the committee felt it was more important to satisfy the LGBTQIA+ agenda than to protect children. An appeal is illogical because the board has the authority to make a better decision. Will the school board be brave and wise enough to do so?
Jody Geenen
West Bend, Wi
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