tacodaemon posted:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/09/28/virginia-frequent-school-book-challenger-spotsylvania/



Jennifer Petersen keeps 73 school books she detests in her basement.

She ordered most from Amazon. In the last year, she read each one. She highlighted and typed up excerpts from more than 1,300 pages — of the 24,000-plus pages she read — that she says depict sexual acts. Then she filed challenges against 71 of the books with Spotsylvania County Public Schools, the Virginia district where one of her children is a student and the other is a recent graduate. (Two books were removed before she could challenge them.)

Across 434 pages of challenges — longer than many of the books she objected to — Petersen offered variations on a theme.

“This book reads like a how to guide for raping teens,” she wrote of one.

“The book normalizes teen sex and ... glorifies and incites teens to have sex,” she wrote of another.

“What is the fascination,” she asked of a third, “with so many of these books containing detailed sexual content?”

Petersen, 48, is part of a small army of book objectors nationwide. School book challenges reached historic highs in America in 2021 and 2022, according to the American Library Association. And just a handful of people are driving those records. A Washington Post analysis of thousands of challenges nationwide found that 60 percent of all challenges in the 2021-2022 school year came from 11 adults, each of whom objected to dozens — sometimes close to 100 — of books in their districts.

Petersen is one of these serial filers, whose actions have riven her community, earning her fervent admiration and criticism.

The majority of school book objections center on titles by or about LGBTQ individuals or people of color, The Post found. Petersen, though, has just one criterion by which she judges a book. Does it contain material that, under Virginia law, qualifies as sexually explicit, pornographic or obscene? Less than a third of the titles she challenged have LGBTQ characters or protagonists of color, according to a Post review of her objections, obtained through a records request from the Spotsylvania district.

Petersen’s district has lurched from one book controversy to another in recent years. In 2021, the Spotsylvania school board voted to remove sexually explicit tomes from libraries, with two members suggesting burning them — remarks that drew national scorn. The board later rescinded that decision. Then, this spring, the superintendent pulled 14 books for “sexually explicit material” — including Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” — and suggested shutting down school libraries to address budget shortfalls. That proposal went nowhere, but the school board voted to make it easier to yank books with sexual content.

Much of the turmoil has been driven, directly or indirectly, by Petersen. In the decades before she began filing challenges, the district saw almost no objections, maybe one every five to 10 years, library staff said. Now, in addition to her flurry of filings, Petersen attends almost every school board meeting, sometimes reading aloud graphic passages from the books she is challenging — mostly sentences too explicit to be printed in this newspaper.

She claims Spotsylvania had removed 36 of the books she objected to as of early September. A district spokesperson confirmed 35 such removals had taken place as of that date, including the superintendent’s 14. Eighteen titles were yanked by librarians before they could go through the review process, and another three were restricted to the high school level. Most of the other books Petersen challenged are now awaiting the superintendent’s review, the spokesperson said.

To some, Petersen is a fanatic bent on crushing schools under the weight of prudish objections.

“This whole effort has been a waste of money, time and resources,” school board member Nicole Cole said. (The district said it has not tracked the money, time and work it spent responding to Petersen’s requests, although a top library staffer estimated that a team of 11 people spent 40 hours per week on her challenges last school year.)

But to others, including some of the district’s top leaders, she is a hero. The superintendent, Mark Taylor, wrote in a statement that Petersen has “raised awareness” of sexually explicit content in his libraries. And at least a dozen Spotsylvania parents and area residents, spanning different ethnicities and religions, have coalesced around Petersen as their champion. They note that she is Buddhist, not the Christian fundamentalist some assume. They lament what they call the attacks Petersen has faced online and in person. They see her as a defender of children’s innocence.

“She sides with the side of the truth,” said Wanda Stroh, who has sent eight children through Spotsylvania schools. “Like a lion, she will protect everything that she believes in and holds dear.”

On a recent Tuesday, Petersen trailed a hand across the backs of her 73 verboten titles. She had gathered them together on a squat, black shelf.

“Boy Toy,” a teen romance that deals with abuse, sat next to “Red, White and Royal Blue,” which chronicles an international relationship between the son of an American president and the prince of England. Jodi Picoult’s “Nineteen Minutes,” a dark novel about a school shooting, nestled close by a collection of Allen Ginsberg poems. Every book bristled with dozens of pastel-colored sticky notes Petersen had pasted in to mark sexual content.

But the job was far from done. She walked to her living room and nodded to a low-slung, brown sofa. That, she said, is where she does her book reviewing. Petersen walked closer and pointed with an index finger to a concave, dark spot on the couch, about the size of someone sitting cross-legged.

“Yes,” she said. “That’s from all the reading.” In days and weeks to come, she would sit down and deepen it.

[there's a lot more article where that came from]

i am harry posted:

he gets this way after having one beer…?

Sir Tonk posted:

he sure is committed to this bit

Grey Fox posted:

https://twitter.com/Olivia_Beavers/status/1707392223598264546 wait you guys are getting paid for bad posts??

Grey Fox posted:

https://twitter.com/Olivia_Beavers/status/1707392223598264546 wait you guys are getting paid for bad posts??

Spoondick posted:

wonder how much the weird rear end rich person funding scott pressler is actually paying him... his job seems to be to just drift around the country aimlessly while posting about it

gregday posted:

https://twitter.com/elizacollins1/status/1707385718367240625

Grey Fox posted:

wait you guys are getting paid for bad posts??

tacodaemon posted:

I have to admit, it has a lot more land area than any other city I can think of

tacodaemon posted:

I have to admit, it has a lot more land area than any other city I can think of

The Nastier Nate posted:

what is it with Arizona and recruiting losers to run for office again?

Hatebag posted:

saw some guy getting chased by the cops in a car last night. he took a turn, ditched the car and took off running. two cops had gotten out of their cars and they tried to run after him but they were completely out of steam after like 100-ft so he was just sprinting away and they were doing little half-hearted jogs after him like they were baseball players leaving the field after getting out. then another cop came speeding down the road and did donuts at an intersection for a bit. pretty funny scene

Pooky posted:

https://i.imgur.com/AQbtUYt.mp4

a.lo posted:

Pooky posted:

https://i.imgur.com/AQbtUYt.mp4

DrPossum posted:

the us should sell arizona and texas to mexico and florida to cuba

erosion posted:

gregday posted:

https://6abc.com/hornet-theft-shop-vac-stolen-philadelphia-bee-company-malvern/13831571/

titty_baby_ posted:

Texas should be split into 3 states. Arizona can exist but give most of it back to the tribes and start returning the citizens of Phoenix to their birth states. It gives me no pleasure to report this

titty_baby_ posted:

The state is a retirement community/magnet for chuds and Californian rejects. Their brains is all fried from the sun

ex post facho posted:

ou mean give them back

titty_baby_ posted:

Texas should be split into 3 states. Arizona can exist but give most of it back to the tribes and start returning the citizens of Phoenix to their birth states. It gives me no pleasure to report this

Harton posted:

hey bro if you ever come through Grand Rapids I can run sound for you. We can put a show on anywhere with this rig.

Grey Fox posted:

https://twitter.com/Olivia_Beavers/status/1707392223598264546 wait you guys are getting paid for bad posts??

tacodaemon posted:

I have to admit, it has a lot more land area than any other city I can think of

gregday posted:

https://twitter.com/lftovrpizzaclub/status/1707125469861048533


it took me a minute to see why this was pulled

it's his sheriff's star necklace