People voice concerns over TMS book fair during MSBSD/MSB Assembly meeting

During the joint Matanuska Susitna Borough School District (MSBSD)/Mat Su Borough Assembly meeting, a small group of parents and community members took time to voice their concerns about books they believed to be “grooming” or “explicit.” In particular, a few parents were upset about books that were part of a recent book fair at local middle school in Wasilla.

Held in Teeland Middle School’s 6th-through-8th grade school library, the book fair took place during school hours, as well as before and after school. The book fair was co-hosted by Fireside Bookstore, a Palmer-based bookstore. Parents were allowed to attend the event, but not required.

Three books that have been called into question, “The Stonewall Riots,” by Gale Pitman, “In Deeper Waters,” by F.T. Lukens, and “This is Our Rainbow,” edited by Katherine Locke and Nicole Melleby. The books, written for readers ranging from 3rd grade on up, present LGBTQ representation and stories based on actual events.

“I looked the books up. I will never, ever be able to get that out of my mind. I cannot believe those type of books and that type of reading is made public to the children of any age,” said Wasilla parent Terri Lyons during the public comments.

She went on to admonish the school board for allowing “this type of garbage.”

Meanwhile, teacher Tony Petroccia advocated for choice when it comes to reading material.

“As a teacher in a public school at Colony, I teach this population of kids. I embrace them. There’s not an issue here,” he told board members. “People have the choice to read whatever they want. It’s your choice. No one’s foisting anything on these kids.”

He went on to say that as an educator, as someone who sees students of all backgrounds struggle, that the district and community should be working to help kids, embrace them, and teach them.

He went one step further, addressing the book fair, saying that he was sure it wasn’t a curriculum being pushed on students.

“It’s a book fair. If you don’t want to buy a book, then don’t buy it. I think the community needs to wake up a little bit. The world’s changing, and there’s a lot of change that’s happening societally with the younger generation, and we have got to embrace it because if we don’t, you’re going to have a mass exodus of kids in this population.”

While there was also a minority that called for any questionable material to be removed from school and public libraries from adults, one student did take to the podium to give a brief message to the audience:

“I don’t feel right about this whole thing because you guys would rather me be sitting in a classroom not being who I am, not being free. You would rather me be a statistic because 44% of transgender people have a chance of killing themselves,” said John Muslin. “Not a lot of people my age come up here and talk because we feel suppressed by other people, and it’s really hard to be who I am without being judged.”

MSBSD Chief Communications Officer Jillian Morrissey did send a statement in regards to calls for books to be removed from school libraries, saying:

“The District has been pro-actively working on our school libraries’ collections this month and that has brought forward to the community that at some schools, optional Book Fairs also occur. Book Fairs do happen in our schools and different vendors over the years have provided the books for purchase. Students are not required to attend book fairs, they are optional.”

Morrissey went on to add that steps are being taken to address content in the libraries, with the formation of an advisory committee.

“Just this month, an advisory committee made up of Parents, School Board members, Principals, Librarians, and District Administrators met to review and discuss current procedures for selecting library materials to be added to our school collections, as well as to review procedures in place for addressing any concerns about existing materials. Though Book Fairs are not part of a school library collection, they will also have similar consideration that our collections will have as we move forward in this process.”

Meanwhile, Fireside Books, who helped sponsor the book fair said that they will support book fairs in a statement posted on social media.

“Books are questioned, challenged, and banned quite regularly. A common outcome of such challenges is it brings to light books that may have gone unnoticed by the general public. We often get a rush of orders for such books. As for the book fairs, we will continue discussions with the schools that wish to engage our services to provide them with products requested for each individual book fair."