Gender Queer book placed back on the shelves at EHS and then removed again after new challenge

Update: As of 2:30 p.m. on December 4, according to an email from EHS Principal Larry William, Gender Queer has been permanently removed from the school library “based on the previous committee meeting.”

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Gender Queer, a book that the Eastside High School Library Advisory Council voted to remove from district libraries because it depicts sexual conduct, was briefly re-shelved in the EHS library today before being removed again after another parent challenged it.

Gender Queer was challenged by Lauren DePaola, who has rented a home in Alachua County for several months but lived in Gilchrist County for part of the past year. DePaola’s address was confirmed by the school district before the November 15 Library Advisory Council meeting (see image below), but yesterday, following a WUFT article that investigated DePaola’s properties, business, fishing license, court records, and voting record, Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS) sent DePaola a letter stating that since she has not been a resident of Alachua County for a year, “We therefore cannot entertain the challenges that you have made.”

ACPS Public Information Officer Jackie Johnson confirmed to Alachua Chronicle this afternoon that Gender Queer had been placed back on the shelves at EHS in spite of the previous majority vote from its Library Advisory Council that acknowledged the book should be removed for depictions of sexual conduct. We asked who made the decision to re-shelve the book, and Johnson did not reply; in response to our question about why the book was being re-shelved in spite of the Library Advisory Council determination that it contains depictions of sexual conduct, Johnson responded, “Except that the original complaint was not valid.”

Johnson went on to tell us that another challenge has been received about Gender Queer, so the book has been removed from the shelf again.

WARNING – GRAPHIC SEXUAL CONTENT: Click here to see pages from Gender Queer.

  • Why doesn’t anybody point out the simple fact that banning books will do absolutely nothing unless they also ban Internet access for the kids. There is far worse stuff on the Internet than ends up in books in school libraries. And with what’s on the Internet why would any kid care about books ?

    • Have you ever tried accessing the Internet at school?? They have a ton of safety measures in place, and rightly so. The same should be in place for physical media.

    • cell phones and internet should not be allowed in schools and bring back books & chalkboards because that will have a lower carbon footprint and help stop climate change. Cell phones & laptops can be abused and can be a distraction. Books & chalkboards
      Are proven to work and don’t give off radiation like those electric devices.

      • Electromagnetic radiation & 5g..who knows what that’s going to do to us… Did you know blue whales can talk to each other up to 300miles
        Away? We may be encroaching on their frequencies with 5g & 6g etc that the animal kingdom uses…
        Bats use radar. Maybe the Hunan virus caused the bats to die because 5g interfered with their frequency…

        • I.e., the 5g that was first introduced in Hunan China interfered with the bats’ radar, and then the bats died. Then Covid appeared first in Hunan.

    • The point is that a public school shouldn’t have the book in their library. What a kid does and accesses outside of school is up to them.

    • Here’s the difference. Putting something on school or library shelves gives it credibility. Whereas, anyone searching the net can find anything, no matter how disgusting, and they’re free to read it. But schools don’t need to be supporting this agenda and adding credibility.

  • You Go Perverted People. You need Jesus and a new law Deciding who can be legally taxed to support your sick agenda. Totally Perverted.

  • Maybe it’s time to have a flood of criminal investigations into the reshelving and providing porn to children. Theese freaking idiots can not follow their own guidelines. When its deemed inappropriate and voted to be removed how hard is that to understand. I guess the level of education that our school board, and school administrators should be compared to the US Department of Education Secretary who can’t even get Ronald Reagan’s speech correct and makes up history. The phrase ” I am from the Government and I’m here to help you” should ring true today as it did back then. It should scare the hell out you that this idiots are corrupting our childern. Parents need to continue to stand up against the evil being waged against their children.

  • What do you expect from this idiots. When you have a liberal U.S. Secretary of Education trying to rewrite history with Ronald Reagan’s phrase. I believe that the school board and most of these school administrators are under the belief that parents are stupid. Parents need to continue to stand up to these liberal trying to corrupt our childern. Maybe a criminal charge against this people who keep knowingly exposing our childern to porn is in order.

    • As a teacher in the school system for years; many of us felt they needed to wipe out the entire Department of Education in the States and especially on the National level. All they do is think up Stupid things for teachers to do – that has absolutely no relationship with what we were teaching. I am definitely for wiping them all out along with several other departments too, that fit into this category.

  • Maybe a criminal charge is in order since they don’t listen to their own administration.

  • I challenged the book this afternoon. It is shameful an adult in the halls of Kirby Smith or Eastside High consciously chose to put this porn back on the shelf. And is now hiding who they are. There is no excuse for that. Knowing full well it is porn, porn, porn.

  • This nonsense has no business in any school library from kindergarten to the 12th grade after someone turns 18 then they are free to do as they please. A couple comments about giving porn to minors I totally agree they should be charged. If a parent in the privacy of their home wants their children to see that crap that is their business

  • Some teachers are groomers with the rainbows 🌈 in the classrooms. Why are they so concerned about sexuality? They can’t teach basic grade level reading, writing, & arithmetic but they want into kids’ pants? The ACSB did enough damage to the kids during the COVID lie making them wear masks, etc.

    • Agreed! There is no reason for anyone to discuss their sexuality at school. Certainly no reason to show perverted sexual activity. Schools should focus on LEARNING LIFE SKILLS. Instead we have to have gay books? We are doomed

  • The lawlessness of some school board members simply trickles down to others. If they can Dox out the complainant why can’t we as taxpayers know who put the book back so we know they are disciplined appropriately. This Alachua County School Board is not new to the Governor stepping in to make them do the right thing. We may need his help on this issue as well. Somehow the porn promoters actions do not seem legal.

  • One assumes the Library Advisory Council, not to mention the principal, are not limited only to actions in response to citizen initiatives, and should exercise their authority in this matter.

    • Exactly, Once the Advisory Council decided it was in violation of state law, who made the decision to override the Council? We all need to know.

      • 100% correct! The placement of the book coincided with the Governor referring to is a inappropriate for schools on national television (during his debate with Newsom). This placement clearly was a deliberate middle finger to the Governor, the Law, and the citizens of Alachua County.

  • Teachers unions WANT to groom budding mentally ill “gender fluid” kids. There aren’t enough school shootings, they must think.

  • My Bible Says “Adam and Eve”
    My Bible Does Not say Adam and Barney.
    If high school students feel like they like the “Adam and Barney” route, Im cool with that, and
    Visa Versa. If a female high school student feels like “Eve on Eve” is the way they want to go, then who am I not to allow them thier choice.
    When I was in highschool, I had to take a “permission slip” home to my parents and they both had to sign it, in order complete a 6 weeks course about “Human sexuality”, “Human Reproductive Organs”, and “Adolescent Growth”.
    From Pimples, too Pregnancy,,,
    Lincoln Middle School and GHS covered it ALL.
    All was done with the presumptive idea at the time that ;
    The students in the class believe in the “Adam and Eve” idea.
    Because if any one student’s beliefs were not of the socially accepted “Adam and Eve” idea, then that student, or group of students, not only didn’t take the course, but then went into High School confused.
    Very Confused ! 😕
    The permission slip was very thorough about the curriculum teachers were preaching too.
    Either you did, or you didn’t. But if you didn’t, life was kinda hard for that group of students.
    For example, 😂
    When Beavis and Butthead episodes were on MTV, and Beavis says “Boing” most of us Junior High Students knew what the joke was about.
    But there were also the “confused students”.
    In conclusion,
    I believe personally, the wrong book is on the shelf. No matter which side of the fence anyone chooses to play on, there is one particular Good Book that explains the Truth and the Light,
    and I thank my parents, LMS, and GHS for the opportunity to take that class at the time.
    (What SBAC really needs to do these days, is fund the same exact 4 to 6 week curriculum,
    and add in a few fundamental basics about
    The Florida Dept of Revenue Child Support Enforcement Program)
    JMO 🤔

    • I went to Public school in Miami and we had one day about sex Ed.
      It was in science class and we had the bilingual program and it was in Spanish. There was a pull down chart above the chalkboard with some diagrams…I think we spent a total of 5 min on the subject…i think they talked about sexual transmitted diseases like gonoreah…it did not depict the male sexual organs..back then, we had open classroom windows for fresh air and chalkboards…we didn’t have sexual dysphoria Problems or kids confused about their sexuality…there was no bullying…it was cool.
      Good times…we had Phys Ed and it was great. The 60’s & 70’s was a good time to go to school. There were no computers or cell phones… we had books. Books have worked for hundreds of years…they need to focus on learning. We had corporal punishment back then..the problem is these teachers unions and these liberal Marxist commie teachers. They are trying to normalize sexual perversion. They need to mind their own biz and focus on the basics…

  • Next thing you know animal rights activist are going to corner Santa Clause for smacking the reindeer with a whip.
    Or, worse, the LGBT community is going to have an issue with the lyrics to the classic Christmas tune Deck The Halls.
    What is this world coming too?
    Can’t we all just get along…. 😕

  • Why is this absolute TRASH in our schools??? Every parent should be fighting this. This crap is being pushed and pushed, and they either won’t answer questions or hide behind something to distract and hope you go away eventually and allow them to turn our kids into THIS STUFF. FURIOUS. MY TAX DOLLARS AT WORK?????

  • Oh my! Did anyone click on the link for the book? I am all for live and let be BUT if these images were of a man and woman there were be no debate about the issue. I don’t care what the text is teaching; those images are not acceptable. If a teacher caught a kid with a naughty magazine showing the same images, the student would be in trouble. SBAC can find better teaching material. Especially if they pay a Superintendent top dollar.

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