"I also see that it [being accountable for the porn in the schools] could run into some issues and some problems around election time." - Carol Cook, Pinellas County School Board Member of 24 Years

There will be 3 seats on the 2024 school board election in Pinellas County, Florida.  Pinellas missed the turnover referendum wave that rippled across most of the rest of Florida, and now the 100,000 kids in Pinellas County Schools are paying the price for their parents apathy in the form of a school board whose majority (spare 2 members) prefers porn and sexually explicit materials in public schools because they think it's intellectual.  There's a chance at a reset in 2024, but only if parents require their representatives to hold a higher standard for performance in the schools and compliance with societal integrity and  mores and respect for Florida law that the incumbent school board members are desperately lacking.

You need look no further than a one hour off camera discussion that was held today at a Pinellas County School Board workshop, where five of the school board members advocated for a continuation of pornographic and sexually explicit materials to be at the discretion of "media specialists."  The board, in abdicating the responsibility that other Florida district school boards have voluntarily taken, prefer the cognitive dissonance and plausible deniability of leaving decisions on the sexualization school children through age-inappropriate media materials in the hands of unelected, mostly anonymous school district employees.  And before someone replys with a trope about the phones in the kids pockets having access to the world wide web, that's different than an adult handing your middle school child a book about bodily fluids dripping from a man's nether-regions in the interest of "literary value."  

School Board Member Stephanie Meyer presented all of her peers with copies of 6 books that are currently in Pinellas County Schools with content too graphic to be read aloud in a public forum, and she asked them to read the books.  One series that sits in Pinellas County Schools is titled Assassination Classroom with themes centering around students being taught to assassinate their teachers, and that is the mildest of the materials discussed.  

I need not editorialize on the intentions of your elected "representatives," but merely can post a transcript of their own comments.  We report, you decide.  They will cry about being quoted "out of context" so if you want the entire context of their collective perversion (less the 2 school board members fighting the five perverts to try and at least take accountability at the board level for what is permissible for our children) I would encourage you to listen to the hour long discussion in it's full and dark unedited version.   

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-zgnuv-145bb19

The discussion on materials in Pinellas County Schools starts around the 2 hour 30 minute mark.  

Here's your Cliff's notes.  Vote accordingly.  Eileen Long, Laura Hine, and Carol "24 years and running again to get her 28th year on the taxpayer teat" Cook are up for re-election in 2024.  None of them have the trust of the majority of the 60,000+ Pinellas County Residents that comprise the Tidings Media network.  Lets do the work required to get a school board that represent their constituents.  

"Several different districts in Florida take the emotion out of this and follow the law.  In most of the policies by (referenced) school districts, the board votes as a final say." - paraphrased, Stephanie Meyer advocating to have the board involved in material approval on challenged books.  "The seven board members should be the final vote. That's what we were elected to do, uphold the law." 

Currently, unelected media specialists make decisions on appropriateness of materials in Pinellas County without school board approval.  They're the same people that bought the books to begin with.  

"I also see that it could run into some issues and some problems around election time, so I am concerned with adding the recommendations coming to the board." - Carol Cook whose 24 year term expires with the 2024 election

"Now we have hours of time, one of the things we're trying to work for is efficient meetings.  It's a meeting of the board held in public.  If we start adding all of the book challenges and people are allowed to come speak we could have 50 speakers." - Carol Cook, who has previously advocated for the limitations on public participation in Pinellas County School Board Meetings

Lisa Cane indicated if the board was the final decision maker on porn appropriateness in schools at a material level, then they might have to make other decisions on other non-related policies in the school that she feels unqualified to make.  Stephanie Meyer indicated they weren't talking about every policy in the school, but specifically the fact that there are materials in Pinellas County Schools that are likely in violation of Florida obscenity laws.

"I can think of 100 things that we don't hear at a board level." - Lisa Cane, advocating against the elected representative board being the final determinant on material appropriateness in Pinellas County Schools

"There are tens of thousands of books published every year.  What the media specialists get is publisher recommendations.  The idea that the media specialists have read every single book in the library is not true." - Laura Hine, up for re-election in 2024.  "We should put the library media specialists [that selected the books} be on the review committee." (paraphrased.)  

"Everyone pushed for parents to have the bill of rights.  Now you have this policy where if one person challenges a book, you are taking away all parents rights." - Eileen Long, up for re-election in 2024.

Eileen Long seems to think that making determinations on age appropriateness of materials and following Florida law on obscene materials violates parents abilities to have their children read obscene materials, which she prefers to keep available.  School board attorney David Koperski indicated this is nothing new, and that the objector can appeal all the way to the State level and that dictates the verdict on appeal against obscene materials.  Koperski clarified that illegal material is not up for determination by anyone at the district.  Sexual content, pornographic and harmful to minor content is immediately removed pending a further clarification.  The attorney then read the actual definitions of pornography, sexual content and harmful to minor content under the law.  It's not a discretionary determination that can be made at the district level.

"It's normal child development for teenagers that begin to individuate from their family and form relationships with other trusted adults." - Donna Sicilian, Executive Director of Student Services PSCB

"I was talking with Dr. Choe (FLDOH) and he wants to be there, and he invited himsef [to a community meeting with PCS] and pulling some data together and help our community understand what the issues of our youth are."  - Donna Sicilian, Executive Director of Student Services PSCB