A public interest law firm claimed that a Wisconsin school district is violating state law by providing students with “sexually explicit” books, including one that teaches students how to use “sex apps.”
Daniel Lennington, deputy counsel for the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), sent a letter to Elmbrook School District’s superintendent claiming that the district does not have the right to disseminate “sexually explicit” content to minors. The letter was written following a Daily Wire report that uncovered Elmbrook School District’s school-provided computers offered inappropriate sex content to students as young as eight years old.
“State law has long recognized that parents have a right — and often a duty — to supervise what their minor children are exposed to,” Lennington wrote in a July 13 letter. “So, while material may be protected by the First Amendment, that does not mean that children have a right to see it or that a school district has a right to disseminate it.”
“The fact that Elmbrook has apparently made these materials directly available to children without parental notification and a reasonable opportunity for parental control violates state law and parents’ constitutional rights,” Lennington continued.
The letter calls on the district to “investigate and publicly identify all sexually explicit materials currently available to students” and “remove all sexually explicit materials that are available outside the district’s official human growth and development instruction.” WILL also insists that Superintendent Mark Hanson apologize to taxpayers, parents, and students for offering inappropriate material to children “who have been entrusted to Elmbrook’s care.”
“School districts have an obligation to know if their library collections feature sexually explicit material available to young children,” Lennington said in a press release. “Elmbrook needs to immediately address this content and make clear to District parents that they take this matter seriously.”
Elmbrook’s School Board responded directly to The Daily Wire’s reporting with a letter from board President Scott Wheeler and Vice President Jean Lambert. Board leadership blamed the book selection process on outside “professional review sources” such as Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Book List, Library Journal, and School Library Journal (SLJ).
SLJ has become increasingly left-wing and works with radical organizations such as The Conscious Kid, which is responsible for the research that led to the cancellation of Dr. Seuss’s books.
“We promote, encourage, and support reading as a path to individual learning and a deeper understanding of the world, but we never assume every book is the right choice for every child or every family,” Board leadership wrote.
Wheeler and Lambert also said that the Board is considering a new process for how the district puts books in the school library.
“We appreciate the questions and concerns that have been raised about library resources available to students, as these questions have prompted a better understanding of our current processes and some initial thoughts around potential process improvements,” the Board letter concludes.