Chris Lange, FISM News

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Fairfax County Public Schools has green-lighted the return of two sexually-explicit books to school library shelves following committee reviews. Two groups representing school administrators, librarians, parents, and students determined that the books were not pornographic in nature and should be included among scholastic literature resources in the county.

“Lawn Boy” by Jonathan Evison, a narrative of a 10-year-old-boy’s explicit sexual experiences, and “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe, detailing sexual acts between a man and a boy, including images, were pulled from shelves in September after Fairfax County mother Stacy Langton read graphic excerpts from the books aloud during a school board meeting. Parents, many of whom were completely unaware that their children had school-sanctioned access to the sexually-explicit material, expressed outrage and demanded the resignation of school board members. 

Fairfax County Public Schools announced the decision to reinstate the books in a statement which included committee findings that Lawn Boy contains material “affirming for students” who can identify with “systemic challenges and societal prejudices” while Gender Queer accurately portrays “difficulties nonbinary and asexual individuals may face.”  The statement also denies that the books contain any pedophilic references.   

“The robust committee process took place over several weeks and considered whether the books flouted regulations by being obscene or harmful to juveniles as defined by the Code of Virginia,” the statement read. “After careful consideration, neither books were deemed to have fallen foul of these regulations.”

Langton called the FCPS report “intellectually dishonest” during a Fox News interview Tuesday. “Unless FCPS is using a different dictionary, pedophilia means adults having sex with children, and that is precisely what is being depicted in the particular panel in Gender Queer,” she said, also pointing out that text and images from the books cannot be aired on television because they violate obscenity standards set by the Federal Communications Commission. “How does the committee come to the conclusion that these materials are not obscene when nobody can print them or broadcast them on a national level?” she asked. “It’s okay for the kids, just not for America.” 

“It’s appalling that Fairfax County’s response to parental feedback is to quibble over the definition of ‘pedophilia’ and to shame and denigrate families who are concerned about this material,” said Nicole Neily, a Virginia mother and president of Parents Defending Education. “By attempting to normalize this content – and reinstating these books under cover of darkness right before Thanksgiving break – FCPS has demonstrated that in their eyes, parental input is a bug, not a feature, in the system.”

Harry Jackson, whose child attends Thomas Jefferson High School, said “no reasonable person” would come to FCPS’s conclusion “that those books do not contain pedophilic material, or that they in any way, shape, or form serve to benefit children.” He further argued that the books “place within the minds of children the seeds of doubt if they are inappropriately touched by an adult,” which “facilitates grooming by predators in our midst.”

“The school board’s deluded decision truly proves we live in FairfaXXX County, Virginia, where the school board blesses 12-year-old students flipping the pages on books with pedophilia and porn,” said Asra Nomani, vice president of strategy and investigations at Parents Defending Education, adding that the move illustrates persistent tone-deafness among elected school officials.  “Even after losing the governor’s race over this issue, the all-Democratic school board has given the school district an X-rating.”

The FCPS said the decision to reintroduce the books “reaffirms [our] ongoing commitment to provide diverse reading materials that reflect our student population, allowing every child an opportunity to see themselves reflected in literary characters. Both reviews concluded that the books were valuable in their potential to reach marginalized youth who may struggle to find relatable literary characters that reflect their personal journeys.”