Showing posts with label Texas Library Association. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Texas Library Association. Show all posts

Saturday, April 15, 2023

Let America Read: Hollywood Gives Librarians Shiny New PR Sheen to S3xualize School Kids

#LetAmericaRead is Here

What happens when Hollywood joins forces with librarians and left-wing focused education advocacy groups?  The push to get grossly s3xualized books into kids' hands takes on a shiny new PR sheen. 

Texas Library Association (TLA) is pushing librarians to take part in the #LetAmericaRead campaign, which uses the cover of fighting censorship and book banners to further distort the important and necessary work of getting p0rnographic materials out of schools. Through the power of celebrity and trending social media content, the organizations behind this hope to get s3xualized material into kids' hands.  

(Click on pictures to make them larger for clarity.)




So, who all is involved?  Let's start with the official sponsors of this PR campaign:

Creative Artists Agency (CAA)  

The CAA is an American talent and sports agency based in Los Angeles, California.  While CAA does its best to stay out of the news, it has been linked to claims of aiding and abetting Harvey Weinstein in preying on female actors, per an exposé by Variety.  This exposé, and others, claims numerous agents were not only aware of Weinstein's actions but deliberately placed female actors in positions that increased their chances of being victimized.

In the world of politics, OpenSecrets.org notes that CAA donates almost exclusively to American politicians and organizations associated with the left wing of the American political landscape.

Campaign for Our Shared Future

The Campaign for Our Shared Future (COSF) lists itself as a "non-partisan, not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization."  Its founders, Heather Harding, Ed.D., and Eliza Byard, Ph.D., cite a desire to focus on intersectional issues relating to education, racial equity, and LGBTQ+ issues.  Byard was the Executive Director of GLSEN (formerly the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network) from 2008 to 2021. 

COSF has a noticeable slant to the content published on its website, as exemplified by casting Florida's House Bill 1557 “Parental Rights in Education” as “Don't Say Gay,” a name created and used by US media to reframe and distort the focus and purpose of the bill.





#LetAmericaRead

Examining the organizations listed on the #LetAmericaRead website is very revealing.  The American Library Association is deeply embedded in this organization, as is FReadom Fighters, an advocacy organization created by the Texas Library Association.  While it maintains a publicly separate identity from TLA, it is heavily promoted and discussed on the TLA listservs and maintains a very noticeable presence at the TLA Annual Conference. 





What Should Parents Do About #LetAmericaRead?

Let everyone know who is behind this campaign—a Hollywood talent agency linked to Harvey Weinstein's crimes, a leftwing education advocacy group, and librarian organizations actively working to keep p0rnographic content in schools. 

Use Twitter's “Community Notes” feature to provide important context on #LetAmericaRead posts and fill the comments on other social media websites with that information.

Talk to other parents about who is driving this PR campaign and call your representatives to let them know not to be taken in by literal Hollywood spin.

#LetAmericaRead is attempting to take historical cases of censorship and apply them to the current grassroots campaign in America to remove s3xual content from school libraries and to get schools and librarians to stop grooming kids.  It strips all context regarding the content of the books being challenged to try and make parents the enemy of children and schools. 

Protect our kids – Hollywood and librarians want p0rn in schools.



The above was submitted to me for anonymous publication so parents, legislators, and librarians could get valuable inside information not available from other sources where such voices are silenced.  This is another in a series of anonymous publications from librarians, library board member, library school professors, and library directors calling out for reform.  Send submissions to me at SafeLibraries@pm.me.

In addition, Campaign for our Shared Future is a "partner" in ALA's "Unite Against Book Bans," a coalition of organizations, created by ALA, dedicated to ensuring children retain access to s3xually exploitive material in public schools and libraries by any means, including censorial legislation.  So no surprise COSF supports s3xualizing children.

It is also noteworthy that after I reported this story below, TLA made their @TXLA Twitter account private to allow time for it to delete damning evidence of its s3xualization of children.  It took about a month before the account was opened against to the public.  And @TXLA blocks me to this day.  Here's what I reported that caused them to go private/silent:


Texas Library Association At It Again

And TLA is at is again, now at #TXLA23 telling its groomers to be cautious, keep a low profile, and censor out any possibility of a challenging response to their propaganda:
Just a friendly reminder to be aware of who is following you on your various social media accounts and what you may be posting on your accounts especially as we gather for important learning opportunities and multiple social events during next week's conference.  We know our colleagues from across the US have been misrepresented on social media and we absolutely do not want any of us to go through similar experiences.
Handy tip – did you know on Twitter you can limit who responds to your tweets to only those accounts you follow?  Go to any of your posts and look for the three dots on the top right and select "change who can reply".  There you will have the option to select everyone, people you follow, or only people you mentioned as those who can respond. 
Instagram has something similar where you can either allow or restrict comments on posts.  
I am certainly looking forward to seeing everyone next week and celebrating a year of hard work!

Lucy

----------------------------------------
Lucy Podmore
TASL Chair


Remember, to get rid of these groomers from your schools and remove the grooming material, follow these instructions:

Kleinman, Dan. “Details on Stopping Indoctrination in Schools and Libraries: Guide for Parents and Legislators on Obscenity, Drag Queen Story Hour, 1619 Project, Etc.” SafeLibraries® (blog), January 28, 2023. https://safelibraries.blogspot.com/2023/01/details-on-stopping-indoctrination.html.

And here's why you must remove any policy referencing the so-called "Library Bill of Rights":

Kleinman, Dan. “Librarians Attempt to Legislate 1960s Radical View That Age Is Not Morally Relevant.” SafeLibraries® (blog), April 10, 2023. https://safelibraries.blogspot.com/2023/04/librarians-attempt-to-legislate-1960s.html.

I thank the brave librarians and others who come forward—anonymously—to let others know what's going on.  You at TXLA23 and AASL23 can contact me for confidential assistance as well:

Kleinman, Dan. “Librarian Warns Parents and Librarians About S3xualization of Children; Texas SB13 Legislative Efforts by TXLA Criticized.” SafeLibraries® (blog), April 4, 2023. https://safelibraries.blogspot.com/2023/04/librarian-warns-parents-and-librarians.html.


URL of this page: 


On Twitter: 

Hashtags: #LetAmericaRead #LibrariesUnite #TXLA23 #FReadom #txlege  

and

Tuesday, April 4, 2023

Librarian Warns Parents and Librarians About S3xualization of Children; Texas SB13 Legislative Efforts by TXLA Criticized

Texas Library Association Annual Conference Logo
The Librarian Dodge and Weave
by Anonymous

As a school librarian a quiet corner in the state of Texas, I felt fortunate to be away from the battle lines currently being drawn through libraries throughout the United States of America.  I'm blessed to have the full confidence of my institution's administration and board, freedom to curate the library collection as I see fit, and a supportive school community that does not feel that their children's library is a potential source of damaging content. 

I am a rarity in the field of librarianship.  I am a fiscal and social conservative, and as such, were I “out” and active in my field, I would be castigated and attacked from every corner.  I have read countless messages and overheard conversations at professional events castigating people of my political and personal beliefs as a modern-day devil who must be run out of town and destroyed.  Needless to say, I keep my head down, my mouth shut, and listen hard.

One of my more fascinating sources of professional word comes through the Texas Library Association. The rot is just as deep in TLA as it is in ALA (American Library Association) and having eyes on the internal list servs, professional programming, and more is very revealing. 

In the state of Texas, the state legislature meets every other year and this year is one of those years.  As all professional organizations do, TLA is tracking proposed legislation that would impact libraries and librarians within the state.  The conversation around these proposals is grimly illuminating.

Texas SB13 Legislative Efforts by TXLA Criticized

Look how the Texas Association of School Libraries newsletter (promoted and shared within the TLA list serv) frames one such bill:


What is this “affirmative defense”?  KXAN has an excellent definition in this (https://www.kxan.com/news/texas-politics/texas-librarians-alarmed-over-book-review-bill/) article, Texas Librarians Alarmed Over Book Review Bill, by Ryan Chandler (Posted: Mar 29, 2023 / 05:37 PM CDT, Updated: Mar 29, 2023 / 07:29 PM CDT):

“A person has an affirmative defense to the crime of distributing harmful material to minors if they do so with an educational justification.  SB 13 would remove that justification.  Exposing children to harmful material is penalized as a Class A misdemeanor.”


This definition implies that TLA believes there is educational merit in books and graphic novels depicting underage s3x, drug use, and alcohol consumption. 

Mumbling About Censorship and Diversity While S3xualizing Kids

When All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson has pages long scenes of underage oral and anal s3x (one example starts on page 266 of the paperback edition), that's educational. 

Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez is recommended for kids starting at age 14 by Kirkus Reviews and can be found in school libraries.  The graphic scenes of a father violently beating and raping his daughter before murdering her and her boyfriend are educational, apparently.

What does TLA have to say about these scenes, about these books?  Nothing specific.  They'll mumble about censorship, diversity, and needing LGBT+ content.  But they won't specifically cite or defend this horrifying content and explain why it is necessary for children to have access to it.

Let's look at what another TLA-promoted resource has to say, this time the What If... Forum hosted by the Cooperative Children's Book Center, School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The Importance of Considering Content in Context
Posted on February 21, 2023

Q: I’m struggling with how to explain why words or a scene or images in a book taken out of context should not be used to discount the book as a whole.  Can you offer some ideas for talking about why it’s so important to consider content in context, and not judge a book in a library based on material that’s been excerpted, often with the intent to get people upset?


[snip]

[snip]

There is no possible harm in providing materials to children depicting violent scenes of familial rape and murder, it seems.  It's educational and how else will all the school's students feel represented? 


Everyone knows LGBT+ children require graphic s3xual content to feel represented.

Librarians refuse to acknowledge the true issue at hand.  They won't take responsibility.  They wiggle and squirm and whine when confronted about the materials they share and promote.  They exclaim they can't let parents censor books for other kids.  They're changing lives.

Librarians on Facebook Mock Parents

Librarian groups on Facebook are no better.  Librarians bringing up book challenges and concerns brought to them by parents are answered with sneering derision being aimed at said parents.  “If people are too conservative to even READ A BOOK about other people who might have different lifestyles than them, that's a problem and it's one of the reasons we have such an important job to do as a librarian...  Keep it on the shelf; it could change a life.”

I even saw one horrifying post once from one high school librarian determined to ensure that the child s3x workers in her school feel represented.  There was very little push back from other librarians or even people pointing out that if this librarian knew about child s3x workers in her school, then she was failing her legal responsibility to serve as a mandatory reporter of child abuse.  (This matter did get brought to the attention of local authorities and the librarian was removed from her position, I believe.)

These aren't new issues to anyone who's been following these stories.  But it hit me hard today when I followed the link TLA provided to the What if... Forum and saw how the s3xual content families are rightfully concerned about being minimized and endorsed.

Texas Library Association is Part of the Problem

TLA is one of the largest library professional organizations in the world, and as such it has an out-sized-influence on the current state of the library profession.  Matters in this profession are not improving and are not going to improve without both real-world consequences and a shift in the demographics of the profession—not towards any one racial category but one of political diversity. 

Much of the work librarians do also honestly isn't something that requires graduate-level training, as the TLA forums recently had a frantic session assuring themselves about.  That matter, at least, got some push back from non-degreed librarians frustrated at the lack of respect towards them and their work.

Suggestions for Parents and Librarians

In closing, I can only make a few suggestions, both to parents and other librarians.

To the parents, I say this: Keep making your voices heard.  These libraries are yours, not the librarians.  It can be easy to fall into a censorship trap where materials that should be handled at the family level get targeted, but by and large that isn't what's happening.  Keep going.  Keep pushing.  Clean up these school libraries.

To the librarians, I pray that something causes your ears and eyes to open.  Harm is being done.  We have an incredible influence over children's developing minds and that influence is currently being used to hurt these children.  We can do better.  The children deserve it. 

Addendum

I used ChatGPT to run some numbers per the data it had available to it in 2021.  Here are some revealing numbers:

Q:  Can you rank the state-level library associations in the United States such as the Texas Library Association by available or estimated membership numbers?

A:  Sure, based on the available or estimated membership numbers, here are the top 10 state-level library associations in the United States, ranked by membership size:
  • Texas Library Association (TLA) - over 6,000 members
  • New York Library Association (NYLA) - over 4,500 members
  • California Library Association (CLA) - over 3,000 members
  • Illinois Library Association (ILA) - over 2,500 members
  • Pennsylvania Library Association (PaLA) - over 1,400 members
  • Michigan Library Association (MLA) - over 1,800 members
  • Florida Library Association (FLA) - over 1,800 members
  • North Carolina Library Association (NCLA) - over 1,500 members
  • Ohio Library Council (OLC) - over 1,000 members
  • Georgia Library Association (GLA) - over 900 members
Q:  Which library associations at the state, US-state equivalent, or national level have the most members in the world?

A:  The library associations with the most members in the world are typically national-level library associations, and the following are some of the largest and most prominent:
  • American Library Association (ALA) - over 57,000 members
  • Library Association of the United Kingdom (CILIP) - over 12,000 members
  • Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) - over 5,000 members
  • Canadian Library Association (CLA) - over 3,000 members
  • New Zealand Library Association (LIANZA) - over 1,000 members
As for state-level or US-state equivalent library associations, the Texas Library Association (TLA) is one of the largest, with over 6,000 members.  However, it is important to note that membership numbers for state-level library associations can vary greatly and may not be as large as those for national-level library associations.




The above was submitted to me for anonymous publication so parents, legislators, and librarians could get valuable inside information not available from other sources where such voices are silenced.  This is another in a series of anonymous publications from librarians calling out for reform.  Send submissions to me at SafeLibraries@pm.me. 

If you wish, retweet this:



URL of this page: 

#txla23 #txlege

Monday, December 5, 2022

School Librarians Train to Violate FOIA Law to Keep Parents In the Dark About Sexualizing Children

School librarians are trained to violate Freedom of Information Act [FOIA] laws so as to keep parents in the dark about sexually inappropriate materials in public schools and libraries.  They train to use personal resources to evade open public records laws, then say the records do not exist.  That's dishonest.  It's lying.  It’s illegal.  That we are talking about innocent-acting librarians doesn’t make it suddenly legal.

Should a parent file a FOIA request, they may be informed no documents exist.  Oh there are documents, librarians are just trained to conduct public business in a way they think circumvents FOIA and other laws (such as record retention laws).  

As a result, future FOIA requests should include special language to deal with this lawlessness, and perhaps FOIA laws themselves should be amended to account for this specific subterfuge by an entire government job classification: librarian.  

For example, private text messages were obtained via FOIA that proved an elementary school librarian at the Blackshear Elementary School in Austin, TX, set up a drag queen to "read" to students at his school with a Texas Library Association [TLA] officer of the "Queers and Allies Roundtable," was informed the drag queen had a criminal record, then guided the convicted drag queen to fool the required background check—and the librarian was himself a BSDM fetish performer at night:

Shannon, Tracy. “Unbelievable: Austin, Texas, Elementary School Librarian is a BDSM ‘Leatherman’ by Night; Invited Convicted Male Prostitute Drag Queen to Read to Schoolchildren.” MassResistance, April 26, 2020. https://www.massresistance.org/docs/gen4/20b/Austin-TX-Blackshear-library/index.html.
 
Here is the evidence.  In Texas, an executive board member of TLA (the largest state-based library association) and board member of the American Library Association’s [ALA] Freedom to Read Foundation [FTRF] has provided essentially that very training to Texas librarians in a published podcast of the TLA.  Generally, FOIA laws can be viewed at National Freedom of Information Coalition (NFOIC).  Texas FOIA laws can be viewed at the NFOIC site at https://www.nfoic.org/texas-foia-laws/.

Former school librarian Dorcas Hand, pictured above right, is the TLA executive board member and the FTRF board member who spills the beans.  

She admits librarians are not lawyers and are trained to reach out for help from ALA, TLA, and other librarians and, importantly, to use personal email addresses precisely to prevent parents from getting the records under the state's open public records act.  The TLA website directs them to submit an online Google form with the basics of the problem, then someone having experience in that type of challenge is selected by Dorcas Hand herself.  These are public records and any subsequent communications are as well, but the subterfuge essentially makes them nearly impossible to get.  

Here is a transcript of what Dorcas Hand said, emphasis in original:
20:34 "Once the match is made the volunteer reaches out by email.  Uh, volunteers never use their professional email, and they work hard to have their conversations with, um, people who are looking for help on personal devices and WiFi.  We don't want anybody who's involved in this caught by a FOIA request.  And, and we know that's happening.  So we, we try to be very careful.  Um, and, and those two people make their own arrangements.  Once I've connected them I am not a part of the conversation, unless somebody comes back to me and they need more something.  Um, we never give legal advice.  We are not lawyers.  Um, we might point people in the direction of resources that may suggest how they get legal advice, um, we certainly use all of the ALA resources, and, um, some of those, I mean there's case law that you can look at, specific cases that may relate to what you're talking about, and that can be helpful when you're talking to people, but we don't say this is how you solve this problem, because we don't know, if it's going to court, we don't know all kinds of things, and it's not our job to do any of that.  Um, we have put together an internal wealth of resources to answer questions.  The volunteers share whichever ones they think are most useful.  Um, we did go back once and build a tip sheet to support a specific question because that question seemed to come three or four times...." 22:00
Here is the source of information upon the above is based so you can see/hear this yourselves and in full context: 

Sweeney, Cate, and Dorcus Hand. “Banned Books Week 2022, Part I; Libraries Transform Texas Podcast.” Texas Library Association, September 12, 2022. https://anchor.fm/texas-library-association/episodes/Banned-Books-Week-2022--part-I-e1m8rvv.
Let's celebrate Banned Books Week!  Our featured guest for this podcast is Dorcas Hand, school library advocate and coordinator of the Intellectual Freedom Helpline for the Texas Library Association. Cate Sweeney, vice-chair of TLA's PR and Marketing Committee, hosts this episode. In Part I, we'll hear from Dorcas about three different book challenges she faced as a school librarian; as well as what the Helpline does and how it can help you.
"Libraries Transform Texas Podcast"?  Libraries transform Texasinto what?  Apparently, a lawless place where school librarians actively defy law so as to keep parents in the dark about how they are sexualizing school children with sexually inappropriate material.

Does anyone think this is harmless, kids reading sexually inappropriate material?  Just kids reading about "lived experiences"?  Does anyone think this is "diversity" or "inclusion"?  Or LGBT allyship?  Exposure to sexualized material directly harms children:

Lin, Wen-Hsu, Chia-Hua Liu, and Chin-Chun Yi. “Exposure to Sexually Explicit Media in Early Adolescence Is Related to Risky Sexual Behavior in Emerging Adulthood.” PLoS ONE 15, no. 4 (April 10, 2020): e0230242. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0230242.

Ross MD MPH, Carolyn C. “Overexposed and Under-Prepared: The Effects of Early Exposure to Sexual Content; Is the Internet Impacting Sexual Development?” Psychology Today, August 13, 2012. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/real-healing/201208/overexposed-and-under-prepared-the-effects-early-exposure-sexual-content.

Rodenhizer, Kara Anne E., and Katie M. Edwards. “The Impacts of Sexual Media Exposure on Adolescent and Emerging Adults’ Dating and Sexual Violence Attitudes and Behaviors: A Critical Review of the Literature.” Trauma, Violence & Abuse 20, no. 4 (October 2019): 439–52. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838017717745.


V., Juliette. “6 Subtle Ways Child Predators ‘Groom’ Their Victims.” The Mighty, July 12, 2019. https://themighty.com/2019/07/grooming-signs-child-sexual-abuse/.

Jeglic PhD, Elizabeth L. “How Sexual Abusers Try to Groom Children; 99 Percent of Child Sexual Abuse Involves Grooming.” Psychology Today, April 18, 2022. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/protecting-children-sexual-abuse/202204/how-sexual-abusers-try-groom-children.

So Texas parents may want to spread the word about this and act accordingly.  These school librarians are grooming your children with sexually inappropriate material, they know they are doing that, so they are knowingly and purposefully violating Texas law to get it done by any means, whatever it takes, in a way designed to prevent you from knowing.  Now you know.


By the way, when librarians “report a book challenge, book ban, book removal” to ALA or to state library associations like TLA, that document is a public document, as well as all that follows as a result, even if made from a private device on private time to try to circumvent FOIA.  Such reports are not proprietary to ALA or TLA despite their claims of confidentiality.  They cannot disclaim the law.  They are made by public employees acting on public time addressing public issues subject to FOIA laws that as we have seen above they do not want to reveal to the public.  FOIA laws supersede ALA/TLA diktat.  Be sure your FOIA requests include these challenge/ban/removal reports as well.  Give no quarter to librarians intent on violating the law to maximize the sexualization of children, even if they call themselves @FReadomFighters.  There’s no “FReadom” to sexualize children.  When @FReadomFighters gets people to tweet #FReadom on Fridays to #txlege, they are essentially trying to groom the legislators to allow school librarians to have the freedom to continue to sexualize more children in more schools.  Groomers don't just operate on the children.




The following documents are from the Texas Library Association—they show TLA acting upon the recommendation of Dorcas Hand to guide public employees to evade FOIA laws.











As Texas legislators seek to pass legislation due to circumstances caused by librarians trained to violate Texas law, I'm sure they will be happy to see how Texas librarians operate secretly to violate law so as to better groom more Texas children, including those legislators listed here in this typically pro librarian slanted story ("this book-banning era"):

Thompson, Maggie Q. “Austin Libraries Prepare for a Barrage of Book-Banning Bills; Rating Books, Jailing Librarians, and More.” The Austin Chronicle, December 2, 2022. https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2022-12-02/austin-libraries-prepare-for-a-barrage-of-book-banning-bills/.

Librarians are breaking the law specifically to sexualize more children.  Children are being directly harmed.  Why would anyone give librarians any credence at all?  They literally gang up on you behind your backs—to target the most vulnerable, our children.  


NOTE ADDED 15 DECEMBER 2022:

Likely as a result of the above reporting, the Texas Library Association has locked its @TXLA Twitter account.  Could there be a bigger admission of guilt?  I've never seen any library association ever lock their account.  Does anyone know if they are being officially investigated?

Here's more:


NOTE ADDED 16 DECEMBER 2022:

Assumption: locked its Twitter account to delete tweets showing child grooming by #librarians, so etc. won’t see them. Prediction: When open again, #TXLA will accuse me of defamation saying no such evidence exists. uses this trick.

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Huge F U to Parents: Texas Library Association #TXLA22

Texas Library Association (TxLA) is holding an annual meeting having a drag queen as the keynote speaker.  Houston Public Library had two drag queens who were convicted pedophiles reading to kids at drag queen story hours that are illegal in public libraries.  So TxLA having a drag queen as a keynote speaker is a huge F U to parents.  And I told reporter Luke Rosiak of Daily Wire as much, as seen in this story (graphic at right):

Rosiak, Luke. “Texas Library Association Conference Features a Drag Queen and Ibram Kendi.” The Daily Wire, April 26, 2022:

“What they rely on is the fact that librarians have one of the highest goodwill ratings of any profession, so they use it to get away with a lot, because no one suspects that a librarian would groom their children,” Dan Kleinman, a parent advocate who runs the group SafeLibraries, told The Daily Wire. “This is a direct screw-you to all the legislators down there,” he said. “This is a huge F-you to parents.”

And it's a "huge F-you to parents" and legislators because one moment Texas libraries allow criminal drag queens to "read" to kids then the next moment TxLA makes drag queens the leading topic.  

And graphic CSAM for kids in schools is explained away as First Amendment "FReadom."  The leading groomer imho Carolyn Foote @FReadomFighters even won an award for her grooming training for librarians. 


By the way, TxLA blocked me for reporting accurately on what is occurring at the annual conference where they use the hashtag #txla22.  Well, it turns out the most popular tweet of #txla22 is the guy they blocked, so into free speech they are:



URL of this page:  
@FReadomFighters @HoustonLibrary @LukeRosiak @realDailyWire @TXLA