Horrific Book Found in FHS Library
The book recommends a site known to host pedophiles, rapists, and murderers
The Fishers High School Library shelved the book Ask a Queer Chick, A Guide to Sex, Love, and Life for Girls Who Dig Girls by Lindsay King-Miller. The book advises minors to explore their interest in “kink” and to seek out kinky strangers.
For example, here is a quote from the book (p. 96):
If you want to meet people who share your kink (or other kinky people in general), there are kinky social media sites, the largest being FetLife. Most major cities also have a real-life kinky social scene; Google will help you find it.
As you can see, this book recommends the website FetLife. According to the Department of Justice, this is a social networking site that “serves people interested in sexual fetishes.” Active pedophiles, at least two of whom were convicted, have been found on the site (see here and here). One of these pedophiles was caught in FetLife’s “incest” group. (Incest?!)
This CNN story also notes that FetLife hosted an “Abduction 101” forum (!) which a man visited prior to abducting, raping, and murdering an Illinois college student named Yingying Zhang in 2017. The same CNN story reports that law enforcement caught a child porn distributor on the site. The examples go on and on.
Response from HSE Administration
I asked Superintendent Yvonne Stokes and FHS Librarian Renee Isom whether they think that the book belongs in the FHS Library, given that it recommends this vile and dangerous website.
In response, Dr. Stokes told me that the book was being removed from circulation. Additionally, FHS Principal Jason Urban told me that he and Ms. Isom both agreed that the book needed to be removed. Moreover, when I asked Mr. Urban how the book got into the library in the first place, he told me:
I have uncovered that this one is unique and originated through a student. We are using an internal process [to] address this.
Good for Mr. Urban and Ms. Isom. I’m grateful to find some common ground.
On the other hand, I’m a little puzzled. Ms. Isom sits on the board of a radical left-wing activist group called the Racial Equity Community Network (RECN), which vocally opposed my attempt to compel Hamilton East Public Library Director Edra Waterman to stop promoting pornography to eleven year olds. What’s going on here?
I have a two theories.
One is that Ms. Isom was pressured into going along with removing this book. If this is correct, she actually wants books like this in circulation, as evidenced by her work with RECN, but she was just too afraid to stand up for what she believed when being questioned by the HSE administration. I can’t rule this out, as she did not respond to my email.
My other theory is more hopeful: perhaps Ms. Isom actually saw the light in this case. I mean, it’s really embarrassing and evil that this book was in circulation. It’s almost unbelievable. I hope and pray that people like Ms. Isom can open their eyes and see the truth. Perhaps that is what happened in this case. This is what I’d like to believe.
Either way, this is good news. A significant influencer on the fringe, activist left at least appears to agree with parents that materials in the FHS library should not be sending children to explore sites where murderers and pedophiles congregate. I’m going to take this as a small step in the right direction.
Meanwhile, if Ms. Isom or anyone else from RECN would like to clarify their position on this matter, I’m all ears.
Comments from the HSE School Board
After all of this, I reached out to the entire HSE school board, sending an email to each board member individually. My email explained the situation and asked them if they support Ms. Isom’s decision to remove the book from circulation. I felt it was important that our district leadership be made aware of this situation, and that they be given the opportunity to state clearly that they do not want horrific books like this in the school library.
Two of the seven board members responded: President Julie Chambers and Suzanne Thomas. Ms. Chambers made the following statement:
Regarding this particular book, I have not read it, nor have I reviewed any of its contents. I was aware of your original complaint and was informed that Ms. Isom ultimately made the decision to remove the book in question without further inquiry or the need for a review committee. I trust the professional judgment of our librarians and educators and if Ms. Isom determined that the book in question should be removed from circulation, then I fully support her decision.
Ms. Thomas said she agreed with this statement. Both emphasized that they were speaking for themselves individually and were not speaking on behalf of the other board members. Ms. Thomas also added that HSE is currently conducting an audit of all library materials. She said that she intended to request an update on the audit, which Dr. Stokes apparently initiated in the fall of 2021.
The other board members—Janet Pritchett, Michelle Fullhart, Brad Boyer, Sarah Donsbach, and Sarah Parks-Reese—did not respond to my email. I might have expected Ms. Pritchett in particular to say something about this case, since she spoke in favor of keeping the porn in the 11-17 year old section at the emergency HEPL Board meeting in February. I wonder what she thinks about this book at FHS. I guess we don’t get to know. Let’s plan to vote for her opponent in November.