Skip to main content

Banner Takes a Swing at Book Ban Issue, Misses


 

The numbers tell me that the blog went up late yesterday and a lot of you missed it. It’s about the Board of Education race and how the winners will be in a position either: to support intellectual freedom and inclusion or: to weaken and damage it.

Assertive me : go read it now.

Polite me: I hope you’ll find some time to catch up on it this morning.

Free People Read Freely, Village Green/Town², April 30, 2024

The Baltimore Banner took a swing at addressing what they call the “book ban debates” but in my opinion the article missed some important information.

Where Howard County school board candidates stand on book ban debates, Jess Nocera, Baltimore Banner

The article lists the following candidates as having stated they are against book bans:

Pravin Ponnuri (District 1)

Meg Ricks (District 1)

Hiruy Hadgu (District 4)

Julie Kaplan (District 4)

Jen Mallo, current school board chair (District 4)

Catherine Carter (District 5)

Andrea Chamblee (District 5)

I’d advise community members to look beyond this list. Why? 

Well, at a recent candidate forum at Dar Al-Taqwa Islamic Center, Pravin Ponnuri’s responses were problematic at best. Also, a reminder that he was one of the four candidates who originally chose not to answer the CARY survey, which contains clear questions about the inclusion of LGBTQIA appropriate materials. 

After some community pushback, Ponnuri completed the survey, using the following statement as a basis for most of his answers:

Sexual preference, just like religious or political preferences, is a personal decision that has no impact on education and does not belong in the school system. Let the school system be about education.

1. The use of the words “sexual preference” is inherently incorrect and seeing it here is alarming. The correct term is sexual orientation. Not knowing (or caring) enough to use correct terminology shows either ignorance or disrespect. Not a good look for anyone aspiring to the Board of Education.

2. If we are to take Ponnuri at his word, not only would he support excluding LGBTQIA materials from schools but he would also insist on removing all library books and curriculum materials which included heterosexual relationships and marriage. Oh my goodness. He is going to be a busy, busy man.

“Does not belong.” What do those words mean to you?

I’m not at all convinced that Ponnuri would take a stand to support school libraries and librarians were he given the opportunity to serve on the school board. Based on his own words, I don’t think he’s convinced, either.

I’m also concerned that candidate Julie Kaplan has accepted campaign contributions from former BOE candidate Tudy Adler, one of the founders of Howard County Moms4Liberty. If Kaplan is, as the Banner article suggests she is, opposed to book bans, she would have immediately returned the money and publicly repudiated the M4L connection. 

In addition, Ms. Kaplan’s answers on the CARY survey lean heavily on arguments of “parental concern” and “parents’ rights”, well-known to M4L supporters. If you take M4L-tainted money and you use M4L coded language, then your claim that you are opposed to book bans deserves some extra scrutiny. The Banner doesn’t do that here.

These are examples of what was missed in the Banner article. There may be more I am not aware of. In addition, I’m extremely concerned by candidates who are being overly careful not to say anything that might give away their position. If they won’t tell you the truth in plain language before the election, that’s a clear indicator of how they’ll act if elected.

While I’m glad that the Banner thinks that the issue of book bans in Howard County schools is worth covering, I’m deeply disappointed that this particular article does not give an accurate representation of the facts and may very likely mislead voters.

Oh, and before you go: did you read yesterday’s post?


Village Green/Town² Comments 





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

F ³: We Are Not Entitled

  A college student went missing. His family and friends were distraught. The community was encouraged to be on the lookout and spread the word.  Days passed.  They must have been agonizing days for those who cared about the missing student. Thoughts that foul play had been involved cannot have been far from their thoughts.  Then, at last, the student was found. Alive. The news was shared with the public.  So. Much. Relief. A family had been reunited with their child. Even though we know that life is complicated, I think it is okay to accept this as a happy ending and leave it at that.  But the world of social media says no. For every expression of joy at the news came questions and even judgement. It became clear to me that some folks felt entitled to an explanation. They wanted the backstory. It’s as though they felt that, by enlisting the help of the public on social media, the authorities now owed them all the details. Television dramas often weave curr...
2 comments
Read more

Separate and Unequal

  Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in  broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not.  It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...
1 comment
Read more