What They Said: Parents and Students Respond to WSSD Book Removals
SRS parent Michael Raffaele presents Wallingford-Swarthmore School Board members with free copies of two of the three books temporarily removed from a fifth-grade classroom in February. Read the story.
The following statements have been lightly edited for space and clarity.
The following statements were given by district parents and students during the public comment section of the March 9 Wallingford-Swarthmore school board meeting. The speakers were responding to the removal of three books on LGBTQ+ subjects from a fifth-grade classroom library. The books were removed after a parent complained about one of them, “George,” a novel by Alex Gino about a transgender girl, intended for readers age 8 to 10. After the books were reviewed by the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District’s director of secondary education, Denise Citarelli Jones, they were returned to the classroom. The district says it is now developing new policies to guide future classroom-library book choices.
Before public comment began, WSSD board president David Grande read his own statement:
The board has received email and [other] communications regarding some issues around diversity and inclusion, and how we can ensure that we foster an open, welcoming, supportive environment for all students. This came about from recent discussions at SRS about the diversity of books available for students in our classrooms, and decisions and processes about how books are selected. I think we have some members of our district community here this evening who wish to speak to this issue, and I just want to say, we welcome your comments.
I also want to take this time to just pause for a moment and speak to the issues of diversity and inclusion. I think one of the highest priorities for any school, and for our schools in particular, must be making sure that every single student feels valued, respected, and welcomed. The community we create in our schools is critical to education and development as children grow into young adults. These are important values that we must uphold in all aspects of our lives and in our schools.
I hope that what can come from this recent discussion is a strong commitment by the district to seeing that these values are translated throughout our schools. I look forward to hearing from those who wish to comment this evening, and I can tell you that I know the administration is looking at this issue to make sure we have procedures in place that support these goals.
Books Can Make You Feel Less Alone
My name is Melissa Kennedy, and I have two children in the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District. My oldest is a seventh grader at Strath Haven Middle School, a transgender boy, and one of the bravest people I know. He struggled with gender dysphoria for the majority of his tenure at Swarthmore Rutledge School. I have often spoken of how grateful I am to be raising him in a supportive and accepting community. I truly believed that, up until last month.
I am sure that everyone in this room can identify with how powerful it is to read about a relatable character or experience in a book. It can make you feel more human, less alone. It can make you feel seen. For me, it was Meg in “A Wrinkle in Time” with her nerdy clumsiness and her faults. And of course, Jo, from “Little Women.” Children — and adults — need to see ourselves in the media around us; and at the elementary school age, one of the most important and impactful media is books. My son, like many LGBTQ youth, rarely if ever comes across a character like him — who shares his experience as a transgender boy.
As you know, the incidence of depression and suicidality is concerningly high in LGBTQ youth, more than 40%, which is related largely to social stigma, not to being LGBTQ in and of itself. But an accepting community can change that. Even one accepting adult can reduce suicidality by 40%. And this is where the school community can make a difference. Creating an accepting and inclusive environment in the school, which includes a diverse book selection, can literally save lives. These are not “mature” themes. These are books about people like my son, who started questioning his gender at around the age of four or five. These are your students, peers, neighbors, and community members. And we can save these students’ lives with the messages that we convey.
To that end, I want to applaud the administration for returning the books to the classroom, but I also want to emphasize that damage was already done, and cannot be undone. Words cannot be unsaid, messages cannot be unsent. It’s like the old classroom demonstration where you crinkle a piece of paper and then smooth it back out again. The paper remains damaged. And the message that was sent was that being LGBTQ is somehow wrong — that even learning about that experience is questionable.
“It may not be who we want to be, but it is who we are.”
That is why we are here tonight — to implore you as the board and us as a community to take steps to ensure that a situation like this does not occur again. Because right now, today, we are [all members of] a school community where acts of discrimination against LGBTQ students occur. It may not be who we want to be, but it is who we are. So we, as a group of concerned parents, ask that we start acknowledging these uncomfortable truths and having these difficult conversations, so that we can progress towards who we want to be: a truly inclusive and accepting school community, one where a policy supporting transgender and gender-expansive youth is not simply a document accessible on the school website but something that the teachers, staff, and administration demonstrate in their everyday interactions with the students. It means stepping in and speaking up when kids are picked on — whether on the bus or in the classroom.
So we ask that the board rigorously hold the administration accountable for intentional and consistently appropriate implementation of inclusive policies. The children are watching. We are watching. And we support this effort. Because we have to. Because for many of us, our children’s lives depend on it.
Melissa Crawford Kennedy
Swarthmore
Make SRS an LGBTQ+-Friendly School
We have recently received the news that all of the LGBTQ+ books have been removed from our class library. We are aware that a family has complained about having LGBTQ+ books — for whatever reason — but we feel strongly about keeping these books. One reason is that some of our best friends who go to SRS [Swarthmore-Rutledge School] are part of the LGBTQ+ community.
We should keep the books because we need SRS to represent all the LGBTQ+ people out there. In some countries, it’s against the law to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and more. Also, some homophobic people have kicked their children out of their houses because their children were LGBTQ+.
It is also important for children to understand that it is okay to LGBTQ+. They need to learn not be discriminative, and to be inclusive to the people who are part of the LGBTQ+ community. We think [removing books] was not the right way to handle this. We should talk to the families who complained, and we should figure out a better solution than to take away all of the books about people who are LGBTQ+.
Some kids even resort to hurting themselves because they were taught that being LGBTQ+ is wrong. So please reconsider your decision to take away all the books that represent the LGBTQ+ community, and [instead] let’s make SRS an LGBTQ+-friendly school.
Amelia Gallo
Nate Mitchell
Swarthmore
Due Diligence for the Kids Coming Up
My name is Mary Huff and I have twin 17-year-old seniors. They’re about to leave. They’re going, “Why the heck are you here?” Right?
I’m here because I am a homophobic lesbian. ... 12 years ago, my kids were in first grade at WES [Wallingford Elementary School]. My son’s godmother was the supervisor at The Attic, the LGBTQ organization in Center City. I donated $1,000 to have an in-service [training for teachers] done at WES because I was concerned about my kids moving through this school district, even though I heard that the area — you know, Swarthmore, Wallingford — was very progressive. But I came from West Texas. I’m homophobic, and I’m a lesbian. I thought, “What about those straight people out there? Can I really trust them?” So I wanted to help teach at least the teachers to understand what it’s like.
So you’re wondering, “Did that happen?”
No.
The principal said to me and my partner, “You know, this is really wonderful. We think it’s great, but I think we will decline this request. ...This would cause so much trouble in this school district.”
I was very upset about that at the time. But my kids, they liked it here. They’ve had a pretty good run. Although [it was hard] at times — you know, it took my kids till they were juniors in high school to have good friends. Should that happen? No. I know about the underlying homophobia my two straight kids have suffered in this school district. I think it’s important that all of us have this voice. … As much as we love this school district, I wouldn’t be doing my due diligence for the younger kids coming up, unless I told you my thoughts on this.
Mary Huff
Wallingford
