Two books contain obscene material for children, a Virginia Beach circuit court ruled as parents seek to limit graphic material in schools.
The two books, Gender Queer and A Court of Mist and Fury, were ruled by a judge on Wednesday as containing obscene material, which could affect access to the books in school districts in the metropolitan area surrounding Washington, D.C., including Fairfax County, according to ABC 7 .
The ruling gave one Virginia parent hope that Gender Queer and another book, Lawnboy, could face similar restrictions.
“My hope is that the judge will find a similar ruling here, and that will be the way to get these books out of the school system here in Fairfax County and protect our children,” Stacy Langton, a Fairfax mother of six, told the Washington Examiner . “I mean that’s what I’ve been after all this time. That’s the goal.”
Langton and her attorney, Mike Clancy, a candidate running to represent Virginia’s 10th Congressional District, will now file a request to declare those two books as containing explicit content. She and Clancy were in Fairfax County Public Schools headquarters in Falls Church, Virginia, on Friday to discuss the filing.
Fairfax County Public Schools reinstated both Gender Queer and Lawnboy after they were initially removed from circulation in November 2021, a development Langton described as “disheartening.” But Wednesday’s ruling in Virginia Beach has given her “some hope” that a similar ruling can be made in Fairfax County to remove the books “without having to expect the school board to do the right thing.”
Langton became a centerpiece of Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s campaign ads last October after a video went viral of her demanding the Fairfax County school board explain the presence of pornographic material in the school library that depicted sex between adult men and teenagers. She was barred from entering her son’s public high school library last November.
A restraining order against Virginia Beach schools and the Barnes & Noble store in the city was filed by Virginia attorney and state Del. Tim Anderson on Thursday due to both Gender Queer and A Court of Mist and Fury being available to purchase and read without parental consent. Anderson is going after Barnes & Noble for both books having “no restrictions” when purchasing them, he said on social media.
“We’re not trying to ban the books,” Anderson said. “We’re not trying to make the books illegal. We’re just saying that they can’t be distributed to minors without parental consent, just like minors would have to have parental consent to go into a movie theater and watch an R-rated movie.”
* Article from: The Washington Examiner
