On Thursday, Cobb School Superintendent Chris Ragsdale announced 13 books that will no longer be available in Cobb government school libraries, due to the content being inappropriate for children. Concerned parents have been sounding the alarm in Cobb County and this decision is doubtless the fruit of their efforts.

“We are declining to provide access to materials with sexually explicit content in the same way we decline to provide access to rated-R movies and—in compliance with federal law—use internet filters to prevent students from accessing websites with adult content on school district computers,” said Ragsdale.

 Ragsdale pulled the first set of inappropriate books last September and received tremendous opposition from all of the Democrat School Board members and intense protest from left-wing activists. Twice during the School Board meeting public commenters attempted to read from the books in question and were stopped because the content they were quoting was too graphic to be broadcast on the meeting recording. The speaker was allowed to continue only after the recording was muted. This begs the question, if the content is too graphic to be featured on the school system website, why should minor children have unrestricted access to this content in their school library? 

If you have to mute the speaker to protect the citizens, maybe children shouldn’t be allowed to read it?

One Cobb RA Member described the books as “pure porn.” One of the many concerns with exposing children to lewd content is that it is likely to make them more susceptible to groomers who would more easily exploit them, and that the child may develop a life-long addiction to pornography that would wreck their future marriage and relationships.

The titles removed by Superintendent Ragsdale were these:

Push

Milk & Honey

It Starts with US

Crank

Tricks

The Infinite Moment of US

Identical

Juliet Takes A Breath

Monday’s Not Coming

All Boys Aren’t Blue

City of Thieves

Laid 

Casual Vacancy

“Parents are appalled. These books should have never found their way into our schools in the first place,” said Nathaniel Darnell, Cobb Republican Assembly Chairman. “We need to find out who was responsible to proof these materials before students were given access to them, and develop a better system for screening inappropriate material and protecting children.” 

Please send an email expressing your gratitude to Mr. Ragsdale and copy the School Board members. Politicians typically need a lot of encouragement to do the right thing, especially when the issue is controversial. 

• Chris Ragsdale, School Superintendent: Chris.Ragsdale@cobbk12.org

• Randy Scamihorn, Board Member: rscamihorn.boardmember@cobbk12.org 

• David Chastain, Board Member: dchastain.boardmember@cobbk12.org 

• Brad Wheeler, Board Member: bwheeler.boardmember@cobbk12.org 

• Becky Sayler, Board Member: bsayler.boardmember@cobbk12.org 

• Leroy Tre’ Hutchins, Board Member: THutchins.Boardmember@cobbk12.org

• David Banks, Board Member: dbanks.boardmember@cobbk12.org 

• Nichelle Davis, Board Member: ndavis.boardmember@cobbk12.org 

We are grateful for this step in the right direction, but there are plenty more objectionable books in Cobb Schools that should never be given to children. One mother reported that Wheeler High School Library still provides the following objectionable books to minors:

I’m Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter

This novel contains sexual nudity;

sexual activities; alcohol and drug use

by minors; and excessive/frequent

profanity. This book is currently available at Wheeler High School, and possibly others. 

The Hate U Give – This book contains inflammatory racial

commentary; more than 400 instances of profanity, and inexplicit sexual activities. 

The phrase “F*** the police” is said numerous times. This book is currently still available to minors at Wheeler High School.

Dear Martin is a fiction novel that contains numerous references and examples of police brutality and “systemic injustice” against black people. It also includes numerous sexual references like a slang reference to taking a girl’s virginity. It Includes lots of profanity.

One of the themes you find in some of the problematic school books is the featuring of a false narrative that America is systemically racist and “black people can never get ahead.” This was proven false by the fact that Barack Obama attained the highest office in the land in 2008. It almost appears as if our school books are trying to inspire children to want to grow up and become a radical BLM activist who has no respect for authority or for the law.  

Many parents believe there is zero reason the books above (and any like them) should be available to students. Cobb County still has a long way to go to fully protect children. 

Other problematic books at Wheeler High School include:

American Born Chinese

Challenger Deep

Love, hate & other filters

None of the Above  

Piecing Me Together 

The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian  

The Poet X

Uglies

Eleanor & Park

How I Resist : activism and hope for a new generation

One of the patterns you see in some of the books is that obscene, sexually graphic content is included in stories about minorities and presented under the veil of diversity. This ensures that the left can claim anyone trying to remove the book is a racist, and pretend it is being removed because the characters are minorities. This is absurd, of course, but it doesn’t stop them. 

During the School Board meeting Thursday, Kristi Minor reminded everyone during the public comment time that the promotion of obscenity is one of the stated goals of communism. 

“The book The Naked Communist… lays out 45 goals of Communism. Number 24 states ‘Eliminate all laws governing obscenity calling them censorship and a violation of free speech and free press.’ I suggest that this tactic of the false flag of ‘book banning’ has been about over the last year,” said Kristi. 

The content of the stories certainly seem to reflect a Marxist perspective where the world is very dark, hopeless, and people are always oppressing other people.  

Under-age minors, simply do not need to know the details of evil to be prepared for life, nor do they need it to understand and relate to other cultures. 

In the Bible, Romans 16:19b says, “I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.”

These subversive books essentially provide a “how-to guide” to children who might not otherwise have ever been tempted to do drugs, or engage in deviant sexual experimentation, or get into a disrespectful altercation with a policeman. Kids do not need up-close fictional descriptions that normalize drug use, “police brutality,” domestic violence, suicide, and teen sex before marriage. 

Cobb County tax-funded schools should take care to protect the innocence of children, if at all possible. It is likely true that some children in the classroom have been the victims of abuse, or live in a household where they have personally seen or experienced drugs, drunkenness, deviant sexuality, etc., but other children have parents who have worked hard to ensure their child has never encountered these things. Many parents want to delay exposing their children to harsh realities, and want to personally be close by when they are exposed to them to explain and provide a moral framework for helping them process that level of depravity. 

The children who have been the victims of domestic abuse could be further traumatized by these graphic novels and they, more than anyone, should not be led to believe that abuse is normal. 

In homeschool family community circles, it is common to hear people recommend students read biographies of great men and women, strong Christians, inventors, explorers, authors, to inspire your child to greatness. These novels, with a “Critical Race Theory” bent appear to be the doing the opposite. 

The Bible, again, in Proverbs 13:20 says, “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.” There are many noble, courageous people that we will never be able to walk alongside in this life, but our children can, to some degree, get to know them by reading their biographies. Similarly, if we allow Cobb County children to get to know the characters in these subversive, lewd books, we should not be surprised if it shapes their character and they begin to imitate the actions of the characters and eventually become rebels and criminals. 

The GRA has been encouraging parents to homeschool, take advantage of private school options, or at least take a more active role in guiding their child’s education. But even if you protect your own children, who wants their children’s peers and the next generation to grow up addicted to pornography or exploited by groomers? Opposing this harmful content is a simple way to “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

This is why it is critical that parents screen the books their children are reading and why we need to encourage Superintendent Ragsdale to continue his purge of these harmful, sinister books. Again, please email Ragsdale today and thank him for his courage.

• Chris Ragsdale, School Superintendent: Chris.Ragsdale@cobbk12.org