Hate-filled Media Research Center writer Tierin-Rose Mandelburg began a Feb. 16 post this way:
Garrett Jones, the assistant principal at the Terwilliger Elementary School in Florida, admitted that he thinks it’s appropriate for students in kindergarten through fifth grade to read a book about pornography and dirty magazines in school.
The board hearing took place in January but it gained more attention after Libs of TikTok shared a clip of it Friday.
The hearing was about the book “Melissa” (formally published as “George”) that’s available in the Alachua County Public School District elementary campuses. The book is about a transgender 4th grader.
Mandelburg contradicted herself in the space of three paragraphs — if the book is about “a transgender 4th grader,” that pretty much means the book is not about “pornography and dirty magazines.” Mandelburg also didn’t discuss how many violent threats that assistant principal got after being singled on on Libs of TikTok — which likely happened, despite her employer’s defensive insistence that there’s no connection between the two.
Mandelburg then hyped a gotcha question from a right-wing mom who objected to the book (the fact that she made a point of noting the mom’s college degree is a tell that she’s desperately trying to beef up her credibility):
Susan Seigle, the school’s attorney, insisted the book didn’t have any pornographic content but Dr. Crystal Marull, a mother and a professor at the University of Florida with a masters degree in education, who did the primary questioning of Vice Principal Jones, disagreed.
During Jones’ time as a witness, Marull asked him about his three children at home. She said, “would you find it appropriate if they brought this book home and were talking about dirty magazines or pornography in a K to five environment?”
“I think it would open up a conversation that we would have,” Jones said.
“So you think the book is appropriate in the K to five environment even though it references pornography and dirty magazines,” Marull asked.
Jones insisted that he voted for the book to be allowed in grades three to five, not K through five. Okay – so ages eight to twelve instead of five to twelve.
Then Marull asked him straight up: “So you think an eight-year-old would be [an] appropriate age to be reading about pornography and dirty magazines in school?”
“Yes,” Jones said confidently.
Neither Mandelburg nor Mariull offered any evidence that any child was being forced to read this book, let alone any 8-year-olds. And passing references to “pornography and dirty magazines” is not itself pornography, however much they want to believe it is.
Mandelburg then copied-and-pasted from a Fox News article excerpts from the book … none of which are sexually explicit. The school district also provided further context that Mandelburg censored:
The parent never actually asked the ACPS witness if he believed this book is pornographic. The witness did clarify later in the hearing that he did not believe this book is pornographic.
There are two sections of the book in which the words ‘dirty magazines’ or the word ‘porn’ are mentioned. They are as follows:
The phrase ‘dirty magazine’ was used by a teenage boy taunting his little brother. The little brother was, in fact, not looking at a dirty magazine.
The word ‘porn’ appeared later in the book, when the same older brother stated he knew his little brother was not reading porn.
This is the full extent of the use of those two terms in the book. The book contains no pornographic scenes, pictures or descriptions.
Mandelburg concluded by whining that “the school board voted 4-1 to keep the book in the school,” adding: “If you needed another reason to homeschool your kids, here it is.” Of course, any children Mandelburg might homeschool would likely be indoctrinated in homophobia and transphobia like their mother, and they’d also probably be the ones calling in threats to Libs of TikTok’s targets.