Dad handcuffed for protesting graphic-sex book
Cop takes action at school-board meeting
Published: 21 hours ago

http://www.wnd.com/2014/05/dad-handcuffed-for-protesting-graphic-sex-book/

A parent who complained about a book assigned to his daughter at Gilford High School in Gilford, New Hampshire, was arrested and taken away in handcuffs from a school board meeting for refusing to “be quiet” when repeatedly admonished by a board member.

William Baer, whose ninth-grade daughter last week was assigned the book “Nineteen Minutes,” came to the meeting to protest the book’s assignment and the district’s failure to notify parents the book contained graphic descriptions of “rough sex” between teens.

According to the Laconia Daily Sun, Baer challenged the board to read aloud the controversial portion of “Nineteen Minutes” during the meeting, but school officials refused.

Before speaking, Baer was told he had two minutes to speak.

Baer spoke beyond the time limit and sat down but then exchanged words with another parent who approved of the book.

“So what is the remedy here?” Baer asked.

The board said it would not take questions on the matter.

“Sir, would you please be respectful of the other people?” a school board member responded.

“Like you’re respectful of my daughter, right? And my children?” he countered.

“Please, be quiet,” admonished the board member.

A police officer then arrived at the scene, instructing Baer to leave with him.

“You are going to arrest me because I violated the two-minute rule?” the father said. “I guess you are going to have to arrest me.”

But Baer did get support from other parents.

Sarah Carrignan said, according to the Sun, that she was “‘utterly appalled that this was acceptable.”

“My son should never have had the book in his hand.”

Part of the problem was that when the book was used previously in the school, parents were notified and asked for permission for their children to participate.

The school this year didn’t notify parents until after students already were assigned the book and given access to the material.

Gilford Police Lt. James Leach, who was at the meeting, ordered Baer to leave the meeting and then handcuffed the parent. Reports say Baer was ticketed for disorderly conduct.

The report said Baer had challenged Principal Kent Hemingway to read aloud the controversial section. But board chairman Sue Allen said no one from the board or administration would do that.

“Nineteen Minutes,” published in 2007 by best-selling author Jodi Picoult, was described by a reviewer on Good Reads as not having “the artistic writing that Picoult’s earlier novels did.”

“In ‘Nineteen Minutes,’ Picoult told a story – a good one. But the nuance and magic of her earlier writing is gone,” the review said. It’s about, “Peter Houghton, picked on by school mates from the first day of kindergarten, enters Sterling High, and in nineteen minutes kills ten and wounds another nineteen students.”

The reviewer recommended it “for someone desperate for anything to read.”

Hemingway and Allen defended the book as a “thematically important” exploration into the background and motivations of a fictional school shooting, despite a graphic description of teenage rough sex on page 313 that suggests the type of violence commonly associated with “date rape.”

The Leader reported Allen later issued a statement concerning the assignment: “The board apologizes for the discomfort of those impacted and for the failure of the school district to send home prior notice of assignment of the novel.”

The statement said the “school district policies IGE, IJ, IJA, KEC (available on the school district website) refer to the procedures for the use of novels controversial material.”

“The district will take immediate action to revise these policies to include notification that requires parents to accept controversial material rather than opt out. Furthermore, the notification will detail more specifically the controversial material. These policies will be revised prior to the 2014-15 school year.”

Baer said there were two standards being applied, one for teachers requiring students to read such material and a separate standard for the public.

“If I stood outside the school and started handing out copies of page 313 of that book, I am confident I could be arrested for the distribution of pornographic material to minors,” Baer said. “I don’t understand why it’s OK for the high school to require our 9th grade children have to read such material, but I get arrested because I want to object to it. Something here is very wrong.”

Gilford police released a statement that Baer was arrested for continuing to speak after Allen told him to stop.

“Baer refused to stop and told Leach to arrest him,” the police statement continued. “Baer was removed from the meeting and arrested.”

Baer was held for a couple hours before being released on $700 personal recognizance bail.

Police said Baer has a court date set for June 17 at 8:15 a.m.

Baer told WND he first found out about the novel when a friend scanned the book and came across page 313.

“My friend was flabbergasted with what he was reading,” Baer recalled. “Then my wife came into the room and she was shocked our daughter was being assigned in an English class to read a novel with this kind of graphic sex described.”

He contacted other parents and then was contacted by the principal, with an invitation to meet to discuss concerns.

“We met at 1 p.m. yesterday. I told him that my daughter had the book in her hands for a week and I never got a notice from the school asking my permission for her to read it. He said it was an oversight because the book has been on the school’s class reading list since it came out in 2007. I explained that I felt I should have gotten a notice where I could have opted-out from my daughter having to read the book.”

Baer said the book “goes on-on-on after the sex scene, talking about the girl getting pregnant and wanting to have an abortion.

“So, I went to the school board meeting to complain that the school never gave me a chance to say I didn’t want my 14-year-old daughter reading a book like this that I consider to be pornographic.”

It so happens that Fr. Bolduc's family is from Gilford, NH and that is where the church he built is standing.  The SSPX is now offering the Mass there on Sundays.  It would be nice if they opened a school up there and offered the townspeople an alternative to the filth in the public schools.

Why did the sheeple in the room allow this to happen? It's time for the American people to stand up against these pigs and if necessary take them out. First, the piggy should be fired and sued. Then the school board members should be sued and removed from office. Our founding fathers went to war for less.

I think he should sue on the basis that the school was engaged in a kind of religous indoctrination.

The dad is stupid... for sending his kids to Public School in the first place.

What do you expect?

There are many good reasons why so many parents Homeschool in 2014.

Matthew, it's not as easy as that. Yes, you ought to home school your kids, but that only accomplishes so much.

Matthew's comment is exactly what I thought. It is not as if perverting children is something that cropped up overnight. It's been around for donkey's years. Randy Engel's The Final Plague was written in 1989 - that's a 1/4 century back. It almost seems that these people came down in the last shower. At least this might open their eyes and force them to withdraw their children from that evil system.

Matthew didn't say it was easy. Of course it is not, but it is possible and it is essential in this day and age. The responsibilty of the parent is to protect their children's innocence, nurture and educate their children in the faith, and to prepare to deal with whatever they will be faced with as adults. This responsibility is God-given and God gives the Grace to make it possible through the Sacrament of Marriage. God always gives us what we need to fulfil His Will.

You may be able to keep your children away from pornography and vile television promoting worldly and godless thought and behaviour, but what about when your children are grown up and have to join a society where the vast majority are corrupted by pornography and vile television? How are your children going to hold on to their values when everybody around them and everything around them contradicts and belittles those values? They are going to have to be saints...

Surely this is why Catholics homeschool, rather send them to the wolves at an age when they cannot defend themselves. Isn't the idea to prepare the child to be able to defend their faith and stand up for truth and right? In short to make saints...

because the occasions of sin and scandal will be infinite. I cannot myself imagine raising kids in western liberal society; I would be sending my sheep amidst the wolves. How could I send my daughter into a society where all the young women display the morals of harlots, and all the young men treat the young women like harlots, for example? Well, somehow Noah and Lot managed to preserve morality in their families while surrounded by total moral decay, so it is not impossible with the help of God's grace

I guess here, McFiggly, that you are talking of hypothetical kids. Am I right?Catholics have, in previous times and in the present times, had similar challenges. This is Christian life. How many children gave, and still give, their lives for Christ in times of persecution? God still wants children, in spite of moral decay. Homeschooling is a truly heroic work, but God gives the Grace through the Sacrament of Marriage.

You're right. It is a fearful thing to bring children into the world, but that is our role as married lay persons in the Church.  

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I have two observations.  

The school could argue that their intention in approving this book for use in classes is not out of a desire to do any harm to the children but to give them real life preparation for issues and situations that they might encounter since these things are commonplace these days.  However, if Baer were to stand out in front of the school and distribute copies of ONLY THE OBJECTIONABLE part, he would be "taking it out of context" and his INTENTION would be to do damage to the children and that's why it would be an offensive and illegal act for him to do that whereas when the school allows use of the book it's okay because of their intention in so doing, and it is in CONTEXT of the whole book.  

Sound good?  

The other observation that I have is this:  The entire state ought to show up to support Mr. Baer on his court date, June 17th at 8:15 a.m.  If they don't drop the charges and refund his expenses, there should be "some charges dropped" on someone else.   This is war.  There should be picketers outside the courthouse and there should be the chanting of slogans.  Maybe that would wake up the idiots running this stupid show.  They are responsible.  


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