6-25-2024 WCSD Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees

e good afternoon everyone looks like we got a big crowd welcome to the uh regular meeting of the Board of Trustees for January correction uh June 25th 2024 it is uh 2:01 p.m. uh my name is Adam abber I'm the vice president of the was County School Board president board president Smith has some prior commitments um we're going to move to uh item one on the agenda it 1.01 call the order 1.02 is roll call clerk Rodriguez can you call the rooll please yes Mr Vice President trusty church here vice president maybery here trusty niolet good afternoon I am here president Smith is absent trusty Westlake here trusty Woodley here Mr Vice President we have a quum okay thank you clerk Rodriguez item 1.03 is our Pledge of Allegiance um I'd like to uh before we we do that just want to invite our interim superintendant uh Dr mcneel to lead us in the pledge she has spent uh 29 years with the district came back to help us uh have a safe landing while we uh continued and and were successful in our superintendent Serv church so this is the last meeting that she'll be behind the Das um we'll have formal goodbyes and our July meeting we're we're still that'll be the completion of the of the transition but again Dr mcnail be honored to have you lead us in honoring our great nation the Pledge of Allegiance thank you sir ready begin I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible withy andice for all than thank you Dr mcneel uh item 1.04 is Our Land acknowledgement and I've invited clerk Rodriguez to to read the land acknowledgement clerk Rodriguez please uh yes so every Community owes its existence and validity to Generations from around the world who contribute their hopes streams and energy to make in the history that led to this moment some were brought here against their will some were drawn here to leave their distant homes and hopes of a better life and some have lived on this land for more Generations that can be counted truth acknowledgement are critical to building mutual respect and connections across all barriers of Heritage and difference We Begin this effort to acknowledge what we've been buried by honoring the truth we acknowledge that some of our educational structures are situated in traditional homelands of the waso the numu the paute thewi Shashi nuu and P Southern Pou peoples we pay respect to their Elders past and present these lands continue to be gathering places for indigenous people and we recognize their deep connections to these places we extend our appreciation for an opportunity to live and learn in their territory thank you Clerk brri is um as a matter of information I am going to move item 6.01 public comment up to uh before board reports so that'll be heard before 5.01 okay all right we're going to continue to uh our consent agenda item uh all matters listed on the consent agenda are considered routine and may be acted upon by the Board of Trustees with one action and without an extensive hearing um I have don't have any uh items that I've heard from any other trustees to be pulled so um Madam pres Madam I'm sorry I am so sorry that's okay Mr President I I would like to comment on one but I'm not going to pull anything okay um now's the time to do that sir I want to comment on the last agenda item I believe it's 2.22 let me pull it up basically I don't want to drag you know staff in or make a long thing because I know that this would pass but I'm just opposed as I've stated in the past to reappointments uh for positions because I think it's better to open it up to the public and let them vote I mean and let them apply and see who applies and if the if the present person is wonderful in the present position the most qualified they can be reappointed but I do like to open it up to others so I'll go ahead and vote Yes over on the consent agenda but I want to put that on the record okay okay thank you trusty Church appreciate that um if there's no other discussions uh looking for a public comment uh JJ Nicole Harris for consent agenda item 2.21 2.21 okay hi hi everyone my name is Nicole Harris I live in Reno and I was looking on this consent calendar and I know most most of you are in agreement of more transparency getting more involvement of our people in our community and I would also like to Echo what trustee church has says that we really should make an effort of opening it up for residents of our community to apply I know there are many positions that are available and I know a lot of our community members are very very busy they're they're struggling to make Ms meet get their kids School Etc however in the greater scheme of things for our um betterment of our school district and our community and to bridge some of the disagreements I believe that having the board work and sending out announcements to the local Civic organizations such as rotory kaas the Elks Club even though they're nonpolitical the Women's Club um any organization to get more Community involvement we need more people to serve not less people and I think you as our esteem School Board are in a unique position to be in the leadership to head this effort I know we also have the same issues at our city councils at our County Commissioners and I really think those that are elected by our people really have the opportunity to take the leadership and put our community in better stead for the future thank you very much okay thank you ma'am okay bring it back the board received an email from Michael gowor Hutch related to consent agenda item 2.12 thank you JJ okay um we'll bring it back to the board now um Mr pres to make a motion please okay sir I move that the Board of Trustees approves consent agenda items 2.02 through 2.22 okay I see a motion by trustee Woodley to approve uh consent items 2.02 to 2.22 the second from trusty Rodriguez all in favor please signif by by saying I I I those oppose motion carries unanimously thank you we'll move on to item uh three are Finance items Finance items um okay okay thank you first time in the left seat so be patient with me we're going to hear from uh item 3.01 this is consideration adoption of waso County School District bond resolution 24-14 resolution concerning financing of school improvements directing the Chief Financial Officer notify wal County debt management Commission of the district's proposal to issue General obligation bonds additionally secured by a pledge revenues in one series or more in an aggregate principal amount not to exceed 200 million providing certain details and connection there with and providing effective date there with uh with us is Mark Mathers he's our Chief Financial Officer uh good afternoon Mr Mathers good afternoon you're quick um JJ could we flash up attachment B to this item so um to talk about this uh agenda item this spring the board approved our five-year Capital Improvement plan which laid out uh proposed capital projects for each of the next five years and um that document also provided a a plan of proposed Revenue sources and one of those Revenue sources are future issuance of of new long-term debt um so consist with that following up on that action the proposed resolution in front of you authorizes myself the CFO to begin the authorization process for that long-term debt which for this item consists of could you go to last page please consists of $200 million worth of new wc1 general obligation bonds and so these are General obligation bonds issued by the district has the full faith and credit of the district but is backed by the wc1 sales tax revenues we receive as a result of a voter approval of that ballot measure in 2016 um this is just the first step of many to issue this debt again this authorizes myself to go to the debt management commission who actually is the body that has to approve uh authorization of the de first before you do um the last page of of attachment B provides um some finan fincial JJ um financial information for you to see this this actually is the second page of attachment be and it shows you that um even at our current levels of wc1 sales tax revenues is 67 million once um we issue this 200 million we still have um more than almost 20 million of remaining revenues that we could bond for so with the approval here today ultimately issuance the 200 million total debt service would equal roughly 48 million compared to just current revenues is 67 million that's a cushion of 30% and this doesn't include any projection of future uh sales tax revenue growth which of course we would have so we're very comfortable in recommending $200 million to you um and that concludes my presentation happy to answer any questions you may have Mr B could could you um just bring some clarity on why this particular item didn't go doesn't notify the oversight panel for schools facilities contrast to to the next item yes sir um state law requires the oversight panel for school facilities to approve just just like the debt management commission rollover bonds bonds that pledge the property tax revenues the district receives however oversight panel for school facilities approval of wc1 bonds is not legally required so we only have to go to the debt management commission for wc1 General obligation bonds thank you any questions for Mr Mathers okay we'll go to public comment I have none for this item thank you um otherwise uh I'll entertain a motion from my distinguished colleagues yes trust your yes Mr President I'd like to move that the Board of Trustees adopts was County School District board resolution 24-14 a resolution to notify the debt management commission regarding the proposed issuance of up to $200 million in general obligation funds and authorizing officers of the district to take other actions necessary to complete the issuance and related matters second okay have a motion on the floor from trusty Woodley to approve item 3.01 with a second of uh trusty nicholet um there's no further comment all in favor please signify by saying I I I okay those oppos motion cares unanimously thank you we'll move on to item 3.02 very similar item uh Mr Mathers is back at the table so this is eerily similar to the last agenda item uh again we're following up on your approval of our five-year Capital Improvement program which not only called for issuance of new wc1 bonds but also uh new rollover what we call rollover bonds these are bonds General obligation bonds again backed by the full faith and credit of the district but this time backed by the property taxes we receive through the debt rate on your property tax bill so the CIP authorized both types of go bonds and so this separate action authorizes myself to go to the debt management commission and the oversight panel for school facilities seeking their approval for issuance of a $100 million of new go rollover Bond debt um if they approve that then I would again come back to this Board of Trustees for um a bond resolution actually authorize the debt so again you'll see me again uh assuming approval by the debt management commission and our oversight panel but again this is consistent with the CIP you approved this spring um the next page actually just graphically shows you our rollover Bond debt JJ sorry yep so you can see here uh again we've not assumed really any significant growth of uh property taxes over the over that period of of 30 years but you can see we're retiring a great deal of rollover Bond debt over the next 10 years so again a very comfortable cushion or margin here to be able to afford this debt um and again I should have said also this hundred million of newly authorized debt would be C LED with 68.5 million of currently authorized debt to again accomplish the next two years in our Capital Improvement program so um if I didn't say it in the last item um this issuance uh for rollover bonds and the issuance of wc1 bonds will provide funding for two years worth of capital projects and then we'll come back to you at the end of two years for additional authorizations and so with that that completes my presentation thank you short and sweet um largely a formality any clarifying questions for our CFO okay open it public comment I have no cards for this item very good thank you uh I'm ready make a motion please thank you the Board of Trustees adopts Washo County School District board resolution 24-15 a resolution to notify the oversight panel for school facilities and the waso county debt management commission regarding the proposed issuance of up to 100 million in general obligation bonds and authorizing officers of the district to take other actions necessary to complete the issuance and related manner matters I second okay thank you I got a uh motion on the floor from trustee Dr nicholet for item 3.02 with a second from trustee Lake um if there's no further questions I'll ask for a vote all in favor please signify by saying I I okay oppose thank you uh no oppose uh Milan carries unanimously the thank you thank you Mr Ms appreciate you yes we do oh God it okay thank you super all right moving right along this is fantastic item four items for presentation we do have two items for presentation um and we will move to item 4.01 this is presentation discussion impossible actions on to approve the 20232 24b major projects plan for the fiscal year 2025 Capital renewal plan for major repairs and capital renewal projects throughout the district in amount of 54 m700 th000 as recommended by the capital funding protection committee tamy zimman is um with us along with Dr Turner good afternoon thank you vice president Mayberry thank you guys good afternoon Tammy Zimmerman Chief Facilities Management officer bringing to you the recommendation from Capital funding protection committee for the 2023 2024b major projects program it includes two items in here really um it has our Capital renewal plan which is developed through our facility condition index system through our assessment of the district all of our Building Systems throughout the district in all of our buildings um it's done by our assessment team they go in and look at the ages of all those see what's serviceable what's not serviceable what has outlived its useful life what we have leaks on what we have issues with our work order system so we have a really robust program to actually identify all of those needs we do that we also work with our maintenance and Shop supervisors because they are the boots on the ground so we really like to get their input on that and then safe and healthy schools commission I will be bringing the next set of safe and healthy schools commission for the single points to them in September after we get the three high schools we're doing now um and get them open so that we can work through those look at those and then get the prioritization for the next set of that from safe and healthy schools commission so this is the laundry list of items that you see just about every year right from us it is a total of 50 million we have the same specific project categories that we've always had we spread that money out in the same percentages so we really try to do warm safe and dry are our top priorities right so we spend a lot of money on roofs HVAC and Safety and Security as well as carpentry and other items that fit within there fire alarms in that as well but we really try to distribute the funds across what are the highest needs in the biggest categories so you can see that that percentage matches about what we had last year and then the second item on here is the annual technology refresh kind of to reorient you guys about that we do devices that are we have devices that are six years old or newer in our schools we maintain um sustainability of them and we replace them at 20% every year so we have that cycle of 20% every year um student devices same age six years or newer we replace laptops and iPads 20% per year but we do it of 80% of student enrollment and then 30% of Elementary for those iPads and then this is the actual request of 4.7 million it's teacher laptops student laptops and iPads and we've added laptop carts in here because we have had such an influx with our grants and FCC grants for laptops that we need a place to store them charge them update them and secure them so that 1,500 would cover the remainder of the district so every classroom is anticipated to have a laptop cart so that's where we come up with the $4.7 million estimated for that so it's a onetime item on here to actually secure those laptops so then this is our tally of our that you guys get to see all the time when we do our major projects it is asking for $ 54.7 million in approval today okay thank you Mr M Zimmerman Dr turn do you have anything to add I don't have much to add I just wanted to say that draw your attention to we met the district's needs there was a request to secure and store and charge laptops so in response to that request from schools we adjusted the objectives this year for a one-time uh purchase of laptop carts okay thank you um questions for Mr simman or Dr Turner looks like we from trusty Nicola go ahead please um I don't have a question I just I just really want to applaud the district on several levels the facility condition index system although it's not Flawless and when I visit schools every school every principal teacher every parent has a request and they're all very important and Urgent and yet we have a system that truly works and addresses it's an index so IT addresses that you know priority and top down um and I also want to take this opportunity to thank our safe and healthy schools commission and our Capital funding protection committee because without their input um I feel like I wouldn't have all the information I need because their tentacles reach very far and they're very caring caring they're very smart they do their homework and they bring information to you as well as us that we use in our decision making and I appreciate that thank you Dr Dy trustey Rodriguez thank you uh C can you go that timeline again real quick with the single point entries uh we said something about September so in September we plan to come back to safe and healthy schools commission with a prioritized list for the remainder of the high schools because we're prototyping dman Ranch Sparks high school and McQueen right now and so we'll set that prioritization but within the capital renewal there is there are funds set aside to start those designs right away good thank you wonderful I want to point out to tamy zman is our chief facilities management office offic and uh Chris Turner is our information Chief Information officer so for the record thank you uh any other questions clarifications um for this team okay we'll uh move to public comment any public comment on this item JJ I have no cards for this item we'll bring it back to the board um I'm looking for a motion for item 4.01 if I may uh thank you Mr President I moveed that the Board of Trustees approves funding in the amount of4 4, 700,000 for 20 2023 2024 B major project for brands for projects throughout the district in the amount of 54,7 th000 as recommended by the capital funding protection committee okay got a first I got a motion on the floor from uh trusty Woodley for item 4.01 with a second from clerk Rodriguez um seeing no other comments lights on all in favor please signify by saying I I I those oppose all right motion carries unanimously thank you we'll move on to item 4.02 this a discussion of possible action and recognize the school psychologist Association of waso acronym spaw as a recognized employee organization and exclusive bargaining representative for the school psychologist and a wo County School District with us today we have uh Dr Scott Scott Barkley and I understand uh our assistant general counsel Kevin pck will be here momentarily you want to put that go Mr Mr pick on his way in good afternoon again we're on item 4.02 good afternoon vice president Maybury trustees um inter room superintendent mcneel I'm Kevin pick on the district's labor and employment General council with me this afternoon is Dr Scott barklay he's a school psychologist here at the district and the new president of the school psychologist Association of Washo um before I uh ask Dr barklay to introduce himself uh as you will remember in January of 2024 the board accepted the voluntary withdrawal of recognition from the association of professional technical administrators or APTA for the employees that it represents as a result School psychologists were left without a recognized exclusive barging representative onor about June 18 2024 we received an application for recognition from SBA seeking to be recognized as the bargaining representative for for for the school sites under NRS 28860 an employee organization May apply for recognition by presenting the Constitution and bylaws a roster of its officers a pledge not to strike uh included in in sba's request were Constitution and bylaws a roster of officers and a pledge not to strike so at this time it's our assessment that spba aw's application for recognition is properly before you for consideration I'm happy to answer any questions but before that I want to introduce spw president Dr Scott barklay hello thank you all trustees and interim superintendent mne and incoming superintendent nurs I appreciate you all taking the time to hear from us um I guess I'll introduce Nicole Moreno she is officer that she's going to be the secretary treasurer and Dr bonen Steiner was UN unavailable to make be here today because prior engagements but just wanted to take a minute thank you all for considering us um as you are acutely aware we are the remaining employees of waser County School District who have not received a cost of living increase um we don't like you said have a contract or negotiated agreement and so this step will allow us to begin negotiations again and hopefully secure that relatively quickly so thank you for your time and we encourage you to please approve and I'll make myself available for any questions of course okay thank you Dr Barkley and um Mr pck and uh to you Mr Barkley we're we're acutely aware of the journey that that all of you have been down and we're grateful for what you do for our students uh every day and uh this gives us a chance to to formally recognize um our psychologists uh and then the bargaining process will start so this is not an agreement it's not a bargaining agreement this is an agreement to recognize this this new Association correct any clarifying questions uh comments for Dr Barkley um I'm sorry trust very quickly I just want to thank you and all your uh folks for what you do for the mental health of our kids along with all the other mental health professionals thank you appreciate that trust yes thank thank you ditto we this is definitely a team effort every employee has a role and plays an important role I'm looking at the document that um and and I'm really just trying to understand because although education is in my wheelhouse collective bargaining is something I am still learning about and so I'm trying to understand the document we're at the very well on mine at the very top all AP to eligible employees School psychologists 40 one and then it it it says number of option one votes number of option two votes can you explain what the options were absolutely and I have documentation too if you need it because I'm always overly crazy like that so we had two separate votes the first one it was option one or two and like you said option one received 32 out of the 41 and that option was school psychologist May seek to they gave like three options we can because this is what we have to do we either form our own organization We join an existing organization or we choose to remain unorganized and so that was lumped into option one we could do one of those three or option two was um support the current APTA board members and their current um legal councel and regain was School District's um recognition as a unit and so if that at so there was 32 for option one and then and four people voted to remain with APTA and the current representation that ansers it okay it helps so in option one there were three options ABC yeah what were the variables for deciding if if I'm going to vote how how would I know what the variables within each one of those were and so we had um staff meetings about those um basically the first vote was to see if 42 of US 41 of us wanted to remain with APTA um who was not recognized we would have to get APTA recognized as the official bargaining unit or if we wanted to proceed or pursue rather one of those other options and then so once that vote came out that we did not want to stay with out there then we had a SE separate vote of which of those do you want to do so we had a more clarifying vote after that if that helps answer your question and and it does we're getting closer and thank you for bearing with me oh no I appreciate it so ultimately the vote was to create your own unit yeah and so once the initial vote came in that we did not want to stick with ATA we wanted to to get recognized as a school psychologist group then we had um meetings and discussions and we narrowed it down to two so either joining an existing organization or forming our own um we ruled out the third option of remaining unorganized the majority of our members did not want to do that they expressed we don't even want to vote on that um and then so we did a second vote of forming our own Association or joining I think we said the principles yeah we said the principles and that vote was 27 total votes and 27 people wanted to create our own and no no people voted for joining another Association all right thank you documentation if you need okay I and I appreciate that absolutely appr step by step thank you for sure okay thank you trusty Nicolet any other comments um we're going to go to public comment Andy hcock is Mr hok in the room I know we have some folks in the uh overflow there there he is okay thank you good afternoon sir good afternoon so I am Andy hok one of our District's mental health program administrators I've spent the last 21 years working as a um school counselor school psychologist I was a high school Spanish teacher in previous life I just wanted to spoke speak in um support of this school psychologists are in the Forefront as far as mental health as well as school safety behavioral threat assessments um we have been through a lot over the last few years particularly since the pandemic so I would really encourage the um board to consider consider this mainly because we're still facing a critical shortage of psychologists in the community and the representation will be vital thank you for your time I'll bring it back to or for any uh any followup if not I'm happy to entertain a motion for item uh 4.02 if I may Mr President okay thank you okay I move that the Board of Trustees recognizes the school psychologist Association of was as a recognized employee organization and exclusive bargaining representative for school psychologist at the was County School District second okay I have a motion on the floor for item 4.02 from trusty Woodley with a second from trustee Nicolet uh all in favor please signify by saying I I I those oppose okay motion carries unanimously congratulations we look forward to working with you thank you thanks for what you're doing okay okay I'm going to bump up public comment uh at 6.01 which is where we are at now um I suspect most of you are here for this uh this item so welcome welcome uh I'm going to make set some expectations as we go forward uh I want to say as we begin our general public comment period I want to make clear that was County School District values culture of respect and civility where everyone can be heard that's the bedrocks of our great nation um next week is is this country's uh Independence Day so I hope that we can all keep that in mind to be respectful understand everybody's viewpoints I want to remind members of our audience that our rules are stated in our agenda and as a meeting manager uh I'm not going to allow disruptions of this meeting to include any profanity or vulgarity or personal attacks regardless of where they're coming from I'm going to make that very very clear if a speaker goes down that path I'll give you one warning and if they continue I'll recess the meeting we will leave and we ask you to leave and um respectfully ask that nobody collaps it's the disruption as well so I don't want to recess the meeting I really don't um I don't want to ask people to leave but if that happens it's it's up to the to the speaker it's not up to me so please obey our rules each speaker has up to three minutes please address the board and to avoid any uh open meeting law issues by uh exceeding the agenda and on advice of council uh this board will not usually engage with speakers even though at times uh they may so I'll just conclude by you know reminding you that we're we're adults in this room serving our students uh I respectfully ask that we behave like adults and we'll go ahead and open this up to public comment uh JJ can we ask a question about rules no I'm going to be reading three names at a time um read them in order because I know we have people in overflow Pastor John amanu Kula Karen England Bri Schmidt it means I know God that's what it means say it again oh you're welcome you're welcome thank you so much good afternoon sir glad to be here my friend uh I want to read from the book American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis on page 173 um this book references vulgarity that which you spoke about earlier that will be condemned in the school board meeting but at the end of the day you all permit vulgarity to be at the fingertips of children and for you to have a policy that says that in this meeting you're against vulgarity then that means this board is a hypocrite if you endorse books like this to be in the school system number one it says Christie is on all fource facing the headboard her ass raised high in the air and I'm straddling her back as if I was riding a dog or something but backward my knees resting on the mattress my dick half hard and I'm facing Sabrina who is staring into spread open ass with a determined expression her smile seems tortured and she's wetting her own lips by fingering herself and tracing her glistening index finger across them like she's applying lip gloss with both my hands I keep Christie's ass and spread open and I urge Sabrina to move in closer and sniff them to sniff her rectum okay all right we're going to we're going to adjourn folks I motion for Sabrina to move her face in closer e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e [Music] um and I apologize I think I said the word adjourned earlier I meant to say uh recess so for the record we recessed the meeting we're coming back um look I know there's a lot of passion in the room I appreciate that uh but we excuse me uh this is my time okay this is a business meeting of the wo County School Board there's a lot of people that want to be heard the last thing I want to do is adjourn this meeting without everybody wanting to be heard it is a violation of the law to interrupt this meeting and we'll do this again my friends if you have a book that you're you want to protest that's okay just just you can't disrupt the meeting with profanity and vulgarity period I will not allow it we'll do it again okay so ma'am please again I won't hesitate to remove those that make a disruption we're going to go back to public comment JJ Karen England Bri Schmidt Jessica Munger hello Miss England welcome thank you for making the trip up here to our community Absol absolutely so I I love that you have your little rules um but they don't Trump the US Constitution and you are allowed to have vulgar or words that you Adam don't like I'm allowed to say words that you don't like or that you find obscene as a matter of fact there's an exemption that covers this school board meeting where obscenity can take place so again as much as I I love your rules it doesn't it doesn't Trump the Constitution and the US Supreme Court ruled very specifically NE Neil I know you worked at the AG's office the US Supreme Court puts the onus on a school board a school board to remove things that are not educationally suitable or pervasively vulgar it was the Pico case you cannot remove something because of political ideology but you can remove pervasively vulgar do you have Playboys in the school I'm going to do another reading this happens to be in 10 schools including one Middle School and so this is endorsed by you the school board who has the authority to remove any of this so if you don't like it i' instead of getting mad at people that are reading this you ought to be mad at the people that bought these books and are assigning them to the children have you done any of that research in the last year all right identical can't exactly REM remember why only that we didn't expect her to come home until very late it was dark in our room velvety black someone had closed the curtain Kaylee was scared I tried to tell her not to worry but just then Daddy burst through the door I closed my eyes tight made myself no more than a shadow something about him was different I didn't want that something to find me I cracked my eyes just a slit as he sat on kayle's bed pulled her into his lap he smelled a brute and wild turkey his peculiar popery I love you so much my little flower Daddy needs something from My Girl My Sweet Rose will you give it to me I wanted to be his Little Flower would have given daddy anything what did he want from Kaye she laid her head on his chest and said what I want you to see something something that proves how much I love you this is only for you Kaylee he lifted her gently sat her down on the bed beside him and he opened the snaps on the Fly of his flannel pajamas it stood up see how much Daddy loves you show me you love me too touch it he CL closed her hand around it I know it sounds bad but I wanted to touch it too I didn't know what it meant only that it made Daddy happy happy I wanted to make him happy too that's right that's right his voice rocked in rhythm with his body oh yes my Kaye loves me My Little Flower this is in 10 schools including Incline Middle School it's checked out currently you are complicit in these rape scenes and incest scenes and if you don't do something about this and get it removed you're just as bad as okay next [Applause] cup Bri Schmid Jessica Munger Susan Ste for the board right hi brm for the record lifelong Reno resident and was County School District graduate I also work as a program associate for Silver State equality Nevada's Statewide lgbtq plus civil rights organization thank you to the school board for hearing my public comment today I'd like to issue a Content warning for my comment as I will be discussing the loss of life as of students due to Suicide suicide is the second leading cause of death for kids 10 to 14 it is the third leading cause of death for those who are 15 to 18 but lgbtq plus kids are four times as likely to die from suicide when compared to their peers the Trevor Project estimates that more than 1.8 million lgbtq plus young people ages 13 to 24 seriously consider suicide each year in the US and at least one attempt suicide every 45 seconds it's been 45 seconds since I started my comment so that's one student that's attempted suicide in your packet that you just received you will find the following statistics about Nevada's lgbtq plus youth this is a survey of lgbtq plus youth living in Nevada that we performed um at the end of last year 38.7% of lgbtq plus students say they do not feel secure at school 79.4% reported having having experienced discrimination from those in Authority for their lgbtq plus identity trans and non-gender students experience an even higher rate of discrimination than cisgender students 60% of students surveyed about bullying have been teased by peers for being lgbtq plus within the last 6 months 49% have been deliberately excluded by peers within the last 6 months we are privileged in waso County to have a comprehensive gender care policy under administrative regulation 5161 I would also like to note that's another 45 seconds that's another student who's attempted suicide transgender and non-binary young people attempt suicide less when their pronouns are respective when they are allowed to officially change the gender marker on their legal documents and when they have access to Safe spaces online at school and at home that affirm their gender identity the suicide attempt rate is HED when students have access to gender affirming spaces even one affirming adult drastically lowers the suicide rate today you're hearing from a lot of people some of whom are out of state some of whom who don't have students in the school district who are creating this manufactured outrage about a system that already works for most of our students and families they are creating a big Panic about lgbtq plus people in literature instead of working to solve real problems in our school district our school district needs help our students need help if the school district truly cares for their students if the school board truly cares for their students then they will not give in to anti-lgbtq plus rhetoric when it asks them to sacrifice children's lives because by Banning books and trying to re reverse gender protective policies that is what these anti-lgbtq plus extremists are asking you to do sacrifice lgbtq plus students lives for the sake of their Ideal World that's another 45 seconds that's another student that's attempted suicide I trust that this school board will choose to stand on the right side of history and work to make waso County a safe space for every student so that every 45 seconds maybe a student will decide to ask for help instead of attempting to end their life that's the fourth one thank you for your time okay thank you m Jessica Munger Susan Ste Richard Davis hi good afternoon I'm sure it's a hard and difficult one for you my name is Jessica Munger m n g r I'm representing Silver State equality a Nevada Statewide lgbtq plus civil rights organization I'm also a resident of Reno and a parent of a young child we are here today with many members of the Reno Community because we learned that there would be a national out of-state organization arriving to create a scene here in our city I encourage you not to be distracted by the manufactured outrage stirred by these extremists and to remember that Nevada is a Live and Let Live State and washa County School District is directly responsible for every student every face every name until graduation you're not accountable to the extremists who most of which don't have students in washa County School District or from out of state um you are however responsible um for the scholars in our school district to support them to create a safe learning environment in this District where all students can Thrive I am disappointed but not surprised that the wave of extremist political action has reached our Nevada which I feel will worsen the problems our students are facing and have very real consequences many of the comments you here today our thinly veiled politically motivated attack on the lgbtq plus Community you can tell by the laughter these people hate me our trained Educators Librarians and administrators in Washo County are to be respected I encourage you to ignore those using our children for political opportunity and rather to listen to the students and parents of waso County when they loudly say that they want to keep books on shelves and keep protecting the rights and freedoms of all students and families people who are not involved in this city in this District who don't have children who will be educated in this district and who are advancing a national political agenda should not disrupt Schoolboard business over items that are not on the agenda or even on the table for discussion they are irrelevant your duty is to our students and parents so thank you so much for the work that you do for them thank you for serving every student in waso county and the diverse families that make up our district and our state and please let us know how we can help you in supporting you protecting the rights of all students and family in Washo County thank you thank you and just my friends please please I know we can do better let's all be respectful of the different viewpoints that we have in this chamber please please stop the division let everybody be heard please chance JJ Susan St Richard Davis Katherine Clemens my name is Susan Steig I am a parent and a grandparent of children that go to waso County Schools I work in a library I don't work I volunteer in the library and I just want to read in exerpt several from a book called tricks written by by Ellen Hopkins and this is found in Academy of Arts career and technology high school hug High School McQueen High School North Valley High School Spanish Springs High School and Sparks high school and I will try not to use any profanity is sex of profanity sex that is more than mutual masturbation IND idual masturbation was the bulk of my sexual experience there were a few short chapters of touch here I'll touch you there in my very slim book of adolescent sexual escapades but nothing more I had no idea what to do beyond that when I slipped into my fantasies I always had sex with men but that day overwhelmed as I was with desire for Lauren that was on page 108 we skipped to page 152 we had sex the very first night we went out together pissed off a bunch of people page 207 208 209 210 218 219 I could go on but I'm going to skip to page 291 I totally wanted to pop your cherry you were my first virgin and you'll probably be my last because sorry but virgin's sex really isn't like very good f one more Gulp and I repeated back to him F page 371 he unpacks his gear then checks me out all up and down take off your bra and panties okay we want a glimpse a hint of what's under all that white I do as instructed allow Brin to position me exactly the way he wants he sits me skirt tucked provocatively between both of my legs and when he goes about to move my arms his hand brushes against the fabric covering my breasts my nipples go hard immediately can you get the impression of what is in our books I have 12 more seconds please just take these out of the schools just take them out Richard Davis Catherine Clemens Cindy Griffin folks there there's some noise that we're picking up I don't know if somebody's watching something or listening to something if you can turn the volume down on that or or leave the chamber it's out in the hallway wherever it is but I know it's a distraction to all of us thank you good afternoon sir good afternoon takes a village thank you microphone is this on Can You Hear Me yeah back okay cool my name is Richard Davis and I live in Sparks uh my concern today is for the safety and well-being and education of our children that being said I'll just cut to the chase we're in a war it's not the war between the Board of Education much of unhappy parents although that does exist the real war is between good and evil and more specifically between God and Satan Satan hates God he would love to destroy him but he can't however he can destroy those things that God cherishes the top of that list is our children and next are the institutions that God has created the institutions of marriage the family the church our government and our school schols Satan has been attacking all of these for a very long time and all you have to do is look around you and we got it today and you see the total chaos that exists in our countries today it's time we start to recognize the source of this chaos and to fight back there are many areas in our schools where Satan has impacted our children and our teachers and to name a few of these areas pornography in our schools duh gender identity bullying lack of discipline violence against School teachers drug and alcohol abuse lack of transparency we need to examine these areas and take a closer look at how effective our current policies are in dealing with these issues perhaps we need to look at them through a different lens the lens of God's word and all the chaos and conf confusion bombarding us every day where do you seek to find the truth regarding issues about which you must make a decision if you truly want to do what is best for our children seek God's way pray turn to the scriptures seek the advice of goodly Godly friends and if you don't have any I can recommend a lot of them to you if you wish by the way you have every constitutional right to do all of this there's nothing preventing you from praying at school this sort of thing Jesus Christ also tells us that he is the way the truth and the life he doesn't lie so I guess the bottom line is the real questions you should be asking yourselves is whose work am I doing God's or Satan's that decision is yours God bless you all thank you for helping Mr Davis Katherine Clemens Cindy Griffin Joanie Hammond all right my name is Katherine Clemens I'm a citizen of Reno with grandchildren in the public school system I have a bachelor's degree with major in Theology and a minor in Psychology I am very concerned about the books that I have previewed uh that my grandchildren will have access to I currently have a seven-year-old um at Roy Gom and she is uh of course she's a first grader but she's reading at a third grade level so pretty soon she'll be looking in older sections of the library the school library and I'm concerned that she'll find things that are very inappropriate obviously children are going to stumble upon things like this I'm sure we all stumbled upon Playboy magazines but to consciously sexualize our children is very dangerous the um the share curriculum teaches the children to uh think about it and refer to males and females as persons with sexual organs I mean I think that's really awful to reduce a child's understanding of male and female as just sexual organs so I'm just very concerned about that and effect of society when you have sexualized children they are vulnerable to pedophiles and they uh girls are going to get pregnant means they're not going to get the education that they could have and they'll live in more poverty than they could have so this is really a serious cultural problem and so I wonder why especially when our state ranks near the very bottom of Education in the United States and um only 46% of the Washo County graduates are at or above proficiency levels in language arts and only 32% of graduates are proficient in math why uh there isn't a lot more focus on that and a lot more concern that the children have better understandings of themselves and how valuable they are and that they're a lot more valuable than their sexual ual parts or their sexual lives um I just think that they need to be protected that's what I'm very concerned about so please protect our children remove books that are inappropriate from the libraries they go to the public library that's a different story um you know if they're in the school library they can just stumble upon them and their parents will never know but in the public library you know it's a little different and they're older they're then they can get there by themselves so thank you okay thank you ma'am friends I I'm going to address clamping one more time uh I I can't have it for a lot of reasons it's disruptive and it's it's it's also intimidating for those that may have opposing viewpoints so as a compromise if you want to put your hands up in Air wave your hands that's fine I'm okay with that that's fine but please please Don't Clap let's just be respectful okay thank you JJ Cindy Griffin Joanie Hammond Charles Elliot Joanie Hammond Charles Elliot Cliff Nellis good afternoon I'm Joanie Hammond I'm pretty disgusted with you today you get up and walk out because someone's reading a book that children have access to I don't understand it many of you are parents and grandparents I don't understand it I don't know why you're not concerned about this I don't know why I have to stand up and read this to you I don't want to read it I don't want to hear it and I certainly don't want children to hear it this book is called Jack of Hearts it's in at least read High School do dear Jack of Hearts my boyfriend really wants to do anal we've been together for a few months and I totally love that's once ma'am Miss ham it's not like we're virgins but I'm nervous about the butt sex does it hurt is it even fun for girls should I just do it to make him happy Ben isn't a big like me for one there aren't many large hairy men willing to have sex within with a teenage high schooler and though I can pass for barely legal Ben's round baby face makes him look like a serious jail bait but also he's shy with boys I respect that just cuz I like sex and I have a decent amount of it doesn't mean everyone else should dear bad feminist okay so the first thing you need to ask yourself is do you want to smack women during sex who consent or not the idea of someone genuinely saying please don't hurt me and you're hurting them then you should probably go talk to a shrink about that but if you want to role play with a partner who says please don't hurt me but has told you beforehand exactly what they're into face slapping spanking handcuffs whatever and has a safe word for when you go too far then that's perfectly fine kinky BDSM sex can be fun I've never G gone quite this far as you want to but I've used handcuffs blindfolds engaged in some light spanking and oh no please don't hurt me role playay the most intense It Go with a guy I met on grinder grinder he was a bit older but I didn't ask how much older before we met up we talked about what he wanted to do and what I liked and didn't we set boundaries then we met up he tied me to the bed blindfolded me and I pretended I had woken up like this and didn't know what was happening that was his fantasy and I was pretty into it he told me I was his now and I was going to be his slave it was pretty hot he straddled my chest made me suck him off and flipped me and smacked me a little then he said he was going to paddle me I said yellow to that the spanking was fun but bringing a paddle into it sounded too intense but yellow means slow down not stop so he went back to spanking me to which I said green and then he fed me thank you Miss Hond next Charles Elliot Cliff Nellis Janet butcher good afternoon board my name is Charles Elliot for the record I'm a lifelong resident of Sparks Nevada I have children uh that were raised in the school system here excuse my voice I have grandchildren that are currently and have been educated in waso county and now I have two great grandchildren that will ultimately unless I can get them to get into homeschooling uh be educated into waro County I am just uh totally disappointed in each and every one of you for being childish enough to get up and walk out because of some obsid that you guys allow in each and every one of our schools I was very happy to see that now we have an organization of psychologists that are are you guys are going to pay that are going to take care of the school which I think should be enlarged by maybe two to three times for the simple reason you guys are causing our children to be uh uh exposed to something that is going to open up Pandora's Box I'm also want to address the lgbtq and I don't know all of the things to go on the end of it those people we do not hate I don't hate anyone I am a Christian I love them I pray for them I think it's horrible that that they have succumbed to this sin but we all sin and fall short of the glory of God I love them and I want to continue to hope and pray for their best now uh I need it just amazes me that you guys in this school we we are the last one in in in the in the nation my Washo County that I was raised in little Sparks Nevada 65 grad of of Sparks High School my God we had it made a bunch of Italians and bask and crap we it was great beautiful little town now it's gone to Hell literally gone to Hell uh I'm I'm reading from a book Jesse Andrews decided to uh put this thing together huge called the haters it's in hug High McQueen High North Valley's Reed High Reno high and Spanish Springs High now Adam please help me with obscenity okay so you gavel me whenever you see or hear some some stuff that I I shouldn't uh on page uh 101 real quick it was definitely my boner so immediately I was wide awake and consumed with pain fortunately no one was awake to stare in disgust at the lucky jailbreak you bet you Cliff Nellis Janet butcher Nikki Burman Cliff NIS 45 year resident of w County I've had uh I have four daughters who were born here and they were Ed educated here and they were also homeschooled and uh private schooled and I have uh two grandchildren that they're here one goes to um St Albert's and I uh I've been given a book to read from this is called damsel this is in the uh in the let's see it's in Galina High hug High McQueen High North Valleys and then T and re so but before I I read this I want to talk to you guys about something people that go LGB are going against human nature now you can add to that against God but you don't have to be a believer in God they're going against nature that's why they have these conflicts and they want to commit suicide it has nothing to do with anyone disapproving of their of their behavior and they cannot be happy until they stop doing what they're doing and you guys have allowed this group of people to control our education system so I mean you're not listening to us very clearly not so can we have two school systems we got all this tax money an extra 400 million you know 1 point it was 1 billion now you got 1.4 billion with wc1 and what are you guys using this money for just to build buildings when you can't even keep order in your schools and you're allowing a radical group to come in and sexualize our children it's very clear from the readings that this is going on there is a war against traditional American culture and there is no way that traditional American culture can cohabitate this planet with with people people who pervert themselves they become predators and they will be coming after our children until we stop them and we're trying to stop them there needs to be an AR one of you guys around one of these homosexual people they they can't control their sexual desires do you want all of our children to be that way no so I'm reading from this book page 17 then knowing the dragon was watching he unbuttoned the front of his trousers in freda's yard and pissed a streaming scream right there on the top of the cliff so there's one I mean I'm not sure if this would really make any difference to you guys you know how many seconds you got 27 seconds why don't you reach into your heart listen to the people of the community and realize we need Solutions okay we need real solutions and stop ignoring us and walking out on us this is just ridiculous okay thank you JJ Janet butcher Nikki Burman Sandy Tibet Janet butcher for the record please enter my comments into the minutes verbatim let me first start off by addressing the accusation perpetrated by several elected officials they have put out for the media to repeat and report that they are harassed and continually receive death threats against them and or their families they have yet to supply the receipts for such claims trying to play the victim for sympathy without proof is a slap in the face of those who truly are victims and I'd like to say suicide happens in all kinds of families whether you're straight gay or not my grandfather committed suicide I had a nephew commit suicide and I had a great nephew commit suicide so suicides do happen first of all we're asking to protect children is not political we're asking for the porn to be taken out I have a book The Bluest Eye it happens to be in 12 high schools and it is in mind which is a middle school I destroyed white baby dolls but the dismembering of dolls was not the true horror the truly hor horrifying thing was the transference of the same impulses to little white girls the indifference with which I could have asked them was shaken only by the desire to do so we want our Junior High children reading this [Music] you want to go up to Mr Henry's room and look his look for his girly magazines instead we saw Mr Henry with two women in a playful manner the way grandmothers do with babies he was sucking the fingers in one of the women then he left his head turn then he Li lift his head turn over and put his hand on my waist if I don't move he'll move his hand over to pull and need my stomach soft and slow I wonder if you guys are are appalled at it or if you get off on the idea that children are reading this kind of crap thank you Nikki Burman Sandy tibot Amy pan hello trustees and interim superintendent mcneel I'm going to read my statement today as when I spoke at a prior meeting the gle's noises comments gestures were very distracting and intimidating I appreciate the opportunity to speak today my name is Nikki Burman and I am here today as a parent of a current waser County student and a school district librarian I would like to reflect on the recent primary election and the message sent by the voters to elect fair-minded representation to our school board The Narrative being shared by a minority group that's very loud is not the voice of our parents and voters I've already heard oh it must have been rigged this is evident in those who voted who were voted in and those who are voted out the things being said about my profession is vile I can assure you the only thing I'm grooming is my hair restricting access to books is a form of banning parents have every right to determine what is appropriate for their children to read and we have processes in place to assure their values and requests are met and followed we do not need folks from out of the area choosing books for every child to read I find the signs appalling asking to protect children protect them from what me I would suggest this group turn their attention to the internet and social media because unfortunately more and more students are spending a heck of a lot more time scrolling and reading on their phones not books and libraries I know I'm not going to be popular with this last statement but if you want to protect children from porn take their phones away not their library books thank you ma'am thank you next Sandy tibit Amy peltan Marie Rodriguez superintendent erns are you going to do something about these books when you take that chair you have control over this as long as and the school board does too we don't want this in the schools are you okay with these books being in school please address the Board address rules you're no address the board please all right thank you is the board going to do anything about it I have a policy right here that outlines perfectly what you guys could do in order to remove these books from our school district it's really simple you can get this crap at the public library and if the parents want their kids to get it they can go to the public library to get it so even poems are dirty rotten so this book collected poems by Alan Ginsburg it is uh located in Spanish Springs High School we're going to start with page 271 I come in the ass of my beloved I lie back with my in the air to be kiss I prostate my spincter with my eyes in the pillow my legs are thrown up over your shoulder I fill your bck with my hand a throbs I lie still my mouth in my ass I kiss the hidden mouth I have a third eye I paint the pupils on my palm and an eyelash that Winks page 303 belly to belly and knee to knee the hot Spurt of my body to thee to thee old boy dreamy Earl you Prince of patteron now King Of Me lost Hollin first dream that made me take down my pants I inspect my naked victims chained upside down my fingertips thrill approval on their thighs white hairless cheeks I may kiss all I want at no Merc at my Mercy on the racks I pass my strong attendance I myself naked B ing down with my buttocks out for their smacks of reproval oh the heat of Desire page 432 soft stirring shoots through breast to belly what romance planned by the body unconscious what can I shove up my ass masturbation in America light spasm Delight prick head getting bigger thumb and index fingers slowly stroking along sides a skew CED in the hand serpent reptile prick head moving in and out its meat Nest this is so nasty turn and watch the landscape wave my baton at the passing truck driver lie back on the bunk and lift this shade a bit a bit enjoy sun on my flag pole okay thank you Amy pelan Marie Rodriguez Debbie steers hi Bard I'm Amy peltan I'm A waso County voter I'm a grandmother and I've got a grandchild in this County District so I want to First respond to the comments that have been made about us as a collective group that we're haters and we're aggressive and we're all these things in extremists none of that has been shown today we've got hundreds of parents and grandparents here outraged I could see when the absolute disgusting content was being read to all of you you couldn't even look Us in the eye because it's so disgusting to you too I imagine so what we want to know is how many books are going to be removed I was sexually abused as a child can you imagine the children that you're betraying by letting this filth remain in the schools maybe they're being sexually abused by a family member like I was maybe they're coming to school and then reading this and going hey maybe what somebody's doing to me is okay this is this is Washo County approved this is board to proove content that you've heard here today I just can't imagine that as Americans as as parents as grandparents as aunts and uncles that any of this is okay to any of you you've got to remove it from the libraries this is mental rape of children it changes them it changes them for their entire life they are never the same they have to go through therapy they have to go through I had to go into a recovery heroin recovery uh house when I was 16 years old so I could go charge the people that abused me and my sisters don't let this kind of crap remain it's on your watch sir it's on your watch sir everyone here is responsible and this is wasow County approved what I understand in waso County because I'm relatively new here is sadly we have the lowest academic record in the nation isn't that outrageous to all of you why do these people have to recruit my grandchild my grandchild has to read this crap why don't they go recruit their own children to whatever they want to do they don't need to recruit my child my grandchild or anybody else's in our congregation or anybody else's in the county protect all children none of this should be okay this book traffic is in Galina hug incline North Valley Reed High School Reno Spanish Sparks so it's not going to be any different than what you've just been listening to this is mental rape of children that will fundamentally change them and know I don't want my child recruited to a a an ideology that has a higher suicide rate that's what you heard today I mean would I want them recruited no absolutely not and that's not me being anti-lgbt whatever it's not I have a I have a right by God I have a right as a parent to protect my grandchild so each one of you have to report back to us because we pay as taxpayers the building I think we pay for the security guards and everything so thank you for okay thank you for your comments ma'am muray Rodriguez please please don't comments Debbie steers Kristen Ryan good afternoon ma'am good afternoon um Marie Rodriguez For the record um I am sorry that this statement is even necessary most of what has been commented on so far isn't even on the agenda the topics in these books which are being brought before you today have been in libraries for over 40 years I remember seeing topics like this and books that I checked out when I was in high school in Texas it's not new and it's also readily available on the internet as we all know and it's also in the Christian Bible I'm sure anybody who has read any of the Bible or knows Bible stories knows about lot and his two daughters and how he became a father uncle and grandfather to his own children in protecting our students an even far more important what's even far more important than what they might read in a book if a parent is failing to pay attention to what their child is reading is bullying how do children learn to bully Often by example and what I have been witnessing for the past several years at local board meetings the library board the County Commissioners and here feels like bullying to me it was pretty much admitted to in a recent television news story and I know what bullying looks like and feels like because I was bullied in school many here have identified themselves as Christian and like most Hispanics I was raised Christian and Catholic and I have actually read and studied the Bible I do not consider the disrespect and disregard towards this board that some have displayed here as Christlike I'm going to quote from a book more controversial than any of ones mentioned here today all of you must obey the government rulers no one rules unless God has given him the power to rule and no one rules now without that power for God so if anyone is against the government he is really against what God has commanded and so he brings punishment to himself those who do right do not have to fear the rulers but people who do wrong must fear them do you want to be unafraid of the rulers then do what is right and the ruler will praise you he is God's servant to help you show respect and honor to them all since we are addressing children's book that was taken from the Greek text at Romans 13 from the International Children's Bible instead of debating books Let's protect our children by teaching them valuable social skills such as mutual respect diplomacy and Grace rather than setting a poor example of anger pettiness and intimidation thank you for your comments ma'am Debbie steers Christ Ryan John England good afternoon thank you Mr beers hello I'm Debbie steers collection development manager of wasel County library system and proud mother of three wasel County School District graduates and former School District librarian I come before you today to applaud your advocacy of parents rights and their children's education your District policy ensures that it is individual parents who have the right to restrict what their children read within the existing District framework parents already have the ability to choose which materials they will or won't allow their children to read your website says that every school in our district provides students with opportunities to explore question develop and Test new ideas to provide them with 21st century skills that will help them in future success that's exactly what the titles we're talking about today do I've read each of the 14 titles that have been challenged in the school district 13 of those same titles were challenged at wasel County library system as I read these books I didn't find obscenity or or pornography as your Challengers claim instead I read stories of young people grappling with life's big issues what does it mean to try to achieve the American dream when you belong to an immigrant family what kind of devastating consequences might come from making dangerous choices how do I figure out who I am in the world how do I turn to my faith in times of need it is your responsibility to help students develop the skills needed to navigate the world they enter when they graduate reading provides a safe way for young people to explore the world around them and to begin to imagine their own place in the world some months back trustee Church invited concerned community members to engage in a conversation about controver controversial books and school libraries Mr Church invited a high school student to come and speak to the group who had assembled most of us were beyond the age of having our own children in schools we were more concerned with today's students and and our grandchildren in the schools so when one of the attendees asked this high school student for his input what do you think about these books that are being talked about and stirring up so much controversy the student replied the heroin Diaries it's a book none of you would much approve of but it literally saved my life because of the that book I have been able to become sober and today I celebrate a year of sobriety please recognize books save lives thank you thank you thank you for your comments Mr deers next comment Kristen Ryan John England Brooke M Westlake good afternoon hi I'm Kristen Ryan I have um I'm a parent I have two children at McQueen high school and I am speaking here to um against the removal of L books in our schools representation matters and everyone in our community needs to see themselves in the books they read I grew up in Reno I also McQueen um graduate um I was a struggling kid um my home life was traumatic uh similar not as the same thing as our previous speaker but it was a traumatic um life and the books that were provided to me by my school district were not representative of my life these so-called appropriate wholesome books um made me feel embarrassed and ashamed of what I was going through at my house um I because my life was not even close to these wholesome books uh it wasn't until middle school where I discovered their representation um I found books that represent My Life as a kid and what I was going through um without these books they would have made me still feel shamed I felt that I wasn't alone because of these books um and um seeing myself was in these books that have been read to you today at the school board those books changed my life they were the most impactful things that happened to me in the school um these books turn me from a reluctant reader to a voracious reader and now to um I work in the public library connecting youth to books that appeal to them as a parent with children in waso County School District I want my children to have books with diverse perspectives I want them to be reading different ideas and backgrounds with these ideas and backgrounds make them more empathetic to everyone around them they understand people and their different perspectives and they don't um judge them um by removing these books you are sending the message to students who see them in themselves in these books that there is something wrong or shameful about who they are or who their family might be banning books does more harm than it does good please put your political ideologies aside and think about every member of our diverse community Community before and making the decision before making the decision to remove these books thank you thank you for your comments ma'am John England Brooke M Westlake Sheree Winters good afternoon good afternoon um first I'd like to pray over the board dear heavenly father I am so grateful to be here today because this is a school district that I went to and I hope that during what I have to say during what everybody has to say that eyes and ears are open amen please enter my comments into the record verbatim my name is Brooke Westlake I am not related to Colleen Westlake um I've been a member of this community for 36 years I'm a prodigy of Roger Corbett Von middle school and woster high school I'm a proud graduate from the University of Nevada Rino with three degrees including a masters in criminal justice and to watch what has happened with my own children in this District on my taxpayer dollars on everybody's taxpayer dollars on the stuff that is in the schools is unacceptable we come today in peace to read the books that are in front of my children your children and all of our children I have a book coming out it's called lipstick on pigs the transmicable you are not supposed to be doing is sexualizing our children period why is this in front of my son who is 14 years old this book right here North Valley's High School read High School Spanish scen Spanish Springs and Pine Middle School it's called push I I want to reemphasize what uh trusty Mayberry said earlier you said you don't want to hear profanity then why is my 14-year-old reading this why are your daughters reading this garbage in our schools print the book write the book it goes in a rated R section it doesn't go in our School District page seven white C box got my file on her desk I see it I ain't that late to lunch she looks at me like I want to suck a dog's dick or some what was that I said you're pushing the envelope Miss wesle I'm pushing the envelope as freedom of speech on My First Amendment right I am entitled to speak in front the rules continue then why if I obey the rules how come the rules work for all of you guys but don't work for my child who's 14 why do you feel it's okay to sexualize everybody's children do you have an answer for that you have kids in the district you should be ashamed of yourself right now absolutely ashamed and you guys pick and choose who you can clap for and who you can't clap for that's not how any of this works if you guys don't like your job quit it is a tough job I get that but at the end of the day you all are not doing your job okay thank you next speaker Sheree Winters Craig Dyson Mandy Morrison good afternoon afternoon thank you guys for having me today and for allowing us to um express our opinions on these books and for me um it's personal as my daughter went through Middle School here and high school here and she was at mindi middle and thought that she was gay for a long time and the indoctrination that was pushed upon her through the schools it was like every day I was trying to battle a fight against her and against the schools and so this has nothing to do with the lgbtq community this is just indoctrination against our children these books I wouldn't even want to read them this book particular called called Lovely Bones is about a little girl who's being raped basically by her teacher how is that okay to be put in our books and our children to have to read that and this book is in Clayton Middle dolei Middle Dilworth middle and the middle school is where they have you know they're finding themselves where it's this is the most impactful years of their lives they should be reading they should be reading books about our history reading writing writing and math not about their sexual connotations or orientation uh and this one is actually in uh Mount Rose Elementary School as well and I'm going to read on page 11 after he said you are very pretty Susie thanks I said though he gave though he gave me and my friend the skibbies do you have a boyfriend no Mr Harvey I said I swallowed the rest of my Coke which was a lot I got to go Mr Harvey this is a cool place but I got to go you I don't I don't think you know you're not you're not leaving I talk I talked so that he would that he would get the knowledge that I had to go Harvey is no character he made me feel Skivy and icky now that he was blocking the door Mr Harvey I have to go home take off your clothes what take off your clothes Mr Harvey said I want to check and see see if you still have a vagina I am Mr Harvey I said I want ma'am that's that's that's a warning okay so see this you wouldn't want your child to hear this this is inappropriate I don't even want to be reading this but this is what they have um in the schools this is what children can read I want to make sure you like I said your parents will thank me my parents they only want good girls he said Mr Harvey I said please let me leave you're not leaving Susie you're mine now I fought hard I fought as hard as I could I couldn't stop him Mr Harvey hurt me he fought back as hard as he could and it was not enough and I and as soon as okay thank you for your comments ma'am thank you thank you Craig Dyson man Morrison Chris Knox my name is Craig Dyson um thank you for being here today I'm the lead pastor of convo church here in Reno uh to the members of the board please know that uh we do pray for you and not with spite but with sincere Hearts um we want God to show you how to lead in the roles where he has given you the opportunity to lead and to do so with a heart that desires to please God and not please people many of us here today uh have a clear message for the board and it's simply this remove the perversion and the sexual grooming and indoctrination from our schools hold the people accountable who are responsible or have yourselves held accountable we the people have had enough of Fringe uh degenerate outliers lgbtq activists drag queen Story Hour promoters pulling the puppet strings of weak andless Community servant leaders you however are here with an opportunity to build a legacy for our children that restores wholesome education or build a legacy of tumble weed that gets blown about by the wind of broken demonic sexual culture from God's word just to read a book since we're reading books today Isaiah chapter 5 gives you gives all of us this warning what sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil that dark is light and light is dark that bitter is sweet and Sweet is bitter what sorrow for those who are wise in their own eyes and think themselves so clever Jesus Christ says in his own words in Luke 17:2 it would be better to be thrown into the sea with a stone hung around your neck than to cause one of these little ones to fall into sin this responsibility falls on this board get the perversion and the perverts out of our schools away from our children I believe that the Voice of Truth is beginning to get louder and louder in our state and we're also seeing it happen Across the Nation I believe that change is coming in a good way but I also know I can see the signs of the time and without changing in a way that leads to repentance that brings us to a place where we're protecting and guarding our children it's also going to usher in the Judgment of God so I strongly encourage each of you again remove the perversion remove the sexual grooming and the indoctrination from our schools continue to think about the kids that I believe each and every one of you loves and cares about which is why you're on this board so now you have an opportunity to look at some of the challenges that we face that are being brought up today and make choices that are going to lead kids to a life that flourishes thank you so much thank you for your comments M Dyson Mandy Morrison Chris KN Bruce Foster Chris Knox Bruce Foster Lane line ball afternoon ma'am hi trustees thank you for your service today and listening to all of our comments um thank you for this moment to speak my name is Chris Knox and I am a the parent of two currently enrolled bow County School District students my children have gone to County School schools since they were in kindergarten I would like my children to have access to all current and diverse books in their school libraries do not let retired folk and people who are not from this community persuade you to override my students First Amendment rights and band books those people disagree with thank you so much for holding the line against Outsiders and non- stakeholders who clearly don't understand what a student's First Amendment rights are or what book Banning means let me State again I am a parent of two students in your school district they go to your schools I believe in the positive impact public schools have had in my children's lives just one more thing as I left today to to come to this meeting I checked the public comments that are online there were 41 people who wrote in to support keeping all books in the library are out of 42 comments my guess is that they would all love to be here in person but they have jobs I took today off to be here keep that in mind your stakeholders who are parents with currently children currently enrolled in the district are not retired not paid to be here and do not have a lot of time on their hands again I would like my children to have access to all current and diverse books in their school libraries they can read whatever they would like to read removing books from library collections based on community demands is called Banning books I am not afraid for my children to read books please hold the line we have about 50 seconds left it's been a really tough day listening to all these comments I'd like us to take a moment if you're a Praying kind of person maybe take a moment to pray if you reflect this is my time this is my time respect it if you are a meditating kind of person just reflect we have about 24 seconds left and that's what I want to do with that time thank you uh for your comments ma'am ma'am ma'am I it it's again we're better than this please folks you got these pictures on the wall to both both of your right and left that's why we're here we're adults in the room serving our children please act like adults I understand the diversity of opinions okay but please respect them allow everybody a chance to be heard rather you agree with them or disagree with them that's all I ask it's simple okay we're going to re continue public comment JJ Bruce Foster lane lineba Victoria Meyer yeah good afternoon ladies and gentlemen Bruce fer was County resident and uh combined uh children is six and all our grandchildren are nine and here we are again I we started this whole process over a year ago and last fall I read a book all boys aren't blue silly me I just don't understand or just get or wrap my head around where but sex you know a lubricated penis in inserted into a butt uh basically is educational have you read all boys aren't blue I like to beg you and then I had at a town hall one of the trustees here that was absolutely horrified that I would actually read a book as that in front of all you ladies and gentlemen and and here we are and I got gabbled down three times by President Smith and I'm sorry that she isn't here uh to do the whole dirty work again and to compliment her on her map pin but the book that I have today is Looking for Alaska I've read it before and president Smith gabbled me down on it immediately and I appreciate that and maybe you should take gavel pounding from uh president Smith maybe uh we can shine some light on that but this book Looking for Alaska is in close to 19 schools both middle and high school oh boy just as bradies were getting locked in jail Lura randomly asked me have you ever gotten a blow job um that's out of blue I said the blue like you know out of the left field left e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e follow some show let's do that again let's go ahead and reconvene the washing County School District Board of Trustees meeting JJ Lane lindau Victoria Meyer Marilyn Benet good afternoon ma'am is this on yeah I'm Lane lyar longtime resident of wo County so I the problem here's a lot of the problem is we have over 100 Years of progressivism and indoctrination in our education system so the people that taught you and the people that taught me and the people that taught the people that are 80 years old and then they taught this the people in the uh student unions and the teachers the teachers that taught the teachers look at what we have people are waking up though because we're done with it and it's it's our kids so we heard a lot of things about community and who gets to speak for the kids and who who doesn't well because we're we're of a certain age and maybe we're not we don't have kids in the um school system right now but it's a community and guess what when we have kids that are harmed they're mentally raped they're indoctrinated then it's all of our problem readers are leaders or they used to be so let's talk about that a little bit I was a I am a very Avid Reader and so from a young age because I am of a certain age I was able to go buy books this was a very small town but I got into books that probably shouldn't have I shouldn't have had gotten a hold of we fast forward forward to Decades of promiscuity rape drug abuse alcoholism thank you the Lord Jesus Christ for saving me out of all of that and being here today okay but so you hear these statistics from these people that say you know all the all the suicide and the drug addiction from The Bullying everything that they're going through well could it be from what they're reading they're getting permission from somewhere okay that yes parents are responsible all of you are responsible for this materi in schools there's cell phones there's television we should all do better with that too I totally agree with that 30 seconds do you want to sentence these children in our community in our fellowship to a life of Torment I don't think so I don't think you do thank you all thank you for your comments ma'am next next speaker Victoria Meyer Marilyn Bennett Kathy kite good afternoon ma'am Victoria Meyer for the record please put my comments on the record verbatim I've lived here 50 years I'm not from out of town anybody here from out of town raise your hand anybody live here raise your hand oh my goodness where's this big out of town organization actually we had two people from out of town Pastor Raman chuku and Karen England that's it no one here has mentioned lgbtq well there were a couple people but most of us have not so according to one of the speakers that came up here these pornographic materials actually quite a few of those people speaking on behalf of these books protecting pornography and obscenity in the classrooms these graphic depictions of sex are necessary to the literal survival of children if they don't hear butt screwing they're going to kill themselves are you kidding me are you kidding me where's the adults in the room what Madness is this what has blinded your eyes what has blinded their eyes and closed their ears to the truth of what we're reading here the statistics are twisted is this about diversity screwing rape is that diversity this is about porn it's not about the narcissistic activists who thinks this is about them it's not about them it's about our kids it's about protecting our kids it's about obscenity this is in the classrooms being read I have a petition with 1700 people and they tell me what's going on in the classroom and it's being read in the classroom it is not just that the kids go to the library to get this it's read in the classroom statistics actually show the same statistics that Bri referred to that the this lgbtq group of kids whom I feel for and I love I'm sorry I have one in my family a few my grandson's been torn up by this LG this trans garbage his life is being destroyed thank you schools right these kids this statistic shows that these kids have multiple sex partners there's have high-risk behaviors same statistics okay high-risk behaviors that they engage in that's why they're suicidal and this is why they're suicidal because you're putting garbage you're mentally raping their minds it is not 100% parent controlled that is a lie parents do not have time to thank you thank you comment book Thank you comment [Applause] please refrain from clapping please refrain from clapping please refrain from clapping I'm giving you the option that you can raise your hands and shake your hands all you want but if you continue to clap and disrupt the meeting I'm going to recess it again man ma' please ma'am please don't interrupt this meeting okay that's a warning Miss tibit next speaker please Marilyn Bennett Kathy kite Jenny Clark Kathy kite Jenny Clark Pablo Nava Duran hello my name is Kathy kite I am actually a retired was County School District teacher I took that job very importantly because I served a master who is Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior and I was responsible for those children and the the time that I had them in my uh time was to protect their soul because they have a soul just like you all have a soul and it goes somewhere it's not all over when it's over you either go into darkness which you're actually showing Darkness right now with these books and I agree with what Victoria said I mean I just just verbatim listening to some of these people get up here and talk about that they want their kids to read everything and I was thinking well I don't know how all they were all sexual connotations these books and I don't know how they could save anybody's life but but destroy them but I really as I just I was thinking about this today and really just really praying that you know our Pastor said you know let the redeemed of the Lord say so and we are Redeemed by the blood of the lamb and the things that you are doing and what you're putting on these children it's it's it's um sin you guys are sinning I don't even know how anywh to say it because that word needs to be get get out there back out in the Public Square I'm sorry but it's sin is what separated us from God and it's sin that will destroy us and the enemy will use it and he and you right now are being their his tool sad to say that you're being his tool and no matter how much you want to say you're not because you're not God and you'll never be God and you're not your own God Jesus Is God his father is over him and these children my heart just breaks that you would destroy them their mind and everything about them and and and not bad an eye I don't know you know Christian O'Neal I know you I was actually the teacher when Morrison was actually brought in and of course that was a mistake and I think you guys have been doing mistakes ever since then actually I was the one that stood up and talked to him and told him I heard all of his BS already now give us the truth in front of everybody I don't know if you remember that over at Glenn Duncan and really we want truth and we want light and we want it for this world we want safety and you're not offering any of that if you allow these things to go on and so I just pray that if any of you have known the Lord before and you have fallen away that he forgives and that you can come back to him and that may mean embarrassment and maybe you mean getting off this board or maybe being like Jeff church and standing up even though I'm ashamed of you Jeff for getting up and leaving but um anyway that's all I have to say as I really pray for you guys okay thank you for your comments next question please Jenny Clark Pablo Nava Duran Fred Meyer good afterno thank you um the left is really good at selecting their words extremist policies people from out of town well I have a few words for them and you how about Communists groomers pedophiles there's no logic there's no logical excuse to allow this material or to keep secrets from parents unless you are trying to groom our children I just want to be informed about what might and by the way I do have two children in the was County School District and I am a taxpayer so I have a right to be here and to speak my mind I just want to be informed about my what my children are doing and learning at school I don't want my children going to a school where other immature children are reading sexually explicit material and I think deep down that you know that the leftists are the extremist wanting to normalize sex at a younger age why not allow alcohol in schools or rooms for kids to have sex it's distracting they're there to learn okay and when you have this type of material in the libraries kids are just walking around being sexually aroused it's not right that's not what they're there for I've heard a couple of librarians say parents do have a choice on what their kids have access to I'd like to know how that works can I request that my children not have access to books that feature homosexual parents or sexually explicit material and then what they follow my child around the library and make sure they don't pull these books off the shelves would if the only book that my children can check out is the lipstick on Pigs transic book is that okay you talk about safe spaces but I don't think there are any safe spaces for conservatives here there are books out there that speak to kids of different backgrounds that don't involve sex this is yet another excuse designed by the left to make us feel guilty and to allow you to keep grooming our children but it's not going to work I used to be a brain dead liberal zombie and thank goodness for my husband constantly hitting me with logic and facts and he finally woke me up okay now I feel like I'm backed into a corner here and that's why we get upset if you're so confident that these policies are good then why not send a copy of some examples of this language home to every parent and see what they think the suicide rate among the alphabet Community is so high because so many people indulge their fantasy instead of getting them real help I don't know how you guys can listen to all this all the material from these books and sleep at night it's so disgusting I try to read some of this from my own knowledge and it makes me sick you should read strong fathers strong daughters okay all right thank you for your comments Pablo Nava Duran Fred Meyer Marilyn Bennett good afternoon sir hello my name is pan and uh we saw I saw so many white Wier on my bik over there so I'm going to tell you the election results so your can lost the election by wide Mar of Point sir sir if you could if you could just address the board please thank you so I'm here to not to ban books so R creat your book is band book and then also um and then I'm not here to the band School keep but diversity as it it is did not majority of a school so so hopefully um hopefully a lot to and um and that's it so okay thank you for your comments again folks again folks respectfully ask that we just that we not that we not clap please eliminate the disruption so we can allow everybody to get hurt everybody have diverse opinion really want to reduce any intimidation Factor uh JJ Fred Meyer Marilyn Bennett Joey Gilbert oh boy Fred Meyer I can't really say anything that hasn't already been said this is so frustrating we've we came here a year ago whatever it's been everybody I think was reasonable talking to you folks we actually ran into Joseph Rodriguez at a radio show had a nice conversation he was very civil I think the whole conversation was civil um we touching on a little bit of this stuff but you know we just don't understand why you don't pay attention he did mention that you know when when things when people get passionate you guys just go up and you know you just stop listening you can't stop listening you can't do it it's it's not fair it's not right we're the ones who put you there well maybe not me but maybe some of these people but but anyway you're there for us it doesn't matter you are there for us not for the lgbtq community you're not here for them it seems like you are that's exactly what it seems like because one person just said and I think this is a great idea I thought you stole my idea whoever it was I think that if we sent a few of these paragraphs do it I check challenge you to the parents every parent in this school system 66,000 kids in school no it's dropping 50 something thousand now send them a couple paragraphs out of these books get them to check out yay we love it or get it out get just give them two choices do it I challenge you you're going to get a nay you're going to get a no you're going to get a few lgbts that think that it's going to help their kid from committing suicide that is crazy my wife brought that up you know it makes no sense you know it makes zero sense that if I can read about I can't even say these things if if the kids can read about it it's going to help them mentally they're going to feel so much better yeah well get ready anyway um we just would appreciate that you really do pay attention to us um you I want to be respectful I I it's hard because we're getting frustrated and by the way um it doesn't take an Alman chuko coming here with Karen England to get us passionate we were passionate before they ever showed up you all know that so these people who want to get up and say all these National be two people and we were we've all been coming here they just helped rally a few more and bring some attention because folks work and they can't make it so we represent a huge block of this community and y'all got to know that please pay attention to us please don't ignore us and thank you for your time okay thank you for your comments sir Marilyn Bennett Joey Gilbert Amanda Gil Board of Trustees interim superintendent mcneel incoming superintendent Ernst General Public thank you for the opportunity to speak I've been a resident of was County for 40 years a parent of two children who graduated from wash County school district one of whom had Mr Ernst as a teacher in sixth grade and uh I've worked in libraries for over 50 years I've raised two ravenous readers and I'm contributing to the raising of to grandchildren who also read voraciously I currently work with high school students ages 13 to 22 when we discuss Bann books each year during ban Book Week in the fall it always surprises my students what is proposed to be banned they know that I want them to have the best information they know that I have books on my shelves so that they have information and so when I ask them what do you think it's been suggested to be banned this time they said uh mine comp you have that Miss Bennett I know that you do and and yeah I'm sure mind com they want you to take that out Communist Manifesto I know they they want you to take that one out right no nope um when I tell them the Bible the Harry Potter series what why Harry Potter what absolutely true Diary of a Part-Time Indian and uh all boys aren't blue they are flat gasted my students know that I work hard to make sure they are represented on my shelves my students are dealing with issues of sexuality gender sexual violence being people of color who experience discrimination issues of immigration status Etc they if we're telling these students that their experiences are not appropriate for our school libraries maybe we're telling these students that they are not appropriate for our schools and we have heard at least one speaker today say those exact words um what rather than thinking that it's what is going on in the books is okay as another speaker suggested um they often find that having others having gone through the same experience and survived it means that maybe they can too I appreciate the woman who read a novel here with questions that real teenagers would ask about sex and sexuality books are meant to give us Windows into a world where we may not have belonged mirrors to see ourselves and others like us okay thank you ma'am appreciate you coming up thank you Joey go Bert Amanda Gil Adeline Hurley meant to read if that's okay with y'all can you hear me is that better yeah okay uh good afternoon ladies and gentlemen my name is Amanda Morrison and I'm here on behalf of Joey Gilbert unfortunately he couldn't be here since the way you scheduled these meetings makes it virtually impossible for hardworking parents to attend I'd like to give you the benefit of the doubt I'd like to believe that you are just doing your best but it's clear this entire setup is designed to minimize parental input not only have you scheduled a public meeting in the middle of a workday there is little to no parking there are only a handful of seats I'm disappointed that this is the best you are willing to do for citizens of this community first I would like to thank Jeff church for being the sole voice of reason and courage on this board the rest of you shame on you I came in here with all due respect intended but after watching the dismissive behavior directed towards citizens of this community I'm less inclined to show you respect that you failed to show others for those that are looking at me right now I appreciate it your procedures for conducting these meetings prove one thing you're scared you should be you're scared and that's why you disable the live feed and use law enforcement to kick out anyone who you are threatened by it's why you desperately avoid eye contact to try and separate yourself from much deserved criticism that to the from the public you are accountable to to the rest of you apologies to the rest of you I'm here to go on record and state unequivocally you have picked a fight you will not win in 2020 Joey stood in front of you and told you that you were wrong and you when you supported smothering children in masks and when you let them believe that breathing fresh air was selfish you were told that data approved masks were ineffective and that the data didn't support your policies Joey told you distance learning would be a disaster it was you just sat there with smug looks on your faces just as you are now hear me when I say this those smoke those smug looks of your your will be shortlived the data was always conclusive and you ignored it to the detriment of our children our children are in a mental health crisis that you've contributed to there is blood on your hands kids are killing themselves as a direct consequence of your policies every policy decision you have made has taken our kids from bad to worse the brave space nonsense pornography in schools and the transgender agenda being pushed onto children will not end well the data is conclusive it's just a phase the vast majority of those who who suffer from gender confusion grow out of it within 5 years or less especially the girls an NIH study of 90 million people proved conclusively that those who undergo these harmful gender transition treatments are 12.12 times more likely to commit suicide than their peers as a result it's a lie to say these procedures save lives when the data is clear suicide risk increases up to 20 times after transitioning the policies you're supporting are harming our children your days of facilitating private sexual conversations with other people's children are coming to an end when the children you are exploiting seek to seek accountability for the harm you've done at your hands Joey Gilbert will be there to fight for them within the full scope of the law just like fouchy your Day of Reckoning is fast approaching okay please Amanda Gil Adeline Hurley Katie hurly hi um thank you for the opportunity to speak to the board today um unlike most people who will get up here and speak today I actually have children currently in this school district um by the way I also went to the school district and graduated from the district um I'm involved with their schools I see the incredible work that teachers and staff do each day and to hear teachers and other staff members be derided as groomers who are indoctrinating our children um I find personally sickening and disgusting um these are people who dedicated their life to the service of educating our future I have never seen know of these things in my children's classrooms I make it a point to volunteer in the classrooms libraries um none of my children have ever expressed seeing anything like this in our classrooms I truly don't believe this is actually happening um I also know kids don't need to go to the library for explicit material they have cell phones laptops video games if your child doesn't own one of these devices their friends do someone's going to show it to them uh kids aren't reading a whole book just to get to one salacious scene um I attend Schoolboard meetings because I care about issues like funding and class sizes these people are using things like book Banning and critical race Theory to try and scandalize and manipulate you and once you do that you enter a far more nefarious world that is much less about protecting children and more about pushing a Christian National nationalist agenda the organizations like Turning Point critical Research Institute and others fly provocators here for the sole purpose of causing chaos at these board meetings most of these people actually advocate for homeschooling and see little to no value in public education something I believe is one of our most precious rights in this country so to anyone listening please don't let them use their fear or religious tactics to scare you and please stand by our board our teachers and our students thank you thank you for your comments ma'am Adeline Hurley Katie Hurley Stacy sto stoich good afternoon good afternoon hello my name is Adeline herley I'm a member of the washer County School school system and a student in middle school I would like to bring to your attention some information in regard to the Banning of books in schools first of all I would like to say that teachers and Librarians are not recommending pornography to students under the guise of lgbtqia plus novels in fact most books containing queer aspects serve as a Gateway into a world where children who might not understand their identity yet feel validated in their emotions without scrutiny in the history we're taught in schools most oppressed groups like The LGBT cqia plus Community who identify with a different culture religion or identity never get to tell their side of the story because of how people have demonized it and deemed it Unworthy of research the novels that are in question today are purely another instance of people trying to oppress these groups and Trigger coat every mistake we have made in the past thank you thank you for your comments Katie Hurley Stacy Stosich hello good afternoon good afternoon I'm a parent of two children in the waser county school district and I'm here to voice my support for the teachers The Librarians and the school board those who are attempting to censor books in schools claim they are protecting children from pornographic material children are not assessing porn and literature what these groups are actually opposing is our children's right to a diverse and pluralistic education and the rights of other parents who don't hold their worldview the groups seeking to ban books are stoking fear on purpose these false depictions of abuse are manipulation and political maneuvering they've created a problem and then offer to be the ones to fix said problem this is one way to gain power and control and a common tactic used by abusers and authoritarians the slow erosion of our education system will be an albatrus around all of our necks these books that are being labeled as perverse represent the experiences of people who've been historically marginalized and whose voices have been silenced as a parent I want my children exposed to many different voices I expect during their education that they will encounter ideas and information that is different than what I have taught them some of these ideas May echo my beliefs but many others will not some of these teachers will be in their classrooms and some of them will be in books some information will be offensive or difficult but this is where learning takes place I'd like to end with a quote by Tony Morrison about the importance of the written word truth is trouble it is trouble for the warmonger the torturer the corporate thief the political hack the corrupt justice system and for a comos public unpersuaded unharassed writers are trouble for the ignorant bully the sly racist and the Predators feeding off the world's resources the alarm the disqui writers raise is instructive because it is open and vulnerable because if unpoliced it is threatening therefore the historical suppression of writers is the earliest harbinger of the steady peeling away of additional rights and Liberties that will follow the history of persecuted writers is as long as the history of literature itself and the efforts to censor starve regulate and and annihilate us are clear signs that something important has taken place thank you so much all right thank you for being here Stacy Stosich kit De Carlo good afternoon good afternoon my name is Stacy stage I do have two children in wasow County School District and I am a teacher a very proud teacher I am here today to express my support for our school district comprehensive parental Choice program and to address some concerns that have been raised regarding the effectiveness and necessity our current program already empowers parents with the ability to limit specific titles genres and themes that their children cannot check out from the library through the online portal parents have the visibility into what their children are reading ensuring that they can make informed decisions about their child's literacy exposure this level of transparency and control is more than adequate to meet the needs of our diverse Community unfortunately it appears because I'm here today witnessing it that there is a manufactured outrage being stirred by individuals some who do not reside in waso county and do not have students currently enrolled in our schools it is important to recognize that these voices may not fully understand or appreciate the existing measures in place that are already prioritize parental choice and involvement moreover representation in literature is crucial for raising healthy well-rounded children diverse books help students see themselves and others in stories they read fostering empathy understand understanding and a love of learning it is essential that our libraries after a wide range of books that reflect the varied experiences and backgrounds of our student body the current system strikes a balance a balance between parental control and the educational benefits of diverse literature I urge the community to continue supporting this balanced approach which respects parental rights while promoting an inclusive and enriching educational environment for all students in our community I want to thank you very much for your time and have a great evening thank you thank you for your comments kit De Carlo kit de carloon sorry good afternoon kit De Carlo for the record um I just want to open with I'm 21 years old and I graduated in uh 2020 I had the covid graduation that everyone so appreciated and I just want to say I'm here because I'm concerned for children um quite frankly pornography should not be exposed to these kids it's their natural born right to for them to have um innocence and that is stripping it away from them um I understand that people say it produces empathy and I think it's completely wrong and the opposite actually it produces is apathy because it demeans what sex is all about and the relationship that you form with the person that you're committing it with um it's completely wrong and to have no to not care about the Parents Choice in the matter of what's being exposed to their children um and that where're it's very clear that uh what happens at school um does not get told to parents I know I was in school and you know we didn't have to say everything that was going in school and when you're at high school or an even younger you don't want to tell your parents everything um so everything with these books that have to go with sexuality um High School is a very difficult time and you're developing your processing things and you have questions and I think this exploits um children exploits their minds and their vulnerability and um it needs to be taken into consideration that this is harming children and not helping their mental um um mental development for for adulthood a lot of these kids are about to become adults especially when they're in high school they can take that opportunity to look at porn if they want to but in school it should not be an option so thank you very much thank you for your comments John England no thank you good afternoon Mr England good afternoon just to qualify my myself I will agree that I no longer live reside in Washo County or Sparks Areno but I graduated from Sparks ey in 1972 attended the University of Nino and worked as a teacher for Washo County School District back when they had covered wagons so I've got a little bit of HS that said this is my community and I still have involvement with this community my remarks today are simply regarding 50 to 90 middle school and high school students that I've worked with for the past 12 years as a part of Pathfinders children's ministry that serves our children throughout this town in this area I just got back from Elco at Cowboys arest where we had the chance to work with 50 of those kids bringing them out there for an entire week another great week the students we work with just like the school district come from from very challenging environments with difficult financial and family situations that they deal with every day of their lives the primary reason behind the volunteers at Pathfinders and I think it's no surprise is because yes we all have a personal faith in Jesus Christ and believe in the absolute truth of God's word the Bible and we base those beliefs and that faith on seeking to care for the welfare of our children that we serve I believe that the evidence presented here today confirms that the district is in direct opposition to what I believe is the welfare of the children the district is here to serve a quick bit of research this week as I prepared my remarks regarding the sad recent incident of sexual abuse by was County School District employees had this common response from you as a board wcsd is appalled and shocked by the alleged allegations and these actions do not represent the employees or our district they are reprehensible unfortunately that same comment has not been issued in regard to these textbooks in fact you are willfully and willingly supporting the use of them the purchase of them by the schools and the sites and that's what we oppose today simply because they destroy the minds and the hearts of the young people that is the result of pornographic sexually explicit material thank you Mr and uh thank you for your previous service for our students go ahead JJ do we have any more public comment okay good afternoon good evening my name is Terry debarger I'm a English teacher in was County School District and uh I come to speak on uh something that I'm hearing that's unsettling to me which is um when people are protesting books being in libraries and there's a system for doing that I mean there's a a procedure for a parent or Community member to challenge any material um but what I'm hearing is decontextualization and so I'm hearing things read out of context and I think it's very important because um if I can just there was a sign back there just a moment ago it said no um it was a really good sign it had the word no with an exclamation point and then after the exclamation point I want to make sure I get this right it said no exclamation point por porn is for kids so that reads no porn is for kids now taking that out of context would be unfair given what the the signh Holder held but I think it it's just a clear example of how context in the entire work in the entire situation matters so I don't want to accuse the person holding that sign of being in favor of pornography I don't believe that was their intention and I think if you take quotations out of books out of context they may seem objectionable and difficult in segment but I think when you read them as a totality you can make a better judgment in the same way that you might uh look at the David for example in Italy and if you were to take a very small portion of the David it would clearly be uh inappropriate but it's considered one of the great works of art so I would just ask you to continue doing your job thank you for for uh taking such a long amount of time on this issue I think it's important but remember context matters and when a student goes to the library what they're doing is they're seeking a private exchange with a text they're looking for something that is internal to themselves and as any of you know who've read a book that's had a powerful impact on you um I'm sure you can imagine that that is a a unique and somewhat uh personal experience so we don't want to deprive students of that who might be seeking that so thank you for your time thank you for your comments sir JJ John Roberts good afternoon Mr Roberts good afternoon yeah my name is John Roberts I live in Sparks Nevada I got grandchild and um um I just wanted to bring this this point up I think maybe everybody's escaped this but we've been here for hours totally focused on genitalia at a schoolb meeting where you would think that Scholastics would be the focus and that that's not a good commentary on a society that we're so fixated on genitalia but um in any event um regards to this subject I think that um I think it would be fair to be transparent and send these excerpts that have been attempted to be read here in total which haven't been um send these s home with every single student to their parents and have their parents Express whether or not they approve of it I mean this is the United States of America this is not some arist aristocracy the people should decide what what's right for their children not not you people you people technically are public servants you're not public overlords and you need to you need to be reminded of that um and and another thing is which really appalls me I didn't find this out until just a day or two ago when I asked the question how does the school get away with exposing children to things that if I was to send it across the internet to a minor to my best guest because I'm not a lawyer and I'm not a cop but to my best guest I think I'd probably be guilty of a felony so how do how is it that the school gets away with this without any criminal liability and to my amazement I found out there's a Nevada revised statute that protects you all St NRS 2011. 237 specifically exempts all of you and virtually everybody that works for state and local government in Nevada from any of the Nevada obscenity laws I think that's something else that should be brought to the attention of the citizenry because I think this cuts across party lines I got to believe 99 plus per of par and grandparents are not on board with that so um uh like plenty of other speakers have said you know we're all going to be uh facing our our our maker someday on judgment day and it doesn't matter if you believe in it it's just like it doesn't matter if you believe in gravity you can step off a cliff and Proclaim you don't believe in gravity but you just schedule an appointment with the ground and you're not going to be late and the same thing goes for a judgment day we're all going to be there and we're all going to have to answer for our lives so when you wake up in the middle of the night and us old people we do it all the time sure even your younger people do and and your mind's racing think about that think about what you're going to say to your maker when you stand in front of them and you're leaving decisions that are real serious to 11 and 12 year olds who aren't ready to make those decisions hey thank you sir the board received emails from Kimberly M L matcher Ava Anderson Heather gaspie Kim mazeras Melissa Fant Jacqueline Bond Megan Emerson Trowbridge Simon Smith figbar Lonesome Sony Patricia Zimmerman catherin Riser David Moss Glenda mahen Dr Tara ke Kos Lisa Downer Lani Joseph Mendoza Randall Martinson D laia former trustee Marilyn fenander Jordan Meyers Jan Bishop Sandy Taylor Donna Smith Nasim Jamina Gail Finley Kathy Rice Stevie Herrera Elizabeth Kramer Rosemary Johnson Dave winter Donna bub Gabby Knox Michael Knox Percy Carano Katherine Barton Harper and Leah yanof okay thank you JJ we're going to close public comment uh take about a 5 minute recess and then we will return uh for to wrap up this meeting okay thank you e e e e e e e e e e e okay okay team call this meeting back to order um we're just about done we are going to foro our trustee board reports uh for this meeting so we will can I go past 5.0 um and we're I'm sorry sir we're I want to be consistent we're going to go past 5.01 we're going to go to the interim superintendent report it's been a long day um and JJ uh if you could pull up those pictures at the right time that I sent you the Honda giveaway and and our our superintendent will will highlight that thank you thank you very much chair so just a huge thank you to all of our uh principls and and our teachers and our custodians and everybody a special thank you to Miss vanie Russell who made our graduations a huge success um and I want to do a shout out to our board members that showed up to every single graduation and that and that were able to go to the ones that you could go even if you got to a couple of them it just really means so much to our students and our families so thank you very very much um this Saturday um I was not able to attend but it it is a true Cinderella Story um for um the Honda perfect attendance car giveaway um there was a wonderful story in in in the newspaper about our GAC student um and she received um a brand new Honda Civic brand new car McKenzie rra uh won that car and there she is she picked the blue one and a special note about McKenzie now Sandy raphaeli does this every single year I think she's done it now for almost I think 17 years I'm not quite sure but 16 I was very close um but the special thing about McKenzie is she has not missed a day of school from kindergarten to 12th grade and so just a huge huge shout out to McKenzie and her entire family literally the entire town of GAC showed up so uh congratulations to McKenzie and I am going to chair if you will allow me for this last section I'm going to move over here on to the table over here to do this last session sure and hopefully you will give me that since this is my last meeting it is your last meeting behind the Das so I will absolutely grant you that thank you interim superintendent mcneel and again we'll say our formal goodbyes uh at our July 23rd meeting thank you very much chair members of the board and incoming superintendent erst would you like to join me at this table so there are just a few things that I thought even though I'm I'm trying to prepare you as as as well as I possibly can um I thought there were some things that I would share with you that every superintendent needs and just so you know and the entire staff knows this I will most likely get emotional so with that your entire bag of Washo County School District pens these are all for you and when you get your suits dry clean they actually will give you a little bag with all the pens that you forgot you will definitely need your energy bars so here's an entire box of cliffs chocolate chip bars and general counsel Chief general counsel bombardo does not like chocolate chips so you don't have to worry about sharing these with him and for the amount of things that you're going to sign here is an entire box of your favorite pens p i ns and because I am such a cheap skate I get to take my Kristen MC Neal name plate but you actually now have your own name plate oh and that's not all because you like to drink lots of water and you need to stay hydrated with your energy bars your very own Joe erns wcsd superintendent water bottle and I am so proud of myself because I knew how to order this on line and type in the whole name and because you know how important Nevada is to our students and and that you are a resident at the Junior Achievement um event I bid on this particular thing not knowing who our new superintendent was um but there was somebody that was outbidding me so this is very special to me and um I want to see it in your office hanging on that beautiful wood wall and when it gets to be really tough and you just take a breath just know that this is what matters this is what matters and that's it uh Dr McNeil thank you um uh I appreciate all of these kind gifts the sentiments behind them and the contribution you've made to was County School District um it is utterly substantial and uh our school district has been through uh many highs and lows and you have been the calm in the storm and um you display that uh through your leadership um your fairness your kindness and um I will tell you Board of Trustees that my opportunity to work alongside superintendent mcneel uh has been Irreplaceable um to have this opportunity uh to learn from Dr mcneel uh is something that I'll be forever grateful for um and uh I know that I speak on behalf of our leadership team our Board of Trustees and the staff within wasel County School District we so much very much wish you the best moving forward so that you can enjoy and I hope with you look back you know that all you did to put us in a great place and you get to enjoy all that's in front of you Kristen and and I'm personally very very grateful and I know so many of us are so thank you very much thank you y well I can't top that so we'll uh adour the meeting our next meeting will be on July 23rd 2024 that's about a month from today wishing everybody a very safe and wonderful summer see you in July this meeting's adjourned for