Child Grooming: Happening in a School Near You

Whether in a “red” state or “blue,” the government schools are the same

For nearly 16 years, I have covered “local” government for a community newspaper in Illinois.

“Local” is in quotations because I’ve learned during my career that there is no local control. That spans the strata of “local” governing units, from village/town/city government to government schools.

Everything is about following the dictates of their state, and more importantly, their federal masters. It’s all about getting their hands on that federal dough. And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard elected officials brag about funding something (a program, a piece of equipment, etc.) not using taxpayer dollars to do so because it was a state or federal grant that funded as they show their utter ignorance as all government spending is funded through the theft, or they call it taxation, of the people.

Again, I’m in Illinois, a heavily Democrat state. But, it’s every state. Enter the Natrona County School District (NCSD) in Wyoming for evidence.

Wyoming had the largest margin of Republican victory in the 2020 presidential election, a 43.3-point margin. Natrona County even beat the state’s margin at 47.3 points.

Still, the government schools are no different. Parents and residents of NCSD have been battling over inappropriate books in the school libraries. Although there has been some support for the books in question, the majority have sought to remove the books the contain sexually explicit images and text from the libraries.

Several books were formally challenged by parents, but the school district chose not to remove them. In particular were “Gender Queer” and “Trans Bodies, Trans Selves” which present what many parents called pornography that is freely available in the school libraries for minors to see.

Those books were summarized, with photos, by Cowboy State Daily. You can decide for yourself if it’s pornography, but take note the “explicit content” warning by Cowboy State Daily which read: “The following story and photos depict mature subject matter. Cowboy State Daily gently blurred nude images, but in the original books… the nude images are generally uncensored. Read at your own discretion.”

The decision to keep those books was announced in September, but transparency (as always) is hard to come by for government. There was no recorded vote by the Board of Education, and it’s unclear whether the board provided any guidance on the decision.

Parents and community members are still addressing the issue with little response from the elected board members, most recently at the Monday, Oct. 10 board meeting.

In total, 32 public comments were made, 30 of which were on the book topic. Of those speaking on the topic, 24 spoke out against the pornographic books, 5 spoke for them and 1 vague comment was made that was unclear where the commenter stood.

The comment period even nearly got violent between two men on the opposite side of the issue.

For further evidence of the pornographic material being presented in the government schools, 19-year-old Cara Hopkins read from one book, “Trans Bodies, Trans Selves.”

Hopkins said the book she was reading from was available to 14-year-olds in NCSD high schools which teaches kids about masturbation, sex toys, oral sex and fantasies that “can be responsibly acted out in real life,” the book states, including teacher-student sexual relationships.

It should be noted that this is not new to today. Remember Joycelyn Elders, U.S. Surgeon General under Bill Clinton?

Jeanette Ward, the Republican nominee for Wyoming’s 57th House District and mother of two in NCSD, said the argument isn’t for banning books. The argument is not using taxpayer dollars to fund pornography.

“The left likes to accuse conservatives of wanting to ban books,” Ward said. “Yet, they are the ones who refuse to allow a reasonable discussion about the facts and ban everything with which they disagree, branding it as ‘misinformation’ or ‘disinformation.’”

Ward said the books are available in the marketplace. She also asked, with all the “affirmation” books of the transgender ideology, where are the books discussing the harm created by that lifestyle?

One commenter, who only gave her first name of Marlene, said she and her husband were both survivors of sexual assault earlier in their lives.

“What these books do is make our children vulnerable to trafficking, to abuse, to things that they should never have to encounter,” she said. “And I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that those scars never go away. I’m 66 years old, my husband is nearly 70. He still has nightmares; I still have nightmares.”

Marie Scott said: “It’s frankly a bit disappointing a frustrating that we have to be having this conversation about materials that include things that in other scenarios would, in fact, be illegal if they were real images. For instance, that they would be pornographic. People could go to jail for sharing those with minors.”

Scott said schools are meant to be “a safe learning environment” focused on academic endeavors. Lifestyle choices and sexuality are issues for parent’s to teach their kids about, she said.

Others discussed that while pornography is in the schools, the Bible is not allowed. Several speakers said they have emailed the board and received no response.

And when the board members spoke, they offered a response with effectively no response at all.

Board members admitted they’ve received a lot of emails and have not responded, but assured the public that they are listening.

Vice Chair Clark Jensen said the format “sometimes gives the impression that we are not listening and that we do not care…. I’ve been frustrated with that format… but that’s a necessary parliamentary rule.”

Chair Raymond Catellier assured the public that “if and when” the board actually steps in to provide some guidance, it will be “really well publicized” so the public can have a say. Of course, that was after an untransparent process to keep the books, and only “if” the board actually decides to do something.

And while the government schools focus on social-emotional nonsense, coddling of sexual immorality and gender confusion, the schools are not performing the function they claim to be for.

That same evening, the school board was presented with the most recent state performance data. That data was for the 2021-2022 school year after Wyoming not providing data the previous two years because of, what else, COVID, the be all and end all excuse for authoritarians everywhere.

In NCSD, 20 out of 27 schools were rated as not meeting or partially meeting expectations. Only 2 were exceeding expectations.

By the way, “equity” is a higher weighted measure for school performance than English in the Republican State of Wyoming. A NCSD official said “equity” is measured on how the lowest performing students are progressing. Seriously, “equity” is more important than English.

Still, board members were proud. Treasurer Dave Applegate, again using the COVID excuse, said “these test results are rather amazing when you look at the national average.” He gave “kudos” for 20 of 27 schools not meeting or partially meeting expectations, but hey, they had “a couple percentage points of improvement” based on a measuring system that place “equity” above academics.

But hey, after nearly 16 years of covering “local” government, I wouldn’t expect anything different. Illinois or Wyoming, the elected officials are the same, robotic and emotionless people who do not have thoughts of their own. Their job is to protect the system that claims to rule over us.

Maybe it’s time for the people to start waking up and stop being ruled.