WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES
...but apparently the ACLU believes the explicit sexual content in books offered up for elementary students in the Elizabeth public schools library is required content by virtue of the First Amendment rights for LGBTQ and African-American authors.
Superintendent Dan Snowberger and Public Information Officer Jeff Maher read excerpts from the controversial books that can only be considered obscene by most community standards - including those decided on by the residents of Elizabeth. The ACLU and Denverites disagree and intend to impose their values (or lack thereof) on the rural school district.
Dan intends to help Elizabeth Pubilc Schools with their legal fight, and encourages listeners to do the same.
You can donate to their worthy cause here:
How you can help support Elizabeth School District with ACLU lawsuit legal fees
...but apparently the ACLU believes the explicit sexual content in books offered up for elementary students in the Elizabeth public schools library is required content by virtue of the First Amendment rights for LGBTQ and African-American authors.
Superintendent Dan Snowberger and Public Information Officer Jeff Maher read excerpts from the controversial books that can only be considered obscene by most community standards - including those decided on by the residents of Elizabeth. The ACLU and Denverites disagree and intend to impose their values (or lack thereof) on the rural school district.
Dan intends to help Elizabeth Pubilc Schools with their legal fight, and encourages listeners to do the same.
You can donate to their worthy cause here:
How you can help support Elizabeth School District with ACLU lawsuit legal fees
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Dan Caplis and welcome to today's online podcast
edition of The Dan Kaplis Show. Please be sure to
give us a five star rating if you'd be so kind,
and to subscribe, download and listen to the show every
single day on your favorite podcast platform.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
This is a.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Fight worth fighting because the American way is, we don't
sexualize children.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Right.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
We believe in core basic values, whether somebody's of faith
or no faith at all, and a core value of
every decent civilized human is we do not sexualize children.
So why is the LAFT so determined to sexualize children?
It's crazy and it's wrong, and Elizabeth is standing up
to it. Not the woman Elizabeth, the school district Elizabeth.
(00:43):
And so we have with us today a couple of
special guests from Elizabeth. Jeff Maher is with us as
well as Dan Snowberger, and they're going to read a
particular kind of warning before they read from these books
that the ACLU has gone to core to try to
force the Elizabeth School to strict.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
To keep on the shelves.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
So, Jeff, why don't we start with you and give
people a quick introduction to the issue. I want to
promise everybody listening that you are going to hear from
the books themselves in this segment. So Jeff take it away,
my friend, Well.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Thank you for having us and giving us this opportunity again.
I'm here with Superintendent Dan Snowberger. I do have many
of those excerpts that we are going to read from
some of the books in question, But I think the
first thing that we'll do, and I'll let Dan take
it away, is to give us the latest on the case,
(01:37):
because there have been a lot of developments, especially over
the past week.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (01:43):
Thanks Dan, We really do appreciate the opportunity of being
here today. You know, we are really focused in Elizabeth
School District on parents' rights, and one of the things
many school districts, unfortunately have done is has assumed more
and more of the role of the parent. We began
reviewing not only our curriculum but the materials in our
(02:06):
school libraries last spring, and it became very obvious to
us that over the years we've collected some materials in
our libraries that just were inappropriate. We began recognizing that
there were parents who wanted a little more control over
what parents what they prefer their children check out. So
(02:28):
we started reviewing our entire collection. We have over fifty
thousand books in our libraries. We started identifying books that
had sensitive topics, books that might have graphic violence, books
that might have religious connotations, books that might have sexual content,
successive racism, things like that that some parents might be
(02:48):
fine with their children reading, others may not, And so
we labeled books with sensitive content. A lot of parents
who wanted their children not to access those books to
opt them out. But in the process of doing so,
we identified nineteen books and that's what we're here to
talk about today, nineteen books that had excessive age and
(03:08):
appropriate material that in the process, we displayed for twenty
five days in our community for our parents and our
community members to come in and take a look at
and give the board some guidance as to what they
thought these books, what we should do with these books,
and overwhelmingly, our community said, these books are inappropriate and
(03:30):
don't belong in the library. And so we made the
decision based on the inappropriate content of these books to
remove them, only to find four months later that we
were being sued by the ACLU to force us to
put these books back. A week and a half ago,
we were given an order a preliminary in junction by
(03:53):
a Denver judge to replace these books in our library. Luckily,
after appealing and asking for a stay of that motion
and then appealing to the Tenth Circuit, the local judge
did stay her motion and asked for the plaintiffs to
respond to our motion for stay and appeal. So we
(04:14):
are currently in that phase where our motion has been
stayed and we await her ruling this week. Either she
will offer a hearing or she will again re order.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Us to put these books back to the library.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
So Superintendent, thank you for finding the good fight. And
we'll talk later about what the motives of aco you are.
But we know what yours are, which is just to
protect the innocence of children. So I know that there's
a certain warning that, yes, you want to give before
reading from these books, So please do give the warning.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
And I know folks absolutely want to hear what this
is all about.
Speaker 5 (04:53):
Absolutely certainly we recognize there are Sadly, there are parts
of these books we can't read because you would get
in trouble, Dan, and the radio station would get in trouble.
And to be very honest, we can't even transmit some
of these through our Child Internet Protection Act filter in
our district. So I would just encourage parents who are listening.
(05:15):
And you never want to tell people don't listen to
your show, but I would just encourage parents who are listening.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
If you have young young ears in.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
The room, please ask them to leave the room, because
obviously we're going to read some quotes from these books
that a Denver judge ordered a week and a half
ago to have us put back in our libraries that
currently we are on a stay from. Please have your
children leave the room, just because we certainly believe the
content that we are about to read is inappropriate for them.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
So with that in mind, and I do apologize beforehand
because I personally don't want to read the excerpts from
these books, but we have to because we have not
been given a fair shot in Denver media at all,
and so we just have to do this to let
people know what's really going on. So this is from
(06:05):
Crank by Ellen Hopkins. I froze as he pushed inside.
There it is, Oh god, there it goes. It went
alright with an audible tear, pain mushroomed into agony, and
all I could do was go stiff. This one is
(06:26):
by Ellen Hopkins. It's called Identical, and it goes on
to say, confused at his tears and at the sticky
stuff icing her hands still, Kaylee pleaded, don't cry, daddy,
what's the matter?
Speaker 6 (06:39):
Didn't I love you good enough?
Speaker 2 (06:43):
So you got to stop there for a second.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
It's yeah, it's just beyond imagination that acou or any
decent human would want any child to be exposed to that.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
So I and thank you for the warning you gave.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
I think we'll have to stop, probably after every segment
and give a warning again because people join this show
all the time.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
That is just so horrific and first.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
In my view, no, no minor should be hearing any
of that. But what ages does the ACO you want
to try to force you to make this available.
Speaker 5 (07:20):
To There are books in these nineteen There's one book
that was at the elementary level, there's two books that
were at the middle school level, and there were fifteen
books that were at the high school level. So again
you know, many of these books are adult content, and
again they to recognize at the high school you have
(07:42):
fourteen year olds who can pick one of these books
up off the shelf.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
I mean, see what you just read, and that's Jeff
Maher from and forgive me, Jeff?
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Is it ma isn't Bill Maher? Yes?
Speaker 6 (07:55):
No relation?
Speaker 4 (07:56):
And a public information officer for Elizabeth School District.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Yeah that think Jeff.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
So what you just read is the sort of thing
that can traumatize a child for life, right, can traumatize
a high school kid for life that they might never
get out of their mind. I mean it, Yeah, that
is that is just terrific. So again, if you just
joined us, Jeff Maer, public information officer for Elizabeth School District,
(08:25):
and Dan Snowberger, the superintendent, are with us.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
They're reading from the books.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
ACLU is trying to force them to keep on the shelves.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
So yeah, next excerpt.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
Okay, So the next one is a book that was
available to students as early as age five in our
elementary schools, and it is from George alternately named Melissa.
Features a character who is in fourth grade and is
(08:56):
going through a gender transition. She immersed her body in
the warm water and tried not to think about what
was between her legs, but there it was, bobbing in
front of her. And another page from that book, it
goes on.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
To say, way just an elementary school.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
Yes, this one says, so George knew it could be done.
Speaker 6 (09:24):
A boy could become a girl.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
She had since read on the internet that you could
take hormones and would change your body, and you could
get a bunch of different surgeries if you wanted them
and had the money. This was called transitioning. You could
even start before you were eighteen with pills called androgen
blockers that stopped the boy hormones already inside you from
turning your body into a man's. But for that you
(09:48):
needed your parents' permission.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
And again they want this in elementary school. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
And the funny thing about that book is it was
in our other elementary school two years ago a library
and had a parent complain that the librarian was shocked
to find that that book was in her collection and
she removed it herself. So that was removed from one
of our libraries two years ago by a wise librarian
(10:15):
who just said, oh my gosh, how did this book
even get my collection. We found this in the review
of the library materials by our curriculum Review committee. And
now we're being sued by the ACLU for this removal again.
You know, wow, this process we tried to do publicly
because we believe the school district belongs to the taxpayer.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
And Dan, I'm so sorry to interrupt, and I so
appreciate the fight you're fighting. We've got to hit this
hard break when we come back. You're listening to Dan Snowberger,
he's superintendent Elizabeth School District. They'll read from some other
excerpts of books. The ACLU has gone to court to
try to fight them to keep on the show. So
why is the left so interested, so determined to sexualize children.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
You're on the Dan Kaplas Show.
Speaker 7 (11:07):
And now back to the Dan Kaplas Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Special guest in studio today. Grateful to have Jeff.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
I want to say mahr because I have these cousins,
the Mahers. They're wonderful bit of pronounce it's pronounced like
Bill Maher. So Jeff Maher is the PIO for Elizabeth
School District, Dan Snowberger the superintendent, and they're fighting the
good fight to try to keep off their shelves eighteen
obscene books. ACLU has gone to court to force those
(11:35):
to be on the shelves. And before we get to
why ACLU is trying to do that, we want to
get you content from some of these books, so you'll
know what's being talked about. We did discuss some of
the content in the last segment, and we'll continue to
give warnings before we do that.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
So, Jeff, are you going to read the next excerpt?
Speaker 4 (11:56):
So I think for the next one, Dan has a
list of these as well, so he's going to talk
about one book in particular and the implications of that.
But again, before we do this, we do want to
give that disclaimer to anyone who is listening that if
you do have kids nearby, if you do have children nearby,
(12:19):
that the material that we're reading in this hour it's
not suitable for children. So we just asked that you
move them away from from the speaker. So Dan, if
you want to go ahead and read from the next one.
Speaker 5 (12:30):
Yeah, the next The next one is is another book.
It's called perks Abino Wallflower. This one the segment is
this one couple whom I was told later was very
popular and in love, stumbled into my room and I
asked if I minded them using it. I told them
that my brother and sister said I had to stay here,
(12:51):
and they asked if I could use the room anyway.
And me still in it. I said, I didn't see
why not. So they closed the door and started kissing,
kissing very hard. After a few minutes, the boy's hand
went up the girl's shirt and she started protesting.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Come on, Dave, what the kids in here? It's okay?
Speaker 5 (13:11):
And the boy kept working up the girl's shirt, and
as much as she said no, he kept working it.
After a few minutes, she stopped protesting and he pulled
his shirt off and she had a white bron with lace.
I honestly didn't know what to do by this point.
Pretty soon he took off her bron started to kiss
and I'll stop there because it gets to the point
(13:31):
that I think I get you in trouble.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
So and it goes into a description. He goes and
happened next? Wasn't a much more description? And so now
in this and it's bad on every level. How old
is the child whose perspective this is written from, who's
now watching all of this?
Speaker 5 (13:51):
This is an elementary student that's that's observing this, And again,
this book is this book was in the in the
library at the high school with fourteen year olds that
could check this out.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Oh and before we get into more excerpts. I know
the school district, Elizabeth School District, is fighting this battle valiantly.
It's going to be a very expensive battle. How can
people help with that?
Speaker 5 (14:19):
You know, we are are fortunate to have partnered with
a number of organizations. We have a link up on
our website Elizabethschooldistrict dot org. Parents United has been a
great partner. There's a link at the top of our
web page. We are definitely reaching out to folks who
are willing to help us. You know, we're a small
(14:40):
school district and really commit it to and using our
funds to educate our kids and of course just put
some of that at risks. So anyone willing to help us,
we really encourage them to go to our website. All
of our legal filings are also on our website. We
have a page dedicated to that, so folks who are
interested in following, we encourage them to also bookmark that
(15:02):
website and follow along. We'll keep you up to date
as we get additional rulings from the court.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
And I'm sure the ACLU knows how expensive this is
for your school district, and so I hope everybody steps
up and help I think Ryan is a question as well.
Speaker 8 (15:17):
I do for the two of you that I think
a lot of our listeners will have that the decency standards,
which are talked about a lot, not.
Speaker 6 (15:23):
Only in our business but in general, are much different.
Speaker 8 (15:26):
It's going to be a much different community in Elizabeth
than it would in the Denver Public School District. And
my question on behalf of the listeners will be, why
can't you guys just tell the ACLU to go kick
rocks on this?
Speaker 5 (15:36):
We would like to, And I think that's kind of
our point is we went to our community. The school
board didn't just impose their will that the school board
provided these books for twenty five days, allowed the community
to come in weigh in on this, and the community
overwhelmingly said these books don't belong in our library. And
(15:57):
I think that was a key part of this. We
didn't just remove these books. We didn't just say, you know,
these five board members don't like these. We asked the community,
and the community responded, and the board took the will
of the community and acted. And I guess that's the
frustration is this board did the right thing by its
community who elected them, and yet we're being sued for doing.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
That, and Dan Dan Snowberger, the superintendent, Elizabeth. None of
these books are about political point of view, political viewpoint.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Any of that.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
This is just about sexual obscenity exactly.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
Unfortunately, they've painted it as if we've removed LGBTQ viewpoint
in black experience viewpoint, that we've removed them because of
African American authors. And it's the farthest thing from the truth.
And I will say, as we've shared these quotes out
in our community, our parents are our galvanized behind the
(17:01):
school board and behind the school district.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
I think they're going to have a very hard time
correct me if I'm wrong, showing that you want to
leave up on the sholves books that have similar blatant
sexuality but pertain to heterosexual sex correct or are written
by white authors, right, I'd be very surprised if they're
able to put into evidence any such books correct exactly.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
And one of the most interesting topics here is the
federal government requires school districts to have an Internet filter
under the Child Internet Protection Act. When that the lawsuit
was filed and there were quotes, or actually when we
responded and we provided quotes, our response could not be
transmitted through our Internet filter.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Because of that tell everything that should be exhibit A, right,
I'm sure it is.
Speaker 7 (17:54):
Hey.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
When we come back, we.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Have Jeff Maher, who is the PIO for Elizabeth School
District at Dan Snowberger the superintendent. They'll continue to read
excerpts from these books containing these obscenities. You're hearing that
the ACLU has gone to court to try to force
them to keep on the shelves here on the Dan
Kapla Show.
Speaker 7 (18:17):
You're listening to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
A very special hour of the Dan Kaplis Show. Glad
you're here and you will be too.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
We have a school district fighting valiantly to protect their
children and to protect their children from the ACLU going
to court now to try to force the school district
to keep on the shelves eighteen books concerning a very
sexualized material. And we'll get to the separate issue of
why does the left as a whole seem so determined
(18:47):
to sexualized children.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
We'll get to that separately.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Today, we want to have you hear excerpts from these
books so you can decide for yourself and you'll know
what this is about. Also, respectfully, requesting you consider helping
the Elizabeth School District financially so they can stand.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Up and fight this.
Speaker 6 (19:05):
So.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Oh, we have Jeff Maher with us.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
He's the public information officer for Elizabeth, Dan Snolberger the superintendent.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Gentleman, whoever wants.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
To start, if you could just give the warning and
then get to the next excerpt.
Speaker 6 (19:17):
Sure, I'll go ahead and start.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
So before I begin with this excerpt, I just want
to give a disclaimer to any parents out there, anyone
who has kids or children nearby listening to this. We
don't want to have to read this, but it's important
so that we get our story out there and so
that people understand what we're facing. So we respectfully ask
(19:41):
that you remove any children from the speaker or what
you're listening to at the moment, just for their safe keeping.
This one is called Looking for Alaska. We ran with
it to the TV room, close the blinds, locked the door,
and watched the movie. It opened with a woman standing
(20:02):
on the bridge with her legs spread while a guy
knelt in front of her giving her oral sex. No
time for dialogue, I suppose by the time they started
doing it, Alaska commenced with her righteous indignation. They just
don't make sex look fun for women. The girl is
just an object. Look look at that. I was already
looking needless to say, a woman crouched on her hands
(20:24):
and knees while a guy knelt behind her. And I'm sorry,
I can't. I can't continue with the rest of this.
I think it does get too graphic. I realize we're
on the radio and we did give a disclaimer, but
it just it gets really bad. And you know, there
are other parts of this that we absolutely cannot read.
It has foul language and more.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
And I think it goes on to describe the act.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
I assume it does, yes, And it's not just sexual content,
as Dan will point out.
Speaker 5 (20:53):
Now, yeah, Dan, And we've got two books here that
we're also in our middle school library. One book in particular,
I would say the left to saying, oh, this is
the black experience that we're failing to We're failing to
allow children to gain the black experience. It's called the
hate You Give. And this is a quote from it.
(21:17):
Fooling around isn't new for us. And when Chris slipped
his hand into my shorts, I didn't think anything of it.
When he got me going. I really wasn't thinking at all,
for real, my thought process went out the door, and
right as I was at the moment he stopped, reached
into his pocket and pulled out a condom. He raised
his eyebrows at me, silently asking for an invitation to
(21:41):
go all the way. All I could think about was
those griddle school. This is twelve year olds and up
could access this book, but we're denying them reading the
black experience by excluding this. The other one is really
troubling because Masa Valley School District removed this in twenty
seventeen after seven children committed suicide. Oh it's called thirteen
(22:07):
Reasons Why. And I think all of us.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Wanted that book on the shelves.
Speaker 5 (22:11):
Yep, they want that not only at the high school,
but at the middle.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Spirit is going to court to keep this book on
the show exactly.
Speaker 5 (22:21):
But sometimes I took things further and wondered how I
would do it. I would tuck myself into bed and
wonder if there was anything in the house I could
use a gun? No, we never owned one, and I
wouldn't know where to get it. What about hanging well,
what would I use? Where would I do it? And
even if I knew what and where, I could never
(22:41):
get beyond the visual of someone finding me swinging inches
from the floor. I couldn't do that to mom and dad.
So how did I find how? So how did they
find you? I've heard so many rumors. It came down
the two lines of thinking. If I wanted people to
think it was an accident, I drive my car off
(23:03):
the road someplace where there's no chance of survival. And
there's so many places to do that on the outskirts
of town. Probably I've probably driven by each of them
a dozen times in the past couple of weeks. You
took pills that we all know. Some say you passed
out and drowned in a bathtub full of water, And
(23:26):
so again, you know thirteen reasons, why let's provide thills
in lots of ways to think.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
About This is beyond insane, absolutely beyond insane.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
What is their pretext? What is their claimed reason for
wanting this one on the shelf?
Speaker 5 (23:43):
There claimed reason about all of these books as were
denying them understanding the LGBTQ and the African American experience.
That's the argument in their complaint to the court. And
yet you read these quotes and I've yet to find it.
Every one of these books has obscene content, and that's
(24:06):
the reason the board and the community so that they
don't belong in our library. But unfortunately, the mainstream media
here in Denver has picked up their complaint and that's
what that's what's been on the airwaves, and that's why
we appreciate being able to be here and share the
actual content so that our community understands and why we've.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Taken this action.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
I will say Dan, that the landscape here in the
media has changed quite a bit over the last few years.
I'm a native of Colorado. I spent twenty years as
an anchor and reporter traveling the country and I at
the time, I was trained by some really good journalists
here in Denver, ones that taught me to be unbiased,
(24:52):
to be neutral, to only present both sides of a story,
or else the story wouldn't run. And then I moved
back to my home state and realize what a toxic
culture I had escaped from. And that's why I left
that industry is because what it has become, and so
it's very easy to air a biased story, to put
(25:14):
together a biased article on this subject when you are
just listing the titles, and you're hailing the authors and
the groups that might be celebrating this and making Elbert
County and Elizabeth School District out to be the bad guy.
It's very easy to write that article and not include
the excerpts and not show exactly to the public.
Speaker 6 (25:37):
What we're talking about.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
And that's why it's so important, because we've noticed that
the narrative changes, the reactions change when we actually read
these excerpts, and then people say, oh, wow, I didn't
know that that was happening.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Well and cheerpoint chef mar speaking, public information officer for Elizabeth.
You know, it's so easy to suck up to powerful interest, right,
So people in the media, Hey, they got a big
upside sucking up to the ACO. You you know, what's
their upside? You know, to give it a fair shake
to Elizabeth. And again, that's so opposite what journalism used
(26:11):
to be around here. And there are still some really
admirable journalists I think around here, but they're fewer and
further between.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
But before we all.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Used to take pride in standing up to the powerful
and now just wow. So what I'd like to do, guys,
is can you before this hard break, give the information
on how people can financially support the effort of Elizabeth
School District to protect the kids, to fight the ACOU
and win this case for the kids in Elizabeth and
(26:41):
kids everywhere else.
Speaker 5 (26:43):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (26:44):
Our website is Elizabethschool District dot org. I'm right at
the very top of the page as a banner that
will take you to Parents United. They've been a strong
partner in this effort to help us fund this lawsuit.
I'm proud to say at this point we are continuing
to be able to fund our legal defense and and
(27:06):
just need that continued support. This is going to be
an expensive case. We know it will not be settled
in the circuit court here in Denver. That well, we'll
need to go further because what people don't know is
this is not settled law. There are probably five different
library cases right now in states across the United States,
(27:27):
and there's not settled precedent and in this type of
an issue. So we just we really appreciate your listeners
and ask that you know anything can help, and we
hope you'll consider not only going to the website to help,
but again monitor this case. This will be an ongoing
a case We expect a new ruling this week from
(27:50):
our from the local Denver judge on the next steps
and whether this preliminary junction will be reissued or whether
she will actually grant here to allow us to actually
come to court and present our side of this.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
And when we come back, guys, tell me, I'm going
to ask you to read again after multiple warnings from
the book the aco You is trying to keep on
the shelves that describes incest and it's one of the
most disturbing things I've.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Ever heard on air. But before we hit this break,
why does the aco you say that book needs.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
To be available to the miners in the Elizabeth school district,
the one describing incest?
Speaker 5 (28:34):
Again, I can't. I can't answer for them right now.
They have grouped it into the whole group. See I
they've grouped it into the whole group, and they they
have sold the judge that it is an LGBTQ buck
and that.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Well, let's talk about that on the other side.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
When we come back with warning, we will we will
have that excerpt b read to you. And keep in
mind the ACOU has gone to court to try to
make sure that the the miners and Elizabeth have that
book on the shelves here on the Dankplas.
Speaker 7 (29:05):
Show and now back to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
So why is the left, I'm talking nationally so intent
on sexualizing children? And here we have the Elizabeth School
District right here in Colorado standing up trying to protect
the kids. And we have the PIO, Jeff Maher with
us as well as the superintendent, Dan Snowberger.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
They've been here the whole hour.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
And what we're going to do now is we're going
to have them continue to quote from the eighteen books
they want to remove from the shelves. The ACLU going
to court to try to force them to.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Keep these books on the shelves.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Now, gentlemen, I know you have a lot more excerpts,
but earlier you read one that was one of the
most disturbing things I've ever heard on or off air,
and as I understand it, the ACLU asking a judge
to force you to keep this book on the shelves.
So my warning to folks is this is really really disturbing.
(30:02):
No way you want kids to hear this. And gentlemen,
with whatever warning you have, that excerpt regarding incest that
they want a court to force you to keep available
to students.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
So just to clarify, Dan, you're asking for me to
repeat what we said at the top of the hour
because I also have a longer version of it too.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Oh yes, yes, but let's warn the heck out of
people on this. It's so deeply disturbing.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
Okay, So just a full disclaimer to all of those
who are listening that this is not appropriate for children,
and we ask that you remove children from the room
and not have kids around as we are reading these
excerpts from these books that.
Speaker 6 (30:47):
We are talking about.
Speaker 4 (30:48):
And so the one that Dan was referencing is identical
by Ellen Hopkins, and the short version that we read.
Speaker 6 (30:56):
At the top of the hour goes like this.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
He used at his tears and at the sticky stuff
icing her hands. Still, Kaylee pleaded, don't cry, daddy. What's
the matter? Didn't I love you good enough? Unimaginable And
there's a much longer excerpt that I have in my
hands too.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
Well, please again, with everybody warned, go ahead, just so
people can understand how wrong this is.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
And we don't want to have to read this either.
It's just it's important that we are doing it so
that everyone has a clear understanding. But yes, please remove
any children from the room. This goes on to say
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
(31:47):
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 Kaylee's bed, pulled
her into his lap.
Speaker 6 (32:02):
He smelled of brute and wild.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
Turkey, his peculiar pot prix. I love you so much,
my little flower. Daddy needs something from my girl, my
sweet rose.
Speaker 6 (32:15):
Will you give it to me?
Speaker 4 (32:17):
I wanted to be his little flower, would have given
my daddy anything. What did he want from Kayley? She
laid her head on his chest. What I want you
to see something, something that proves how much I love you.
Speaker 6 (32:31):
This is only for you.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
I'm sorry, I'm going to be a jerk here. I've
got a stap.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
Because I don't want to hear this, and I don't either.
I don't want to hear it. I don't want it.
My head You've done such a great point of making
the point and of hopefully alerting all of us to
how we all need to get involved and help in
this fight.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
So how can we help you win?
Speaker 5 (32:54):
Yep, Dan, again, our website is Elizabeth School District dot
org and again encourage people to to visit that site.
Top banner is a link to Parents United, who's been
a great partner in helping us raise funds for this
legal battle. You had asked me before before the last
segment break, you know, first Amendment is their other argument
(33:17):
that the not only the right of children to read this,
but the right of the authors to express these points
of view. And that just sickens me because again you
know it just uh, we're gonna we're gonna fight this.
We're going to fight this as long as it takes,
and we have the resolve as a school district to
(33:38):
do so. And and we just ask your listeners to
help in whatever way they can and and again follow
our case on that website. We we just again appreciate
the opportunity of being here with you today and sharing
this well.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
I appreciate the way you guys are fighting because as
hard as it is for any of us, to listen
to any of that.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
For you to have to be able to.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
Educate all of us this way, you know, it has
to be extremely difficult to be so easy to say, hey,
we're a small school district. They're the all powerful acl you.
We did our best, we have no choice. But you're
not saying that. You're standing up, you're fighting, You're putting
yourselves out there, you're putting the work in.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
And so the least the rest of us.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
Can do, I think, is if we have the ability,
whether it's given a dollar or some of the very
wealthy people in the audience given a whole lot of money,
your fight is our fight, and I've got to believe
eventually you're going to win, whether it's the US Supreme Court,
which has a habit right of taking cases out of Colorado.
But gentlemen, we have thirty seconds left. Thank you for
what you're doing. Hopefully everybody will go to the Elizabeth
(34:43):
School District website and do what they can to help.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Thank you, and let's get together soon. Thank you, Dan,
thank you, thank you you take.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Care of Ryan. Thank you for your great effort. As always, Kelly,
you're the best. Please join us tomorrow. We'll follow up
on this tomorrow as well on The Dan Kapla Show.
This is Dan Caplis and welcome to today's online podcast
edition of The Dan Kaplis Show. Please be sure to
give us a five star rating if you'd be so kind,
and to subscribe, download and listen to the show every
single day on your favorite podcast platform.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
This is a.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Fight worth fighting because the American way is, we don't
sexualize children.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Right.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
We believe in core basic values, whether somebody's of faith
or no faith at all, and a core value of
every decent civilized human is we do not sexualize children.
So why is the LAFT so determined to sexualize children?
It's crazy and it's wrong, and Elizabeth is standing up
to it. Not the woman Elizabeth, the school district Elizabeth.
(00:43):
And so we have with us today a couple of
special guests from Elizabeth. Jeff Maher is with us as
well as Dan Snowberger, and they're going to read a
particular kind of warning before they read from these books
that the ACLU has gone to core to try to
force the Elizabeth School to strict.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
To keep on the shelves.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
So, Jeff, why don't we start with you and give
people a quick introduction to the issue. I want to
promise everybody listening that you are going to hear from
the books themselves in this segment. So Jeff take it away,
my friend, Well.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Thank you for having us and giving us this opportunity again.
I'm here with Superintendent Dan Snowberger. I do have many
of those excerpts that we are going to read from
some of the books in question, But I think the
first thing that we'll do, and I'll let Dan take
it away, is to give us the latest on the case,
(01:37):
because there have been a lot of developments, especially over
the past week.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (01:43):
Thanks Dan, We really do appreciate the opportunity of being
here today. You know, we are really focused in Elizabeth
School District on parents' rights, and one of the things
many school districts, unfortunately have done is has assumed more
and more of the role of the parent. We began
reviewing not only our curriculum but the materials in our
(02:06):
school libraries last spring, and it became very obvious to
us that over the years we've collected some materials in
our libraries that just were inappropriate. We began recognizing that
there were parents who wanted a little more control over
what parents what they prefer their children check out. So
(02:28):
we started reviewing our entire collection. We have over fifty
thousand books in our libraries. We started identifying books that
had sensitive topics, books that might have graphic violence, books
that might have religious connotations, books that might have sexual content,
successive racism, things like that that some parents might be
(02:48):
fine with their children reading, others may not, And so
we labeled books with sensitive content. A lot of parents
who wanted their children not to access those books to
opt them out. But in the process of doing so,
we identified nineteen books and that's what we're here to
talk about today, nineteen books that had excessive age and
(03:08):
appropriate material that in the process, we displayed for twenty
five days in our community for our parents and our
community members to come in and take a look at
and give the board some guidance as to what they
thought these books, what we should do with these books,
and overwhelmingly, our community said, these books are inappropriate and
(03:30):
don't belong in the library. And so we made the
decision based on the inappropriate content of these books to
remove them, only to find four months later that we
were being sued by the ACLU to force us to
put these books back. A week and a half ago,
we were given an order a preliminary in junction by
(03:53):
a Denver judge to replace these books in our library. Luckily,
after appealing and asking for a stay of that motion
and then appealing to the Tenth Circuit, the local judge
did stay her motion and asked for the plaintiffs to
respond to our motion for stay and appeal. So we
(04:14):
are currently in that phase where our motion has been
stayed and we await her ruling this week. Either she
will offer a hearing or she will again re order.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Us to put these books back to the library.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
So Superintendent, thank you for finding the good fight. And
we'll talk later about what the motives of aco you are.
But we know what yours are, which is just to
protect the innocence of children. So I know that there's
a certain warning that, yes, you want to give before
reading from these books, So please do give the warning.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
And I know folks absolutely want to hear what this
is all about.
Speaker 5 (04:53):
Absolutely certainly we recognize there are Sadly, there are parts
of these books we can't read because you would get
in trouble, Dan, and the radio station would get in trouble.
And to be very honest, we can't even transmit some
of these through our Child Internet Protection Act filter in
our district. So I would just encourage parents who are listening.
(05:15):
And you never want to tell people don't listen to
your show, but I would just encourage parents who are listening.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
If you have young young ears in.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
The room, please ask them to leave the room, because
obviously we're going to read some quotes from these books
that a Denver judge ordered a week and a half
ago to have us put back in our libraries that
currently we are on a stay from. Please have your
children leave the room, just because we certainly believe the
content that we are about to read is inappropriate for them.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
So with that in mind, and I do apologize beforehand
because I personally don't want to read the excerpts from
these books, but we have to because we have not
been given a fair shot in Denver media at all,
and so we just have to do this to let
people know what's really going on. So this is from
(06:05):
Crank by Ellen Hopkins. I froze as he pushed inside.
There it is, Oh god, there it goes. It went
alright with an audible tear, pain mushroomed into agony, and
all I could do was go stiff. This one is
(06:26):
by Ellen Hopkins. It's called Identical, and it goes on
to say, confused at his tears and at the sticky
stuff icing her hands still, Kaylee pleaded, don't cry, daddy,
what's the matter?
Speaker 6 (06:39):
Didn't I love you good enough?
Speaker 2 (06:43):
So you got to stop there for a second.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
It's yeah, it's just beyond imagination that acou or any
decent human would want any child to be exposed to that.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
So I and thank you for the warning you gave.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
I think we'll have to stop, probably after every segment
and give a warning again because people join this show
all the time.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
That is just so horrific and first.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
In my view, no, no minor should be hearing any
of that. But what ages does the ACO you want
to try to force you to make this available.
Speaker 5 (07:20):
To There are books in these nineteen There's one book
that was at the elementary level, there's two books that
were at the middle school level, and there were fifteen
books that were at the high school level. So again
you know, many of these books are adult content, and
again they to recognize at the high school you have
(07:42):
fourteen year olds who can pick one of these books
up off the shelf.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
I mean, see what you just read, and that's Jeff
Maher from and forgive me, Jeff?
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Is it ma isn't Bill Maher? Yes?
Speaker 6 (07:55):
No relation?
Speaker 4 (07:56):
And a public information officer for Elizabeth School District.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Yeah that think Jeff.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
So what you just read is the sort of thing
that can traumatize a child for life, right, can traumatize
a high school kid for life that they might never
get out of their mind. I mean it, Yeah, that
is that is just terrific. So again, if you just
joined us, Jeff Maer, public information officer for Elizabeth School District,
(08:25):
and Dan Snowberger, the superintendent, are with us.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
They're reading from the books.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
ACLU is trying to force them to keep on the shelves.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
So yeah, next excerpt.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
Okay, So the next one is a book that was
available to students as early as age five in our
elementary schools, and it is from George alternately named Melissa.
Features a character who is in fourth grade and is
(08:56):
going through a gender transition. She immersed her body in
the warm water and tried not to think about what
was between her legs, but there it was, bobbing in
front of her. And another page from that book, it
goes on.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
To say, way just an elementary school.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
Yes, this one says, so George knew it could be done.
Speaker 6 (09:24):
A boy could become a girl.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
She had since read on the internet that you could
take hormones and would change your body, and you could
get a bunch of different surgeries if you wanted them
and had the money. This was called transitioning. You could
even start before you were eighteen with pills called androgen
blockers that stopped the boy hormones already inside you from
turning your body into a man's. But for that you
(09:48):
needed your parents' permission.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
And again they want this in elementary school. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
And the funny thing about that book is it was
in our other elementary school two years ago a library
and had a parent complain that the librarian was shocked
to find that that book was in her collection and
she removed it herself. So that was removed from one
of our libraries two years ago by a wise librarian
(10:15):
who just said, oh my gosh, how did this book
even get my collection. We found this in the review
of the library materials by our curriculum Review committee. And
now we're being sued by the ACLU for this removal again.
You know, wow, this process we tried to do publicly
because we believe the school district belongs to the taxpayer.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
And Dan, I'm so sorry to interrupt, and I so
appreciate the fight you're fighting. We've got to hit this
hard break when we come back. You're listening to Dan Snowberger,
he's superintendent Elizabeth School District. They'll read from some other
excerpts of books. The ACLU has gone to court to
try to fight them to keep on the show. So
why is the left so interested, so determined to sexualize children.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
You're on the Dan Kaplas Show.
Speaker 7 (11:07):
And now back to the Dan Kaplas Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Special guest in studio today. Grateful to have Jeff.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
I want to say mahr because I have these cousins,
the Mahers. They're wonderful bit of pronounce it's pronounced like
Bill Maher. So Jeff Maher is the PIO for Elizabeth
School District, Dan Snowberger the superintendent, and they're fighting the
good fight to try to keep off their shelves eighteen
obscene books. ACLU has gone to court to force those
(11:35):
to be on the shelves. And before we get to
why ACLU is trying to do that, we want to
get you content from some of these books, so you'll
know what's being talked about. We did discuss some of
the content in the last segment, and we'll continue to
give warnings before we do that.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
So, Jeff, are you going to read the next excerpt?
Speaker 4 (11:56):
So I think for the next one, Dan has a
list of these as well, so he's going to talk
about one book in particular and the implications of that.
But again, before we do this, we do want to
give that disclaimer to anyone who is listening that if
you do have kids nearby, if you do have children nearby,
(12:19):
that the material that we're reading in this hour it's
not suitable for children. So we just asked that you
move them away from from the speaker. So Dan, if
you want to go ahead and read from the next one.
Speaker 5 (12:30):
Yeah, the next The next one is is another book.
It's called perks Abino Wallflower. This one the segment is
this one couple whom I was told later was very
popular and in love, stumbled into my room and I
asked if I minded them using it. I told them
that my brother and sister said I had to stay here,
(12:51):
and they asked if I could use the room anyway.
And me still in it. I said, I didn't see
why not. So they closed the door and started kissing,
kissing very hard. After a few minutes, the boy's hand
went up the girl's shirt and she started protesting.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Come on, Dave, what the kids in here? It's okay?
Speaker 5 (13:11):
And the boy kept working up the girl's shirt, and
as much as she said no, he kept working it.
After a few minutes, she stopped protesting and he pulled
his shirt off and she had a white bron with lace.
I honestly didn't know what to do by this point.
Pretty soon he took off her bron started to kiss
and I'll stop there because it gets to the point
(13:31):
that I think I get you in trouble.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
So and it goes into a description. He goes and
happened next? Wasn't a much more description? And so now
in this and it's bad on every level. How old
is the child whose perspective this is written from, who's
now watching all of this?
Speaker 5 (13:51):
This is an elementary student that's that's observing this, And again,
this book is this book was in the in the
library at the high school with fourteen year olds that
could check this out.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Oh and before we get into more excerpts. I know
the school district, Elizabeth School District, is fighting this battle valiantly.
It's going to be a very expensive battle. How can
people help with that?
Speaker 5 (14:19):
You know, we are are fortunate to have partnered with
a number of organizations. We have a link up on
our website Elizabethschooldistrict dot org. Parents United has been a
great partner. There's a link at the top of our
web page. We are definitely reaching out to folks who
are willing to help us. You know, we're a small
(14:40):
school district and really commit it to and using our
funds to educate our kids and of course just put
some of that at risks. So anyone willing to help us,
we really encourage them to go to our website. All
of our legal filings are also on our website. We
have a page dedicated to that, so folks who are
interested in following, we encourage them to also bookmark that
(15:02):
website and follow along. We'll keep you up to date
as we get additional rulings from the court.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
And I'm sure the ACLU knows how expensive this is
for your school district, and so I hope everybody steps
up and help I think Ryan is a question as well.
Speaker 8 (15:17):
I do for the two of you that I think
a lot of our listeners will have that the decency standards,
which are talked about a lot, not.
Speaker 6 (15:23):
Only in our business but in general, are much different.
Speaker 8 (15:26):
It's going to be a much different community in Elizabeth
than it would in the Denver Public School District. And
my question on behalf of the listeners will be, why
can't you guys just tell the ACLU to go kick
rocks on this?
Speaker 5 (15:36):
We would like to, And I think that's kind of
our point is we went to our community. The school
board didn't just impose their will that the school board
provided these books for twenty five days, allowed the community
to come in weigh in on this, and the community
overwhelmingly said these books don't belong in our library. And
(15:57):
I think that was a key part of this. We
didn't just remove these books. We didn't just say, you know,
these five board members don't like these. We asked the community,
and the community responded, and the board took the will
of the community and acted. And I guess that's the
frustration is this board did the right thing by its
community who elected them, and yet we're being sued for doing.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
That, and Dan Dan Snowberger, the superintendent, Elizabeth. None of
these books are about political point of view, political viewpoint.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Any of that.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
This is just about sexual obscenity exactly.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
Unfortunately, they've painted it as if we've removed LGBTQ viewpoint
in black experience viewpoint, that we've removed them because of
African American authors. And it's the farthest thing from the truth.
And I will say, as we've shared these quotes out
in our community, our parents are our galvanized behind the
(17:01):
school board and behind the school district.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
I think they're going to have a very hard time
correct me if I'm wrong, showing that you want to
leave up on the sholves books that have similar blatant
sexuality but pertain to heterosexual sex correct or are written
by white authors, right, I'd be very surprised if they're
able to put into evidence any such books correct exactly.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
And one of the most interesting topics here is the
federal government requires school districts to have an Internet filter
under the Child Internet Protection Act. When that the lawsuit
was filed and there were quotes, or actually when we
responded and we provided quotes, our response could not be
transmitted through our Internet filter.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Because of that tell everything that should be exhibit A, right,
I'm sure it is.
Speaker 7 (17:54):
Hey.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
When we come back, we.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Have Jeff Maher, who is the PIO for Elizabeth School
District at Dan Snowberger the superintendent. They'll continue to read
excerpts from these books containing these obscenities. You're hearing that
the ACLU has gone to court to try to force
them to keep on the shelves here on the Dan
Kapla Show.
Speaker 7 (18:17):
You're listening to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
A very special hour of the Dan Kaplis Show. Glad
you're here and you will be too.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
We have a school district fighting valiantly to protect their
children and to protect their children from the ACLU going
to court now to try to force the school district
to keep on the shelves eighteen books concerning a very
sexualized material. And we'll get to the separate issue of
why does the left as a whole seem so determined
(18:47):
to sexualized children.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
We'll get to that separately.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Today, we want to have you hear excerpts from these
books so you can decide for yourself and you'll know
what this is about. Also, respectfully, requesting you consider helping
the Elizabeth School District financially so they can stand.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Up and fight this.
Speaker 6 (19:05):
So.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Oh, we have Jeff Maher with us.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
He's the public information officer for Elizabeth, Dan Snolberger the superintendent.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Gentleman, whoever wants.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
To start, if you could just give the warning and
then get to the next excerpt.
Speaker 6 (19:17):
Sure, I'll go ahead and start.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
So before I begin with this excerpt, I just want
to give a disclaimer to any parents out there, anyone
who has kids or children nearby listening to this. We
don't want to have to read this, but it's important
so that we get our story out there and so
that people understand what we're facing. So we respectfully ask
(19:41):
that you remove any children from the speaker or what
you're listening to at the moment, just for their safe keeping.
This one is called Looking for Alaska. We ran with
it to the TV room, close the blinds, locked the door,
and watched the movie. It opened with a woman standing
(20:02):
on the bridge with her legs spread while a guy
knelt in front of her giving her oral sex. No
time for dialogue, I suppose by the time they started
doing it, Alaska commenced with her righteous indignation. They just
don't make sex look fun for women. The girl is
just an object. Look look at that. I was already
looking needless to say, a woman crouched on her hands
(20:24):
and knees while a guy knelt behind her. And I'm sorry,
I can't. I can't continue with the rest of this.
I think it does get too graphic. I realize we're
on the radio and we did give a disclaimer, but
it just it gets really bad. And you know, there
are other parts of this that we absolutely cannot read.
It has foul language and more.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
And I think it goes on to describe the act.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
I assume it does, yes, And it's not just sexual content,
as Dan will point out.
Speaker 5 (20:53):
Now, yeah, Dan, And we've got two books here that
we're also in our middle school library. One book in particular,
I would say the left to saying, oh, this is
the black experience that we're failing to We're failing to
allow children to gain the black experience. It's called the
hate You Give. And this is a quote from it.
(21:17):
Fooling around isn't new for us. And when Chris slipped
his hand into my shorts, I didn't think anything of it.
When he got me going. I really wasn't thinking at all,
for real, my thought process went out the door, and
right as I was at the moment he stopped, reached
into his pocket and pulled out a condom. He raised
his eyebrows at me, silently asking for an invitation to
(21:41):
go all the way. All I could think about was
those griddle school. This is twelve year olds and up
could access this book, but we're denying them reading the
black experience by excluding this. The other one is really
troubling because Masa Valley School District removed this in twenty
seventeen after seven children committed suicide. Oh it's called thirteen
(22:07):
Reasons Why. And I think all of us.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Wanted that book on the shelves.
Speaker 5 (22:11):
Yep, they want that not only at the high school,
but at the middle.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Spirit is going to court to keep this book on
the show exactly.
Speaker 5 (22:21):
But sometimes I took things further and wondered how I
would do it. I would tuck myself into bed and
wonder if there was anything in the house I could
use a gun? No, we never owned one, and I
wouldn't know where to get it. What about hanging well,
what would I use? Where would I do it? And
even if I knew what and where, I could never
(22:41):
get beyond the visual of someone finding me swinging inches
from the floor. I couldn't do that to mom and dad.
So how did I find how? So how did they
find you? I've heard so many rumors. It came down
the two lines of thinking. If I wanted people to
think it was an accident, I drive my car off
(23:03):
the road someplace where there's no chance of survival. And
there's so many places to do that on the outskirts
of town. Probably I've probably driven by each of them
a dozen times in the past couple of weeks. You
took pills that we all know. Some say you passed
out and drowned in a bathtub full of water, And
(23:26):
so again, you know thirteen reasons, why let's provide thills
in lots of ways to think.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
About This is beyond insane, absolutely beyond insane.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
What is their pretext? What is their claimed reason for
wanting this one on the shelf?
Speaker 5 (23:43):
There claimed reason about all of these books as were
denying them understanding the LGBTQ and the African American experience.
That's the argument in their complaint to the court. And
yet you read these quotes and I've yet to find it.
Every one of these books has obscene content, and that's
(24:06):
the reason the board and the community so that they
don't belong in our library. But unfortunately, the mainstream media
here in Denver has picked up their complaint and that's
what that's what's been on the airwaves, and that's why
we appreciate being able to be here and share the
actual content so that our community understands and why we've.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Taken this action.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
I will say Dan, that the landscape here in the
media has changed quite a bit over the last few years.
I'm a native of Colorado. I spent twenty years as
an anchor and reporter traveling the country and I at
the time, I was trained by some really good journalists
here in Denver, ones that taught me to be unbiased,
(24:52):
to be neutral, to only present both sides of a story,
or else the story wouldn't run. And then I moved
back to my home state and realize what a toxic
culture I had escaped from. And that's why I left
that industry is because what it has become, and so
it's very easy to air a biased story, to put
(25:14):
together a biased article on this subject when you are
just listing the titles, and you're hailing the authors and
the groups that might be celebrating this and making Elbert
County and Elizabeth School District out to be the bad guy.
It's very easy to write that article and not include
the excerpts and not show exactly to the public.
Speaker 6 (25:37):
What we're talking about.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
And that's why it's so important, because we've noticed that
the narrative changes, the reactions change when we actually read
these excerpts, and then people say, oh, wow, I didn't
know that that was happening.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Well and cheerpoint chef mar speaking, public information officer for Elizabeth.
You know, it's so easy to suck up to powerful interest, right,
So people in the media, Hey, they got a big
upside sucking up to the ACO. You you know, what's
their upside? You know, to give it a fair shake
to Elizabeth. And again, that's so opposite what journalism used
(26:11):
to be around here. And there are still some really
admirable journalists I think around here, but they're fewer and
further between.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
But before we all.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Used to take pride in standing up to the powerful
and now just wow. So what I'd like to do, guys,
is can you before this hard break, give the information
on how people can financially support the effort of Elizabeth
School District to protect the kids, to fight the ACOU
and win this case for the kids in Elizabeth and
(26:41):
kids everywhere else.
Speaker 5 (26:43):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (26:44):
Our website is Elizabethschool District dot org. I'm right at
the very top of the page as a banner that
will take you to Parents United. They've been a strong
partner in this effort to help us fund this lawsuit.
I'm proud to say at this point we are continuing
to be able to fund our legal defense and and
(27:06):
just need that continued support. This is going to be
an expensive case. We know it will not be settled
in the circuit court here in Denver. That well, we'll
need to go further because what people don't know is
this is not settled law. There are probably five different
library cases right now in states across the United States,
(27:27):
and there's not settled precedent and in this type of
an issue. So we just we really appreciate your listeners
and ask that you know anything can help, and we
hope you'll consider not only going to the website to help,
but again monitor this case. This will be an ongoing
a case We expect a new ruling this week from
(27:50):
our from the local Denver judge on the next steps
and whether this preliminary junction will be reissued or whether
she will actually grant here to allow us to actually
come to court and present our side of this.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
And when we come back, guys, tell me, I'm going
to ask you to read again after multiple warnings from
the book the aco You is trying to keep on
the shelves that describes incest and it's one of the
most disturbing things I've.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Ever heard on air. But before we hit this break,
why does the aco you say that book needs.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
To be available to the miners in the Elizabeth school district,
the one describing incest?
Speaker 5 (28:34):
Again, I can't. I can't answer for them right now.
They have grouped it into the whole group. See I
they've grouped it into the whole group, and they they
have sold the judge that it is an LGBTQ buck
and that.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Well, let's talk about that on the other side.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
When we come back with warning, we will we will
have that excerpt b read to you. And keep in
mind the ACOU has gone to court to try to
make sure that the the miners and Elizabeth have that
book on the shelves here on the Dankplas.
Speaker 7 (29:05):
Show and now back to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
So why is the left, I'm talking nationally so intent
on sexualizing children? And here we have the Elizabeth School
District right here in Colorado standing up trying to protect
the kids. And we have the PIO, Jeff Maher with
us as well as the superintendent, Dan Snowberger.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
They've been here the whole hour.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
And what we're going to do now is we're going
to have them continue to quote from the eighteen books
they want to remove from the shelves. The ACLU going
to court to try to force them to.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Keep these books on the shelves.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Now, gentlemen, I know you have a lot more excerpts,
but earlier you read one that was one of the
most disturbing things I've ever heard on or off air,
and as I understand it, the ACLU asking a judge
to force you to keep this book on the shelves.
So my warning to folks is this is really really disturbing.
(30:02):
No way you want kids to hear this. And gentlemen,
with whatever warning you have, that excerpt regarding incest that
they want a court to force you to keep available
to students.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
So just to clarify, Dan, you're asking for me to
repeat what we said at the top of the hour
because I also have a longer version of it too.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Oh yes, yes, but let's warn the heck out of
people on this. It's so deeply disturbing.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
Okay, So just a full disclaimer to all of those
who are listening that this is not appropriate for children,
and we ask that you remove children from the room
and not have kids around as we are reading these
excerpts from these books that.
Speaker 6 (30:47):
We are talking about.
Speaker 4 (30:48):
And so the one that Dan was referencing is identical
by Ellen Hopkins, and the short version that we read.
Speaker 6 (30:56):
At the top of the hour goes like this.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
He used at his tears and at the sticky stuff
icing her hands. Still, Kaylee pleaded, don't cry, daddy. What's
the matter? Didn't I love you good enough? Unimaginable And
there's a much longer excerpt that I have in my
hands too.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
Well, please again, with everybody warned, go ahead, just so
people can understand how wrong this is.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
And we don't want to have to read this either.
It's just it's important that we are doing it so
that everyone has a clear understanding. But yes, please remove
any children from the room. This goes on to say
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
(31:47):
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 Kaylee's bed, pulled
her into his lap.
Speaker 6 (32:02):
He smelled of brute and wild.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
Turkey, his peculiar pot prix. I love you so much,
my little flower. Daddy needs something from my girl, my
sweet rose.
Speaker 6 (32:15):
Will you give it to me?
Speaker 4 (32:17):
I wanted to be his little flower, would have given
my daddy anything. What did he want from Kayley? She
laid her head on his chest. What I want you
to see something, something that proves how much I love you.
Speaker 6 (32:31):
This is only for you.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
I'm sorry, I'm going to be a jerk here. I've
got a stap.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
Because I don't want to hear this, and I don't either.
I don't want to hear it. I don't want it.
My head You've done such a great point of making
the point and of hopefully alerting all of us to
how we all need to get involved and help in
this fight.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
So how can we help you win?
Speaker 5 (32:54):
Yep, Dan, again, our website is Elizabeth School District dot
org and again encourage people to to visit that site.
Top banner is a link to Parents United, who's been
a great partner in helping us raise funds for this
legal battle. You had asked me before before the last
segment break, you know, first Amendment is their other argument
(33:17):
that the not only the right of children to read this,
but the right of the authors to express these points
of view. And that just sickens me because again you
know it just uh, we're gonna we're gonna fight this.
We're going to fight this as long as it takes,
and we have the resolve as a school district to
(33:38):
do so. And and we just ask your listeners to
help in whatever way they can and and again follow
our case on that website. We we just again appreciate
the opportunity of being here with you today and sharing
this well.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
I appreciate the way you guys are fighting because as
hard as it is for any of us, to listen
to any of that.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
For you to have to be able to.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
Educate all of us this way, you know, it has
to be extremely difficult to be so easy to say, hey,
we're a small school district. They're the all powerful acl you.
We did our best, we have no choice. But you're
not saying that. You're standing up, you're fighting, You're putting
yourselves out there, you're putting the work in.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
And so the least the rest of us.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
Can do, I think, is if we have the ability,
whether it's given a dollar or some of the very
wealthy people in the audience given a whole lot of money,
your fight is our fight, and I've got to believe
eventually you're going to win, whether it's the US Supreme Court,
which has a habit right of taking cases out of Colorado.
But gentlemen, we have thirty seconds left. Thank you for
what you're doing. Hopefully everybody will go to the Elizabeth
(34:43):
School District website and do what they can to help.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Thank you, and let's get together soon. Thank you, Dan,
thank you, thank you you take.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Care of Ryan. Thank you for your great effort. As always, Kelly,
you're the best. Please join us tomorrow. We'll follow up
on this tomorrow as well on The Dan Kapla Show.
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