School apologizes for sign posted among controversial books
Book hall in library – stock photo (iStock/Getty Images)
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(The Hill) — A Virginia high school apologized for placing a sign reading “Stuff Some Adults Don’t Want You to Read” among a display of books in its library as several schools and communities have debated the teaching or banning of books that address subjects such as sexual orientation and race.
The sign was displayed in the library at Langley High School in McLean, Virginia. In photos posted on Twitter, it could be seen in front of a display of books including “Roots of Racism” and “Maus.”
The sign provoked strong reactions online.
“This sign from Langley HS in Fairfax County. Wrong on so many fronts,” Pat Herrity, a member of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, tweeted on Tuesday.
“(Fairfax County Public Schools) doubling down on their big FU to parents. This display was for a rising 8th grader parents night. What books a library holds is debatable, but this is just ‘nah nah!’ childishness,” Carrie Lukas, president of the Independent Women’s Forum, a conservative activist group, tweeted a day earlier.
Langley High School Principal Kimberly Greer apologized for the sign in a letter to parents.
“The sign was incongruent with the beliefs of our school and our school division. Poor judgment was used in its display, and for this, I take full responsibility,” she wrote, NBC Washington reported.
A spokesperson for Fairfax County Public Schools told The Hill in a statement that the sign has since been taken down.
“FCPS principals encourage students or parents with any school concerns to contact them directly to allow for an open dialogue and an opportunity to find a resolution,” the spokesperson said.
The outcry follows a back-and-forth over education issues in the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial race, which saw now-Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, release a campaign ad featuring a mother who pushed to have the 1987 novel “Beloved” banned from her son’s English curriculum in Fairfax County years earlier.
More recently, a Tennessee school board last month voted to ban “Maus,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel on the Holocaust, from an eighth grade English language arts curriculum, citing language and nudity.
