At the Las Cruces Public Schools board meeting Tuesday night, the topic of allegedly “objectionable” books available in LCPS libraries was again presented to the board.
During the public comments portion of Tuesday night’s LCPS board meeting, Sarah Smith from the Coalition of Conservatives in Action, presented each member of the board with an illustrated booklet titled “Parent’s Guide to 95+ Explicit Books in Las Cruces Public Schools: How to Protect Your Children from Porn in New Mexico School Libraries.” The spiral-bound booklet lists titles that she feels contain graphic content that are age-inappropriate for LCPS libraries, in addition to which specific LCPS library carries them.
“Protecting children from age-inappropriate, explicit content is not ‘book-banning.’ It’s just common sense,” Smith told the board. “Instead of taking common-sense steps to ensure that the school district is not providing children with age-inappropriate content, LCPS has chosen to take no action on this issue. School board members: it is not too late for you to consider this issue seriously and take action to make sure your schools are not exposing children to age-inappropriate content.”
Some of the 95+ titles listed in the booklet, deemed “the worst of the worst in terms of age-inappropriate content,” include “The Handmaid’s Tale”, “Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West”, “The Fault of Our Stars”, “A Game of Thrones” by George R.R. Martin, “The Kite Runner”, and “Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts)”, a book which Smith and the Coalition of Conservatives in Action’s Juan Garcia tried to have removed from the Mayfield High School library for what they felt was explicit content in 2023, only to have the board vote 6-1 for it to remain in the library.
Patrick Nolan, the newly-elected vice-president of the LCPS board, had looked through the booklet provided by Sarah Smith and had this to say afterwards.
“I think to call any of those books ‘pornography’ is a big reach,” Nolan said. “I haven’t read all of them, but there are a few I have read—‘Kite Runner’ specifically, is a really powerful book that I don’t think is inappropriate at all.”
Nolan also responded to Smith’s comments about the LCPS board not taking any action against what she feels are age-inappropriate books.
“That choice around these books is an individual choice for families and students,” he said. “So it’s really on them. Like if a parent wants to (not have) their child read a specific book, there’s a method and a way for those parents to do that, and it’s not up to us (the board) to make those choices for other families.”
In other board business, Pamela Cort, former vice-president of the LCPS board, was elected as the board’s new president. She’ll be replacing Teresa Tenorio, who volunteered to step down after serving two years as its president. Patrick Nolan was elected vice-president. Bob Wofford was elected the board’s secretary. The next LCPS board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, February 18th, at 6pm.
