Age Appropriate Books for Westfield Washington Students

Love an acceptance and being kind to people no matter who they are and what the identify as should be a value you want your child to have

Homophobia and transphobia aren’t family values

As a proud WWS alum, a former classmate of Amber's, and the parent of a WWS 4th grader, I am hopeful that Amber's decisions on the WWS School Board are influenced more by the collective wishes of her constituents in the community than just yours. As of this writing, 1,875, and counting, of those constituents have signed the counter petition on Change.org (https://www.change.org/p/westfield-residents-access-to-age-appropriate-books). Any attempt to block access to books or other learning resources that represent views that happen to be different than yours, or don't align with your reality and beliefs, flies in the face of freedom of speech and expression, things that so many of the folks that are signing this petition purport to hold near and dear to their hearts. Just because you take these books out of the schools does not mean the kids who cannot choose to ignore these very real gender identity issues suddenly disappear, too. It behooves us as an intelligent people to give our kids all the tools they need to succeed in this world, where you cannot just pretend like things that clearly exist, don't. I am so thankful that my son and his friends appear to be more tolerant and understanding of people who don't look like them, think like them, or believe what they believe, than many of their parents and grandparents apparently are, as evidenced by this group and petition.

As a proud WWS alum, a former classmate of Amber's, and the parent of a WWS 4th grader, I am hopeful that Amber's decisions on the WWS School Board are influenced more by the collective wishes of her constituents in the community than just yours. As of this writing, 1,900, and counting, of those constituents have signed the counter petition on Change.org (https://www.change.org/p/westfield-residents-access-to-age-appropriate-books). Any attempt to block access to books or other learning resources that represent views that happen to be different than yours, or don't align with your reality and beliefs, flies in the face of freedom of speech and expression, things that so many of the folks that are signing this petition purport to hold near and dear to their hearts. Just because you take these books out of the schools doesn't mean the kids who cannot choose to ignore these very real gender identity issues suddenly disappear, too. It behooves us as an intelligent people to give our kids all the tools they need to succeed in this world, where you cannot just pretend like things that clearly exist, don't. I am so thankful that my son and his friends appear to be more tolerant and understanding of people who don't look like them, think like them, or believe what they believe, than many of their parents and grandparents apparently are, as evidenced by this group and petition.

Diversity is a joke and I hope you will all vote for me as Ivanka’s VP.

First, this has nothing to do with the latest right wing conspiracy theory, 'Critical Race Theory.' Stop it with that. The best way for you to petition the PUBLIC school to respect your rights is to take your grandchildren and your foster to adopt child to a private school where you can better control the narrative and protect your brood from life's realities.

Read that back and think about what you just said. Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg don't even know Westfield Washington Schools exist. Come on. You must understand that there are children in our elementary schools that struggle with these very issues. Those kids and their realities don't just go away because you remove some books from the library. It's important to prepare our kids for all of the realities the world will show them and this is one that isn't going away. Time to evolve and stop watching Newsmax.

It's not a behavior. Just because your generation and mine did not openly embrace that some kids don't feel at home in their biological bodies doesn't mean it wasn't real then and isn't real today. Who are you to tell these kids their feelings are unacceptable and unhealthy. This is extremely irresponsible.

Would you also recommend they move the kids who struggle with the very issues these books attempt to address to the counselor's office instead of allowing them to walk around in public view of their teachers and friends?

As the parent of a WWS 4th grader, I am hopeful that Amber's decisions on the WWS School Board are influenced more by the wishes of her constituents in the community than yours. As of this writing, 1,850, and counting, of those constituents have signed the counter petition (https://www.change.org/p/westfield-residents-access-to-age-appropriate-books) asking that these books stay in our public schools. An attempt to block access to books that happen to represent realities that are different than yours, flies in the face of freedom of speech and expression, things that so many of you that are signing this petition purport to hold near and dear to your hearts. I am so thankful that my child and his friends seem to be more tolerant and understanding of people who don't look like them, think like them, or believe what they believe than many of their parents and grandparents apparently are, as evidenced by this petition and those who've signed it.

Wondering how these books made it to the library?? Hope they will be removed!!

I'm tired of educators trying to influence our children's values and what should be the job of parents.

Sick of schools trying to destroy our family values and our children!

Teach love and acceptance, but why must our children be exposed to such mature and life altering facts and decisions at such a tender and impressionable age? Can they just be kids for a while?

Cox and the Board Members said our job is not to micromanage the staff. We trust them to make the best decision.' That is well intended, but when half your voters tell you they don't like the decisions made, you better do more than listen. You should take action or be voted out and replaced with someone who understands what representation is.

Grandparent of children in Westfield schools.

How exactly is teaching your kids acceptance and about some struggles that their peers may be going through an agenda ? How is it a lie?

How about respecting the separation of church and state and respecting that not everyone is a follower of your religion.

How about age appropriate Bibles and Bible stories for children!

I absolutely agree with removing these books ! Things are out of control with the gender identity scenario ! They don’t need this crammed down their throats at this age