Falsehoods circulating in schools make students feel unwelcome

If you love truth, you must hate lies. If you love children, then you must have contempt for the adults who create lies to manipulate children.
There is currently a body of lies being circulated around and in Pennridge schools regarding the targeting and removal of literary works by Black authors and the banning of books dealing with LGBTQ topics. These lies, spread knowingly by adults outside and inside of the schools, are culminating in an expressed belief by students that they don’t feel welcome or, worse, don’t feel safe in their own schools and community.
Some of these lies are that Pennridge has an initiative to remove Black authors from the curricula and to ban books about LGBTQ issues from its libraries. The most appalling of claims is that members of the Pennridge administration, school board, and other community members just don’t care about children “of color” or those who are part of the LGBTQ community.
The truth is this: Some books have received scrutiny based on their content alone.
1. There were, in fact, works – by authors (some of whom happen to be Black, along with some White writers) – that were questioned by parents because of their content, in the context of the larger offering of resources for a given subject. Numerous education experts state that students benefit when they see themselves in the books they read. That does not mean, however, that for a Black student to be “seen” in a book, the Black characters need to exclusively find themselves at the receiving end of police violence or constantly struggling against ubiquitous discrimination and bigotry in the United States of America. It is important to note that resources by Black authors were requested and added as well.
2. As far as books by and about LGBTQ people, this is primarily a question of age-appropriateness. The district was made aware of one such book that contained graphic illustrations of adult-on-child sexual relations, which have no place in public schools. In response, the district administration initiated a thorough review of all library resources across multiple themes (violence, language, gender identity, sexuality). Despite claims, no books have been banned or removed from the Pennridge schools.

I don’t blame the students who echo this chorus of lies, as they are being told such things by adults who constantly claim they are looking out for them. It is manipulation of the lowest form. These same adults – a small, vocal assembly of common actors – provide hyperbolic comments at school board meetings and project vile characteristics onto other adults on social media and in newspaper articles in which they are quoted.
Lies are harmful to all of us who share a common goal of fostering a positive school environment for children. The disinformation only forms an artificial riff that is most clearly and immediately seen within the student body.
Most damning is that the falsehoods betray any stated desire for harmony and well-being in those schools. To willfully ignore truths and continue communicating a parade of lies is shameful.
American teens are amid a mental health crisis like has never been seen before according to an endless list of respected organizations that have gauged these things for decades. Incidents of depression, anxiety, self-harm, eating disorders, and hopelessness continue trending dangerously upwards. Yet here we have some parents, teachers, and other adults knowingly contributing to this burden by repeating things that are not true: that some kids shouldn’t feel safe, welcome, or respected in their schools and community. The people who perpetuate these fabrications cannot be part of any solutions.
I beg that all of us, as adults, dispense with the exaggerations and distortions. Those things are the tools of problem-making. Do not spread them and, best, challenge them when you hear them as they only serve to compound the extraordinary challenges currently facing our young people.
Nick Teliska, Pennridge resident and parent

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