{"id":3873,"date":"2024-04-01T14:09:30","date_gmt":"2024-04-01T18:09:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/?p=3873"},"modified":"2024-05-02T20:26:17","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T00:26:17","slug":"moms-for-liberty-take-down-science-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/moms-for-liberty-take-down-science-fiction\/","title":{"rendered":"Moms For Liberty Take Down Science Fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Benjamin Hong, Features Editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On March 28, 2024, Howard County\u2019s school board passed a policy to restrict the availability of science fiction books in school libraries and digital resources. Championed by the conservative activist group Moms For Liberty, the policy was passed unanimously and will go into effect at the beginning of April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The policy specifically addresses a concern some parents have about the prevalence of science fiction in school libraries. They point toward a perceived inconsistency in school policy, where science fiction is permitted as part of a school\u2019s environment and curriculum, while religious texts, argued to be essentially fictional interpretations of science and therefore of equivalent educational value, are not given the same regard. Prominent conservative commentator Ben Shapiro pointed out in a viral clip last summer the \u201cclear hypocrisy of making \u2018science fiction\u2019 available to the minds of children, even making them part of the curriculum, while simultaneously deeming religious fictions inappropriate for a public school environment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maryland is no stranger to this kind of movement. On January 10, Carroll County\u2019s Board of Education passed a resolution that would come down on novels with LGBTQ+ content, after a group of parents expressed concern over their children\u2019s exposure to such works. The Vice Chair of the Carroll County chapter of Moms for Liberty and the so-called \u201cmastermind\u201d of this policy, Jessica Garland, celebrated that victory on X the following day, crowing that the policy was \u201cworth it for our children and for parental rights. No educator, NO MATTER HOW MANY DEGREES OR YEARS OF EXPERIENCE, should tell me when my child is ready to read what we uncovered.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garland was a guest speaker at the Howard County chapter of Moms for Liberty on February 26th of this year. At that meeting, as well as in impassioned speeches in multiple board of education meetings, she expressed strong support for an expansion of her work into Howard County. She cited Carroll County\u2019s policy as a \u201cstepping stone to a safer future for our children,\u201d and decried the school board of Howard County for \u201cfailing to provide a bare level of support for their students.\u201d When the news of the Howard County policy went live, Garland once again took to X, triumphantly declaring, \u201cThis is a major advancement FOR ALL PARENTS AND RELIGIONS. I foresee the day when generations will grow up without the polluting influence of the written word.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There has been little backlash against this decision in the broader community, and schools across the county appear to be acting in compliance with it. When asked about the lack of response from students and staff as she was pulling volumes of Jurassic Park<\/em> off the shelf, Bailey Shagogue, a media specialist here at River Hill, simply stated that \u201cthe students don\u2019t seem to mind the loss. Of course, I would prefer to be able to keep these books up, but without the support of the students here, I really can\u2019t do all that much. It\u2019s America after all.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Benjamin Hong, Features Editor On March 28, 2024, Howard County\u2019s school board passed a policy to restrict the availability of science fiction books in school libraries and digital resources. Championed by the conservative activist group Moms For Liberty, the policy was passed unanimously and will go into effect at the beginning of April. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":3874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[510],"tags":[948,919,286,947,269,211,285,926,558],"class_list":["post-3873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-satire","tag-banned","tag-books","tag-journalism","tag-moms-for-liberty","tag-rhhs","tag-river-hill","tag-river-hill-high-school","tag-satire","tag-science-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/unnamed-5.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3873"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3875,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3873\/revisions\/3875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}