Currently, Burke County Public Schools has two books that are grossly inappropriate for students. These books are “Dear Martin” and “The Hate U Give” (THUG). Unfortunately, both books can be found in the media centers of East Burke Middle, East Burke High, Heritage Middle, Freedom High and Hallyburton Academy.

The overall theme of these books, written by political activists, is to destroy the image of our American Police Force by teaching students that law enforcement is corrupt and racist. This idea is political rhetoric and has no merit.

Additionally, the language used in these books are appalling. Both books combined have nearly 700 profanities in only 653 total pages. “THUG” uses the “F” word nearly 100 times itself. The expletives found in these books are inappropriate for students to be reading in a book provided by a school.

These books also have sexual content that is pornographic in nature and definitely not appropriate for 11 and 12 year olds. Crude references are also made about taking a female’s virginity.

Both books have several incidents of drug use and underage alcohol consumption. “THUG” makes an effort to condone selling drugs and being involved with street gangs. “THUG” also praises the main character, calling her a hero, for being involved in a violent riot and throwing tear gas at the police.

Schools depend on law enforcement to provide security and safety for students. Providing anti-police materials for students is concerning. Books and any other types of materials that misinforms students with anti-police propaganda and extremely vulgar language have no place in our schools. These titles should be removed from our libraries and new policies put in place to prevent books or other media like these from being placed into our schools.