(tl;dr)

• Please, sign this petition to oppose the removal of books from Hempfield School District's libraries which infringes on our students' first amendment rights.
• Please, share this petition.
• Please, show up on May 9 at 5:30pm to show your support for our students' constitutional rights outside of the board meeting which will begin at 7pm. (200 Church Street, Landisville, PA 17538)
• And if you are a resident/tax payer in Hempfield, please use this form to state your intent to speak at the board meeting in support of our students (https://forms.gle/PMNX5BPN8SipZart6). To actually sign up, you must go here, but it won't be live until May 8.

Background:

At the April 20 policy meeting, the Hempfield School Board, discussed removing any "sexually explicit content/material" from the library (including at the high school level). The policy makes note of material that is (federally defined as) obscene or pornographic, but goes further to state:

"Sexually explicit content/material shall mean content/material that graphically describes or illustrates sexual behavior or acts of any kinds."

There was a discussion of adding the word prurient to this language, however most members of the board didn't know what that word meant and asked that the policy be adopted as is. (Prurient is defined as: having or encouraging an excessive interest in sexual matters). Another member of the board complained that "reference materials" is too broad of a term for exemption from this policy because he didn't know what "references materials" referred to. 

This is book banning and it infringes on our students First Amendment Rights.
"Those who oppose book banning emphasize that the First Amendment protects students’ rights to receive and express ideas. The Supreme Court in Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District v. Pico (1982) ruled 5-4 that public schools can bar books that are “pervasively vulgar” or not right for the curriculum, but they cannot remove books “simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books.”"
https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/986/book-banning

There is no similar prohibition in the policy for graphic descriptions of violence, and that is how we know this is not about "protecting kids," but rather it is about bringing a conservative Christian mindset--championed by the Independence Law Center (part of an Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate group) who was seen on campus on the same day of the meeting--into a public school.

There is nothing ILC wants more than to have a Supreme Court fight about this, and they are using our board and our school district to advance their cause and using our students and their first amendment rights and freedoms as pawns.

This is detrimental to their education, to the proper functioning of a school, and to our tax dollars.

Again...

• Please, sign this petition to oppose the removal of books from Hempfield School District's libraries which infringes on our students' first amendment rights.
• Please, share this petition.
• Please, show up on May 9 at 5:30pm to show your support for our students' constitutional rights outside of the board meeting which will begin at 7pm. (200 Church Street, Landisville, PA 17538)
• And if you are a resident/tax payer in Hempfield, please sign up to speak at the board meeting in support of our students. (need form)