Last month, the Great Barrington police department entered W.E.B. Du Bois Middle School with the district’s permission to investigate the presence of Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer.” The graphic memoir about grappling with gender and sexual identity is a frequent target of banning campaigns driven by right-wing groups across the United States. Despite apologies from Police Chief Paul Storti, Superintendent Peter Dillon, and other Great Barrington officials, community outcry against the police intervention has been overwhelming.
Supporters of the police action were few and far between at Thursday’s meeting.
“You did the right thing by allowing the police to attempt to confiscate material in the school that is harmful to minors," said Lisa Baumgart of Cheshire, who is the owner of Greylock Physical Therapy in Lanesborough and has a son at Monument Mountain Regional High School. She says under Massachusetts General Law, the references to sex in “Gender Queer” qualify the book as material harmful to minors.
“Keeping this book and others like it in the school is a clear violation of the law," Baumgart continued. "If we don't take a stand against inappropriate material allowing allowed in the school, we are abdicating our responsibility as administrators, teachers, parents, and community members. We are either protecting the innocence of children's lives or we are complicit in their abuse. I want to be clear- We do not support book bans and censorship of any kind. We respect all people.”
Baumgart suggested the district follow the example of Brevard County, Florida, where the group Moms for Liberty successfully pressured the school board into pulling 13 books from library shelves in late 2023. Moms for Liberty is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a far-right extremist organization for its history of homophobia as well as harassment and threatening of teachers, librarians, school board members, and opposing activists.
“Your role is simple," said Baumgart. "Follow the rule of law. Do not be influenced by political ideology. Parents, this is a people call to action for you to stand up and prevent the endangerment of the welfare of your child.”
The meeting allowed students – including past and present attendees of W.E.B. Du Bois Middle School – to voice their thoughts on the situation.
“I accessed a lot of helpful literature from the from the classroom of the teacher who was at the center point of this whole thing, and it sort of made me realize that I was welcome and that I wasn't a freak, and I wasn't a horrible person for being who I am. Around that time was definitely at the start of COVID, so that was a very isolating and fearful moment for me and a lot of people. And around that time, I also started doing work in our community, and being a person who is queer, it sort of feels isolating when you're in that environment, and you feel like you are someone who is not appreciated, not valued, and not real. So, the existence of these books in classrooms is a net positive for children like me," said Nyx Tucci, now a junior at Monument Mountain. “Frankly, the apology that the people who are affected received from Chief Storti is not enough. All I'm expecting from people in charge that they are here to protect our entire community. The way that this was handled did not feel like it was protecting multiple people, but just one person. And to think that I went to a school that harbored someone who would complain about this to the police in a directed bigoted attack is horrifying. And I don't even want to think what that means to people who currently go to that school and identify as trans, non-binary, queer in general.”
Sixth-grader Edith Burns agreed that the response from the adults charged to protect students had been lacking.
“A couple of weeks ago, the middle school had a walkout," she said. "I was surprised when I saw my principal, Mr. [Miles] Wheat, walk out with us, and didn't think to come up in front of us and say something. The majority of the school was out there, yet I felt uncomfortable when Mr. Wheat was just standing in the back, not even being seen. My question is to Mr. Wheat- When are you going to stand up to talk to us, the students?”
The most telling testimony came from Miles, a fifth-grader at W.E.B. Du Bois.
“I was on the bus yesterday, and one of the kids said a homophobic comment," he said. "One of them said, like, oh, I don't go on TikTok, I'm not gay or something. And I said, well, I am gay. And then they repeatedly asked me questions about the book, like, what their thoughts were on it, and they told me that it was pornography, and they show me pictures of the book. And I told them, it's not, it's not, and they kept saying hurtful comments about either my opinion or the book. I really didn't feel comfortable in that situation, because I was being targeted. They recorded me, they took a picture of me without my permission, which made me feel very unsafe, and I strongly feel that this book should not be banned.”
The school committee authorized an investigation into the incident by Pittsfield based law firm Cohen Kinne Valicenti & Cook at the meeting.
