To say I am outraged is an understatement. We’re talking about books that no matter what you think about them aren’t being taught as part of curriculum, they are merely on shelves in a library. People can read them…or not.

Or they were.

So Radnor Township School District I have to ask are you going to brand your students who are different? are they going to be forced to wear special patches on their clothing? Does this remind you of 1930s Germany before World War II? It should this is how it starts.

Oh, and people are going to say I’m being overly dramatic. I am not. I am however, appalled.

It’s hard enough being a teenager without the extra pressure that parents who are uncomfortable with their own identity and sexuality foisted upon other people’s children. at the end of the day that is what this is about. This is about a minority of adult being uncomfortable.

Of course we could ask why are they so uncomfortable but they would be too uncomfortable, providing an honest answer, wouldn’t they?

I’m shocked that this has occurred.

I’m sad that this has occurred.

I’m appalled that this has occurred.

I’m sitting here remembering my high school days when I knew there were people who were struggling with just a simple fact of were they gay or straight. And what I remember from those days is for the most part other kids were accepting in a lot of cases. It was the adults who were not accepting. A lot of the kids who were uncomfortable with anyone else different from them I remember back then often had totally screwed up parents.

Now, as soon as this news broke, I went to some Radnor people I still know and asked them did they know this was happening? And I’m speaking about people with kids in the school district. They are shocked and outraged and flabbergasted, and before this hit the news, apparently all this past weekend there were all these little meetings with school board members scurrying and doing what can be described as damage control. (Note to school board: damage control is undoing this.)

In a district that doesn’t like to talk about issues like any drug/alcohol issues or bullying issues which are perennial everywhere, but they want to ban books.

They don’t want to talk about kids falling behind or talk about the ones who might not be safe at home, but they want to ban books.

This country has a sad flirtation with book banning beginning in 1637 in Quincy, Massachusetts. Censorship remained sporadic well into the late 19th century. Then as the 20th century dawned, book banning went whole hog in this country depending on where you were.

Statistically speaking, 3/4 of the books subject to book banning today are for children, preteens, and teens. But is it the kids who are upset or even reading the books? Seems to me it’s the parents with identity issues of their own they don’t want to deal with?

Because of things like the 1st amendment, the 14th amendment, and the 4th amendment we should have freedom to read in this country. But we don’t because you have these people whipped in a frenzy, vis-à-vis fake news on social media who have warped perspectives on obscenity and morals. Mind you some of the people who all of a sudden are book banners and born again Puritans and super faux Christians were not so innocent way back when and oh the irony, right? I mean, you haven’t lived until you’ve come face-to-face with a hypocritical, former dirty girl masquerading as super mom. Yes, oh the irony.

Radnor School District needs to be taken to court like yesterday over this. Parents need to take the gloves off and stand up and fight for the basic rights which are supposed to be exist in the public school system.

This is pure unmitigated bullshit.

Tell Radnor’s School Superintendent Dr. Kenneth Batchelor to rescind the madness:

Kenneth.Batchelor@rtsd.org

610-688-8100

135 South Wayne Avenue
Wayne PA 19087

School Board emails:

sarah.dunn@rtsd.org

liz.duffy@rtsd.org

andrew.babson@rtsd.org

Clare.girton@rtsd.org

Jannie.lau@rtsd.org

Lon.rosenblum@rtsd.org

lydia.solomon@rtsd.org

susan.stern@rtsd.org

Dj.thornton@rtsd.org

Radnor parents, residents, and concerned citizens should be storming the proverbial Bastille over this. Protests, letters, packing meetings, speaking to media.

People if you’re not going to do it for your own children do it so future generations don’t have to feel like they are living in a prison when they are in school.

👉🏻If I lived in Radnor Township, I would put all of these books in every Little Free Library that sits on someone’s lawn anywhere. I would create Little Free Libraries just for these books.👈🏻

If parents don’t want their children to read certain books, that is up to them within their own household. They should not be able to decide for the rest of the population. And besides, especially when it comes to teenagers, do these parents remember being a teenager? For example when my mother said when I was in 7th grade that I couldn’t read Judy Blume books . So what did I do? I either bought copies and squirreled them away in the house in various hiding spots, or I borrowed them from friends. I read the books, and I lived and wasn’t scarred for life.

The point of education is not to stymie growth. The point of education is to teach and for kids to learn. What is the lesson being taught by Radnor Township School District? Quite frankly it is too ugly to contemplate.

Radnor’s School Board needs to find where they left their balls.

Philadelphia Inquirer: Radnor bans three books in response to a parent’s challenge, including ‘Gender Queer’

by Maddie Hanna
Published March 4, 2025, 2:01 p.m. ET