Beaufort schools have a problem with bullies. They’re a bunch of adults who hate books

If Beaufort County School District gives in to an irrational, self-righteous little group that wants books banned from school libraries, the district will be permitting what it doesn’t allow among its students — bullying.

Stand up to the book ban bullies, Beaufort County School District, and put the books back on the shelf.

Mary Dimitrov of the Island Packet reported that a Beaufort County School District official said, “We have seen the harassment, intimidation and verbal threats of termination and legal consequences directed at public officials and employees continue to escalate at board meetings, on social media, and via email.”

This terrible behavior comes from the book ban bullies who want 97 books taken out of school libraries permanently.

“The email chains threatened legal action and said the schools were violating federal laws by having ‘pornographic materials in schools,’” another school district official said, Dimitrov reported. The emails utilized “’language of law to leverage into a demand.’”

“I want to say that the safety of employees was considered” when the district removed the books for review, the official said. Removing the books was an “opportunity to maintain a climate for educators again, back to teaching and learning.”

Let’s put that into plain language like Ernest Hemingway might write. The bullies harassed and intimidated faculty. The faculty felt unsafe. They couldn’t do their jobs.

One of the complainers even filed a complaint with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office and asked that the district be criminally held responsible. The sheriff’s department said it isn’t investigating.

Does this sound like a group of rational, concerned parents? No. It sounds like a bunch of bullies.

The book ban bullies are seizing on dramatic scenes in a couple of books to justify banning 97 books. They give no context from the remaining parts of the books aside from these scenes. Think of the damage the book ban bullies could do to students’ English classes if they only quoted certain parts of Shakespeare.

Is Beaufort County School District going to fall for this intellectual dishonesty?

None of book ban bullies’ complaining is helping children.

Before this push by some conservatives to ban books, which is happening across the state and country, did Beaufort County School District receive a hoard of complaints from a parents saying their children read some books and now they’re all hellions in the streets? Highly doubtful.

The book ban bullies say these books are rated adult. But the ratings are created by an arbitrary organization that simply has a website. It has no affiliation with the publishing industry.

You know who is a better judge of these books? The librarians and faculty that work in the schools and who are trained professionals in running libraries.

If Beaufort County School District doesn’t stand up the book ban bullies, the district is showing that it doesn’t trust its faculty to make decisions that are best for students.

The only thing the book ban bullies’ complaint is doing is creating an environment in which school district faculty want to leave their jobs to avoid harassment and intimidation.

The Beaufort County School District cannot cave to these kinds of tactics. If it does, it’s giving this book ban bullies permission to stomp all over the district with whatever illegitimate issue they conjure up next.

The district already has an indication that the book ban bullies won’t stop.

Since the 97 titles were pulled for review, the district is still receiving threats targeted at employees, the school district official said.

Of course the district is still receiving threats. That’s what bullies do when you don’t stand up to them. They keep bullying.

Stand up for yourself Beaufort County School District. Stand up for your faculty and staff. Stand up for your students. Put the books back out.