Kent Pekel became superintendent of Rochester Public Schools in June 2021. Since then, he’s effectively steered RPS through some perilous waters, and the Post Bulletin’s editorial board has lauded his leadership on several occasions. After two of his predecessors left the district in disgrace, he’s brought a calm, steady and capable hand to the helm.
But now he has made an unforced error — and a somewhat puzzling one at that.
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Last February, the parent of a Franklin Elementary student complained about a book in the school library. “The Rainbow Parade” describes the experience of a young girl and her two mothers at a pride parade in San Francisco. It includes small illustrations of a nude woman (seen from behind) and a man wearing what we assume are supposed to be leather chaps and a dog collar attached to a leash that is held by his similarly-attired partner.
On that page, the text states “Everyone is wearing whatever makes them feel most like themselves, even if that means wearing hardly anything at all.”
On Dec. 10, the district removed the book from the library’s shelves. Pekel himself ordered this action, which he later justified in a memo that stated: “I believe that the depiction of public nudity makes the book inappropriate for the open shelves of a media center in an elementary school where students as young as kindergarten can access the book without adult supervision or guidance.”
We are certain that Pekel came to his decision after much deliberation. It’s a complex situation, and when our editorial board members took up this issue for discussion, we went around and around (and down more than a few rabbit holes) as we sought consensus.
Below are some of the key points that came up during our 90 minutes of spirited debate:
- The book’s presence in the school library was intentional. Franklin’s media department chair, Tammy Van Moer, said the book was purchased in 2023 “due to a need to represent authentic family structures and experiences of underrepresented people in our school, community and the world.”
- A 10-member review committee, which included community members, a secondary student, teachers, media specialists and equity specialists, has voted 9-1 in favor of keeping the book.
- The Rochester Public Library has strongly defended the prize-winning book and finds “intrinsic value in having this authentic representation of a pride parade on elementary media center shelves.”
- Last spring, Gov. Walz signed a law that prohibits K-12 schools, college and public libraries from removing/banning a book “based solely on the viewpoint, content, message, idea, or opinion conveyed.”
Given all of the above, we concluded that the more appropriate course for Pekel would have been to reverse his decision last week when this topic came to a boil during a school board meeting — or, better still, he initially could have trusted the judgment of the media specialists to keep the book.
So why did he dig in his heels? Why overrule the very professionals who are paid to make these tough calls? Why attempt to thread such a tiny legal needle, saying that it wasn’t the book’s subject matter that crossed the line, but rather its depiction of public nudity? Does that mean Pekel wouldn’t object to illustrations of nudity inside a home?
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We’ve read the 30-page book, and while we don’t think it would have been much the worse for omitting the unclad woman and the leather-wearing men, we’d point out that these are two tiny drawings that the average second-grader would scarcely notice nor understand — and if they did, their response would probably be a giggle, or maybe an assumption that the people are in bathing suits. Parents who watch any prime-time TV are likely exposing their kids to far more sexualized content via commercials for the latest crop of reality TV shows. And most parents today are quite familiar with the aptly-named children’s book series “Captain Underpants.”
“The Rainbow Parade” doesn’t promote indecent exposure or sexual bondage. It doesn’t tell kids to be gay. Its message is one of acceptance, tolerance and being comfortable with oneself and one’s family — even if that family doesn’t have one mom and one dad.
Should this book be required reading for every second-grader? Of course not, but neither should it be forbidden fruit, or available only to kids who are brave enough to ask the librarian to get it out of a locked case.
Libraries (even elementary school libraries) are marketplaces of ideas. For a lot of kids, a library offers a first chance to stretch intellectual wings, to sample ideas, stories and experiences that haven’t been pre-approved and spoon-fed to them by their parents. It’s a big, interesting world, and a well-stocked library is a great way for kids to begin exploring it.
Some parents, however, don’t want their kids to read about lifestyles and cultures that conflict with their family beliefs. These parents aren’t wrong, but their opinions on child-rearing, religion and/or sexuality shouldn’t dictate what other kids are allowed to read. Such parents can opt to home-school their children, or send them to private schools that match their beliefs – or those parents can go to their public school library, see what’s there and let the librarians and their kids know which books are off-limits.
We think Pekel was wrong to ban “The Rainbow Parade.” Whether he meant to or not, he sent a chilling message to the gatekeepers who decide what is on library shelves — and in the eyes of some parents, he’s just declared open season on every book that contains a photo, illustration, painting or sculpture that reveals “taboo” parts of the human anatomy.
This post was originally published on here
