Gov. Kemp visits Forsyth school amid book controversy
FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. - Gov. Brian Kemp held an education roundtable at a Forsyth County high school just days after the system removed several books from library shelves.
The roundtable included Forsyth County Schools Superintendent Dr. Jeff Bearden, State School Superintendent Richard Woods, Forsyth County Sheriff Ron Freeman and several other local officials.
During the event, Gov. Kemp told participants he was there "to listen."
"We just continue to communicate and that's really what's driven a lot of our policy decisions, but also funding decisions," explained Gov. Kemp.
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The event took place at Alliance Academy for Innovation, a school that offers seven different pathways for students including health care, criminal justice, and aerospace and drone technology. Gov. Kemp toured the school before the discussion.
"To be able to take the tour today and see this facility, it makes me feel good about the money that we're putting into [Career, Technical, and Agricultural Education] equipment," said Gov. Kemp.
The governor touted his proposed budget plan, which includes the final installment of his promised $5,000 teacher pay raise and fully funds the state's Quality Basic Education, or QBE, formula.
"The governor's budget proposal is historic," said Superintendent Dr. Jeff Bearden. "There's more funds for K-12 education in the State of Georgia ever in the history of our state and so, for us as a school system, it's critically important."
Gov. Kemp's visit was not without controversy, though. A small group of protestors gathered on the sidewalk outside the school to express their opposition to the system's decision to ban books last week.
"That's wrong," said Anita Tucker, who lives in south Forsyth. "This is America. This is free speech and these kids are not dumb. This is not the way my tax dollars should be spent and I do know it's coming from the top."
One of the protest's organizers said she was concerned that the banned books were disproportionally about characters or written by authors who are LGBTQ+, Black or women.
According to a spokesperson for the district, they removed eight books from the schools "indefinitely" last week:
- All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
- Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera
- L8r, g8r by Lauren Myracle
- Me Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
- Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
- Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez
- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
- The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle
"We had parents notifying us about books that had sexually explicit content and that's where we had, administratively we reviewed the books," said Dr. Bearden. "We have over 500,000 books in our media centers in Forsyth County Schools, but there were 8 of them that we determined were not appropriate to be in public schools. So we removed those eight books administratively."
Gov. Kemp said those issues concern him as a parent.
"We'll have a lot of dialogue. I think that's something people at home should know that you know, we're going to be very thoughtful about this and we're talking to everybody involved. We're talking to the parents, for sure, but we're also talking to teachers and superintendents and school board members and the folks back home and I think this will be a good debate for us to have that will move us forward as a state," said Gov. Kemp.
The Georgia State Senate approved a bill dealing with obscene materials last year, but it stalled in a House committee. More bills on the topic will likely be filed this legislative session.
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