A New York school district made headlines following a board meeting that went viral after parents voiced objections to an LGBT book elementary schoolers had access to that contained illustrations of naked people, with the board president ending the meeting early.
During a Penfield Board of Education meeting last Tuesday, parents objected to a book available to students titled The Rainbow Parade, authored by Emily Neilson. The book tells the story of a young girl attending a pride parade with her lesbian parents.
In addition to drawings of naked or semi-naked individuals, the book contains images of people dressed in sexual BDSM (bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, sadism and masochism) gear. Another section of the book shows a man dressed as a drag queen telling the main character she should feel "proud" of her two moms.
Some parents feel they did not have a chance to make their concerns known during last week's meeting after School Board President Emily Roberts ended the session early.
The Penfield Central School District did not immediately respond to The Christian Post's request for comment.
In a statement to WROC following the meeting, Penfield Superintendent Tasha Potter claimed that the disruption from parents was the reason for the decision.
"I want to make the community aware of the harm and hatred that was centered in the room last night when we had someone dressed in a full gorilla costume," the Penfield superintendent said.
She added that "if you think about the historical context of someone being dressed in that manner and having a black Superintendent and members of the board of education that are both black and brown, I think was extremely harmful."
The man in the gorilla costume has been identified as Jeff Briggs of Webster, the co-founder of an organization called Penfield Opposing Woke Education Racism, as WXXI News reported.
In an interview days later with News 10 NBC, Briggs said his motivation for wearing the gorilla costume was not to send a message about anyone's race.
P.O.W.E.R. called for parents to attend the board meeting to participate "in a silent and peaceful demonstration."
"We work with families, teachers and school administrators to eliminate programs and curricula that demoralize children," the group wrote in a release.
Concerns about the LGBT book began after Jennifer Selever, who identified herself as the parent of a fifth grader who brought the book home in December, went viral on social media over her remarks during a Jan. 14 school board meeting.
"This is a children's book. Why is there a naked man?" Selever asked during the Penfield Board of Education meeting last month. "It's not appropriate for children. They should be brought up on abuse charges, whoever approves this."
"It's time to get back to education, not indoctrination. It's sinister, OK?" she added.
A large crowd showed up for the Feb. 11 school board meeting, according to the local news outlet. The superintendent provided a PowerPoint presentation about how parents could challenge library materials, with several people in the crowd disagreeing with what Potter had to say.
"Excuse me, that's not — that is not how you object," Roberts said at one point before calling for a recess.
Despite the early end of the meeting, Potter said that she still wants to hear from parents who have concerns about The Rainbow Parade and those who support the book, as Spectrum News reported Friday. She said she received many messages from parents who think students should be able to "access books that are representative of their family structure, their students identities and they're very pleased to know that the district has library texts made available."
Among the concerns that parents have about the book is its availability to elementary school students. While some on social media claimed a kindergartener had checked out the LGBT book, school district officials claimed that there was no record of a student that young checking out The Rainbow Parade, WXXI News reported.
Potter told WXXI that she emailed Selever twice since the January meeting to relay information about how to challenge library materials but did not heard back. No formal challenge was submitted against the book, as no other family contacted the district to share concerns about that book.
