Dear New Mexicans, Around the country, explicit inappropriate books in schools are being challenged. I thought you'd be interested to know that this is happening in New Mexico, too. Below is information about a book challenge in Las Cruces. As best we can tell, this is the first formal book complaint filed in New Mexico thus far.
Formal Book Challenge of GRAPHIC Sexual Book in High School in Las Cruces
Juan Garcia (CCIA) and myself (Sarah Smith from NMFA) filed a formal complaint to Las Cruces Public Schools (LCPS), asking for removal of the graphic sexual book Jack of Hearts and Other Parts from the Mayfield High School library due to being age inappropriate. This book contains much inappropriate content, including graphic descriptions of pedophilia, an underage student having bondage sex with an older man, a school coach having sex with a student in the locker room, kids having many sex partners, kids drinking alcohol to the point of blacking out, and much more. NOTE: If you want to see the content in the book so you can judge for yourself whether it is appropriate for being in a school, I've uploaded photos of the book pages here: https://www.nmfa.us/jack On Thursday Oct 12, there was a formal hearing for a committee of 4 teachers and 3 parents to vote on whether they think the book should be removed from the school library. In a 6-to-1 vote, the committee voted to keep this book in the Mayfield High School library. Now the decision is up to the LCPS superintendent. The school district will not post the video of the hearing on their website. However, we were able to obtain a copy so you can watch the video of the hearing here. 👇👇👇 NOTE: This video includes the reading of graphic excerpts from the book and is not appropriate for children.
All four of the Las Cruces Public Schools teachers on the committee voted to keep this book in the school. Providing this type of content to children violates both state and federal law, but nonetheless the committee voted to keep the book. Now it is up to the LCPS superintendent to make the final decision. We were actually able to get some balanced news coverage through our local National Public Radio station here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9N9VeX_-wU
Are There Inappropriate Books in Other NM Schools?
You may be wondering how to find out if there are inappropriate books in your local schools. Feel free to email me (Sarah Smith, email: concernedfornm[at]gmail[dot]com) if you want to discuss ways to potentially get a similar process started in your own district.
We hope this information helps you better understand what is happening in NM schools.
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