This is Dan Caplis and welcome to today's online podcast edition of The Dan Kaplis Show. Please be sure to give us a five star rating if you'd be so kind, and to subscribe, download and listen to the show every single day on your favorite podcast platform.
This is a.
Fight worth fighting because the American way is, we don't sexualize children.
Right.
We believe in core basic values, whether somebody's of faith or no faith at all, and a core value of every decent civilized human is we do not sexualize children. So why is the LAFT so determined to sexualize children? It's crazy and it's wrong, and Elizabeth is standing up to it. Not the woman Elizabeth, the school district Elizabeth. And so we have with us today a couple of
special guests from Elizabeth. Jeff Maher is with us as well as Dan Snowberger, and they're going to read a particular kind of warning before they read from these books that the ACLU has gone to core to try to force the Elizabeth School to strict.
To keep on the shelves.
So, Jeff, why don't we start with you and give people a quick introduction to the issue. I want to promise everybody listening that you are going to hear from the books themselves in this segment. So Jeff take it away, my friend, Well.
Thank you for having us and giving us this opportunity again. I'm here with Superintendent Dan Snowberger. I do have many of those excerpts that we are going to read from some of the books in question, But I think the first thing that we'll do, and I'll let Dan take it away, is to give us the latest on the case, because there have been a lot of developments, especially over the past week.
Yeah.
Thanks Dan, We really do appreciate the opportunity of being here today. You know, we are really focused in Elizabeth School District on parents' rights, and one of the things many school districts, unfortunately have done is has assumed more and more of the role of the parent. We began reviewing not only our curriculum but the materials in our school libraries last spring, and it became very obvious to us that over the years we've collected some materials in
our libraries that just were inappropriate. We began recognizing that there were parents who wanted a little more control over what parents what they prefer their children check out. So we started reviewing our entire collection. We have over fifty
thousand books in our libraries. We started identifying books that had sensitive topics, books that might have graphic violence, books that might have religious connotations, books that might have sexual content, successive racism, things like that that some parents might be fine with their children reading, others may not, And so we labeled books with sensitive content. A lot of parents who wanted their children not to access those books to
opt them out. But in the process of doing so, we identified nineteen books and that's what we're here to talk about today, nineteen books that had excessive age and appropriate material that in the process, we displayed for twenty five days in our community for our parents and our community members to come in and take a look at and give the board some guidance as to what they thought these books, what we should do with these books,
and overwhelmingly, our community said, these books are inappropriate and don't belong in the library. And so we made the decision based on the inappropriate content of these books to remove them, only to find four months later that we were being sued by the ACLU to force us to put these books back. A week and a half ago, we were given an order a preliminary in junction by
a Denver judge to replace these books in our library. Luckily, after appealing and asking for a stay of that motion and then appealing to the Tenth Circuit, the local judge did stay her motion and asked for the plaintiffs to respond to our motion for stay and appeal. So we are currently in that phase where our motion has been stayed and we await her ruling this week. Either she will offer a hearing or she will again re order.
Us to put these books back to the library.
So Superintendent, thank you for finding the good fight. And we'll talk later about what the motives of aco you are. But we know what yours are, which is just to protect the innocence of children. So I know that there's a certain warning that, yes, you want to give before reading from these books, So please do give the warning.
And I know folks absolutely want to hear what this is all about.
Absolutely certainly we recognize there are Sadly, there are parts of these books we can't read because you would get in trouble, Dan, and the radio station would get in trouble. And to be very honest, we can't even transmit some of these through our Child Internet Protection Act filter in our district. So I would just encourage parents who are listening. And you never want to tell people don't listen to your show, but I would just encourage parents who are listening.
If you have young young ears in.
The room, please ask them to leave the room, because obviously we're going to read some quotes from these books that a Denver judge ordered a week and a half ago to have us put back in our libraries that currently we are on a stay from. Please have your children leave the room, just because we certainly believe the content that we are about to read is inappropriate for them.
So with that in mind, and I do apologize beforehand because I personally don't want to read the excerpts from these books, but we have to because we have not been given a fair shot in Denver media at all, and so we just have to do this to let people know what's really going on. So this is from Crank by Ellen Hopkins. I froze as he pushed inside. There it is, Oh god, there it goes. It went alright with an audible tear, pain mushroomed into agony, and all I could do was go stiff. This one is
by Ellen Hopkins. It's called Identical, and it goes on to say, confused at his tears and at the sticky stuff icing her hands still, Kaylee pleaded, don't cry, daddy, what's the matter?
Didn't I love you good enough?
So you got to stop there for a second.
It's yeah, it's just beyond imagination that acou or any decent human would want any child to be exposed to that.
So I and thank you for the warning you gave.
I think we'll have to stop, probably after every segment and give a warning again because people join this show all the time.
That is just so horrific and first.
In my view, no, no minor should be hearing any of that. But what ages does the ACO you want to try to force you to make this available.
To There are books in these nineteen There's one book that was at the elementary level, there's two books that were at the middle school level, and there were fifteen books that were at the high school level. So again you know, many of these books are adult content, and again they to recognize at the high school you have fourteen year olds who can pick one of these books up off the shelf.
I mean, see what you just read, and that's Jeff Maher from and forgive me, Jeff?
Is it ma isn't Bill Maher? Yes?
No relation?
And a public information officer for Elizabeth School District.
Yeah that think Jeff.
So what you just read is the sort of thing that can traumatize a child for life, right, can traumatize a high school kid for life that they might never get out of their mind. I mean it, Yeah, that is that is just terrific. So again, if you just joined us, Jeff Maer, public information officer for Elizabeth School District, and Dan Snowberger, the superintendent, are with us.
They're reading from the books.
ACLU is trying to force them to keep on the shelves.
So yeah, next excerpt.
Okay, So the next one is a book that was available to students as early as age five in our elementary schools, and it is from George alternately named Melissa. Features a character who is in fourth grade and is going through a gender transition. She immersed her body in the warm water and tried not to think about what was between her legs, but there it was, bobbing in front of her. And another page from that book, it goes on.
To say, way just an elementary school.
Yes, this one says, so George knew it could be done.
A boy could become a girl.
She had since read on the internet that you could take hormones and would change your body, and you could get a bunch of different surgeries if you wanted them and had the money. This was called transitioning. You could even start before you were eighteen with pills called androgen blockers that stopped the boy hormones already inside you from turning your body into a man's. But for that you needed your parents' permission.
And again they want this in elementary school. Yeah.
And the funny thing about that book is it was in our other elementary school two years ago a library and had a parent complain that the librarian was shocked to find that that book was in her collection and she removed it herself. So that was removed from one of our libraries two years ago by a wise librarian who just said, oh my gosh, how did this book even get my collection. We found this in the review
of the library materials by our curriculum Review committee. And now we're being sued by the ACLU for this removal again. You know, wow, this process we tried to do publicly because we believe the school district belongs to the taxpayer.
And Dan, I'm so sorry to interrupt, and I so appreciate the fight you're fighting. We've got to hit this hard break when we come back. You're listening to Dan Snowberger, he's superintendent Elizabeth School District. They'll read from some other excerpts of books. The ACLU has gone to court to try to fight them to keep on the show. So why is the left so interested, so determined to sexualize children.
You're on the Dan Kaplas Show.
And now back to the Dan Kaplas Show podcast.
Special guest in studio today. Grateful to have Jeff.
I want to say mahr because I have these cousins, the Mahers. They're wonderful bit of pronounce it's pronounced like Bill Maher. So Jeff Maher is the PIO for Elizabeth School District, Dan Snowberger the superintendent, and they're fighting the good fight to try to keep off their shelves eighteen obscene books. ACLU has gone to court to force those to be on the shelves. And before we get to why ACLU is trying to do that, we want to get you content from some of these books, so you'll
know what's being talked about. We did discuss some of the content in the last segment, and we'll continue to give warnings before we do that.
So, Jeff, are you going to read the next excerpt?
So I think for the next one, Dan has a list of these as well, so he's going to talk about one book in particular and the implications of that. But again, before we do this, we do want to give that disclaimer to anyone who is listening that if you do have kids nearby, if you do have children nearby, that the material that we're reading in this hour it's not suitable for children. So we just asked that you
move them away from from the speaker. So Dan, if you want to go ahead and read from the next one.
Yeah, the next The next one is is another book. It's called perks Abino Wallflower. This one the segment is this one couple whom I was told later was very popular and in love, stumbled into my room and I asked if I minded them using it. I told them that my brother and sister said I had to stay here, and they asked if I could use the room anyway. And me still in it. I said, I didn't see why not. So they closed the door and started kissing,
kissing very hard. After a few minutes, the boy's hand went up the girl's shirt and she started protesting.
Come on, Dave, what the kids in here? It's okay?
And the boy kept working up the girl's shirt, and as much as she said no, he kept working it. After a few minutes, she stopped protesting and he pulled his shirt off and she had a white bron with lace. I honestly didn't know what to do by this point. Pretty soon he took off her bron started to kiss and I'll stop there because it gets to the point that I think I get you in trouble.
So and it goes into a description. He goes and happened next? Wasn't a much more description? And so now in this and it's bad on every level. How old is the child whose perspective this is written from, who's now watching all of this?
This is an elementary student that's that's observing this, And again, this book is this book was in the in the library at the high school with fourteen year olds that could check this out.
Oh my goodness.
Oh and before we get into more excerpts. I know the school district, Elizabeth School District, is fighting this battle valiantly. It's going to be a very expensive battle. How can people help with that?
You know, we are are fortunate to have partnered with a number of organizations. We have a link up on our website Elizabethschooldistrict dot org. Parents United has been a great partner. There's a link at the top of our web page. We are definitely reaching out to folks who are willing to help us. You know, we're a small school district and really commit it to and using our funds to educate our kids and of course just put some of that at risks. So anyone willing to help us,
we really encourage them to go to our website. All of our legal filings are also on our website. We have a page dedicated to that, so folks who are interested in following, we encourage them to also bookmark that website and follow along. We'll keep you up to date as we get additional rulings from the court.
And I'm sure the ACLU knows how expensive this is for your school district, and so I hope everybody steps up and help I think Ryan is a question as well.
I do for the two of you that I think a lot of our listeners will have that the decency standards, which are talked about a lot, not.
Only in our business but in general, are much different.
It's going to be a much different community in Elizabeth than it would in the Denver Public School District. And my question on behalf of the listeners will be, why can't you guys just tell the ACLU to go kick rocks on this?
We would like to, And I think that's kind of our point is we went to our community. The school board didn't just impose their will that the school board provided these books for twenty five days, allowed the community to come in weigh in on this, and the community overwhelmingly said these books don't belong in our library. And I think that was a key part of this. We didn't just remove these books. We didn't just say, you know,
these five board members don't like these. We asked the community, and the community responded, and the board took the will of the community and acted. And I guess that's the frustration is this board did the right thing by its community who elected them, and yet we're being sued for doing.
That, and Dan Dan Snowberger, the superintendent, Elizabeth. None of these books are about political point of view, political viewpoint.
Any of that.
This is just about sexual obscenity exactly.
Unfortunately, they've painted it as if we've removed LGBTQ viewpoint in black experience viewpoint, that we've removed them because of African American authors. And it's the farthest thing from the truth. And I will say, as we've shared these quotes out in our community, our parents are our galvanized behind the school board and behind the school district.
I think they're going to have a very hard time correct me if I'm wrong, showing that you want to leave up on the sholves books that have similar blatant sexuality but pertain to heterosexual sex correct or are written by white authors, right, I'd be very surprised if they're able to put into evidence any such books correct exactly.
And one of the most interesting topics here is the federal government requires school districts to have an Internet filter under the Child Internet Protection Act. When that the lawsuit was filed and there were quotes, or actually when we responded and we provided quotes, our response could not be transmitted through our Internet filter.
Because of that tell everything that should be exhibit A, right, I'm sure it is.
Hey.
When we come back, we.
Have Jeff Maher, who is the PIO for Elizabeth School District at Dan Snowberger the superintendent. They'll continue to read excerpts from these books containing these obscenities. You're hearing that the ACLU has gone to court to try to force them to keep on the shelves here on the Dan Kapla Show.
You're listening to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
A very special hour of the Dan Kaplis Show. Glad you're here and you will be too.
We have a school district fighting valiantly to protect their children and to protect their children from the ACLU going to court now to try to force the school district to keep on the shelves eighteen books concerning a very sexualized material. And we'll get to the separate issue of why does the left as a whole seem so determined to sexualized children.
We'll get to that separately.
Today, we want to have you hear excerpts from these books so you can decide for yourself and you'll know what this is about. Also, respectfully, requesting you consider helping the Elizabeth School District financially so they can stand.
Up and fight this.
So.
Oh, we have Jeff Maher with us.
He's the public information officer for Elizabeth, Dan Snolberger the superintendent.
Gentleman, whoever wants.
To start, if you could just give the warning and then get to the next excerpt.
Sure, I'll go ahead and start.
So before I begin with this excerpt, I just want to give a disclaimer to any parents out there, anyone who has kids or children nearby listening to this. We don't want to have to read this, but it's important so that we get our story out there and so that people understand what we're facing. So we respectfully ask that you remove any children from the speaker or what you're listening to at the moment, just for their safe keeping.
This one is called Looking for Alaska. We ran with it to the TV room, close the blinds, locked the door, and watched the movie. It opened with a woman standing on the bridge with her legs spread while a guy knelt in front of her giving her oral sex. No time for dialogue, I suppose by the time they started doing it, Alaska commenced with her righteous indignation. They just don't make sex look fun for women. The girl is
just an object. Look look at that. I was already looking needless to say, a woman crouched on her hands and knees while a guy knelt behind her. And I'm sorry, I can't. I can't continue with the rest of this. I think it does get too graphic. I realize we're on the radio and we did give a disclaimer, but it just it gets really bad. And you know, there are other parts of this that we absolutely cannot read. It has foul language and more.
And I think it goes on to describe the act.
I assume it does, yes, And it's not just sexual content, as Dan will point out.
Now, yeah, Dan, And we've got two books here that we're also in our middle school library. One book in particular, I would say the left to saying, oh, this is the black experience that we're failing to We're failing to allow children to gain the black experience. It's called the hate You Give. And this is a quote from it. Fooling around isn't new for us. And when Chris slipped his hand into my shorts, I didn't think anything of it.
When he got me going. I really wasn't thinking at all, for real, my thought process went out the door, and right as I was at the moment he stopped, reached into his pocket and pulled out a condom. He raised his eyebrows at me, silently asking for an invitation to go all the way. All I could think about was those griddle school. This is twelve year olds and up could access this book, but we're denying them reading the
black experience by excluding this. The other one is really troubling because Masa Valley School District removed this in twenty seventeen after seven children committed suicide. Oh it's called thirteen Reasons Why. And I think all of us.
Wanted that book on the shelves.
Yep, they want that not only at the high school, but at the middle.
Spirit is going to court to keep this book on the show exactly.
But sometimes I took things further and wondered how I would do it. I would tuck myself into bed and wonder if there was anything in the house I could use a gun? No, we never owned one, and I wouldn't know where to get it. What about hanging well, what would I use? Where would I do it? And even if I knew what and where, I could never get beyond the visual of someone finding me swinging inches from the floor. I couldn't do that to mom and dad. So how did I find how? So how did they
find you? I've heard so many rumors. It came down the two lines of thinking. If I wanted people to think it was an accident, I drive my car off the road someplace where there's no chance of survival. And there's so many places to do that on the outskirts of town. Probably I've probably driven by each of them a dozen times in the past couple of weeks. You
took pills that we all know. Some say you passed out and drowned in a bathtub full of water, And so again, you know thirteen reasons, why let's provide thills in lots of ways to think.
About This is beyond insane, absolutely beyond insane.
What is their pretext? What is their claimed reason for wanting this one on the shelf?
There claimed reason about all of these books as were denying them understanding the LGBTQ and the African American experience. That's the argument in their complaint to the court. And yet you read these quotes and I've yet to find it. Every one of these books has obscene content, and that's the reason the board and the community so that they
don't belong in our library. But unfortunately, the mainstream media here in Denver has picked up their complaint and that's what that's what's been on the airwaves, and that's why we appreciate being able to be here and share the actual content so that our community understands and why we've.
Taken this action.
I will say Dan, that the landscape here in the media has changed quite a bit over the last few years. I'm a native of Colorado. I spent twenty years as an anchor and reporter traveling the country and I at the time, I was trained by some really good journalists here in Denver, ones that taught me to be unbiased, to be neutral, to only present both sides of a story, or else the story wouldn't run. And then I moved back to my home state and realize what a toxic
culture I had escaped from. And that's why I left that industry is because what it has become, and so it's very easy to air a biased story, to put together a biased article on this subject when you are just listing the titles, and you're hailing the authors and the groups that might be celebrating this and making Elbert County and Elizabeth School District out to be the bad guy. It's very easy to write that article and not include the excerpts and not show exactly to the public.
What we're talking about.
And that's why it's so important, because we've noticed that the narrative changes, the reactions change when we actually read these excerpts, and then people say, oh, wow, I didn't know that that was happening.
Well and cheerpoint chef mar speaking, public information officer for Elizabeth. You know, it's so easy to suck up to powerful interest, right, So people in the media, Hey, they got a big upside sucking up to the ACO. You you know, what's their upside? You know, to give it a fair shake to Elizabeth. And again, that's so opposite what journalism used to be around here. And there are still some really admirable journalists I think around here, but they're fewer and further between.
But before we all.
Used to take pride in standing up to the powerful and now just wow. So what I'd like to do, guys, is can you before this hard break, give the information on how people can financially support the effort of Elizabeth School District to protect the kids, to fight the ACOU and win this case for the kids in Elizabeth and kids everywhere else.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Our website is Elizabethschool District dot org. I'm right at the very top of the page as a banner that will take you to Parents United. They've been a strong partner in this effort to help us fund this lawsuit. I'm proud to say at this point we are continuing to be able to fund our legal defense and and just need that continued support. This is going to be an expensive case. We know it will not be settled
in the circuit court here in Denver. That well, we'll need to go further because what people don't know is this is not settled law. There are probably five different library cases right now in states across the United States, and there's not settled precedent and in this type of an issue. So we just we really appreciate your listeners and ask that you know anything can help, and we hope you'll consider not only going to the website to help,
but again monitor this case. This will be an ongoing a case We expect a new ruling this week from our from the local Denver judge on the next steps and whether this preliminary junction will be reissued or whether she will actually grant here to allow us to actually come to court and present our side of this.
And when we come back, guys, tell me, I'm going to ask you to read again after multiple warnings from the book the aco You is trying to keep on the shelves that describes incest and it's one of the most disturbing things I've.
Ever heard on air. But before we hit this break, why does the aco you say that book needs.
To be available to the miners in the Elizabeth school district, the one describing incest?
Again, I can't. I can't answer for them right now. They have grouped it into the whole group. See I they've grouped it into the whole group, and they they have sold the judge that it is an LGBTQ buck and that.
Well, let's talk about that on the other side.
When we come back with warning, we will we will have that excerpt b read to you. And keep in mind the ACOU has gone to court to try to make sure that the the miners and Elizabeth have that book on the shelves here on the Dankplas.
Show and now back to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
So why is the left, I'm talking nationally so intent on sexualizing children? And here we have the Elizabeth School District right here in Colorado standing up trying to protect the kids. And we have the PIO, Jeff Maher with us as well as the superintendent, Dan Snowberger.
They've been here the whole hour.
And what we're going to do now is we're going to have them continue to quote from the eighteen books they want to remove from the shelves. The ACLU going to court to try to force them to.
Keep these books on the shelves.
Now, gentlemen, I know you have a lot more excerpts, but earlier you read one that was one of the most disturbing things I've ever heard on or off air, and as I understand it, the ACLU asking a judge to force you to keep this book on the shelves. So my warning to folks is this is really really disturbing. No way you want kids to hear this. And gentlemen, with whatever warning you have, that excerpt regarding incest that they want a court to force you to keep available to students.
So just to clarify, Dan, you're asking for me to repeat what we said at the top of the hour because I also have a longer version of it too.
Oh yes, yes, but let's warn the heck out of people on this. It's so deeply disturbing.
Okay, So just a full disclaimer to all of those who are listening that this is not appropriate for children, and we ask that you remove children from the room and not have kids around as we are reading these excerpts from these books that.
We are talking about.
And so the one that Dan was referencing is identical by Ellen Hopkins, and the short version that we read.
At the top of the hour goes like this.
He used at his tears and at the sticky stuff icing her hands. Still, Kaylee pleaded, don't cry, daddy. What's the matter? Didn't I love you good enough? Unimaginable And there's a much longer excerpt that I have in my hands too.
Well, please again, with everybody warned, go ahead, just so people can understand how wrong this is.
And we don't want to have to read this either. It's just it's important that we are doing it so that everyone has a clear understanding. But yes, please remove any children from the room. This goes on to say it was dark in our room, velvety black. Someone had closed the curtain. Kaylee was scared. I tried to tell her not to worry, but just then Daddy burst through the door. I closed my eyes tight, made myself no more than a shadow. Something about him was different. I
didn't want that something to find me. I cracked my eyes, just a slit. As he sat on Kaylee's bed, pulled her into his lap.
He smelled of brute and wild.
Turkey, his peculiar pot prix. I love you so much, my little flower. Daddy needs something from my girl, my sweet rose.
Will you give it to me?
I wanted to be his little flower, would have given my daddy anything. What did he want from Kayley? She laid her head on his chest. What I want you to see something, something that proves how much I love you.
This is only for you.
I'm sorry, I'm going to be a jerk here. I've got a stap.
Because I don't want to hear this, and I don't either. I don't want to hear it. I don't want it. My head You've done such a great point of making the point and of hopefully alerting all of us to how we all need to get involved and help in this fight.
So how can we help you win?
Yep, Dan, again, our website is Elizabeth School District dot org and again encourage people to to visit that site. Top banner is a link to Parents United, who's been a great partner in helping us raise funds for this legal battle. You had asked me before before the last segment break, you know, first Amendment is their other argument that the not only the right of children to read this, but the right of the authors to express these points
of view. And that just sickens me because again you know it just uh, we're gonna we're gonna fight this. We're going to fight this as long as it takes, and we have the resolve as a school district to do so. And and we just ask your listeners to help in whatever way they can and and again follow our case on that website. We we just again appreciate the opportunity of being here with you today and sharing this well.
I appreciate the way you guys are fighting because as hard as it is for any of us, to listen to any of that.
For you to have to be able to.
Educate all of us this way, you know, it has to be extremely difficult to be so easy to say, hey, we're a small school district. They're the all powerful acl you. We did our best, we have no choice. But you're not saying that. You're standing up, you're fighting, You're putting yourselves out there, you're putting the work in.
And so the least the rest of us.
Can do, I think, is if we have the ability, whether it's given a dollar or some of the very wealthy people in the audience given a whole lot of money, your fight is our fight, and I've got to believe eventually you're going to win, whether it's the US Supreme Court, which has a habit right of taking cases out of Colorado. But gentlemen, we have thirty seconds left. Thank you for what you're doing. Hopefully everybody will go to the Elizabeth School District website and do what they can to help.
Thank you, and let's get together soon. Thank you, Dan, thank you, thank you you take.
Care of Ryan. Thank you for your great effort. As always, Kelly, you're the best. Please join us tomorrow. We'll follow up on this tomorrow as well on The Dan Kapla Show.