Culture wars are playing out across America and here in South Central Pennsylvania. School board meetings have often become the battleground – especially since mask mandates and other mitigation efforts by schools during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s common for parents or groups to criticize the content of books, say critical race theory is being taught or question accommodations for LGBTQ students.

LNP investigative reporter Brett Sholtis recently reported about one group called Moms for Liberty – in the Warwick School District in Lancaster County and issues the group has raised.

On The Spark Monday, Sholtis was asked about the first paragraph of his story that quoted questions from Moms for Liberty -- "would the school district allow a student to identify as a tomato? Is the school putting kitty litter in the bathroom for students who believe their cats? Will reading a book about rape inspire a student to become a rapist now?" Sholtis weighed in, "I think there's a real flattening going on, Scott. A real flattening of the ability to sort of have nuanced and meaningful conversations, for example. And we see that a lot in this kind of language that you bring up there. And some of those examples, all of which I vetted, by the way, in fact, checked to make sure that, and in some cases I watched video of people saying those things. But again, to the flattening, it's one thing to say I think that this one book might have a passage in it that I would like to think about or talk about, but or maybe I don't even want my teenage child to read. But if you look at the language, it's words like Marxism, communism, pornography, critical race theory. So there's groomers, teachers are called groomers, a word that is usually associated with child sexual abuse. And so a slippage occurs where words don't have their normal meaning anymore. So if I were to call you, hey, you're someone who's teaching a book that I think maybe I don't necessarily want my child reading. That's a reasonable sentence. But if I call you a groomer, well, now you're upset instantly. It's, this is an emergency. And I think that's not enough attention is focused on the way that words are used and and too too quickly. I think we want to jump right to like let's talk about this book or whatever. But like, the way those words are used is really interesting because it gets people to sort of shut down their critical thinking and just view people in very simple terms. And I think that must be viewed here as it's something that's extremely consistent among the Moms for Liberty chapters, where you'll see the same language pop up in county after county."

Sholtis talked about Moms for Liberty's goals,"What I'll hear from critics of Moms for Liberty is that the real goal here is to take over school boards or to bend sort of school boards to their will. And, that's not necessarily my perspective, though. I see what they're saying. That's kind of where their larger concerns lie. And those same critics, a lot of these, more progressive groups, they track the money that goes into Moms for Liberty and the language around it they point to the broader context of efforts to weaken public schools."

Culture wars are playing out across America and here in South Central Pennsylvania. School board meetings have often become the battleground – especially since mask mandates and other mitigation efforts by schools during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s common for parents or groups to criticize the content of books, say critical race theory is being taught or question accommodations for LGBTQ students.
LNP investigative reporter <a href="https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/how-moms-for-liberty-is-shaping-warwick-school-board-races/article_d2a9fdf6-bd23-11ed-a261-73f9cfadfab4.html">Brett Sholtis recently reported about one group called Moms for Liberty – in the Warwick School District in Lancaster County</a> and issues the group has raised.
On The Spark Monday, Sholtis was asked about the first paragraph of his story that quoted questions from Moms for Liberty -- "would the school district allow a student to identify as a tomato? Is the school putting kitty litter in the bathroom for students who believe their cats? Will reading a book about rape inspire a student to become a rapist now?" Sholtis weighed in, "I think there's a real flattening going on, Scott. A real flattening of the ability to sort of have nuanced and meaningful conversations, for example. And we see that a lot in this kind of language that you bring up there. And some of those examples, all of which I vetted, by the way, in fact, checked to make sure that, and in some cases I watched video of people saying those things. But again, to the flattening, it's one thing to say I think that this one book might have a passage in it that I would like to think about or talk about, but or maybe I don't even want my teenage child to read. But if you look at the language, it's words like Marxism, communism, pornography, critical race theory. So there's groomers, teachers are called groomers, a word that is usually associated with child sexual abuse. And so a slippage occurs where words don't have their normal meaning anymore. So if I were to call you, hey, you're someone who's teaching a book that I think maybe I don't necessarily want my child reading. That's a reasonable sentence. But if I call you a groomer, well, now you're upset instantly. It's, this is an emergency. And I think that's not enough attention is focused on the way that words are used and and too too quickly. I think we want to jump right to like let's talk about this book or whatever. But like, the way those words are used is really interesting because it gets people to sort of shut down their critical thinking and just view people in very simple terms. And I think that must be viewed here as it's something that's extremely consistent among the Moms for Liberty chapters, where you'll see the same language pop up in county after county."
Sholtis talked about Moms for Liberty's goals,"What I'll hear from critics of Moms for Liberty is that the real goal here is to take over school boards or to bend sort of school boards to their will. And, that's not necessarily my perspective, though. I see what they're saying. That's kind of where their larger concerns lie. And those same critics, a lot of these, more progressive groups, they track the money that goes into Moms for Liberty and the language around it they point to the broader context of efforts to weaken public schools."

When people come together and talk about really interesting topics, great questions spark better understanding and opportunities for new ideas to form. On The Spark from WITF, hosts Scott LaMar and Aniya Faulcon start the conversations about what’s happening in the world and at home. Share your ideas at https://witf.org/programs/the-spark.

When people come together and talk about really interesting topics, great questions spark better understanding and opportunities for new ideas to form. On The Spark from <a href="https://www.witf.org">WITF</a>, hosts Scott LaMar and Aniya Faulcon start the conversations about what’s happening in the world and at home. Share your ideas at <a href="https://witf.org/programs/the-spark">https://witf.org/programs/the-spark</a>.

The Spark

When people come together and talk about really interesting topics, great questions spark better understanding and opportunities for new ideas to form. On The Spark from WITF, hosts Scott LaMar and Aniya Faulcon start the conversations about what’s happening in the world and at home. Share your ideas at <a href="https://witf.org/programs/the-spark">https://witf.org/programs/the-spark</a>.

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