A New Hampshire parent was arrested at a Monday night school board meeting after he voiced outrage his ninth grade daughter was assigned a book that contains a page detailing a graphic sexual encounter.<\/p>\n
Gilford school officials claim the book, \u201cNineteen Minutes\u201d by Jodi Picoult, contains important themes about a school shooting. But some parents believe a scene described in the book is inappropriate for their children.<\/p>\n
According to WCVB-TV, the book contains a graphic description of rough sex between two teenagers, which parents were unaware of until the book had already been distributed to their kids.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was shocked when I read the passage and not much shocks me anymore,\u201d William Baer told EAG News. \u201cMy wife was stunned by the increasingly graphic nature of the sexual content of the scene and the imagery it evoked.\u201d<\/p>\n
He went to the school board meeting to express his objections.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s absurd,\u201d he told the school board.<\/p>\n
\u201cSir, would you please be respectful of the other people?\u201d a school board member responded.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike you\u2019re respectful of my daughter, right? And my children?\u201d he countered.<\/p>\n
A police officer then arrived at the scene, instructing Baer to leave with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are going to arrest me because I violated the two-minute rule?\u201d the father said. \u201cI guess you are going to have to arrest me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moments later, Baer was escorted outside and placed in handcuffs. According to WMUR-TV, he was charged with disorderly conduct because he did not immediately leave when asked by an officer.<\/p>\n
His wife spoke to the media shortly after the incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cI fully understand how he feels. It really is a huge violation,\u201d Barbara Baer told WCVB.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy should those ideas be put in their mind? They can discuss this some other way. They don\u2019t need that kind of imagery,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
School district officials said they normally send out notifications to parents before assigning the controversial book, but forgot to do so this time.<\/p>\n
According to WCVB, school officials did not answer any questions Monday or vote on anything regarding the book.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany people in education and government truly believe our children are theirs,\u201d William Baer told EAG News. \u201cThat parents are only the custodians who feed them and put a roof over their head. These school incidents are a byproduct of this \u2018we know best\u2019 philosophy. They believe they have the authority to do this. If people were more complacent, which is hard to imagine, it\u2019d be even worse.\u201d<\/p>\n