A Kentucky media specialist in a senior leadership position defended a book that contained sex imagery—which was challenged by a local mom as "pornography"—by invoking Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
Dr. Lynn Reynolds, the executive director of Library Media Services at Jefferson County Public Schools, expressed her support during a July 28 hearing to keep a book called "Gender Queer" in the district's public school libraries. At one point Dr. Reynolds raised the practice in Hitler's Nazi Germany to burn books as part of her reasoning.
"I don't want to be too dramatic. But I want to be clear. Hitler banned and burned over 25,000 books… because they were viewed as representing ideologies opposed to Nazis," Reynolds said as part of her defense of "Gender Queer."
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Reynolds appeared to be referencing the1933 book burning in Nazi Germany in which university students burned 25,000 titles in Berlin’s Opera Square.
The book-burning campaign targeted works by Jewish authors, critics of the Nazi regime, as well as "foreign" influences. Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels said at a book-burning that it was a "great symbolic act [which] shows we are tearing down the spiritual foundations of the Weimar Republic."
The book that was challenged by the mom is a graphic novel that depicts sex acts and contains discussions on masturbation. It was the #1 most-challenged book in the country in 2021, according to the American Library Association.
"I thought it was really harsh to be compared to Hitler," said Miranda Stovall, the mom who challenged the book. She is also the vice president of the Kentucky chapter of No Left Turn in Education, and shared with Fox News Digital her reaction to Reynolds' comments.
"First of all, that's probably one of the worst people you could be compared to. And I'm not really book banning or book burning. I'm asking the public schools to use wise discernment when choosing materials for minor children," she said.
Fox News Digital reached out to the district for comment, asking whether the comparison to Nazi Germany was accurate, but did not immediately receive a response. Dr. Reynolds did not immediately respond regarding whether she stands by her remarks.
"Gender Queer" was originally challenged months prior and the July 28 hearing was the final stage of the process. The mom said she expects to be notified on the district's decision at some point in September.
Dr. Reynolds also said in defense of "Gender Queer" that "The main challenge of this book is obscenity. But… obscenity could be viewed differently… No one else gets to decide what you consider to be obscene."
"Accepting and loving children does not mean putting pornography in their hands," Stovall said at the meeting. She went on to describe the sexually-charged parts of the book.
"What adult would want to rob someone of their childhood innocence?" the mom said. "I found those adults. They were the school principals, the school leadership teams, and the JCPS superintendent."
"They all collectively disagreed that graphic pictures of oral sex, dildos, stap-ons, advertisements for porn sites are obscene material for children," she said.
The media specialist, Dr. Reynolds, also argued that "Gender Queer" has literary value and is aligned with "Common Core standards."
"Gender Queer impacts readers and allows them to feel those that are marginalized. When books explore ideological and literary elements, educators are better equipped to lead social and cultural conversation. It disrupts norms, and it allows them to examine text for different conceptualizations," Dr. Reynolds said.
"Books are an invitation for children to see themselves in imaginative stories," she continued. "Books are sometimes windows offering you a world that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange."
The mom's attorney, Clint Elliott, disagreed.
"Even if the distribution of pornography to children was not a crime under Kentucky law, under what scenario would it be okay for a public school to do that. Do we really need a law to tell us that it's wrong? How does this promote the welfare of our community and the next generation by sexualizing children when it contributes to known harm and risk of pornography, of obscenity," he said.
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Elliott continued, "How does the school have the right, or perceived right, to do these things without the consent of parents? One of our fundamental constitutional rights in America is the parents' right to the care, custody, and control of their children and their upbringing. And why would the school be in defiance of those rights?"
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The attorney then alleged Kentucky has a law that prohibits sexually explicit material from being distributed to minors. It seems the school.
"Pervasive throughout this book is sexual exploitation, sexually explicit material that fits the definition under Kentucky law."
