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Parents, clinicians and students urge Omaha Public Schools to remove sexually explicit materials from school collections
Summary
Six speakers during public comment told the Omaha Public Schools board that sexually explicit books and classroom materials are harming students and asked the district to remove specific titles and review library and classroom screening practices. The board did not take formal action during the meeting.
Several parents, a clinical psychologist and current and former students told the Omaha Public Schools Board of Education on March 24 that sexually explicit books and classroom materials are harming children and asked the district to remove or more tightly screen those materials.
Josh Cahill, a parent who spoke during the public-comment period, said his son has been assaulted multiple times at a district school. “My son was actually accosted again for the fourth time in an OPS restroom less than 2 weeks ago,” Cahill said. He added that the district’s prior responses left his family “less than acceptable.”
Clinical psychologist Linda Vermooten told the board she treats children and adults with histories of sexual abuse and said exposing children to explicit content can change how they view themselves and others. “When you take this kind of explicit material and you put it on a child, what happens? They cannot handle it,” Vermooten said, arguing that some library and classroom materials go beyond what children can emotionally manage.
Several other speakers described their personal experiences and urged action. Mikaela Khazor, who said she first encountered sexual material in a teacher’s classroom in second grade, told the board that early exposure contributed to anxiety and other harms. “When I was in second grade, it was the first time I was ever exposed to sexual material…in a school library,” Khazor said. Community worker Michelle Rogers named a book she said remains on shelves at Bryan Middle School, identified by her as Haunted, and said it contains “sexual activities, graphic violence, including gore…abortion, drug and alcohol abuse, self harming.” She urged the board to remove the title from school collections.
Speakers asked the board to clarify how parents can learn which books are in classrooms and libraries and requested more transparent review processes. Doctor LaDonna Griffin and Leo Lewis, both community organizers, described local efforts to connect parents and teachers and offered community resources tied to family engagement and discipline.
Board procedure during the meeting limited each speaker to five minutes under policy 83-46 and the board granted two speakers a waiver of the requirement to state their addresses for security reasons. The board did not take formal action to remove books or change district policy during the March 24 meeting.
The topic drew repeated, emotional testimony but no staff presentation or board motion to change library or curriculum materials was recorded in the minutes for this meeting. Board members did not debate or vote on book removals at the session; public-comment speakers were told how to submit written materials to the board secretary if they wanted further consideration.
The board’s next regular meeting and any follow-up materials review would be posted on the district website, ops.org, and the district’s public records office, as noted in opening remarks.
