Bible’s place in Volusia board room

Banning books was not on the agenda for Volusia County Schools’ Sept. 26 board meeting, but many people showed up to discuss books during the public comment period.

While some speakers read sexually explicit content from books in school libraries that they deem should be banned, others advocated for the importance and necessity of diversity among books available to students.

“At this same meeting, Jessie Thompson, a school board member that was backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, listened to Bible excerpts being read by a Unitarian Universalist that were sexually explicit and Thompson stated that, ‘If you are being aroused sexually by the Bible then you might be doing it wrong,’ ” Quinn wrote in a statement. “Therefore, she is suggesting that sexually explicit content is perfectly fine on school bookshelves, and in classrooms, as long as it is from what Thompson called ‘the good book.’ ”

Thompson said she received an email Monday morning from Sheila Zinkerman and Laurel Robinson, cofounders of Citizens for Truth an Justice in Education, a grassroots organization advocating for equal, free access to age-appropriate, professionally-vetted educational materials in public schools. In the email, Zinkerman and Robinson asked Thompson — on behalf of CTJE and Free To Be Florida, an organization aiming to end the proliferation of educational censorship in Florida K-12 schools and libraries — to remove her personal Bible from the Volusia board room dais to “respect religious freedom for all.”

“We believe a bible or any other faith-based books has no legitimate place on a dais occupied by elected government officials. While it is permissible and common practice for public officials to place their hand on a bible for swearing-in ceremonies, that action is acknowledge as a personal reference to the faith of the individual being sworn in and does not tie that faith to official actions of the school board,” Zinkerman and Robinson said in a statement. “To have an official blatantly use a bible as a prop for decision-making is inappropriate and displays one religious bias to the exclusion of all others.”

CTJE and FTB agree Thompson’s response to Unitarian Universalist public speaker at the Sept. 26 school board meeting was the “tip of the iceberg of the erosion of democratic rights.”

However, Thompson said, “I stand by my faith, my Bible, and my religious freedom granted to me by God. Therefore, I will not be removing my Bible.”