New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
On Friday, December 8, the Great Barrington Police Department received an anonymous complaint about a book that was available to eighth grade students at the W.E.B. Du Bois Regional Middle School that the caller considered “obscene.”
The police alerted the school district superintendent and the Du Bois principal about the book, “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe, which is a memoir about the author’s undestanding of gender and the confusion they initally went through before they understood. The called complained about the sexually explicit illustrations and language contained in the book.
The principal escorted the the Great Barrington Police officer to the classroom of the teacher who reportedly possessed the book and was discussing it with students. However, the teacher was not only not in possession of the book, it was nowhere to be found within the classroom.
On Friday, several teachers and at least 100 students organized a walkout to protest the police involvement in the incident.
“A message from Chief Storti to our community:
As the Chief of Police for the Great Barrington Police Department, I apologize to anyone who was negatively effected by our involvement at the WEB Dubois Middle School on December 8, 2023. Over the years, our relationship with our schools has been positive and collaborative, so together we worked with the school to try to navigate this sensitive situation. If our involvement caused distrust and alarm, that was not our intention. I promise you our actions were not meant to disenfranchise anyone or influence school curriculum.
We are aware every day of larger issues that can stoke anger, hatred, and lead to discrimination. It’s been my personal goal as your police chief to head a department that can act as an ally to our community in times that can be polarizing. Whatever your race or gender, ethnicity, legal status or mental health, we strive to serve you all equally. I wish to emphasize again to our residents, teachers, students and wider community that it is not our role to seek out, censor, or “ban books” in our schools.
I appreciate that I cannot take our alliance with our community for granted. The professional actions of police do, and will, come under scrutiny. It is our job to act with integrity and professionalism. We make our best efforts to be transparent about our work.
If there is an opportunity to be included in these discussions going forward, we welcome a seat at the table.”-Great Barrington Police Department.
