Superintendent Addresses Concern Over Book in Elementary Classrooms

By Adam Swift

A book in some elementary school classrooms about a young girl who identifies as a boy has raised concerns with some parents.

However, the discussion about the book, “Jack (Not Jackie)” by Erica Silverman and Holly Hatam at last week’s School Committee meeting was measured and respectful.

Winthrop Supt. of Schools Lisa Howard noted that during the 2020-21 school year, the district began a review process to evaluate the diversity of materials it uses.

“Our goal was and remains the focus on ensuring that we have classrooms in the schools that are inclusive and representative to all the students and families of the Winthrop public schools,” said Howard. “We have the responsibility to assemble a collection of materials, including non-instructional supplies and materials – things like books, toys, pictures of students, artifacts on our walls, and various authors – that represent all people and every student.”

Howard added that the district has a responsibility to embrace diversity and allow all children to see a reflection of themselves and of their families in the classrooms.

During the review process, Howard said teachers reviewed the materials the schools had on hand and recommended several age-appropriate, high-interest books that better reflected the representation of students attending the schools.

“Expanding our resources reflects the students present in our school community, and by the way, this is not a new concept for us, and it remains an ongoing practice of the public schools across the Commonwealth,” said Howard. “We believe that additional resources should be viewed as an asset to learning and a provision of support to those who choose to use them.”

During the public speaking portion of the meeting, resident Suzanne Hitchcock-Bryan spoke in favor of offering materials that support students with gender dysphoria.

“It is crucial to provide support to kids who feel a conflict between what they were assigned at birth and the gender to which they currently identify, and we know that gender identification starts quite early in kids,” she said. “My 7-year-old grandson read this book and his report was, ‘It’s good, it’s about a sister who wants to be a brother, end of story.’”

Walter Connelly, the priest of St. John’s Episcopal Church and a member of the town’s diversity and inclusion commission, said he wasn’t against the book being in schools, but said there was a need for more varied viewpoints on the subject.

“I am also a gay man, and a Christian, and as a Christian, I stand on the fundamental principle that God’s glory is the human person fully alive, and I stand with those of any stripes, age, gender, whatever, who strive to remove barriers so that all people can be fully alive,” said Connelly. 

However, Connelly said he believes that that there is a connection between sexual orientation and gender.

“My concern is that we go down a path that locks in people to a foregone conclusion,” he said. “There have been a lot of recent studies in Europe that have put a halt to a lot of the affirming gender care in preference for developmental care where we attend to the needs at each developmental stage without going down a set route, allowing people to grow and explore.”

Connelly said he believed the book was innocuous on the surface, but that it also encapsulated some misogynistic gender stereotypes.

Resident John DaRos said that he was a gay man who had a different perspective on the book than Connelly.

Growing up in Maine, DaRos said he looked around town and didn’t see another gay person in his town.

“So when I heard about this book … I thought about what it was like for me to grow up alone,” said DaRos. “Outwardly, when I was in high school, I played hockey, I was the class president my senior year, and did some theater. Outwardly, I had a very positive life, but inwardly, I was tormented.”

By his senior year, DaRos said having one friend he could confide in gave him the courage to tell his truth.

“There is a big decision to be made as kids get older to what they want to do with that,” DaRos said of young people with gender dysphoria. “But the last thing you want to do is take away a book that encourages discussion.”