A school in Florida’s Broward County stopped promoting a novel that contained an overwhelmingly anti-police narrative after objections from the local police union, according to CNN.
The book in question is “Ghost Boys,” by Jewell Parker Rhodes. It tells the story of a 12-year-old black boy named Jerome, who is accidentally killed by police when they mistake his toy gun for a real weapon. Jerome then continues to watch the aftermath of his death as a ghost, meeting the ghost of Emmett Till along the way. The author’s website describes the story as “a journey towards recognizing how historical racism may have led to the events that ended [Jerome’s] life.”
But on Thursday, Paul Kempinski, director of Broward County’s Fraternal Order of Police, posted a letter via the union’s Facebook page slamming the book and its use.
“Our members feel that this book is propaganda that pushes an inaccurate and absurd stereotype of police officers in America,” Kempinski’s letter states. “This book convinces its readers – the children of our community – that police officers regularly lie as they routinely murder children, while painting police officers as racists.”
“Using a book filled with misinformation, and a dangerous message that police officers are liars, racists, and murderers are not good for our children, our community, or our future,” the letter added.
Following the backlash from the police union and other critics, the school board has since claimed that the book was never part of required curriculum, but instead was simply featured as optional fiction reading. In a statement to the media, the school board said that “upon receiving parental concern, the use of the book was paused in two fifth grade classrooms until procedures are implemented.”
The use of far-left propaganda such as Critical Race Theory in American schools has become a rapidly-expanding phenomenon in recent years, with backlash against this effort only really taking effect. Last month, similar pressure from a police union and parents convinced a public school district in Binghamton, New York to stop promoting a children’s book which explicitly and falsely claimed that police are more likely to target and kill black people than any other race.