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Republican State Rep. Garrett Gobble is in his first term at the Capitol. He is also a teacher. And he took to social media on Thursday to defend his fellow educators while saying that Iowa Senate President Jake Chapman “went too far” in his opening comments earlier this week about sexually explicit materials being in Iowa school libraries. He also received support in the form of “likes” from two of his Republican House colleagues — Megan Jones and Chad Ingels.
Here is the portion of Chapman’s comments that were dealing with these education issues:
“Colleagues, the time has come for us to take a stand. It has become increasingly evident that we live in a world in which many, including our media, wish to confuse, misguide, and deceive us, calling good evil and evil good. One doesn’t have to look far to see the sinister agenda occurring right before our eyes. The attack on our children is no longer hidden. Those who wish to normalize sexually deviant behavior against our children, including pedophilia and incest, are pushing this movement more than ever before. Our children should be safe and free from this atrocious assault. Our students should be learning about science, and mathematics; they should be learning about engineering and innovation. Instead, some teachers are disguising sexually obscene material as desired subject matter and profess it has artistic and literary value. The literature being pushed on our students should disturb all of us and if you aren’t disturbed, I can only hope it is because you have not actually heard or seen the content. Nobody, regardless of their race, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or occupation has the right to expose children to obscene material. It is for that reason that this body should use this session to address this very issue.
When students are subjected to this violating content, we need to ensure parents have the ability to protect their children by removing them from the district. We can and must tear down the financial barriers that prevent parents from making this decision. We must hold those who distribute this repulsive and criminal content to minors accountable. Let us not forget the quote on the first floor of this capitol which reads “nothing is politically right that is morally wrong.” In other words, we can’t be right by doing the wrong thing, and doing the right thing can never be wrong.”
There is a key word in this statement worth pointing out.
Some.
Some teachers.
Some teachers are disguising sexually obscene material as desired subject matter and profess it has artistic and literary value.
But here is what Gobble said relating to Chapman’s remarks:
“This session, we are sure to engage in many discussions on giving parents more of a say in their child’s education. This is an issue I’ve led on since my very first day as your Representative. Earlier this week, a colleague of mine in the Iowa Senate made some comments that, in my opinion, went too far.
I am a proud teacher. My wife and sister are proud teachers. My mother and grandmother are proud retired teachers. None of us have a sinister agenda. Neither do any of the teachers that I know and work with every day. The teachers I know work daily to improve kids’ lives.
Parents’ voices matter. Conversations around transparency and ensuring parents can make their voices heard are too important to use this kind of rhetoric that only divides us further. We need all voices, including teachers, at the table to craft effective legislation around this issue.”
It is vitally important to note that Chapman said some teachers — not all, not most — some. So the fact that Gobble, his wife and his sister are teachers without a sinister agenda is nice, but not relevant to what Chapman said.
Gobble comes across as being angry at Chapman’s “rhetoric.”
“Parents’ voices matter,” he wrote. “Conversations around transparency and ensuring parents can make their voices heard are too important to use this kind of rhetoric that only divides us further.”
With all due respect, Rep. Gobble, why the heck are you seemingly more upset at the words used by Sen. Chapman than you are the filth populating the Ankeny school libraries?
I scrolled through Gobble’s social media page where he said Chapman “went too far” to see what he has said publicly about the library books. According to his Facebook page, he hasn’t said anything.
To be fair, it doesn’t mean he hasn’t said anything, but it certainly doesn’t appear he has been as bold or as vocal in his distaste of the library books as he has in the words used by Sen. Chapman.
This is troubling. It is misplacing the outrage. It is a total swing and a miss.
Perhaps Gobble hasn’t seen the images in the book. Perhaps he hasn’t read the passages of the books. Perhaps he isn’t bothered by them if he has seen them — he does seem to have a cozy relationship with the GLBT Youth In Iowa Schools Task Force organization that is fighting to make it illegal for kids to receive counseling if they have feelings of homosexuality or transgenderism. And that group has also gone out of its way to try to push LGBTQ materials into school curriculum across the state.
It is disappointing Gobble is deflecting and ignoring the issue at hand and instead embracing the talking points of Democrats. Nobody — NOBODY — said Iowa teachers have a sinister agenda.
Chapman said some Iowa teachers… some.
Perhaps Gobble should look at the pictures and read the passages from the books in question.
It is undeniable — as in not up for debate — that some teachers have defended these books.
Now, this means Gobble believes one of two things.
1. The books aren’t sinister — meaning he has seen the books and is totally OK with them in school libraries.
2. He hasn’t seen the books — he spoke without educating himself on the issue at hand.
We’ll make this easy for Gobble. All he has to do is click
this link to see images from one of the books.
And he just needs to listen to these moms discuss these books.
He may want to edit his Facebook post after doing so.
Now, after gathering the facts as presented above, it is important to ask some very basic questions with Chapman’s remarks in mind…
- Do or do these books not contain at least a portion of a “sinister agenda?”
- Did or did some Iowa teachers not defend having these books in school libraries?
It is unbelievable, yet somehow makes perfect sense, that Republican Iowa Senators and Gov. Kim Reynolds are publicly fighting these books while some Iowa House Republicans are misdirecting outrage at other Republicans doing the right thing while embracing Leftist talking points.
How many years has Representative Gobble, as a teacher, been aware of sexual deviant material being in the public school library and has said nothing?
[…] Republican Rep. Garrett Gobble said Chapman went “too far” in his remarks. Gobble’s claim that Chapman went “too far” was liked by fellow House Republicans […]