The Penfield School District is in the national spotlight over an illustrated children’s book about a child attending a Pride parade.
A simmering controversy involving the book “The Rainbow Parade” erupted during a school board meeting this week.
Snippets of the meeting went viral – with some posts including false or misleading information, including one from Libs of TikTok that was shared by Elon Musk stating that “a kindergartner” came home with the book “which included pictures of naked people and men in bondage fetish gear.”
The district has no record of a kindergartner checking out the book, officials said. Below is the illustration that drew objections.
All this apparently started at a Jan. 14 school board meeting where Jennifer Selever, who identified as a parent of a fifth-grader, complained about the library book.
“This is a children's book. Why is there a naked man?” she told the board, calling it pornographic. “It's not appropriate for children. They should be brought up on abuse charges, whoever approves this.”
When her allotted speaking time was up, she told board members: “It's time to get back to education, not indoctrination. It's sinister, OK?” adding: “You all will be on the news, too.”
A clip of Selever’s remarks was shared widely on social media.
MUST WATCH: A mom calls out Penfield Central School District in NY board after her daughter was allowed to take out a booked from the school library called “The Rainbow Parade” which includes graphic sexual messaging including an image of a naked man.
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 15, 2025
We have a serious grooming… pic.twitter.com/kxKrKHHWcb
Superintendent Tasha Potter said she emailed Selever twice since that meeting, sharing information about the district’s policy and process for challenging library materials, but has not heard back.
“There was no other family that had contacted the district to share a concern about signing out that book,” Potter said, “other than this family.”
Potter said there is no record, to her knowledge, of a kindergartner checking out the book. And nobody has filed a challenge to the book this school year, Potter said Wednesday.
Community calls to action
Ahead of this week’s school board meeting, several community groups put out calls to back Selever – and for a counter protest. Media outlets, including WXXI News, received a press release from a group called Penfield Opposing Woke Education Racism (P.O.W.E.R.) claiming that the district “denies free speech” and that parents and community stakeholders would gather “in a silent and peaceful demonstration” to support families, including Selever.
“We work with families, teachers and school administrators to eliminate programs and curricula that demoralize children," the group wrote in the release.
“Demoralizing children, that kind of means a couple different things,” said P.O.W.E.R. organizer Carmen Lonardo, a Pittsford real estate agent.
“One is removing a sense of morality, and what is right and wrong, and what is appropriate, and in what context? And I think that having the kind of sexualized, if you will, material available at the elementary school level is not appropriate.”
Joining the objections was Pastor Rob Kellogg from the Calvary Chapel on Browncroft Boulevard in Rochester, who wrote to his congregation that “what Penfield School District is doing is criminal and reprehensible,” and it was “the Lord’s heart” to stand against it.
A community group, Black in the Burbs, called for a counterresponse.
A large crowd showed up to the meeting Tuesday and, about 45 minutes in, Potter referenced concerns about library book selection. Then she and another administrator provided a detailed, PowerPoint-assisted walk-through of policy and procedure for the selection and challenging of materials.
“I don't know where she got the idea that this would be a good idea, but she went through ad nauseum, word for word for word of this multi-page policy,” Lonardo said, describing it as condescending. “I could see people reaching a boiling point.”
People in the audience interrupted but mostly listened, until matters ultimately devolved into shouting and booing.
“Excuse me, that's not — that is not how you object,” school board President Emily Roberts said, and quickly recessed the meeting.
Among the audience members was a man, later identified as Jeff Briggs of Webster, a co-founder of P.O.W.E.R, dressed in a gorilla costume and wearing a MAGA hat. Briggs’ attire has provided another flashpoint, as Potter and most of the board members are Black or people of color.
Historically, depicting Black people in that way has been used to dehumanize them and justify slavery and lynchings.
Briggs tried to clarify his intention during an interview with WHEC, claiming his motivation was to be disruptive and not about race. But Potter said the message was clear.
“It really symbolizes that the discussion wasn't necessarily centered around the need to talk through or work through objecting to a library book,” she said. “The harm and the hatred that is wrapped into that visual ... when you think about safety being compromised and the need for us to go into recess. I mean, that's enough reason right there.”
The meeting ended before the public comment period. Lonardo said that wasn’t how he’d hoped it would go.
“We made a big statement by saying that the board had taken a position where it was denying their right to free speech,” he said. "It was the disruptive actions that, in effect, created the same thing.”
Roberts saw it differently.
“We were called cowards. We were called scum. We were called ignorant,” she said. “We could still hear that they were yelling and really disrespectful, and so we adjourned the meeting.”
