If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
**DO NOT **(either you, your daughter, or anyone) TOUCH the poster;
DO NOT place your own poster on the wall without getting permission from the Principal or Assistant P, in writing is safest, signed, preferably on school stationary to make doubly sure, then, if permission is granted, have a school bureaucrat do it (some teacher’s “word” or even the Principal’s word is not enough to be 100% safe).
Remember, it is the public school’s wall, and thus their property; so, taking it off the wall could result in disciplinary action or even a misdemeanor criminal charge against your child or you for destroying public property or disturbing the peace.
And believe me, these state bureaucrats are just waiting to charge you or your child, or suspend her for any reason. They enjoy their petty power over the lives of kids.
First, talk to the Librarian; that may be the easiest since you can probably visit the school while your daughter is there (see what their policy is); print some news articles from both the Catholic and Protestant Press, showing what rotten books these are, and the atheistic message these books have.
When you talk, do so in a polite manner; do not get emotional or get in a yelling match.
If the Head Librarian has a heart (if you live in the South, you just may have a chance; otherwise, a lot of these librarians have the same outlook towards books as YingYang Mom has), they’ll see your point and remove it.
Most people don’t know what these books are about; they just see the polar bears and assume it is a nice kid’s film;
it simply looks like an interesting children’s film for the Christmas Holiday season.
It may help if you knew some of the other moms or dads of the kids at the school, who are willing to stick their necks out;
Safety in numbers, even if it is only one other parent; I will assume you’re doing this by yourself.
Otherwise, you may have to talk to the Principal or Assistant P, and my experience with these folks is that they want everything to run smoothly, don’t want any arguments about anything or have to do anything (like work a little harder), and want to collect their fat paycheck every two weeks.
Talk to these Chief Bureaucrats, again calmly and professionally; no yelling or fighting. Your best bet is to do it in person; try to go with your husband or a male relative.
If you do it by phone, it is easier for them to give you the brush off.
Unless the bureaucrats are kind and agree to take it down themselves, you probably can’t do anything about it.
You’re a parent; your responsible for your child’s welfare and well-being; you also pay property taxes to support the atheistic, American public school system; you have a say so in your child’s education, and more importantly, at least in theory, your child’s teachers also have a responsibility for your child’s well-being.
Really, it (in theory) the schools are there to serve the parents, and not the other way around; but once you give a state bureaucrat power, they almost invariably become petty tyrants.
This reminds me of a local story at a high school in Troy, MI, in a wealthy Detroit suburb; a teacher put up a poster which depictied people working at various occupations (e.g., like doctor, engineer, secretary), and at the top, the poster said “Gay People Are Everyday People.”
The father of a student contacted the school, talked to the teacher and principal, and explained that the poster was offensive to his (Catholic) religious beliefs. Do you think the state bureaucrats said ok Mr. so and so, I understand what your concerns, and took it down? Nope.
I don’t think the man hired a lawyer or anything like that; you may want to contact the Thomas More Center, which is a Christian (Catholic) Legal Rights Advocacy Center which is on the campus of Ave Maria School of Law), and tell them you want to get rid of this poster, and see what they say. If they take your case, I am almost certain they do it for free, but, from what I know about public schools, if they won’t do remove it from their own free will, there probably is not much you can do legally. Maybe, just maybe, some judge will listen to your concerns.
And YingYang Mom, if you actually believe what you’re writing ask yourself, where did these books come from?? Why is The Golden Compass being pushed on these young kids??
If this school wants to promote reading, why not read the classics?
Why are these students not reading and discussing the great works of literature, like Beowulf, the Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare’s dramas, The Iliad, Paradise Lost, Aesop’s Fables???
These are great works of art and have withstood the test of time; that is why they are called “classics.” They are 1,000,000 times educationally more important than the scribblings of some hacks who want to make a fortune off kids.
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