At this week's school board meeting in Glendale Unified, a woman named Karen Nelson got up to give a public comment.
In her public comment, Karen Nelson wanted to know about a book - parts of which had been used in a Women's Studies elective at the high school level.
Perhaps Karen Nelson was following the lead of GUSD Parents [sic] Voices, who last month misleadingly posted book excerpts that were NOT used in GUSD's high school elective in 2022-23 and 2023-24 in a sad attempt to revive the moral panic over books.
[Editor's note: Electives are courses students choose to take. The Women's Studies elective in question is not being taught this year, per District communications (see above). Fewer than 115 students (of over 1000 GHS juniors and seniors) chose to take the Women's Studies course in the past years it was offered. The book was indeed vetted and approved because it is a nearly 10-year-old academic book that is used in college classes across the country. Surely our high school juniors and seniors can handle it, given the stuff they see and post daily on TikTok].
Although the District response was posted by GPV last month, poor li'l Karen Nelson just CANNOT get ANSWERS to her CONCERNS about a book that is not being taught at a school her children never attended. Karen Nelson was also spotted at the June 2023 board meeting (you know, the one with the riot outside) and at the GUSD Curriculum Nights last October.
To summarize:
The excerpts that GPV claimed were being used were not actually used in the class.
The excerpts Karen Nelson is "distressed" about were in a chapter that was not covered, at a school her children never attended.
The excerpts GPV pulled were examples of hate speech against women and LGBTQ+ people in online forums in a section of the book studying the implications of online violence. Hey, that's kind of what GPV does!
Based on publicly available information and her own public comment, it appears that Karen Nelson no longer has any children in GUSD, and has not since June 2023. It appears that her children attend La Crescenta-area schools, not Glendale High School, which is how she gave her affiliation to far-right publication "The Daily Signal" outside the GUSD riot in June 2022. Why is Karen Neilson mad about an elective not being taught at a school her children do not attend? Weird.
