Dr. Parth Melpakam, president of Colorado Springs School District 11, will call after that (he's flexible) to discuss books that should not be in public school libraries, as the U.S. Supreme Court this week hear the case involving Montgomery County, Maryland library books.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Dan Capless and welcome to today's online podcast
edition of The Dan Caplis Show. Please be sure to
give us a five star rating if you'd be so kind,
and to subscribe, download and listen to the show every
single day on your favorite podcast platform.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome back. This is Wayne Logison filling in for Dan
Caplis today. Before we get started, I want to read
a couple of texts real quick that we just received.
One says Dan, what an absolute croc of and I
won't say the word, but it's something you might find
in a croc of. Don't know if I can imagine
(00:38):
anything more anti American than this transgender bs. And we
have another text here that says Dan, gay issues are
not civil rights issues like black rights. Blacks are objectively
born black, whereas gays subjectively feel that they were born gay.
Thank you for this discussion as a virus and acting
(01:00):
our society. I don't know that I you know, those
are both good texts. I don't know that people choose
to be gay, or whether they're born that or they're
created that way.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
I have no idea.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I'm not enough of a medical or psychological expert to
know any of that. But that's an interesting insight. Joining
us now is doctor Parth Melpackham. He is the chairman
of the Board of Education for District eleven. This is
the central school district in Colorado Springs. It's downtown and
(01:34):
all the surrounding area. He's going to talk to us
about some books that are in libraries that I think
a lot of us feel should not be there. We
are hearing this play out in the Supreme Court. This
We heard it play out in the Supreme Court this week.
But it goes on all over the place. And there's
a one particular book called this book is Gay. There
(01:57):
are many many others that that should be called into question.
This book is gay. Now, that title doesn't really offend me.
The problem with that book, and it's in probably most
elementary and junior junior high public elementary school or public
school libraries. This book doesn't just introduce gay being gay
(02:22):
to children. This book goes so far as to tell
young children as young as ten. That's why this book
is written for ages ten to eighteen. So children as
young as ten can go into the library, pick this
book up, and it will it will instruct them very
expressly how to find sex partners online through apps like
(02:46):
Grinder and other meet up apps. It literally, I mean,
it's hard to believe, but it absolutely I've seen it.
I've seen the words. It instructs children how they can
find same sex sex partners now at ten years old.
Nobody should be looking for a sex partner of any kind,
(03:08):
and that this isn't our libraries. It's just it's scandalous,
it's outrageous, and yet it's really hard to get them out.
So with that, I'd like to introduce welcome doctor Parth
melt Packham to our show. Thank you for being here.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Thank you waane, good eating. Thank you for giving me
this opportunity to join you.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Well, thank you. I really appreciate you. Are a parent
and I believe a petroleum engineer.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Correct, Yes, sir, I've.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
Got a seventeen year old she just seven turned seventeen.
Couple of days back, Hi cooler so by trade. Yes,
I'm a petroleum ministaer and also serve as the president
of Statistic eleven Schoup.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yes, so, what has gone on in the district eleven
school district? And as it pertains to these books that
I'm describing, most of these I can't, by the way,
most of these I can't quote from because if you
do that, I mean, it would be vulgar, it would
it would not be something that we could air. And
in fact, there is a school board member of another
(04:17):
district down in Colorado Springs who actually read from some
of these books, and the people favoring these books, who
want them in the library for children, attacked him for
reading such vulgar rhetoric in public. I mean, how can
you have it both ways? You want it there for
eight ten year old eight nine ten year olds, but
if you try to expose it during during a school
(04:39):
board meeting, you've committed some sort of a crime against humanity.
Go ahead, doctor mel Pagham.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Yeah, some of these books that you're talking about, it
has explicit sexual content, graphic language, and the content does
not age appropriate for children any children. Parents trustice to
provide a high quality education for our kids, not to
(05:06):
indoctrinate our kids or expose our children to inappropriate sexual behavior,
encourage them normalizing some of those behaviors. And that is
the concern over time in any school district, and this
(05:27):
is true in district level as well at the building level.
At the school building level, administrators come and go and
they get to authorize what books come into the schools,
the libraries and classrooms and what is and the content
of some of these books are very subjective. What is
(05:49):
considered as literature for some school administrator is affinity and
unnecessary content that our kids are exposed to. That's my
concern out there at the board level, the district is
the school board levels. The board members are looking at
(06:11):
revising the current policy to ensure that these type of
books are not present in our libraries and the books
are age appropriate.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Now you have trouble with the law when you try
to take them out of the libraries. I mean that
gets dicey. Doesn't it a law?
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Yep?
Speaker 4 (06:35):
Freedom of speech. And it's not only just the law,
but the perception out there, and I see it often
in our school board meetings. In public commons, we are
categorized as anti and you can add whatever group you
want to out there and be being accused of killing children.
(07:00):
And all we are trying to do is to ensure
parental authority is being respected the Constitution. The Footeing commitment
to the Constitution explicitly provides parent the authority in the care,
custody and upbringing of their child, including their education. And
(07:20):
it's not the school district's priority to exposed children to
these type of material. Our focus should be on reading, writing,
and math and nothing more.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
This is not an anti gay movement as it is often. Look,
we had a perfectly legitimate LGBTQIA plus civil rights movement
in this country that's been very successful, and that's fine.
Nobody should be discriminated against, not given a job, or
in any way abused because of who they are. That's
(07:55):
not you know, as long as they're leading a peaceful lifestyle,
live and let live. But that's not what this is about.
I mean, if we had books this graphic about heterosexual sex,
they would be equally objectionable.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
These books are full of f bombs and very graphic
descriptions of of sexual encounters. They are racist, rot with
the inward, and they're all my perception of those that
I have seen, are all very poorly written. We're supposed
(08:32):
to be teaching children how to be articulate and how
to use proper grammar, and these books are anything but that,
and and and they are absolutely offensive. I think to
almost anyone who's reasonable and really cares about children, now
they will say you're a book banner. Doctor mel Packham
(08:53):
is a book banner because he doesn't want these books
in his school district. But that's not it's not censorship
or ban a book. Look, even the Library of Congress
cannot contain every book that was ever written, so discretion
is used at all libraries, and that discretion is based
on content. It doesn't mean the book is banned or censor.
Anyone can find it on Amazon or wherever they want
(09:17):
to get it. This is simply what do we want
to put in front of our children? Is that right,
doctor mel Packams.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
I would one hundred percent agree with you. You eloquently
captured my thoughts out there, and book banner is a
mild name that I'm called. Sometimes it's even worse than that.
You are categorized as the Nazi burning books, and that's
not our intention. Just as when parents expose children to movies,
(09:50):
movies have a leading system, and certain movies are categorized
as in C seventeen or R rated, and those movies
are not appropriate for kids ten years or younger, and
certain books are not appropriate for kids ten years or
younger or a teenager as well, And those are decisions
(10:12):
that parents have to make. And this is not certainly
against LGBTQ kids or students. We welcome students of any
background into our school community. This is just trying to
protect our kids and ensuring that we don't cross boundaries.
(10:37):
It's not our job to parent a child.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Okay, thank you, doctor. Can you stay with us to
after this commercial break to continue this conversation, Yes, sir,
thank you.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
And now back to the Dan Taplas Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
All right, welcome back. Yes, teacher, leave the kids alone
when it comes to in a sense and their sexuality
at ten years old or even younger. We're here talking
with doctor parthmel Packham, the school board president of District eleven,
a major school district here in Colorado, down in Colorado Springs,
(11:16):
and he's working to rid his libraries, his district's libraries
of books that are simply inappropriate. He doesn't want to
censor them or make them unavailable, He just simply doesn't
want them pushed on students into libraries of his schools.
That's something far different than censorship or book banning. I
can't most of these books that have been called into question.
(11:40):
This seems to be a concerted effort to I don't
know what they're trying to achieve. This is not about
LGBTQ rights and being accepting of people who are in
any category of LGBTQIA. It's not about that these but
I cannot explain to you how vile they are. This
(12:01):
is this is one that I can read if I
censor it a little bit.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
This is a passage.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
It says, do you know that Indians are living proof
that inward plural inward? So there's lots of racism in
these books. Indians are proof that inward people f buffalo
uh and and this is this is typical of this,
(12:27):
these types of books. I can bring up another one
here that's uh and And again I can't read most
of this stuff. I can't even I can't even censor
it to the point that that it's that it's in
any way appropriate to read on air. But uh yeah,
(12:50):
I'm just seeing all sorts of f words, uh, graphic
descriptions of sexual acts. Uh so he f me, f
me beat me, have a child with me, but child
is misspelled. They're full of grammatical errors, and I don't
(13:11):
This is just bizarre that these are in our school libraries,
and you'd be amazed how many people are fighting to
keep them there. I don't understand that, doctor mel Packham,
thanks for staying on. Do you understand that why anybody
would fight to keep these books in the libraries of children.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
No, it blows my mind that the set of books,
people are fighting to keep them in our libraries. When
we started this conversation, you asked me about my whole
as a father, and I mentioned that I have a daughter,
(13:52):
and speaking for all the fathers, all we want to
do is to protect the innocence of our children. Kids
at an earlier and earlier age, because of social media
or inappropriate books or the content that they constantly get
bombarded on television, get exposed to violence, depicting women in
(14:18):
abusive manner, and all that becomes normalized behavior. And when
kids at a young age get these type of exposures,
they start treating each other in a similar manner, and
these type of behaviors become acceptable and normal part of
(14:41):
our society, when all they should be worried about is
going to school, making friends, reading, writing, learning, doing well
in school, competing in athletics, and striving for excellence. That's
what we are trying to do in the strict leven.
We earlier couple of years back, we adopted a parent
(15:03):
partnership policy where we restored parental authority, parental rights, and
promised that we would be transparent with our parents, that
none of the information that their kids are going to
be exposed in schools are going to be something that
we keep away from parents. Some schools, some classrooms, expose
(15:28):
kids to materials and they are kept as a secret
from parents. That's not what we are about. We are
about building trust with our parents and making sure our
kids receive a high quality education and restoring that trust
that has eroded with our parent base over years.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Yeah, I mean some of these. I'm looking at one
here and I'm not going to read from it, but
it's about father. This is a girl describing her father
having sex with her. And then there's another passage in
here about three months after the baby was born. So
this girl was impregnated by her father. I'm still twelve
(16:09):
when all this happens. Mama slapped me hard. Then she
pick up cast iron skillet. Thank god, it was so hot.
It was hot, no hot grease in it, and she
hit me so hard on back I fall to the floor.
I mean stuff is violent, Like you say, it's violent,
and it is just disrespectful of minorities. I just I
(16:30):
don't get it. Most of these people who are pushing
for this and are defending these books in the libraries
obviously come from the far left, and here there being
you know, they talk about civil rights all the time,
and yet here they're using some of the most disgusting profanity.
And I mean, this is this stuff is not only vulgar,
(16:52):
it is absolute pornography. That's in our schools for children
as young as ten, and I've heard in other states
it's even younger than that.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
So I don't can you what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (17:08):
I mean, tell me how other school districts might be
finding out about this and getting this stuff out of
their libraries.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
Well, unfortunately, when we have foot plus schools in our system,
what happens is some of these books inadvertently or under
the wrong building leadership preachs it to our buildings and
our libraries. So parents have to be vigilant. And if
(17:39):
you see one of these books in our libraries, then
there is a form that you can fill. And we
are trying to make the process as simple as possible
for books that have explicit language and sexual content that
doesn't in any way contribute to the education of their child.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Okay, Doctor Parth Meltpackham, thank you very much for taking
time to talk with us.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Today. We've got a heard break here.
Speaker 5 (18:21):
You're listening to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
All right, thank you, audience, Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
I'm Wayne Lagison filling in for Dan today and tomorrow.
I'm going to read a couple of texts that we
received here. One asks who's the one buying these books
for the library? To begin with, Libraries, like I say,
this is common from coast to coast, and if it's
a public school, you the taxpayer, are buying these books.
(18:51):
Public schools are all publicly financed, they all have library budgets,
and somehow they think it's a good idea to buy
these books. I'm not sure exactly how the how this works.
I'm sure most libraries are uh are given recommendations and
and just sent books that they should buy. That publishers
(19:15):
do this. Publishers would push these on people. I have
no idea who had the crazy idea and what it's
exactly rooted in. I'd be interested if anyone wants to
call us if you have any ideas on that, and
tell us what could be the motivation for this The
number three zero three, seven, one three eight two five
five three zero three seven, one three eight two five five.
(19:40):
Have another text here that asks a good question, Dan,
why don't the parents in the school districts just check
the books out and not return them. I'd rather pay
eight or nine dollars for the book than have that
exposed to my child. Yeah, I mean that's certainly that
that's an interesting, an interesting approach. I suspected that the
(20:02):
book would get replaced right away. I don't know how
libraries work. But interesting, you know, interesting suggestion of activism
on the part of this listener. So I'm going to
move on now for a moment to another topic of
(20:23):
interest here in Colorado, and that is Senate Bill three.
Senate Bill three is probably the most restrictive gun law
ever to be passed in the United States, and this
bill essentially makes it difficult. You could say, bans the
purchase of most common semi automatic rifles, shotguns, and handguns.
(20:51):
Typical glock would be. It doesn't ban it. However, if
you are a person who has a lot of money
and a lot of time on your hand, you have
an extremely flexible schedule, you can jump through the hoops
you can get. First of all, you have to get
arbitrary permission from the sheriff of your county to take
(21:14):
a class, and it's a lengthy and expensive class, lasting days.
And then after doing all of that, if you can
pass a particular test, you might be able to get
approved to purchase one of these guns.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Now that does no good for someone.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Let's consider you know, the single parent, the single mother
perhaps who has just broken up with a drunken, abusive boyfriend.
He doesn't have to wait and he's threatening her and
the children. He doesn't have to wait to go through classes,
he doesn't have to pay fees, he doesn't have to
(21:56):
do any of the things that he can show up
and terrorize the family. But the but the victim has
to jump through hoops, has to have time and money
on her hands to get what would be a common,
easy to use see these these are common. The reason
(22:17):
that people get semi automatic guns is because you don't
have to be an expert to use one. They're easy
to load, and it's it's relatively easy to deploy a shot.
I always advocate somebody get lessons that somebody go to
the shooting range. And if you're going to get a
concealed carry permit in Colorado, you are mandated to take
(22:38):
a certain amount of training. Now that's going to go
up considerably with this bill. But I don't think this could.
I don't know how anyone who wrote this bill, and
it's lawyers in the legislature who write these bills at
the insistence at you know, at the request of elected officials,
(22:59):
and one who has gone through law school should know
better than to put a bill like this to the
legislature and have it end up on the governor's desk.
And I can't believe he signed it. I've had a
conversation with Governor Polis about this, and I was telling
him that I thought, you know, he's actually a relatively
(23:21):
viable candidate to become the Democratic Party's next nominee for
the presidency. Now, if you don't believe that, just consider
the bench of the Democratic Party and Governor knew some
was sort of a front runner, an unofficial front runner
for a long time, but then we had these disastrous
fires in California, and I think that's going to be
(23:42):
pretty hard for him. I think that's pretty good ammunition
against him. And so here you had Governor Polis who's
done a pretty good job of making himself look like
the moderate with a libertarian streak, and he could have
played very well, I think throughout the country, across the country.
But now he's going to be viewed as one of
(24:05):
the most gun banning politicians of modern time. And that
may he could probably get re elected if he weren't
term limited in Colorado. I'm not sure. I mean, even
in Colorado, he's experiencing extraordinary pushback. I remember a day
after he signed that bill, there were fifty thousand comments
on Facebook alone, ninety eight percent of them blasting him
(24:29):
for signing this bill. But it doesn't it's not going
to pass a legal muster. The Supreme Court has been
pretty clear on this. We have a second Amendment that
says a well regulated miss militia, being necessary to the
security of a free state, the right of the people
(24:51):
to keep in bare arms shall not be infringed. Now
that is muddied. What that means is confusing because of
the part where it says a well regulated militia.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
What is that.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
People against gun rights often say, well, they're talking about
the National Guard or something like that, but the Court
has not found that to be the case. The Supreme
Court's ruling and District District of Columbia v. Heller affirmed
that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to possess
to possess firearms for lawful purposes such as self defense
(25:28):
or hunting, and they specifically say unconnected to militia service.
This right only affected d C. Two years later, in
twenty ten, it was extended to all states in a
similar ruling in McDonald almost identical ruling in McDonald v. Chicago,
And that was brought simply because this case law was
(25:52):
otherwise just limited to Washington, d C. Which is the
very small sliver of the country. There's a more important
precedent to this, and that is the ruling in New
York State Rifle and Pistol Association v.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
Bruin.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
This established that gun regulations must be consistent with the
nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation. SB III clearly fails
this test. Now, if you want to read about that more,
you can read the gazette tomorrow. If you don't subscribe,
you should. Dan always says that so I feel free
to say as much. There will be an editorial in
(26:32):
tomorrow's gazette that details all of this, so you might
check that out, and always a good idea to subscribe
to the gazette. This has been probably the most devastating
legislative session in the history of Colorado. It was bad
(26:54):
for years. We started with full democratic uniparty control of
the legislature in twenty seventeen. By twenty eighteen, we had
Democrats controlling every single statewide office, both US Senate seats,
and the damage is palpable. But this year it's even worse.
(27:16):
And that's because Trump got elected in November of last year.
So what the legislature is doing is doubling down, trying
to counter what took place in the rest of the country,
which was sort of a move back to common sense
principles and a move toward the right, if you will.
(27:37):
And instead of reading the tea leaves and saying, well, look,
people in Colorado value parental rights and they value gun rights.
It is believed that the hatred of Donald Trump is
so pervasive in this state that you run as far
to the left as you possibly can. And we're going
(27:58):
to talk about that more tomorrow. It is having devastated,
devastating consequences on businesses and families.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
I got to go.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
We've got a commercial coming up, but I'll be back
in a few minutes.
Speaker 5 (28:12):
And now back to the Dan Kaplas Show podcast.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
I'm Wayne Lagison, filling in for Dan today and tomorrow.
If you're driving home from work, I hope your traffic
is I hope it's going well and that you're not
encountering too much traffic. I want to read from a
listener who sent in a text a minute ago. It
says Dan, I'm Wayne, but of course it's usually Dan,
(28:38):
so it's addressed to Dan.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Dan.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
What is also extremely shocking is that Medicaid pays for
trans surgeries. That's not where I want my tax dollars
to go. Not only must we shut up and put
up with this horrifically abusive practice being forced on our society,
we are also forced to pay for it. Medicaid does
(29:00):
not even pay for dental. And of course they really
want us to celebrate trans weirdness. Well that that's not
a bad observation. But what I wish I had done
when we had doctor Morrell in here during the first hour,
I would have asked him about this, but he he
(29:21):
has told me in the past that a lot of
insurance plans do not cover trans surgeries. They don't cover,
you know, gender transitions of any kind. So what doctors
are doing is reporting to the insurance company that they
did something else. They simply call it something else. Now
(29:41):
that sounds like blatant insurance fraud to me, and I
think somebody ought to look into it. Maybe one of
our crack investigative reporters at one of the gazettes he
you know, based in Denver or Colorado Springs, could look
into that, because that is that sounds like blatant insurance fraud.
That's how far this thing has gone. So I'm going
(30:03):
to move on to another subject. We were just talking
about how this legislative session it's been anything goes. There
seems to be no limit to how far left the
legislature wants to take this state. And a lot of
these so supposed representatives of the people on the left
are appointed. The democratic machine has figured out that if
(30:25):
you have someone resign at just the right time, then
the machine can make an appointment of someone who probably
would never have made it through a primary, not somebody
the public would have chosen, and then you have the
advantage of an incumbent, and that's always an easier platform
from which to run for office. So I think the
(30:47):
I think most people can see, if they're paying attention,
that this legislature is far left of Colorado. This is
not the Democrats of Bill Ritter or even John Hickenlooper
and Governor Poulis, who can come across as a moderate,
and you know, he's sort of a protege of doctor
Art Laffer, a conservative economist who who really engineered architect and,
(31:12):
if you will, the Reagan Revolution, the Reagan economic Revolution.
I've talked to Art about Jared, and I've talked to
Jared about Art. You know, Jared basically grew up with
this person, being a best friend of his parents, and
he interned for him. But he is letting this legislature
drag us so far to the left, and now they're
(31:35):
going to snub him. He signed things for them that
he probably shouldn't have SB three, the gun law, being
a perfect example of that. But a week or two
ago he vetoed one of their bills, Senate Bill seventy seven.
Now this bill would amend Colorado the Colorado Opens Record Act.
(31:56):
Actually it would pretty much negate it.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
It would.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
This creates three distinct classes of people who can request
public records. Now, get understand, a public record belongs to
the public. It is the essence of public property. Well,
a lot of bureaucrats and the politicians they answer to
don't like having to fulfill those requests. It takes time, money,
(32:27):
and energy, and oftentimes bureaucrats and politicians don't want people
who are taxpayer watchdogs. Whatever it is their causes, they
don't want to help them with that. So what they've
done here with this bill and police vetoed it. But
the Democrats, the left wing leadership in the legislature, is
(32:51):
going to override this veto. That's that's their plan. So
what they've done is create distinct classes of people who
can Look, if you're media like I am, if you
work for a professional legacy media media organization, or you
work for iHeartRadio, this is a very good thing for
(33:12):
you because you get expededite expedited compliance. They don't charge
you as much. But let's say you're Douglas Bruce, the
man who wrote Tabor, the Taxpayer Bill of rights. He
pulls a lot of public records, just as Douglas Bruce.
He's just a man out there trying to work as
(33:35):
a check on the system. And we need people like that.
We need a lot of them. You see them at
public meetings all the time throughout Colorado, whether it's city, county, state.
These are the people who show up. They're well informed
and they want to know what's going on, and they
know how to pull public records. Now it's going to
cost them more money, and it's going to be a
(33:55):
longer wait, and it's going to be more of a
hassle than if I want to. Now, certainly that benefits me,
but I don't need that benefit. I don't need I
don't want to be put ahead of And I know
a lot of professional reporters and editors who feel this way.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
They don't want to be put ahead of the public.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
In fact, the public often helps us, often helps those
of us who do this professionally to get to the
bottom of things. And this is what apparently the left
wing legislature wants less of. When actually, especially given the
nature of this legislative session, which we will discuss more
(34:37):
at length tomorrow, we need more checks on the system,
certainly not fewer. They shouldn't override the governor's edu
This is Dan Capless and welcome to today's online podcast
edition of The Dan Caplis Show. Please be sure to
give us a five star rating if you'd be so kind,
and to subscribe, download and listen to the show every
single day on your favorite podcast platform.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome back. This is Wayne Logison filling in for Dan
Caplis today. Before we get started, I want to read
a couple of texts real quick that we just received.
One says Dan, what an absolute croc of and I
won't say the word, but it's something you might find
in a croc of. Don't know if I can imagine
(00:38):
anything more anti American than this transgender bs. And we
have another text here that says Dan, gay issues are
not civil rights issues like black rights. Blacks are objectively
born black, whereas gays subjectively feel that they were born gay.
Thank you for this discussion as a virus and acting
(01:00):
our society. I don't know that I you know, those
are both good texts. I don't know that people choose
to be gay, or whether they're born that or they're
created that way.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
I have no idea.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I'm not enough of a medical or psychological expert to
know any of that. But that's an interesting insight. Joining
us now is doctor Parth Melpackham. He is the chairman
of the Board of Education for District eleven. This is
the central school district in Colorado Springs. It's downtown and
(01:34):
all the surrounding area. He's going to talk to us
about some books that are in libraries that I think
a lot of us feel should not be there. We
are hearing this play out in the Supreme Court. This
We heard it play out in the Supreme Court this week.
But it goes on all over the place. And there's
a one particular book called this book is Gay. There
(01:57):
are many many others that that should be called into question.
This book is gay. Now, that title doesn't really offend me.
The problem with that book, and it's in probably most
elementary and junior junior high public elementary school or public
school libraries. This book doesn't just introduce gay being gay
(02:22):
to children. This book goes so far as to tell
young children as young as ten. That's why this book
is written for ages ten to eighteen. So children as
young as ten can go into the library, pick this
book up, and it will it will instruct them very
expressly how to find sex partners online through apps like
(02:46):
Grinder and other meet up apps. It literally, I mean,
it's hard to believe, but it absolutely I've seen it.
I've seen the words. It instructs children how they can
find same sex sex partners now at ten years old.
Nobody should be looking for a sex partner of any kind,
(03:08):
and that this isn't our libraries. It's just it's scandalous,
it's outrageous, and yet it's really hard to get them out.
So with that, I'd like to introduce welcome doctor Parth
melt Packham to our show. Thank you for being here.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Thank you waane, good eating. Thank you for giving me
this opportunity to join you.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Well, thank you. I really appreciate you. Are a parent
and I believe a petroleum engineer.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Correct, Yes, sir, I've.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
Got a seventeen year old she just seven turned seventeen.
Couple of days back, Hi cooler so by trade. Yes,
I'm a petroleum ministaer and also serve as the president
of Statistic eleven Schoup.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yes, so, what has gone on in the district eleven
school district? And as it pertains to these books that
I'm describing, most of these I can't, by the way,
most of these I can't quote from because if you
do that, I mean, it would be vulgar, it would
it would not be something that we could air. And
in fact, there is a school board member of another
(04:17):
district down in Colorado Springs who actually read from some
of these books, and the people favoring these books, who
want them in the library for children, attacked him for
reading such vulgar rhetoric in public. I mean, how can
you have it both ways? You want it there for
eight ten year old eight nine ten year olds, but
if you try to expose it during during a school
(04:39):
board meeting, you've committed some sort of a crime against humanity.
Go ahead, doctor mel Pagham.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Yeah, some of these books that you're talking about, it
has explicit sexual content, graphic language, and the content does
not age appropriate for children any children. Parents trustice to
provide a high quality education for our kids, not to
(05:06):
indoctrinate our kids or expose our children to inappropriate sexual behavior,
encourage them normalizing some of those behaviors. And that is
the concern over time in any school district, and this
(05:27):
is true in district level as well at the building level.
At the school building level, administrators come and go and
they get to authorize what books come into the schools,
the libraries and classrooms and what is and the content
of some of these books are very subjective. What is
(05:49):
considered as literature for some school administrator is affinity and
unnecessary content that our kids are exposed to. That's my
concern out there at the board level, the district is
the school board levels. The board members are looking at
(06:11):
revising the current policy to ensure that these type of
books are not present in our libraries and the books
are age appropriate.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Now you have trouble with the law when you try
to take them out of the libraries. I mean that
gets dicey. Doesn't it a law?
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Yep?
Speaker 4 (06:35):
Freedom of speech. And it's not only just the law,
but the perception out there, and I see it often
in our school board meetings. In public commons, we are
categorized as anti and you can add whatever group you
want to out there and be being accused of killing children.
(07:00):
And all we are trying to do is to ensure
parental authority is being respected the Constitution. The Footeing commitment
to the Constitution explicitly provides parent the authority in the care,
custody and upbringing of their child, including their education. And
(07:20):
it's not the school district's priority to exposed children to
these type of material. Our focus should be on reading, writing,
and math and nothing more.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
This is not an anti gay movement as it is often. Look,
we had a perfectly legitimate LGBTQIA plus civil rights movement
in this country that's been very successful, and that's fine.
Nobody should be discriminated against, not given a job, or
in any way abused because of who they are. That's
(07:55):
not you know, as long as they're leading a peaceful lifestyle,
live and let live. But that's not what this is about.
I mean, if we had books this graphic about heterosexual sex,
they would be equally objectionable.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
These books are full of f bombs and very graphic
descriptions of of sexual encounters. They are racist, rot with
the inward, and they're all my perception of those that
I have seen, are all very poorly written. We're supposed
(08:32):
to be teaching children how to be articulate and how
to use proper grammar, and these books are anything but that,
and and and they are absolutely offensive. I think to
almost anyone who's reasonable and really cares about children, now
they will say you're a book banner. Doctor mel Packham
(08:53):
is a book banner because he doesn't want these books
in his school district. But that's not it's not censorship
or ban a book. Look, even the Library of Congress
cannot contain every book that was ever written, so discretion
is used at all libraries, and that discretion is based
on content. It doesn't mean the book is banned or censor.
Anyone can find it on Amazon or wherever they want
(09:17):
to get it. This is simply what do we want
to put in front of our children? Is that right,
doctor mel Packams.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
I would one hundred percent agree with you. You eloquently
captured my thoughts out there, and book banner is a
mild name that I'm called. Sometimes it's even worse than that.
You are categorized as the Nazi burning books, and that's
not our intention. Just as when parents expose children to movies,
(09:50):
movies have a leading system, and certain movies are categorized
as in C seventeen or R rated, and those movies
are not appropriate for kids ten years or younger, and
certain books are not appropriate for kids ten years or
younger or a teenager as well, And those are decisions
(10:12):
that parents have to make. And this is not certainly
against LGBTQ kids or students. We welcome students of any
background into our school community. This is just trying to
protect our kids and ensuring that we don't cross boundaries.
(10:37):
It's not our job to parent a child.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Okay, thank you, doctor. Can you stay with us to
after this commercial break to continue this conversation, Yes, sir,
thank you.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
And now back to the Dan Taplas Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
All right, welcome back. Yes, teacher, leave the kids alone
when it comes to in a sense and their sexuality
at ten years old or even younger. We're here talking
with doctor parthmel Packham, the school board president of District eleven,
a major school district here in Colorado, down in Colorado Springs,
(11:16):
and he's working to rid his libraries, his district's libraries
of books that are simply inappropriate. He doesn't want to
censor them or make them unavailable, He just simply doesn't
want them pushed on students into libraries of his schools.
That's something far different than censorship or book banning. I
can't most of these books that have been called into question.
(11:40):
This seems to be a concerted effort to I don't
know what they're trying to achieve. This is not about
LGBTQ rights and being accepting of people who are in
any category of LGBTQIA. It's not about that these but
I cannot explain to you how vile they are. This
(12:01):
is this is one that I can read if I
censor it a little bit.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
This is a passage.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
It says, do you know that Indians are living proof
that inward plural inward? So there's lots of racism in
these books. Indians are proof that inward people f buffalo
uh and and this is this is typical of this,
(12:27):
these types of books. I can bring up another one
here that's uh and And again I can't read most
of this stuff. I can't even I can't even censor
it to the point that that it's that it's in
any way appropriate to read on air. But uh yeah,
(12:50):
I'm just seeing all sorts of f words, uh, graphic
descriptions of sexual acts. Uh so he f me, f
me beat me, have a child with me, but child
is misspelled. They're full of grammatical errors, and I don't
(13:11):
This is just bizarre that these are in our school libraries,
and you'd be amazed how many people are fighting to
keep them there. I don't understand that, doctor mel Packham,
thanks for staying on. Do you understand that why anybody
would fight to keep these books in the libraries of children.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
No, it blows my mind that the set of books,
people are fighting to keep them in our libraries. When
we started this conversation, you asked me about my whole
as a father, and I mentioned that I have a daughter,
(13:52):
and speaking for all the fathers, all we want to
do is to protect the innocence of our children. Kids
at an earlier and earlier age, because of social media
or inappropriate books or the content that they constantly get
bombarded on television, get exposed to violence, depicting women in
(14:18):
abusive manner, and all that becomes normalized behavior. And when
kids at a young age get these type of exposures,
they start treating each other in a similar manner, and
these type of behaviors become acceptable and normal part of
(14:41):
our society, when all they should be worried about is
going to school, making friends, reading, writing, learning, doing well
in school, competing in athletics, and striving for excellence. That's
what we are trying to do in the strict leven.
We earlier couple of years back, we adopted a parent
(15:03):
partnership policy where we restored parental authority, parental rights, and
promised that we would be transparent with our parents, that
none of the information that their kids are going to
be exposed in schools are going to be something that
we keep away from parents. Some schools, some classrooms, expose
(15:28):
kids to materials and they are kept as a secret
from parents. That's not what we are about. We are
about building trust with our parents and making sure our
kids receive a high quality education and restoring that trust
that has eroded with our parent base over years.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Yeah, I mean some of these. I'm looking at one
here and I'm not going to read from it, but
it's about father. This is a girl describing her father
having sex with her. And then there's another passage in
here about three months after the baby was born. So
this girl was impregnated by her father. I'm still twelve
(16:09):
when all this happens. Mama slapped me hard. Then she
pick up cast iron skillet. Thank god, it was so hot.
It was hot, no hot grease in it, and she
hit me so hard on back I fall to the floor.
I mean stuff is violent, Like you say, it's violent,
and it is just disrespectful of minorities. I just I
(16:30):
don't get it. Most of these people who are pushing
for this and are defending these books in the libraries
obviously come from the far left, and here there being
you know, they talk about civil rights all the time,
and yet here they're using some of the most disgusting profanity.
And I mean, this is this stuff is not only vulgar,
(16:52):
it is absolute pornography. That's in our schools for children
as young as ten, and I've heard in other states
it's even younger than that.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
So I don't can you what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (17:08):
I mean, tell me how other school districts might be
finding out about this and getting this stuff out of
their libraries.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
Well, unfortunately, when we have foot plus schools in our system,
what happens is some of these books inadvertently or under
the wrong building leadership preachs it to our buildings and
our libraries. So parents have to be vigilant. And if
(17:39):
you see one of these books in our libraries, then
there is a form that you can fill. And we
are trying to make the process as simple as possible
for books that have explicit language and sexual content that
doesn't in any way contribute to the education of their child.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Okay, Doctor Parth Meltpackham, thank you very much for taking
time to talk with us.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Today. We've got a heard break here.
Speaker 5 (18:21):
You're listening to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
All right, thank you, audience, Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
I'm Wayne Lagison filling in for Dan today and tomorrow.
I'm going to read a couple of texts that we
received here. One asks who's the one buying these books
for the library? To begin with, Libraries, like I say,
this is common from coast to coast, and if it's
a public school, you the taxpayer, are buying these books.
(18:51):
Public schools are all publicly financed, they all have library budgets,
and somehow they think it's a good idea to buy
these books. I'm not sure exactly how the how this works.
I'm sure most libraries are uh are given recommendations and
and just sent books that they should buy. That publishers
(19:15):
do this. Publishers would push these on people. I have
no idea who had the crazy idea and what it's
exactly rooted in. I'd be interested if anyone wants to
call us if you have any ideas on that, and
tell us what could be the motivation for this The
number three zero three, seven, one three eight two five
five three zero three seven, one three eight two five five.
(19:40):
Have another text here that asks a good question, Dan,
why don't the parents in the school districts just check
the books out and not return them. I'd rather pay
eight or nine dollars for the book than have that
exposed to my child. Yeah, I mean that's certainly that
that's an interesting, an interesting approach. I suspected that the
(20:02):
book would get replaced right away. I don't know how
libraries work. But interesting, you know, interesting suggestion of activism
on the part of this listener. So I'm going to
move on now for a moment to another topic of
(20:23):
interest here in Colorado, and that is Senate Bill three.
Senate Bill three is probably the most restrictive gun law
ever to be passed in the United States, and this
bill essentially makes it difficult. You could say, bans the
purchase of most common semi automatic rifles, shotguns, and handguns.
(20:51):
Typical glock would be. It doesn't ban it. However, if
you are a person who has a lot of money
and a lot of time on your hand, you have
an extremely flexible schedule, you can jump through the hoops
you can get. First of all, you have to get
arbitrary permission from the sheriff of your county to take
(21:14):
a class, and it's a lengthy and expensive class, lasting days.
And then after doing all of that, if you can
pass a particular test, you might be able to get
approved to purchase one of these guns.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Now that does no good for someone.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Let's consider you know, the single parent, the single mother
perhaps who has just broken up with a drunken, abusive boyfriend.
He doesn't have to wait and he's threatening her and
the children. He doesn't have to wait to go through classes,
he doesn't have to pay fees, he doesn't have to
(21:56):
do any of the things that he can show up
and terrorize the family. But the but the victim has
to jump through hoops, has to have time and money
on her hands to get what would be a common,
easy to use see these these are common. The reason
(22:17):
that people get semi automatic guns is because you don't
have to be an expert to use one. They're easy
to load, and it's it's relatively easy to deploy a shot.
I always advocate somebody get lessons that somebody go to
the shooting range. And if you're going to get a
concealed carry permit in Colorado, you are mandated to take
(22:38):
a certain amount of training. Now that's going to go
up considerably with this bill. But I don't think this could.
I don't know how anyone who wrote this bill, and
it's lawyers in the legislature who write these bills at
the insistence at you know, at the request of elected officials,
(22:59):
and one who has gone through law school should know
better than to put a bill like this to the
legislature and have it end up on the governor's desk.
And I can't believe he signed it. I've had a
conversation with Governor Polis about this, and I was telling
him that I thought, you know, he's actually a relatively
(23:21):
viable candidate to become the Democratic Party's next nominee for
the presidency. Now, if you don't believe that, just consider
the bench of the Democratic Party and Governor knew some
was sort of a front runner, an unofficial front runner
for a long time, but then we had these disastrous
fires in California, and I think that's going to be
(23:42):
pretty hard for him. I think that's pretty good ammunition
against him. And so here you had Governor Polis who's
done a pretty good job of making himself look like
the moderate with a libertarian streak, and he could have
played very well, I think throughout the country, across the country.
But now he's going to be viewed as one of
(24:05):
the most gun banning politicians of modern time. And that
may he could probably get re elected if he weren't
term limited in Colorado. I'm not sure. I mean, even
in Colorado, he's experiencing extraordinary pushback. I remember a day
after he signed that bill, there were fifty thousand comments
on Facebook alone, ninety eight percent of them blasting him
(24:29):
for signing this bill. But it doesn't it's not going
to pass a legal muster. The Supreme Court has been
pretty clear on this. We have a second Amendment that
says a well regulated miss militia, being necessary to the
security of a free state, the right of the people
(24:51):
to keep in bare arms shall not be infringed. Now
that is muddied. What that means is confusing because of
the part where it says a well regulated militia.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
What is that.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
People against gun rights often say, well, they're talking about
the National Guard or something like that, but the Court
has not found that to be the case. The Supreme
Court's ruling and District District of Columbia v. Heller affirmed
that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to possess
to possess firearms for lawful purposes such as self defense
(25:28):
or hunting, and they specifically say unconnected to militia service.
This right only affected d C. Two years later, in
twenty ten, it was extended to all states in a
similar ruling in McDonald almost identical ruling in McDonald v. Chicago,
And that was brought simply because this case law was
(25:52):
otherwise just limited to Washington, d C. Which is the
very small sliver of the country. There's a more important
precedent to this, and that is the ruling in New
York State Rifle and Pistol Association v.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
Bruin.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
This established that gun regulations must be consistent with the
nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation. SB III clearly fails
this test. Now, if you want to read about that more,
you can read the gazette tomorrow. If you don't subscribe,
you should. Dan always says that so I feel free
to say as much. There will be an editorial in
(26:32):
tomorrow's gazette that details all of this, so you might
check that out, and always a good idea to subscribe
to the gazette. This has been probably the most devastating
legislative session in the history of Colorado. It was bad
(26:54):
for years. We started with full democratic uniparty control of
the legislature in twenty seventeen. By twenty eighteen, we had
Democrats controlling every single statewide office, both US Senate seats,
and the damage is palpable. But this year it's even worse.
(27:16):
And that's because Trump got elected in November of last year.
So what the legislature is doing is doubling down, trying
to counter what took place in the rest of the country,
which was sort of a move back to common sense
principles and a move toward the right, if you will.
(27:37):
And instead of reading the tea leaves and saying, well, look,
people in Colorado value parental rights and they value gun rights.
It is believed that the hatred of Donald Trump is
so pervasive in this state that you run as far
to the left as you possibly can. And we're going
(27:58):
to talk about that more tomorrow. It is having devastated,
devastating consequences on businesses and families.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
I got to go.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
We've got a commercial coming up, but I'll be back
in a few minutes.
Speaker 5 (28:12):
And now back to the Dan Kaplas Show podcast.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
I'm Wayne Lagison, filling in for Dan today and tomorrow.
If you're driving home from work, I hope your traffic
is I hope it's going well and that you're not
encountering too much traffic. I want to read from a
listener who sent in a text a minute ago. It
says Dan, I'm Wayne, but of course it's usually Dan,
(28:38):
so it's addressed to Dan.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Dan.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
What is also extremely shocking is that Medicaid pays for
trans surgeries. That's not where I want my tax dollars
to go. Not only must we shut up and put
up with this horrifically abusive practice being forced on our society,
we are also forced to pay for it. Medicaid does
(29:00):
not even pay for dental. And of course they really
want us to celebrate trans weirdness. Well that that's not
a bad observation. But what I wish I had done
when we had doctor Morrell in here during the first hour,
I would have asked him about this, but he he
(29:21):
has told me in the past that a lot of
insurance plans do not cover trans surgeries. They don't cover,
you know, gender transitions of any kind. So what doctors
are doing is reporting to the insurance company that they
did something else. They simply call it something else. Now
(29:41):
that sounds like blatant insurance fraud to me, and I
think somebody ought to look into it. Maybe one of
our crack investigative reporters at one of the gazettes he
you know, based in Denver or Colorado Springs, could look
into that, because that is that sounds like blatant insurance fraud.
That's how far this thing has gone. So I'm going
(30:03):
to move on to another subject. We were just talking
about how this legislative session it's been anything goes. There
seems to be no limit to how far left the
legislature wants to take this state. And a lot of
these so supposed representatives of the people on the left
are appointed. The democratic machine has figured out that if
(30:25):
you have someone resign at just the right time, then
the machine can make an appointment of someone who probably
would never have made it through a primary, not somebody
the public would have chosen, and then you have the
advantage of an incumbent, and that's always an easier platform
from which to run for office. So I think the
(30:47):
I think most people can see, if they're paying attention,
that this legislature is far left of Colorado. This is
not the Democrats of Bill Ritter or even John Hickenlooper
and Governor Poulis, who can come across as a moderate,
and you know, he's sort of a protege of doctor
Art Laffer, a conservative economist who who really engineered architect and,
(31:12):
if you will, the Reagan Revolution, the Reagan economic Revolution.
I've talked to Art about Jared, and I've talked to
Jared about Art. You know, Jared basically grew up with
this person, being a best friend of his parents, and
he interned for him. But he is letting this legislature
drag us so far to the left, and now they're
(31:35):
going to snub him. He signed things for them that
he probably shouldn't have SB three, the gun law, being
a perfect example of that. But a week or two
ago he vetoed one of their bills, Senate Bill seventy seven.
Now this bill would amend Colorado the Colorado Opens Record Act.
(31:56):
Actually it would pretty much negate it.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
It would.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
This creates three distinct classes of people who can request
public records. Now, get understand, a public record belongs to
the public. It is the essence of public property. Well,
a lot of bureaucrats and the politicians they answer to
don't like having to fulfill those requests. It takes time, money,
(32:27):
and energy, and oftentimes bureaucrats and politicians don't want people
who are taxpayer watchdogs. Whatever it is their causes, they
don't want to help them with that. So what they've
done here with this bill and police vetoed it. But
the Democrats, the left wing leadership in the legislature, is
(32:51):
going to override this veto. That's that's their plan. So
what they've done is create distinct classes of people who
can Look, if you're media like I am, if you
work for a professional legacy media media organization, or you
work for iHeartRadio, this is a very good thing for
(33:12):
you because you get expededite expedited compliance. They don't charge
you as much. But let's say you're Douglas Bruce, the
man who wrote Tabor, the Taxpayer Bill of rights. He
pulls a lot of public records, just as Douglas Bruce.
He's just a man out there trying to work as
(33:35):
a check on the system. And we need people like that.
We need a lot of them. You see them at
public meetings all the time throughout Colorado, whether it's city, county, state.
These are the people who show up. They're well informed
and they want to know what's going on, and they
know how to pull public records. Now it's going to
cost them more money, and it's going to be a
(33:55):
longer wait, and it's going to be more of a
hassle than if I want to. Now, certainly that benefits me,
but I don't need that benefit. I don't need I
don't want to be put ahead of And I know
a lot of professional reporters and editors who feel this way.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
They don't want to be put ahead of the public.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
In fact, the public often helps us, often helps those
of us who do this professionally to get to the
bottom of things. And this is what apparently the left
wing legislature wants less of. When actually, especially given the
nature of this legislative session, which we will discuss more
(34:37):
at length tomorrow, we need more checks on the system,
certainly not fewer. They shouldn't override the governor's edu
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Decisions, Decisions
Welcome to "Decisions, Decisions," the podcast where boundaries are pushed, and conversations get candid! Join your favorite hosts, Mandii B and WeezyWTF, as they dive deep into the world of non-traditional relationships and explore the often-taboo topics surrounding dating, sex, and love. Every Monday, Mandii and Weezy invite you to unlearn the outdated narratives dictated by traditional patriarchal norms. With a blend of humor, vulnerability, and authenticity, they share their personal journeys navigating their 30s, tackling the complexities of modern relationships, and engaging in thought-provoking discussions that challenge societal expectations. From groundbreaking interviews with diverse guests to relatable stories that resonate with your experiences, "Decisions, Decisions" is your go-to source for open dialogue about what it truly means to love and connect in today's world. Get ready to reshape your understanding of relationships and embrace the freedom of authentic connections—tune in and join the conversation!