The Hempfield Area School District, in Westmoreland County surrounding but not including Greensburg, approved a new district-wide policy for banning books on Monday in a vote of 7 to 1 by the School Board. First up for banning are trans memoir “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson and “The Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person” by Frederick Joseph.
New book-banning policy discussions began in 2022 when Hempfield parent Paula Cinti objected to “All Boys Aren’t Blue” calling the memoir “obscene criminal material.” Paula Cinti is the Vice Chair of the Westmoreland County chapter of Moms for Liberty, an organization labeled as an “extremist group” by civil rights organization the Southern Poverty Law Center. Moms for Liberty recently lauded Adolf Hitler’s quote, “He alone, who OWNS the youth, gains the future.”
Suzanne Ward, daughter-in-law of State Senator Kim Ward (R – Hempfield) was in attendance at Monday’s School Board meeting and described books like “All Boys Aren’t Blue” as “grooming,” saying that “these children need protected and they do not need groomed; they do not need materials such as this.”
Suzanne Ward’s social media accounts are filled with book-banning rhetoric. Mrs. Ward is also the owner of RSVP Gifts and More in Greensburg. Don’t ask her if she’ll print your same-sex wedding invitations though.