He is known as Moore County school board member Philip Holmes, but he has demonstrated the detective instincts of Sherlock Holmes during an arduous exploration of age-inappropriate literature lurking inside public school libraries. During a July 10, 2023, board of education meeting, Holmes presented detailed accounts of 18 titles that contain passages normalizing under-age sexual encounters, trivializing racial slurs, embellishing gay relationships, murder and suicide. Most of the books Holmes is targeting, with board support, were found in two high schools, Northern Moore and Union Pines. But several titles are available in middle schools — Crain’s Creek, Elise, New Century, Southern and West Pine — and, alarmingly, in elementary schools — Highfalls and McDeed’s Creek. Particularly egregious are the books still on shelves in the elementary schools. A book that has been targeted in the past, but was deemed suitable for young readers by a community panel under a previous, left-leaning Moore school board (May 2022), is entitled “George”. A McDeeds Creek Elementary School student arguably can happen upon page 135 to read about a depiction of male genitals being severed with scissors. At High Falls Elementary, it’s easy for a fifth grader, age 10, to encounter a book entitled, “Crank”, which according to a Google Books review is “based loosely on the real life addictions of the author's daughter to crystal meth. The book is required reading in ‘many high schools, as well as many drug and drug court programs’.” Note the emphasis on high school-aged readers. No mention of fifth-graders. “Looking for Alaska” in the two high schools fixates on oral sex. And “13 Reasons Why”, also in West Pine Middle, has been targeted by critics for glamorizing suicide. According to Hollywood Reporter, “13 Reasons”, which has morphed into a longstanding Netflix series, “centers on 17-year-old Hannah Baker, who takes her own life and leaves behind cassette recordings for 13 people who she says were part of why she killed herself.” Would any middle school student derive meaningful take-aways from such a dark piece of writing? The answer is obvious. After Holmes’ presentation in a board work session earlier in the day, board member Stacey Caldwell said she opposed targeting the books because it would represent an act of “book banning”. Caldwell was outvoted (David Hensley joined her after objecting to a procedural matter) by the board, which approved a plan to explore legal remedies that ultimately would remove the 18 titles, and restrict similar graphic content from landing on shelves in the future. Even the far-left teachers’ union, the National Education Association, sensed backlash after releasing its list of “Summer Reading” that contained numerous provocative titles such as “Gender Queer” (target age: 12-18). A Wall Street Journal guest columnist visited the NEA web site where the summer reading titles were listed. He posted to the comments section a graphic passage from “Gender Queer”. He wrote, “Within an hour, all the comments were deleted and the comments section on the post was closed.” Later, the NEA also added a disclaimer to the list: “The books here are not recommended for students”. That message is still falling on deaf ears in Moore County.
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