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January 30, 2024National Group Points ‘Right to Read’ Advocates To Tonight’s North Hunterdon-Voorhees Meeting
PEN America, the non-profit devoted to free expression in literature and life, is notifying New Jersey residents that tonight, January 30th, the North Hunterdon-Voorhees Board of Education will hold a public meeting where students’ right to read will be front and center.
The 7 p.m. meeting will be livestreamed on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltZ2J_V4b0U
From PEN America:
“Members of the North Hunterdon-Voorhees Intellectual Freedom Fighters (NHVIFF) plan to speak out against incidents of harassment including the following:
On Jan. 13, Christopher Stadulis, husband of BOE member Cynthia Reyes-Stadulis, posted an attack against the North Hunterdon High School librarian on his “Hunterdon County Project” page and to the extremist NJ Schools Facebook group, of which he is an administrator. He tagged the NJ Schools post so that all 14.1K members of that group would be notified. Stadulis’ post has generated numerous hateful comments and incited this email to the librarian’s school account. The sender of that email is a commenter on Stadulis’ Facebook post and is associated with a company that distributes tactical shooting gear. The librarian has notified the district of harassment by Stadulis three times in the last year; the district has taken no action.
Then, on Jan. 17, Stadulis posted a second harassing video to the same Facebook pages. In the video, he targets the NHHS librarian.
The incidents followed a parent’s objection to Let’s Talk About It, a sex-education book in graphic novel format, at the board’s Nov. 28, 2023, meeting. In Jan. 2024, social media commenters associated with several anti-public education Facebook groups falsely labeled the book pornographic and began targeting the North Hunterdon High School librarian.
At the Jan. 30 meeting, NHVIFF members will ask the board to protect students’ right to read, keep school staff safe from harassment, and ensure that board members whose households engage in harassment do not have the privilege of discussing or voting on matters affecting related school operations or personnel.
The New York Times reported on the harassment of Hunterdon High School librarian Martha Hickson in an article last year.”
