What a parent from Pittston and a tutor from Randolph see as a loving, inclusive tale that should be available to children to help them understand the diverse world around them, others including a Gardiner-area school board member, describe it much differently in online comments.

“Prince & Knight,” Jennifer Sculli and Jane Beckwith told the school board recently, is a story of bravery, friendship and love, breaking from classic fairy-tale-like norms only in that the prince falls in love with a male knight, not with a female princess.

Barry Manning, a School Administrative District 11 board member from Randolph, reposted a social media post that described the book as inappropriate propaganda and an effort to indoctrinate children into becoming LGBTQ+ themselves.

The post, also shared by Augusta resident Nicholas “Corn Pop” Blanchard and others in right-leaning social media pages, states a parent, who is not named, says their 5-year-old kindergartner at Pittston-Randolph Consolidated School came home with “Prince & Knight,” by Daniel Haack, from the school library. The post states people should be furious because the book is available to children.

“This trash ‘fairy tale’ has a prince dumping princesses to hook up with a male knight, slay a dragon, tie the knot in a same-sex wedding and party like it’s no big deal,” the Feb. 13 post from Blanchardsays. “How dare they push romantic same-sex crap and marriage on these children?! These litte ones should be mastering ABCs, 123s, and playground rules — NOT getting brainwashed on sexuality without ANY parental heads-up or opt-out! This is OUTRAGEOUS indoctrination, not education.”

Jane Beckwith, a Randolph resident who works as a language tutor, heard about online criticism of the book so she checked it out herself, watching it read on YouTube and reading an evaluation of it by the OWWL Library System, a cooperative of 42 libraries in New York State.

Beckwith described it as following closely along the lines of more familiar fairy tales, with an eligible prince meeting a knight who helps him slay a dragon.

“There is nothing objectionable about the language or illustrations in this innocent, charming book,” Beckwith said at the March 5 school board meeting. “An attempt to ban or restrict this book within our educational system would be misguided and unnecessary. Unless the goal is not to assess appropriate literature for children, but to enact rules that deny and erase the existence of LGBTQ+ people, which I believe this board and community should not do.”

Becky Fles, school board chairwoman, said the district has an opt-out policy that allows parents who don’t want their child taking out specific books, due to their faith beliefs for example, to contact school officials. If requested, their kids won’t be allowed to check out those books. She said parentscan contact their child’s school officials directly.

Fles said that’s a far cry from banning books, which she said the district has no plans to do.

“You should, as a parent, have every right to go into a school and say I don’t want my kid reading that,” Fles said. “But you don’t have the right to say ‘I don’t want anybody else’s kid to be able to do that, either. You don’t get to do that for other people’s kids.”

Fles said the district has two copies of the book “Prince & Knight.” She wasn’t sure where the books are located but said because it is a children’s book, she was guessing likely at an elementary school. It is a library book, which can be checked out by students who find it, but is not part of any specific classroom lessons.

Fles said the school board is not involved in selecting library books. That process is overseen by Angela Hardy, director of curriculum and instruction, who works with the district librarian and educational technicians to select books for school libraries.

She defended its inclusion amongst reading materials available at school libraries.

“Public education is public, that means we have to provide for every student, and if we have a student with two moms, or two dads, our intention is not to isolate them,” Fles said. “Just like we have books on people of color, or people who may not be from America. There’s a spot for everyone. We don’t want anyone to get hurt or be bullied or feel unsafe or like they don’t belong.”

Manning, in sharing Blanchard’s post about the book, wrote “It is time that we end this madness. There are several seats on our school board up for reelection in the coming months. It is critical that we secure those seats. When we do. This goes away.”

Manning could not immediately be reached for comment Monday.

Manning’s post and concern the district could consider banning the book prompted Beckwith and Sculli, of Pittston, who has one child in the school district, to speak out for the book at the March 5 meeting.

“A book like ‘Prince & Knight’ is a story about bravery, friendship and love,” Sculli said. “Removing it because the main characters are two men does not protect children, it limits their understanding of both the world we live in and people who may be different from them. Reading about people from different backgrounds helps young people grow into adults who understand and respect others. In a social media post a board member stated having books like this is madness, and that they should go away. I ask that this board always support having books available to children that help them understand themselves, and the world around them.”

Tim Bodnar, an activist also known as TruthslingerX, who has spoken up, sometimes loudly, at other school board meetings on other parents’ rights issues, said in an email to SAD 11 officials he wanted to go to the March 5 board meeting to make public comments about the book, and to film the board meeting, but unless he heard back from the board, he would forgo his right to do so to give the board space and time to digest the issue, if that’s what they wanted.

Blanchard, after initially encouraging people go to the March 5 meeting to speak out against “Prince & Knight,” later updated his post to say he would not be attending the meeting because “I don’t want to bring ‘the clown show’ to a district that thinks standing up for parents’ rights and protecting our children will somehow damage their chances of winning an election.”