Our Children Need To Feel Supported By the Adults in Their Lives.
And, for me, that means stepping up to run for office and winning in November.
“This is about right and wrong, good and evil. There is no middle ground.” These were the words of Cobb County School Superintendent Chris Ragsdale in 2023 defending our district’s book bans in front of students, media specialists, and parents who showed up to a school board meeting to speak out against the bans.
HELP ENCOURAGE OTHER READERS TO RUN FOR OFFICE!
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Earlier that month, an email from Libs of TikTok kicked off a book banning spree that is now up to 36 official bans, with dozens more titles shadow banned across school libraries. We have fired a teacher for reading My Shadow is Purple to her gifted students, threatened media specialists with termination, and made it harder for students to come and speak before our school board about the censorship of discussions in their classrooms.
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My name is Micheal Garza. I’m a PTA leader, long-time advocate in the gun violence prevention movement, and parent of a third-grader in Cobb County Schools. And just six months ago, I decided to run for a position on our school board in a race that would flip the dynamic of the entire board and change the direction of Georgia’s second-largest school district.
I know first-hand the importance of supporting the right to read for our children as foundational to their learning. My daughter is an avid reader who regularly finishes 1-2 books or graphic novels each day. She reads titles above her grade level at the suggestion of her teachers and specialists. Why? Because doing so encourages intellectual growth, challenges her with more engaging content, and fosters her love of reading.
When I was her age, I was not much different. I spent hours at the public library each day during the summer getting lost in the fascinating worlds created by Isaac Asimov or traveling through the badlands of the Dark Tower series. I’d see my father in Atticus Finch and learned lessons in empathy in reading and re-reading To Kill a Mockingbird. Growing up in a small Texas town with few close friends, books comforted me throughout my youth. They made me feel less – alone. They made me feel like I belonged.
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Fast forward back to that school board meeting. I was there not just as an observer, but as part of a coalition that mobilized community members to come to the meeting to share their stories about why they were against the bans. I stood in tears behind George Moore, a transgender high school student who spoke passionately about seeing himself in the book Flamer, the first book banned by our district. In his public comment, he said, “If a book about someone like me can't be there, can I?”
Moments like this compelled me to do more than just be an advocate. To do more than volunteer in my daughter’s school. I was compelled to be that change I wanted to see in our district. I was compelled to stand up for every student and educator in Cobb County, just as I had done that evening and as I have done for years in my advocacy work.
The challenges our district faces are not unlike the challenges many districts are facing across the country. We have a literacy crisis in our state, and our district just saw a 6 point drop in ELA scores in our elementary schools – the largest in Metro Atlanta. We’ve had a number of instances of guns being brought on campus, including a middle school student who took her own life with a firearm while in school. The state is diverting over $100 million yearly to private schools through increased voucher programs. And students with disabilities face hurdles in getting the support they need in the classroom.
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Every minute we spend banning books or feeding into the culture wars is a minute not spent finding solutions to these problems. Books are not the leading cause of death of our children. Media specialists are not responsible for the defunding of our public schools and libraries.
But they can be a lifeline to our students. Books can teach resilience and self-regulation and promote engagement in the classroom. As Emma Kress, educator and author of the banned book Dangerous Play, wrote in a letter to Cobb County – “It’s a powerful thing for a child to trust they can set down a book they are not yet ready for or do not need. It’s a powerful thing for a child to feel that the adults surrounding them believe in them enough to trust that they can choose books for themselves.”
Our children need to feel supported by the adults in their lives. And, for me, that means stepping up to run for office and winning in November.