According to the Maine Wire, an 11-year-old Mainer named Knox Zajac addressed school board members by reading aloud from Smut, accessible at the Windham Middle School library. Most boys his age would be too immature to stand up and oppose the people in charge, which is why this interaction was so noteworthy.

Knox Zajac read from a book he discovered in his school library. (Image credit: screenshot)

As he articulated the problem, Knox showed maturity and respect beyond his years. Knox, like most 11-year-old boys, enjoys comic books. The librarian at his middle school recommended Nick and Charlie, a comic novel. He pulled out the book, and to his amazement, it wasn’t about superheroes or interplanetary space travel. It was about two boys getting into a fight.

“When I checked out Nick and Charlie to show my dad it, the librarian asked if I wanted more and if I wanted a graphic novel version,” Knox explained. He also stated that he discovered the book “on display on a stand” at the school library. Knox, who is still young enough to mispronounce “library” without the final “r,” read a brief, sexy paragraph to school board members, according to The Blaze.

Knox Zajac read aloud from a library book while the school board sat in startled silence. (Image courtesy of YouTube)

The section offers a vivid, word-for-word account of a sexual encounter between two boys. There is additional profanity in the chapter. Following Knox’s reading of the chapter, his father, Adam Zajac, approached the lectern to share his comments. “Listen to the parents,” Adam said, tapping a copy of Gender Queer on the podium. “I will gladly devote my time and energy to ensuring the safety of my child and other students at this school.”

“I will be a thorn in your side,” Adam Zajac said. “I just want you to be aware of what you’ve awoken,” he said further. “The parents have arrived and are conversing. And you need to listen and act swiftly,” he continued, emphasizing that it should not take “four months” to remove such books from a middle school library.

Following his son’s presentation, Adam Zajac addressed the school board. (Image credit: screenshot)

Larry Lockman is the co-founder of the Maine First Project and served in the Maine House of Representatives from 2012 to 2020. “The school board members’ stone-cold indifference to Knox’s 11-year-old presentation was telling. In fact, they have established a new state religion in Maine classrooms, in violation of the First Amendment,” Lockman said in a statement to The Blaze. Lockman is putting on a training session to help parents combat “anti-American political indoctrination in the classroom.”

Lockman claims that the publications mentioned by the father-son Zajac team during the school board meeting are “smut” and promoted by “porn pushers.” “The bad news is that depravity like this is the norm, not the exception, in Maine’s dysfunctional K–12 government-run schools. In the meantime, academic attainment has leveled off over the last decade and a half,” he says.

“Gender Queer, another book in the high school library, contains graphic depictions of minors engaged in sexual intercourse that could be mistaken for a how-to manual.” The age recommendation for this book is 18 and over, according to Maine Wire. “Parents want age-appropriate restrictions on access to these books—if they’re even allowed in the library. However, the majority of school board members disagree, and some community members believe the board is making efforts to limit parent participation in public meetings.”