With help from the Thomas More Society, a group of Colorado parents calling itself “Pornography Is Not Education” (PINE) is suing a controversial company that provides hardcore pornography and other obscene material to children in government schools across America. The Massachusetts-based firm, dubbed EBSCO Information Services, literally pumps graphic sex images and extreme perversion into more than 55,000 public schools. And the tax-funded Colorado Library Consortium helps. Parents have now had enough.
One of the key claims in the lawsuit is that the company is violating Colorado’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act, which prohibits using false claims to sell goods or services. In particular, the company markets its services to schools by claiming the content it provides is “age-appropriate.” No reasonable person would consider much of the filth in EBSCO’s databases, which includes hardcore porn and instructions on how to engage in all manner of perversion, to be age-appropriate for school children.
In fact, so grotesque is the material provided to children by EBSCO that the National Center on Sexual Exploitation listed the company as one of the worst 12 companies in America that perpetuate sexual exploitation. A horrified state school board member contacted The Newman Report and provided access to EBSCO’s databases. Among other obscene material, this writer was able to locate materials encouraging sexual perversion and even stories about adult sex with children within minutes.
“It is against the law to ply children with pornography,” explained Matthew Heffron, an attorney with the Thomas More Society who is engaged in litigation on behalf of the outraged Colorado parents. “If the local convenience store or movie theater can’t do it, why should EBSCO and the Colorado Library Consortium be allowed to get away with it?”
The lawsuit, filed in district court in Colorado, points out that the company includes material that promotes sadomasochism, bondage, and other inappropriate sex acts in its summer reading list for children. It also provides links to material on “sexual positions” and “sex toys.” And the company links to companies that hosts graphic video pornography.
“At all times material, EBSCO has known its research databases specifically targeting school children have contained, and continue to contain, substantial amounts of easily accessibly, sexually explicit material, which is obscene with respect to minors and/or is harmful to minors, as these terms are legally defined,” the complaint charges. Many states, including Indiana, even make it a crime to provide obscene material to children.
Heffron, the attorney, said it was important to protect children and hold companies accountable. “This case is about two things: protecting children and calling out corporate deceit,” the lawyer for the parents explained. “EBSCO gets schools to purchase databases by falsely promising the databases are age-appropriate and specifically tailored for elementary, middle and high school children.” Obviously, they are not.
Far from being an isolated aberration, this case is merely the tip of the iceberg. In reality, government schools all across America are deliberately sexualizing children, breaking down moral values, and promoting obscenity under the guise of “education.” The parents and lawyers in this case should be commended for taking a stand. But the lawsuit, even if successful, is not going to protect children from this sort of filth.
