Headteacher who banned LGBT+ books arrested for child pornography
Former headteacher Phillip Todd Wilson who was recently charged over possession of child pornography (Clark County Detention Center)
A former school headteacher in Kentucky who banned books with LGBT+ content has been indicted on child pornography charges.
Phillip Todd Wilson was principal at the Montgomery County High School in Kentucky. He made headlines a decade ago when he banded together with others in the school to ban books with LGBT+ content that teenagers were studying in English class.
Wilson has since been charged on 17 counts of possession and distribution of child pornography by Kentucky state police, NBC News reports.
School principal Phillip Todd Wilson tried to ban LGBT+ books a decade ago.
Wilson had made a name for himself for trying to ban books with “homosexual content” as well as those that referenced drugs, sex, child abuse and suicide. The books that he had pulled from the school curriculum were Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson, Deadline by Christ Crutcher, Lessons from a Dead Girl by Jo Knowles, and Unwind by Neal Shusterman.
Knowles recently opened up about the experience in a Facebook post following Wilson’s arrest on child pornography charges.
As I said to some friends last night when I got the news, ‘You can’t make this s**t up.’
“The principal of the Kentucky high school who fought to ban my book, Lessons from a Dead Girl (for ‘homosexual and other inappropriate content’) along w/ bks by Laurie Halse Anderson, Chris Crutcher & Neal Schusterman was just arrested on child pornography charges (possession and distribution),” she wrote.
Author is ‘horrified’ by revelations about child pornography.
“I was a very new author at the time all this happened and the press coverage was overwhelming,” Knowles wrote.
“I was horrified by the accusations he and the superintendent made. And heartbroken for the brave teacher, Risha Allen Mullins who stood up for our books and faced so much unfair criticism. I am having a lot of feelings right now. As I said to some friends last night when I got the news, ‘You can’t make this s**t up.’”
Meanwhile, following the revelations, Anderson wrote on Twitter: “Books that help kids examine the violence, abuse and shame they’ve endured are very threatening to the people who commit those acts of violence, abuse, and shaming.”
