Virginia Beach at-large school board member Victoria Manning—aka book-banning Karen, aka non-reading pro-censorship Karen—is going after American literature she clearly doesn’t understand.
Daily Beast reports that Manning, founder of the “Wokeness Checker” website, along with co-board member Laura Hughes, sent an email to Virginia Beach City Public Schools Superintendent Aaron Spence to demand that four books be removed from circulation or used in the classroom “due to their pornographic nature.”
“It has been brought to my attention by some parents that there are some disturbing books in our district that are available to students,” Manning wrote on Oct. 5. “I would like to ask that you pull these books from shelves and also block any electronic access by students to getting these books IMMEDIATELY.”
First on Manning’s list is author and Nobel Laureate in Literature Toni Morrison’s debut novel, The Bluest Eye, alongside Jonathan Evison’s Lawn Boy, A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines, and the memoir comic Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe.
According to The Virginia-Pilot, Spence wrote in an email to board members that Manning had also requested a review of two additional books—Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin and Good Trouble: Lessons from the Civil Rights Playbook by Christopher Noxon—but it is unknown why they’re under scrutiny from Manning.
Spence told Daily Beast that Manning’s worries do not represent the vast majority of parents and this is not a “rampant issue.”
The Virginia-Pilot reports that in emails obtained through a public records request, Manning wrote that she had not read all of the books personally, but said of The Bluest Eye that “just reading a few of the pages gives me utter disgust,” claiming the books contained “pedophilia.”
This is not all that “disgusts” Vicky. She made her primetime appearance—where else—on Fox News to decry Critical Race Theory, saying, “Students and teachers are being pitted against one another based upon their skin color.”
According to The Virginia-Pilot, Manning went after a group of middle school teachers who participated in a book group with students using The Racial Healing Handbook by Anneliese A. Singh, calling it “appalling and disgusting.”
Vicky also takes issue with vaccine mandates for high school athletes.
The frightening thing is, Karen-with-a-cause Manning has gotten Gender Queer “permanently removed from shelves,” according to Spence.