John Amanchukwu Sr., of Raleigh, North Carolina, is traveling from school to school in an attempt to highlight the pornographic books sitting on school library shelves. He is doing so by attempting to read from them in front of panicking school board members who shut him down and thus exposing their hypocrisy for all to see.
"I travel the country speaking out against critical race theory, gender theory, queer theory, the indoctrination of children in the public school system,” Amanchukwu said on American Family Radio Tuesday.
The pastor, filling in for morning host Jenna Ellis, was introducing himself and his tactics to the AFR audience.
In May, in Asheville, North Carolina, Amanchukwu read from the book “It’s Perfectly Normal” by Robie Harris, highlighting its graphic sexual content to board members of the Asheville School District.
Critics call the book “child pornography," so it didn’t take long for Asheville board members to ask Amanchukwu to stop reading from passages that created extreme mental imagery.
The American Library Association -- itself under fire as more state libraries begin to withdraw over radical content available in minors – calls “It’s Perfectly Normal” one of the most frequently “challenged” books of the last two decades.
In August, in Vero Beach, Florida, deputies removed Amanchukwu for the same reasons after reading from “13 Reasons Why” by Jay Asher.
The passage he read described minors discussing their participation in sex acts.
“Some call this grooming, some call it indoctrination, but I also like to call it mental rape," the AFR guest host explained. "I call it mental rape because I believe that pornographic books, books that are sexually explicit, whether the books talk about heterosexual sex or even homosexual sex, I call that mental rape because it stains the brain, it assaults the soul, and it robs children of their innocence.”
Florida law turned tables on school boards
In Florida, the removal of Amanchukwu and censorship of parents triggered a recent law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. That common-sense law says if a school board denies parents the right to read such passages, the school district must remove those same books that are obviously unsuitable for a public meeting.
The law resulted in dozens of books being removed from the Indian River County School District, Fox News reported last month.
During his turn at the podium, Amanchukwu attempted to read an except of "13 Reasons Why" but was quickly cut off by the president of the school board.
"Sir, I'll stop you there," the unnamed school board leader told him.
On the AFR program, Amanchukwu said he couldn't read from the book on the air due to its content but it was available in the school library until that night.
“This book is very, very pornographic," he said. "I read from that book, and the school board chairman cut me off. I tried to continue to read and she cut me off again and again, and then she told someone to grab my microphone."
Four deputies surrounded Amanchukwu, one grabbing him by the arm and leading him out of the meeting room.
A tougher state law, written with great clarity, made a difference in removing objectionable material from the shelves in Indian County.
Jacqueline Rosario, an Indian River school board member, told Fox News she was the only board member to vote to remove the lewd and adult-themed books when the school board first voted in 2022. At the time, she said, fellow school board members chose to ignore Florida's laws about obscene content in school libraries.
“This is a good thing," she said of the new Florida law. "It is the litmus test for acceptable age appropriate and standards-driven library books. If you can't read them at a board meeting, then you can't have them in our schools."
Amanchukwu said the Indian County school board tried to prevent the viral dust-up that his presence helped create by removing his name in advance from the meeting’s approved list of speakers.
“Fifty-two people signed up to speak but only one person had their paperwork missing: Yours truly," he told the AFR audience. "They hid my paperwork. They did not want me to speak because my reputation precedes me. They knew what was going to take place if they allowed me to get behind that podium, that eyes would be open, ears would be open, and that the message more than likely would go viral,” he said.
He talked to a school board member prior to the meeting and his name was once again added to the docket.
Amanchukwu has also addressed school boards on the topics of Critical Race Theory as well as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
He spoke before the Indian River school board wearing a black sweatshirt that said “God > Gov.”
“Politicians aren't perfect," he said. "There isn't one perfect party, but there is a party in this country that's pushing gender theory and queer theory upon our kids. They seek to allow transgenders to come into the classroom and read to our kindergarten students. I don't know about you, but I am vehemently against that.
“The same party supports abortion on demand. They want to kill a baby even after the baby has been born. This is infanticide. It's evil. It's corrupt. We all know that life begins at conception. But there are some who will seek to find ways to turn God's truth upside down,” Amanchukwu said.
