Best-selling children’s book author Emma Straub was scheduled to speak at two elementary school campuses last Friday in Katy Independent School District (KISD). Katy, Texas is west of Houston. Straub was scheduled to speak to two school campuses, but the day before her appearance, she received a cancellation from KISD. The reason was some of her tweets offended parents.

The children who were to hear Straub read her best-selling book, ‘Very Good Hats’, were kindergarteners and first graders. Straub was also going to talk to the children about the writing process. Parents read some tweets on her Twitter account and found that she uses the f-word. This is when they began to object to her visit.

There is one example of vulgar language in a tweet that has to do with guns. It happens that the tweet was posted on May 24. That is the day of the horrific mass shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde. Nineteen fourth graders and two teachers were murdered that day by an armed 18-year-old male. Straub tweeted, ‘F**k guns, f**k people who care more about controlling women’s bodies than protecting all of us from people with guns, f**k! It’s too much. So heartbroken.’

She was clearly expressing her outrage and then dragged the abortion issue into the reaction. Still, it was a tweet on social media. I may be wrong but I don’t think a lot of kindergarteners are on Twitter. At least, I hope not. Parents likely looked her up to check her out. Some demanded a better choice be made by the school district.

‘ As parents we need to be more of who the district and our school is allowing to be around our children,’ the parent wrote in a post shared by another mother.

‘If you don’t stand up for your children, who will? Katy ISD, you MUST do better!’ the parent continued.

The Facebook post from the unidentified parent was shared by Anne Russey, another mom in the district.

Russey was outraged by the school’s decision to give in to the other parents and shared her anger in a series of tweets Monday.

‘Once again @katyisd caves to the unrelenting demands of parents who insist on restricting access and experiences for ALL students and not just their own,’ Russey wrote.

In addition to the other parent’s Facebook post, the mother shared several screengrabs of the message sent from the district and a flier for the initial event.

‘It has been brought to our attention that this author has regularly used inappropriate and foul language on her social media platforms — specifically repeated use of the ‘F’ word,’ administrators wrote in the email.

‘This type of language, as you know, does not align with our school and community’s values,’ the letter, sent by a principal, reads.

The school official apologized for misunderstandings or inconveniences. ‘Though, ensuring we are consistently modeling appropriate behaviors and expectations for our students, both in the classroom and via other campus opportunities, is of high priority.’

That’s reasonable – teachers and school administrators lead by example. However, in their time, on social media, cursing doesn’t seem like it should be a deal-breaker for an author to visit a school. There is no indication that she speaks inappropriately to the children during such visits.

The schools initially offered parents the option to opt out of the reading. I guess that wasn’t a good enough solution.

Straub was tagged in the tweets posted by the mom who was angry that the appearance was canceled. Straub responded to her.

‘Thank you. I was sorry not to be able to read my silly book about hats and imagination to those kids,’ she wrote.

‘The only F words in the presentation: funny, feline, feelings, the author replied.

Parents may not like her vulgarity on Twitter or agree with her politics but Straub still enjoys the rights of the First Amendment. There is no reason to believe that the children even knew about her tweets unless they heard their parents talking about them. The substance of her social media presence could have easily been kept from such young children. I’m guessing that lots of five and six-year-olds have heard the word in question in their own homes. These things happen.