If you want to prevent your child from benefiting from the educational materials intended to help them develop cognitive skills, along with compassion and understanding of the broader world and the people in it, then you can homeschool them and select all the material. 

It is ridiculous that we are not letting the trained educators select the appropriate materials for their own classrooms and subjects - something which they are literally trained to do.

All children deserve representation in what they read and learn about in school. It’s also beneficial for all people to see and learn  about experiences and people different from themselves. And they deserve the opportunity to experience, digest, and learn from hard topics.  This is how we grow into well rounded and functioning adults. 

SB656 needs to be rescinded, but in lieu of that, the VDOE needs to take into consideration the complexity and nuances of books and consider the broader impact of removing certain books from classrooms just because it makes some people uncomfortable to face truths about our world and history.