As calls continue for Cobb County Superintendent Chris Ragsdale to step down or be fired from his job, he defended a recent decision to remove two books considered inappropriate for students, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Last month the state’s second-largest school district voted to fire teacher Katie Rinderle for the reading a book to her fifth grade class last school year. The book, ‘My Shadow is Purple’ challenged gender norms.

Two other books, ‘Flamer’ by Mike Curato and ‘Me and Earl and the Dying Girl’ by Jesse Andrews have been removed for “sexually explicit” content.

Ragsdale spoke for more than 20 minutes during Thursday’s school board meeting, defending both decisions.

“There are those who believe Cobb schools are nothing more than a convenient battle field for whatever their political cause, and that’s what we’re currently experiencing,” he said. “There is no room to flip-flop where you stand. You are either in favor of providing inappropriate material to children, or you are against it. And I assure you, I am against it and I will not be moved.”

During his speech, he had to stare at protestors wearing red shirts with “Replace Ragsdale” and “Ragsdale is wrong” printed on them.

The Cobb Community Care Coalition organized the protest ahead of the meeting, and brought a list of demands to the school board.

Under Ragsdale’s leadership, Cobb “has a well-documented history of failing to address racism, antisemitism, homophobia, and other forms of discrimination, even when brought to public attention,” the group said in a statement.

They want the board to replace Ragsdale and fire another top district official, implement an anti-bullying curriculum that was previously discontinued in the schools, withdraw a ban on teaching critical race theory and define terms in its policies such as “controversial issue” and “divisive concepts” to give clarity to educators they said are “enduring a hostile workplace.”

Ragsdale has been superintendent since 2015. He was recognized Thursday after the American Red Heart Association named him the National Superintendent of the Year after the district raised more for the organization than any other district in the country.

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