When an illustrated edition of Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” was released in 2019, educators in Clayton, Missouri, decided to include copies in high school libraries. The book is widely considered a classic work of dystopian literature and addresses themes of women’s oppression, presented in graphic novel form would help it reach teens struggling with reading comprehension.
But after Missouri lawmakers passed a law in 2022 that subjected librarians to fines and possible jail time for allowing sexually explicit materials on shelves, the suburban St. Louis district reconsidered Atwood’s new edition and withdrew it.
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“There is a depiction of a rape scene, a maid being forced into a sexual act,” says Tom Bober, Clayton District Library Coordinator and president of the Missouri Association of School Librarians. “It’s literally a vignette from the graphic novel, but we felt it violated the law in Missouri.”
Across the United States, book complaints and bans have skyrocketed to the highest levels in decades. Public and school libraries have been inundated with complaints from community members and conservative organizations like Moms for Liberty. Increasingly, lawmakers are considering new punishments – crippling lawsuits, heavy fines and even prison terms – for distributing books that some consider inappropriate.
The trend comes as officials seek to define terms like “obscene” and “harmful.” Many of the conflicts involve material with racial and/or LGBTQ+ themes, such as Toni Morrison’s novel, “The Bluest Eye,” and Maia Kobabe’s memoir, “Gender Queer.” And although no librarians or educators have been jailed, the threat alone has led to increased self-censorship.
This year alone, lawmakers in more than 15 states have introduced bills to impose harsh penalties on libraries or librarians.
Utah enacted legislation in March that empowers the state Attorney General to enforce a new system for challenging and removing “sensitive” books from school settings. The law also creates a panel to monitor compliance with the law and possible violations.
Awaiting Idaho Gov. Brad Little’s signature is a bill that empowers local prosecutors to file charges against public and school libraries if they fail to keep “harmful” materials away from minors.
“The laws are designed to limit or eliminate legal protections that libraries have had for decades,” says Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the Office of Intellectual Freedom at the American Library Association.
Since the early 1960s, institutions including schools, libraries and museums, as well as educators, librarians and other staff members who distribute materials to minors have been largely exempt from costly lawsuits or potential criminal charges.
These protections began to appear in the states as the United States grappled with standards around obscenity, which was defined by the Supreme Court in 1973.
With a 5-4 ruling in Miller v. California, the judges decided that obscene materials are not automatically protected by the First Amendment (which protects freedom of speech), and offered three criteria that must be met to be labeled obscene: whether the work, taken as a whole, appeals to a “prurient interest,” if “the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive manner, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable state law,” and if the work lacks “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”
Over time, nearly all states adopted protections for educators, librarians and museum officials, among others, who provide information to minors.
“Until recently, police and prosecutors could not bring charges against public libraries for materials that make certain people uncomfortable. These exemptions have prevented spurious prosecutions of teachers over health and sexuality curriculum, art, drama, and difficult subjects in English classes,” states a 2023 report from EveryLibrary, a national political action committee that opposes the censorship.
Arkansas and Indiana targeted educators and librarians with criminalization laws last year. Tennessee criminalized publishers who provide “obscene” materials to public schools.
Some Republicans are seeking sanctions and restrictions that apply nationwide. Referring to “pornography” in the foreword to Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s plan for a possible second Donald Trump administration, the right-wing group’s president, Kevin Roberts, wrote that “the people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned Educators and public librarians who provide it should be classified as registered sex offenders.”
The Arkansas version was temporarily blocked by a federal judge after a coalition of librarians and publishers challenged the legality of subjecting librarians and booksellers to criminal charges if they provide “harmful” materials to minors.
Indiana lawmakers eliminated “educational purposes” as a defense for school librarians and educators accused of providing “obscene” or “harmful” material to minors, felonies punishable by up to two and a half years in prison and $10,000 in fines. The law also requires public catalogs of what is in each school library and systems for responding to complaints.
Indiana’s law went into effect on January 1. It’s likely a matter of when, not if, a lawsuit is filed, and the anxiety has created a chilling effect.
“It’s instilling fear in some people. It’s very scary,” said Diane Rogers, a school librarian who serves as president of the Indiana Library Federation. “If you are a licensed teacher, simply being charged with a felony potentially eliminates your license, even if you are found not guilty. “That is something very serious.”
Rogers said he is confident that Indiana school libraries do not offer obscene materials, but he has seen reports that some districts have moved certain titles to older age groups or required parental approval to review them.
A PEN America list shows that 300 titles were removed from school libraries in 11 Missouri districts after lawmakers in 2022 banned “sexually explicit” material, punishable by up to a year in jail or a $2,000 fine. The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri and library groups challenged the law last year, but it remains in effect pending a motion for the state to intervene.
“Gender Queer” is another title no longer available to high school students in Clayton, where district officials recently turned their attention to Mike Curato’s graphic novel, “Flamer,” about a teenager struggling with his sexual identity. and how to fit in at Boy Scout camp. The American Library Association included “Flamer” on its list of the most challenged and banned books of 2023.
“We had a lot of conversations about how to interpret the law and not violate it,” Bober said. “But we also didn’t want to overreach and censor our collections. With ‘Flamer,’ we didn’t feel like we were breaking the law.”
2024-04-10 15:36:33
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