Librarians in Missouri who loan “age-inappropriate” materials to children could face jail time if a controversial proposed bill is passed.
They would be forced to pay a fine or spend up to a year in prison if they refuse to comply with the proposed new rules designed to protect kids from sexual content.
Republican state Rep. Ben Baker wants panels of parents to decide what content is suitable for minors, with any public libraries that ignore the panels’ edicts stripped of funding.
His proposal has been attacked by critics as “a shockingly transparent attempt to legalize book banning.”
“The main thing is, I want to be able to take my kids to a library and make sure they’re not gonna be exposed to something that is objectionable material,” Baker told local news station KOAM. “Unfortunately, there are some libraries in the state of Missouri that have done this, and that’s a problem.”
Titles that have come under fire in Missouri over the past decade include the award-winning “Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie, which includes references to masturbation; Kurt Vonnegut’s profanity-laced “Slaughterhouse-Five“; and “Speak,” a young-adult novel by Laurie Halse Anderson about the rape of a teenager.
“Every reader and writer in the country should be horrified, absolutely horrified, at this bill,” James Tager, of the freedom of expression group PEN America, said in an interview with the Guardian.
Tager said the planned move is “clearly aimed at empowering small groups of parents to appoint themselves as censors over their state’s public libraries.”
He added that books containing sexual themes, LGBTQ characters and explorations of the impact of sexual assault could be “on the chopping board if this bill is passed.”
“The fact that a librarian could actually be imprisoned for following his or her conscience and refusing to block minors from access to a book, that tells you all you need to know about the suitability of this act within a democratic society,” said Tager, PEN’s deputy director of free-expression research and policy.
His sentiments were echoed by the Missouri Library Association, which said it was opposing the bill since it will “always stand against censorship and for the freedom to read.”
“Public libraries already have procedures in place to assist patrons in protecting their own children while not infringing on the rights of other patrons or restricting materials,” the organization told the Guardian.
Defending the bill, Baker insisted to KOAM that he was not trying to ban books.
“I just think there’s a line between what is open and available access for our children,” he said. “Even the bill specifies it wouldn’t be taken out of the library, it would be placed in a section that’s not for children.
“If the adult … said, ‘I’m OK with my kid reading this or looking at this,’ then they could check that out and have that available for their child.
“I just think that we need to be careful about funding something with our tax-payer dollars without parental consent.”