As the legislative session approaches, lawmakers have filed legislation to eliminate explicit books from public school libraries.
Last session, State Rep. Jared Patterson (R-Frisco) authored the READER Act, which required vendors to rate their books for explicit material before selling them to schools. The law passed, but the rating mechanism was blocked by a federal appeals court, which ruled that it violated book vendors’ First Amendment rights.
In a new effort, Patterson has filed House Bill 183 outlining how library materials would be regulated and reviewed to prevent inappropriate content from being accessible to children.
The law would allow parents to request that the State Board of Education review library materials. The board would consider whether books contain sexually explicit content or are inappropriate for the grade level they are accessible to.
The measure requires the creation of a website to contain a list of library materials pending review and a list of rejected materials.
Patterson also filed House Bill 267, which removes an exemption in Texas law allowing obscene material to be shown to children under a “scientific, educational, governmental, or other similar” justification.
“While we must remove the affirmative defenses to harmful materials, we know that doing so will not solve the filthy book problem in our schools,” State Republican Executive Committeewoman Christin Bentley told Texas Scorecard.
Another proposal, Senate Bill 88 by State Sen. Bob Hall (R-Edgewood), changes the definition of “harmful material” by removing a clause about explicit content being the “dominant theme taken as a whole.” This measure would allow a book to be deemed harmful if it contains a single particularly obscene section.
“The definition of harmful materials contains loopholes that allow pornography to be in a material as long as its overall theme is not pornographic and as long as the material is not utterly without social redeeming value,” added Bentley. “Senator Hall’s bill SB 88 would close those loopholes. Senator Hall filed this legislation in the 88th session, and I am very pleased to see it refiled in the 89th.”
“It is my opinion that Hall’s SB 88 is very important,” Bonnie Wallace told Texas Scorecard. “As it currently stands, a book can contain very harmful content, [even] if its dominant theme, taken as a whole, is not harmful. That is like saying if you give your child chocolate milk and add a few teaspoons of poison, that would be okay.”
Wallace is the vice chair of the Llano County Library Advisory Board. She has traveled the state raising awareness about explicit materials in children’s libraries. “Pornographic content is like poison to the mind,” she added. “Any amount of poison should be rejected so we can protect our Texas children.”
The legislative session begins on January 14.
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