A proposal to require school libraries to notify parents of every book a child has checked out was proposed by Georgia senators on Tuesday, while also criminalizing school librarians for distributing obscene materials. The proposal for prosecution is under consideration.
The measure is part of a broader and ongoing push by Republicans in many states to eradicate materials they deem inappropriate from schools and libraries, arguing that books and electronic materials are corrupting children.
Opponents say it is a censorship campaign aimed at inhibiting children’s freedom to learn, while also intimidating teachers and librarians into silence for fear of losing their jobs or worse. He claims that he is doing so.
California teacher sues Newsom, claims gender policy forces students to ‘live double lives’
Georgia senators also proposed a bill that would cut ties with the American Library Association to all public and school libraries in the state and limit the ability of school libraries to house or obtain works depicting sexual intercourse or sexual arousal. We are also considering Neither bill has advanced out of committee ahead of next week’s deadline for passage.
The state Senate Education and Youth Committee voted 5-4 Tuesday to advance Senate Bill 365 to the full Senate for further discussion. The proposal would allow parents to choose to receive an email each time their child obtains library materials.
Sen. Greg Dolezal, a Republican from Cumming, who is proposing the bill, said the Forsyth County School District, which has been in a public fight for years over books students can access, has already sent an email. Stated. Other advocates said it’s important to ensure parents have the right to raise their children as they wish.
The book will be on view at an Atlanta elementary school library on August 18, 2023. On February 20, 2024, a Georgia Senate committee advanced a proposal that would require school libraries to notify parents of every book their child borrows. (AP Photo/Hakim Wright Sr., File)
Senate Majority Leader Steve Gooch, R-Dahlonega, said, “I don’t feel comfortable with parents knowing what their children are watching, doing, and participating in while they are in school, especially in public schools.” I don’t understand what’s going on,” he said.
Opponents said it’s important that students be able to explore their interests and that the bill could violate students’ First Amendment rights.
“This is part of a larger trend in the country and in the state of Georgia to limit access,” said Georgia First Amendment Foundation director and media democratization group Free Press. said attorney Nora Benavidez. “The logical endpoint this bill and other bills take us to is that children have less exposure to ideas.”
Even more controversial is Senate Bill 154, a proposal that would subject school librarians to criminal penalties if they violate state obscenity laws. Under current law, public librarians and employees of public schools and colleges are exempt from penalties for distributing material that meets Georgia’s legal definition of “harmful to minors.”
Dolezal has argued that school librarians should also be subject to such penalties, but on Tuesday he proposed an amendment that would only subject librarians to penalties if they “knowingly” handed out such materials. submitted. He argues that there should not be a double standard in Georgia, where teachers can be charged with obscenity but librarians outside the school cannot be. He said the real goal was to get such materials out of school libraries.
“The goal of this bill is to ensure that libraries are not allowing anything that would go up in the procurement process and cause anyone to be subject to any type of criminal prosecution,” Dolezal said. Ta.
Supporters of the bill hope to use the threat of criminal penalties to force most sexual content out of libraries, even though much sexual content does not meet Georgia’s obscenity standards. .
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“If you’re exploiting children, you should be held accountable,” said Rhonda Thomas, a conservative education activist who helped form the new group Georgians for Responsible Libraries. “Our students will find that they are behind in reading, math and science, but they will definitely know how to masturbate.”
Robert “Buddy” Costley of the Georgia Educational Leadership Association said the bill does not address the issues that activists are outraged about.
“I’m concerned that if we say to parents, this is the solution, the media experts, the people who have worked in this country for 200 years to lend books, that this is the problem. “I’m afraid people will turn to the media and call out the experts instead of dealing with the real problem,” Costley said.
