LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A new law will go into effect later this year in Indiana allowing the public to request that certain books found in school libraries be removed.
Signed by Gov. Eric Holcomb earlier this month, House Bill 1447 will require school libraries to publicly post a list of books they offer and provide a complaints process for community members. Schools and librarians can also no longer argue, as a legal defense, that the texts in their libraries have "educational" value. The law still allows them to argue the text has literary, artistic, political or scientific value.
Those who supported the legislation expressed concern that sexually inappropriate or "pornographic" materials are available to children in school libraries. Rep. Martin Carbaugh, R-Ft. Wayne, said people who live in school districts "have a right" to challenge whether a book is harmful to minors.
The bill states that any community member within the school district can request for books to be removed from a school. Critics said the legislation will open the door to banning books, simply because some people don’t like the topics, as well as criminal prosecutions of educators for providing such books, particularly those with LGBTQ+ themes.
Keith Gambill, president of the Indiana State Teachers Association, argues that, if anything, the bill takes away parental rights.
Indiana State Capitol, Indianapolis. (WDRB Image) July 26, 2022.
"The parents have always had the right to know what their students are reading and the content of their curriculum," Gambill said. "This allows a radicalized member of the community to come in and say, 'I want you to stop that.' That comes in conflict of that work between parent and school. And so we see this as taking away parents' rights."
If a ban request is made, school boards would have to review that request at the next public meeting. Should the school decide to keep the book, it could potentially lead to felony charges for offering books that are "harmful to minors," something Chad Heck, advocacy co-chair for the Indiana Library Federation, said doesn't exist.
"The Indiana Library Federation has maintained throughout this whole process that we don't have any materials in school libraries that meet this definition of content harmful to minors, or obscenity," Heck said. "So it really it shouldn't impact our collection practices, because we don't have these things in our libraries to begin with."
According to the American Library Association, 2022 was a record-setting year for book bans, the majority of complaints directed at books with LGBTQ or racial themes.
"I think that there are some some materials that some people find objectionable," Heck said. "Those materials don't rise to that legal definition of what content harmful to minors is, but, certainly, there are materials that some people don't like or that don't conform with their values. But libraries have to serve everyone of diverse communities and values, and we have to make sure that we have materials available for everybody. And we believe that parents should be involved in the reading life of their child and have conversations with their child. That's the best approach, that parents can parent and they can decide what their child reads."
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