As parents and educators fight over book bans, five states have enacted criminal punishments for librarians who allow children to access ‘obscene’ materials – with a dozen states considering similar actions. 

The laws could subject librarians to significant penalties, including imprisonment and hefty fines, for providing sexually explicit, obscene or books deemed ‘harmful’ to children. 

At least seven state legislatures have passed these laws over the past two years, with six of them doing so in the last two months, although the governors of Idaho and North Dakota vetoed similar legislation. 

The laws are pending in nine other states but so far there have been no instances in which a school staffer has been charged under the new laws.

Around a dozen states have also considered more than 20 similar bills this year alone with approximately half of them expecting to be reintroduced in 2024.

New state laws have been enacted that could subject librarians to significant penalties, including imprisonment and hefty fines, for providing sexually explicit, obscene or books deemed ‘harmful’ to children

Laws in Idaho and Arkansas, Indiana, Missouri, North Dakota and Oklahoma could result in fines or imprisonment, or both, for school employees and librarians.

Tennessee’s law goes further than just librarians and targets schools, book publishers and vendors who sell the books to schools in the first place.

The new laws put librarians in the firing line, whereas previously, they were exempt from prosecution over obscene materials in almost every state.

All but one of the new laws primarily targets schools, but some also include the staff of public libraries, with one specifically targeting book vendors.

The laws are also difficult to navigate as they do not specifically explain what would count as obscene and suggest such judgments be decided by the courts.

However, the very presence of the laws could create a ‘climate of fear’ among school librarians leading to censorship particularly on books about and penned by LGBTQ people.

‘It will make sure the only literature students are exposed to fits into a narrow scope of what some people want the world to look like,’ said Keith Gambill, president of the teachers union in Indiana told the Washington Post. 

Indiana is one of the states that has adopted such new laws. 

Books banned in schools include Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe and The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas

Novels by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison dealing with race have been banned, as was The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

‘This is my 37th year in education. I’ve never seen anything like this. … We are entering a very frightening period.’ 

Conservatives believe such laws are necessary to stop children from being exposed to pornographic and sexual content that they fear could harm their mental health and warp development. 

In Indiana, staffers could be slapped with a $10,000 fine or be jailed for 2-and-a-half years for giving obscene or harmful material to minors. 

In Oklahoma, school employees and public library staffers could face a $20,000 fine or be given a 10-year jail sentence for facilitating ‘indecent exposure to obscene material or child pornography.’ 

A Tennessee law threatens book publishers, distributors and sellers with six years in prison and up to $103,000 in fines.

The laws are already having an effect on the types of books lining school library shelves with librarians concerned they could face prosecution.

Students from the Miami-Dade County protest last month during what they say is an assault on educational freedom by Governor Ron DeSantis and the Republican-controlled legislature

The students joined with others across the state for school walkouts in protest of what they say is an assault on educational freedom by limiting books in libraries 

In some states, including Indiana, librarians have removed books on topics dealing with LGBTQ issues, sex, race and violence.  

In Idaho, the Association of School Administrators distributed a list of 25 titles that could fall foul of the library-related laws. 

They include: ‘This Book is Gay’ and ‘Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out.’ 

Maia Kobabe’s ‘Gender Queer’ was the most challenged book in 2021 and 2022, according to the American Library Association.  

The book is a memoir about being nonbinary and features masturbation and a scene where a teen prepares to perform fellatio with an older, bearded man. 

Jonathan Evison’s ‘Lawn Boy,’ Angie Thomas’ ‘The Hate U Give’ and a book-length edition of the ‘1619 Project,’ the Pulitzer Prize-winning report from The New York Times on the legacy of slavery in the U.S. are all targets for removal.

Parents attend a school board meeting to voice their opinions on some of the book choices that caused controversy last October

Jennifer Wilson, a Florida English teacher, wears a shirt against banning books

One school has even instated a rule whereby students needed signed permission from their parents in order to read them.

One school has even instated a rule whereby students needed signed permission from their parents in order to read them.

In Florida, although there are no book-banning laws in place, Governor Ron DeSantis has approved laws to review reading materials and limit classroom discussion of gender identity and had race books pulled indefinitely or temporarily including John Green’s ‘Looking for Alaska,’ Colleen Hoover’s ‘Hopeless,’ Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and Grace Lin’s picture story ‘Dim Sum for Everyone!’

More recently, Florida’s Martin County school district removed dozens of books from its middle schools and high schools, including numerous works by novelist Jodi Picoult, Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning ‘Beloved’ and James Patterson’s ‘Maximum Ride’ thrillers, a decision which the bestselling author has criticized on Twitter as ‘arbitrary and borderline absurd.’

DeSantis has called reports of mass bannings a ‘hoax,’ saying in a statement released earlier this month that the allegations reveal ‘some are attempting to use our schools for indoctrination.’

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has pushed for limits on how race, gender and sexual identity are taught in schools although there are no book banning laws on the statue

America’s 5 most banned titles: 

Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe was banned by 41 school districts. The illustrated text charts the author’s ‘journey of self-identity’ and ‘what it means to be non-binary and asexual’, according to promotional material.

All Boys Aren’t Blue, a series of personal essays by George M. Johnson, was banned in 29 districts. The ‘memoir-manifesto’ narrates the childhood, adolescence, and college years of its black, queer author 

Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez is a novel about teen love between a Mexican-American girl and a black boy in Texas in the 1930s. It was banned in 24 districts.

The Bluest Eye was banned in 22 districts. The first novel by celebrated author Toni Morrison tells the story of a black girl growing up in the 1940s, and her sense of inferiority due to her skin color.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas was banned in 17 districts. It was inspired by the Black Lives Matter protest movement, deals with the police violence against minorities, and was turned into a 2018 movie.

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In 2022, attempted book bans and restrictions at school and public libraries continue to surge, setting a record according to the American Library Association released Thursday.

More than 1,200 challenges were compiled by the association in 2022, nearly double the then-record total from 2021 and by far the most since the ALA began keeping data 20 years ago.

‘I’ve never seen anything like this,’ says Deborah Caldwell-Stone, who directs the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. ‘The last two years have been exhausting, frightening, outrage inducing.’

Requests are often for multiple removals and organized by national groups such as the conservative Moms for Liberty, which has a mission of ‘unifying, educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government.’ 

Last year, more than 2,500 different books were objected to, compared to 1,858 in 2021 and just 566 in 2019. 

In numerous cases, hundreds of books were challenged in a single complaint. 

The ALA bases its findings on media accounts and voluntary reporting from libraries and acknowledges that the numbers might be far higher.