Alaska State Senator Scott Kawasaki (D-Fairbanks) is working to ensure that public and school librarians are legally protected if they distribute sexually indecent materials to minors while on the job.
His Senate Bill 238 aims to give librarians a defense against charges of “enticement of a minor, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and distribution of indecent material to minors.”
Introduced earlier this month, the bill is up for public comment in the Senate Education Committee on Monday, March 2, at 3:30 p.m. At that point, Alaskans will have a chance to weigh in.
Kawasaki’s bill is clearly aimed at countering concerned parents and local citizens who have been working for years to remove highly sexualized, graphic children’s books from area schools and libraries. These include books in Alaska libraries that expose youth to topics such as bondage, anal and oral sex, pederasty, transgenderism and masturbation. If Kawasaki’s legislation passes, it will be much more difficult to challenge or remove these books.
Key aspects of the bill ban the removal or restriction of materials based solely on the author’s or creator’s background, or because of objections to views expressed on race, gender, sexuality, religion, or politics.
For content involving sexual themes, libraries cannot block, relocate, or require parental permission unless the material meets Alaska’s legal definition of obscenity: appealing to prurient interest, depicting patently offensive sexual conduct (as defined in state law), and lacking serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value when viewed as a whole under community standards.
The bill defines “censor” as blocking access based on disagreement with ideas or sexual content without meeting those obscenity criteria. “Block” includes prohibiting acquisition, restricting searchability, or limiting display.
Other provisions prohibit the removal of a book, even if it does contain highly sexualized content, so long as the passages are deemed “isolated.” Additionally, challenged books would have to remain on the shelves until the challenge process was completely resolved.
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
The legislation grants immunity from civil and criminal liability for librarians and governing bodies who distribute controversial or legally questionable material. It also prohibits reducing library funding as punishment for compliance and bars government entities from disciplining or terminating employees who refuse to censor materials.
One provision in the bill seems clearly aimed at local school boards or boroughs that require librarians to remove sexualized content. In practice, the bill would give librarians the ability to file lawsuits if they were disciplined for refusing to remove a sexually explicit children’s book. Students or parents in schools could also pursue similar remedies plus seek statutory damages of $451 to $1,451 for every censored book. Authors, publishers or booksellers would be able to sue over censorship of their materials as well.
At its core, the bill amends three existing Alaska criminal statutes to create affirmative defenses for librarians, museum employees or school officials, effectively shielding them from prosecution for enticement of a minor, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, or distributing indecent material to minors when providing children with controversial books or encouraging them to check out certain materials.
TAKING ACTION
— Senate Bill 238 is set for a public hearing in the Senate Education Committee on March 2 at 3:30 p.m. Click here for information on how to testify over the phone.
— To contact members of the Senate Education Committee individually, click here for their emails or phone numbers.
— Click here to read the bill.
