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| The kind of agenda found in our libraries |
By Gretchen Garrity
The Christian County Library has recently updated their Censorship Policy, so-called, which is the process by which patrons can challenge sexually explicit, pornographic, and other types of materials that do not belong in the children's and teen sections of the library.
While state and federal laws are clear that obscene materials are to be kept from children, public libraries have been following the American Library Association's lead by continuing to place inappropriate materials within reach of children. As noted in a previous article, publishers and activist librarians are flooding the libraries with books and materials that push gender ideology (among other political agendas) even to very small children.
A Sunshine law request to the Christian County Library that asked how many book challenges had been successful from January 2020 to June 2023 brought back one result. The adult version of the Brick Bible, written by an atheist transgender individual, and illustrated by dioramas made from Lego bricks, was relocated to the adult section of the library.
Good on the library!
However, several recent reconsideration requests have been ignored, at least up until 2 p.m. today. One library patron submitted several challenges in June and July, just as the reconsideration form was being updated along with the challenge policy.
Previously, the policy noted that a written response from the executive director would be sent within four-to-six weeks from when the challenge was received. That policy was stated on the library's website policy manual last night until today, when the sentence, "A written response from the Executive Director or designated alternate will be sent within four to six weeks" was changed to read, "...a Request for Reconsideration form may be submitted and the Executive Director will respond."
To date, it is nearly nine weeks and no response to several challenges.
While the policy was updated in June 2023, it still included the time frame response of the Executive Director. Now that it has gone missing, when are library patrons to expect a response? And why haven't challenge decisions been publicly posted on the website--at least anywhere noted and accessible?
A new state rule requires challenge results be posted publicly:
"(F) The library has or will adopt a written, publicly accessible
library materials challenge policy by which any parent or
guardian of a minor within the library district may dispute or
challenge the library’s age-appropriate designation affixed to
any presentation, event, material, or display in the library, and
the results of any such dispute or challenge shall be disclosed
to the public and published on the library’s website."
While a new reconsideration form has been added to the website, it would seem fair to grandfather in the older forms that were already out in the community. The new form states, "Please note that incomplete forms will not be processed." Additionally, the new form asks, "Are you the parent or guardian of a minor child (under the age of 18) living within Christian County?" Could this question suppress both parents and those without children from challenging inappropriate materials? Or would it have bearing on how the book challenge is handled by library staff?
The Christian County Library is taxpayer funded and has an annual budget of over $3 million. The library purchased a building next door to the Nixa branch for $2.4 million and will be seeking taxpayer funding for renovating the new building for staff and administration. Currently there are 60 employees of the library. Surely, the staff can respond in a timely and thoughtful manner to book challenges.
Unfortunately for your cause, the "obscene" books you are talking about do not actually meet the definition of pornography. You may believe them to be inappropriate for your family, but that is just your opinion. A public library is an essential part of a healthy community. Isn't it great that EVERYONE can come to the library and find something that appeals to them!
ReplyDeleteThe legal term for obscene, as found in Missouri statutes, says, "Obscene", any comment, request, suggestion or proposal is obscene if:
ReplyDelete(a) Applying contemporary community standards, its predominant appeal is to prurient interest in sex; and
(b) Taken as a whole with respect to the average person, applying contemporary community standards, it depicts or describes sexual conduct in a patently offensive way; and
(c) Taken as a whole, it lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. Obscenity shall be judged with reference to its impact upon ordinary adults."
Here is a link to definitions of pornography in Missouri statutes:
https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=573.010
There are hundreds of objectionable books in our libraries that contain varying degrees of sexual content, as well as gender ideology. It is against the law to provide minor children with such materials.
Parents have the right to decide what their children are exposed to in a taxpayer-funded library. I appreciate your attempt to make this about something other than what it is--sexual indoctrination of vulnerable children. I think this truth is ultimately unfortunate for your cause.
Will you please provide an example of a book in the children's section that meets those definitions.
DeleteThank you for asking. Here's two off the top of my head.
ReplyDelete"All Boys Aren't Blue" it is in three of our branches in the teen section (still minors and still vulnerable): Clever, Nixa, and Ozark. Go here for a graphic description: http://booklooks.org/data/files/Book%20Looks%20Reports/A/All%20Boys%20Arent%20Blue%20Slick%20Sheet.pdf
Here is "Too Bright to See" in the children's section of the Ozark library. Go here for a description:
http://booklooks.org/data/files/Book%20Looks%20Reports/T/Too%20Bright%20to%20See.pdf
All boys aren't blue is not in the children's section. Neither of those books, when taken add a whole, lack literary merit so they would not fit the definition of pornography.
ReplyDeleteThat's why they are still in the library.
Since the legal term for a child is under the age of 18, and since the teen section is geared toward children 12-17, it is still the children's section and available to minors.
ReplyDeleteAnd, just reading the descriptions in that book is enough to repulse most people. I'm so sorry you think there is literary merit in books that seek to confuse children about their very identity, and perhaps put them on a journey to mutilation and lifelong medical interventions.
Or, perhaps, you could look at it this way: no book has ever harmed a child. On the contrary, though, seeing people like themselves in literature had helped numerous people going through difficult situations. Furthermore, it is not the library's job or role to decide what children or anyone should read. Luckily parents still retain the right and ultimate authority to decide what thier children read.
ReplyDeleteThat is a fatuous comment: "...no book has ever harmed a child." Books are full of ideas, some good, some bad, some neutral. A child's ability to reason is not fully formed. Books can and have changed the world because they changed and formed thoughts and actions in people.
DeleteThe reason Marxist organizations like the ALA want sexually explicit, Critical Race Theory, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and other inappropriate materials available to children is so they can more easily indoctrinate them in those ideologies.
We all know this has nothing to do with helping kids through difficult situations, etc. It is full on corruption of the intellectual and moral development of young minds.
You wouldn't let your child loose on a playground that was littered with dirty needles. Neither would a sensible parent allow a child to browse library shelves that were seeded with ideologies that are in direct opposition to community values and standards.
It's really very simple: protect children from accessing books that are not appropriate for innocent and vulnerable minds. That libraries have become a vector for indoctrination is intolerable.
The library has a role to protect children from harm.
Sexual content rewires your brain. People who are exposed to sexual content at a young age are statistically predisposed to become sexual abusers - sometimes becoming sex offenders. Why would we used tax payer dollars to do that to the children and young adults in our community? To address your argument that books do not harm children - why don’t you open up some of these books and see if you would feel comfortable reading them out load in a public setting, then give your opinion.
DeleteCan you provide scientific, medical or peer reviewed studies that back your claim?
ReplyDeleteI've read most of the books in question.
While I have not researched the commenter's assertion about a predisposition to becoming sexual abusers/offenders if exposed to sexual content at a young age, it is well known that early exposure to sexual content is problematic. That activist librarians push the early sexualization of children through books, is unacceptable.
ReplyDeleteI would suggest you, perhaps, could provide "scientific, medical or peer-reviewed studies" that debunk that claim. In the interests of transparency and dialogue.
If I may:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3050060/
https://genspect.org/resources/written-resources/
I sat through a seminar last year where a counselor who specializes in helping women who have husbands addicted to porn have become abusive. She had all of the statistics which I did not write down at the time. I wish I had because it was alarming. The common thread with almost all of these abusive men was that they became addicted to porn as children.
ReplyDeleteAll of this information is available; one often has to dig for it though. One of the arguments of the Marxists is a gaslighting tactic of making their opponents come up with "scientific" and "peer-reviewed" evidence, that they then ignore. :-)
ReplyDeleteWhile there is some good information in the sources you've provided, none of them directly link literature as being harmful to children. As far as preferring to trust only scientific or peer-reviewed studies, I'd like to stick to facts.
ReplyDeleteThe big problem you have is that most people who have been harmed by something they read can readily describe the harm and sometimes lifelong consequences. Here is one:
Deletehttps://twitter.com/deb_fillman/status/1698661479707193513?s=20
While there is some good information found within those links you shared, there is still no evidence that reading the books in question is harmful to anyone.
ReplyDeleteOf course it's up to you to believe whatever "research" you choose. I, however, look to scientific and peer reviewed studies as they are the most accurate.
You have a right to believe that and express that belief.
Delete