For more than three years across New Jersey, parental rights groups have assailed school boards and educators in an effort to get books removed from their libraries, largely because they don’t want their kids exposed to concepts such as gender identity, LGTBQ issues, and the fight for racial justice.
Most often, they object to acclaimed graphic novels for adolescents that contain illustrations of sex acts, even when used to promote sexual health and safety, respect for oneself and others, and emphasize consent. One cannot doubt that these parents want to protect their own children. One cannot deny they are genuinely repelled by detailed drawings of naughty bits.
But these book critics do have a doctrinaire conviction that what’s good for their kids is good for every kid, and they often get their point across through intimidation and abominable behavior. They slander librarians on social media and at school board meetings, they smear them as pedophiles and pornographers for doing their jobs, and they even vandalize their property. They don’t see that while discussing the merits of a book is a valid debate, threatening a librarian is for pack cowards and sociopaths.
So we applaud the state Legislature for putting an end to all that by proposing a fair system that protects children and school employees, gives parents a voice in deciding which books are appropriate for local and school libraries, and provides librarians with immunity from civil and criminal charges for doing their jobs.
The Freedom To Read Act is now on Gov. Murphy’s desk after passing both chambers, and after he signs it into law, it will determine how these matters will be settled and save librarians from the appalling attacks they have endured for too long.
Primary sponsor Sen. Andrew Zwicker (D-Somerset) has pursued this bill for years, and his inspiration was sound: “Given the ongoing assault on democracy and free speech, if we don’t stand up to attacks on our history and attacks on sharing our stories, then this country is going to completely fall apart,” he said. “Plus, the abuse on librarians and the mental stress they were under was unacceptable.
“But in the end, this bill protects the freedom to read and protects parents and their concerns. And in the context of everything that’s going on nationally, I’m proud of New Jersey.”
The effort to ban books in New Jersey’s schools, which targeted 28 different titles last year, is being conducted by a relatively small group of people belonging to the same network of anti-government groups. The largest is Moms for Liberty, a national irritant classified as “extremist” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, with good reason: Moms for Liberty uses its social media platforms to attack teachers and harass school officials, advocates for the abolition of the Department of Education, and spreads hateful imagery and rhetoric against the LGBTQ community.
Zwicker’s bill, however, still allows parents belonging to such groups to weigh in.
The bill requires the Department of Education Commissioner to create uniform guidelines for handling requests to take controversial books off the shelves, with input from the state associations of school boards and libraries. That model policy is then handed down to public schools and libraries, which must create review committees that include the superintendent, the principal, a board of education representative, and at least one teacher and parent – provided they did not submit the request themselves – to determine whether the book is appropriate for the school and for which age group. An outright ban of a book that bypasses this process subjects the school or library to defunding.
After its earlier opposition, even the religious organization, the NJ Family Policy Center, is neutral because it “creates a formal process for parents, students, and teachers to challenge books, and grants school boards the right to restrict them if they are developmentally or grade inappropriate for students,” said Director of Advocacy Shawn Hyland.
Not everyone will accept that, however. The sole Republican sponsor of the bill, Sen. Jon Bramnick (R-Union), is vexed by his party’s hostile reaction to it, coming mostly from “sound bite warriors who haven’t even read the bill,” he said. “I’ve asked my caucus, ‘Why is there so much opposition to this?’ And nobody can tell me what’s wrong with the bill.
“I think the title is scary to members of my party: They interpret ‘freedom to read’ as ‘Oh my God, kids are allowed to read whatever they want.’ No, that’s not what this is about at all. The bill confirms that we need to establish age-appropriate and mental-maturity standards, which we never had before. Kids cannot read whatever they want. In many cases they’ll need parental permission. And they can only read what is considered appropriate.”
As for access to smut, Roxbury High librarian Roxana Russo Caivano, who is suing a group of parents for defamation, said it best at a recent school board meeting: “No one is sneaking around the library looking for books with pictures in them for fun. They have phones for that.”
Well-received books such as Let’s Talk About It and Gender Queer are not in the curriculum; they are curated by responsible professionals at your local school. Students must choose to read them, but only if they are of a certain age and have parental consent.
This is a reasonable solution to what has been a revolting cultural war. It’s OK for parents to say they don’t want their child to read a certain book. It’s another thing entirely to say it should not be available for others.
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