Lalley: Book banners ruined a good thing for Sioux Falls kids

There’s a program in the Siouxland Libraries system that allows kids and teenagers without a library card to check out two books at a time.

The Student Success Cards are used by minors whose parents, for whatever reason, are unable or unwilling to sign the form that would allow their child to have a traditional card.

The program primarily serves students in challenging family situations. As of today, there are 53 children and 80 teenagers holding the cards.

It’s allowing 133 young minds, who otherwise wouldn’t be able to check out a book, to have the opportunity to explore, to wonder, to think.

We know that reading proficiency in children is a predictor of success in later life. If you read, you’re less likely to end up in jail. Less likely to need public assistance.

And it’s all going away.

Why?

Because the South Dakota Legislature – a noted collection of deep thinkers – believes those students might discover something obscene in the dusty corners of the kids section that will propel them on a path of turpitude and debauchery.

Specifically, they amended a law that already limits access to obscene materials on computers.

The revised law requires public libraries, “Develop and implement, by January 1, 2025, a local policy that establishes measures to restrict minors from accessing obscene matter or materials.”

The libraries in Sioux Falls already had a policy restricting minors from accessing obscene materials. Kids can’t just walk in and check out whatever they want.

The Student Success Card allowed kids to only check out books from the children and teens sections.

But the system’s Board of Trustees voted Nov. 13 to get rid of the special cards based on the recommendation of Jodi Fick, director of Siouxland Libraries. Fick believes the Student Success Card now conflicts with the requirement that a library card for minors requires a parent’s approval.

She isn’t happy about it but also doesn’t want to push back against the law.

Instead, they will redouble their efforts to get parents to sign up.

Fick said it’s disappointing. She’s said there’s been an increasing number of people challenging the appropriateness of one book or another.

One of those recently was “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” by Maia Kobabe. Published in 2019, the book is a graphic novel describing the author’s journey of gender identity and sexuality.

The book is in the adult collection and was retained despite a complaint, said Fick.

Another was a book in the children’s section that showed two fathers holding hands.

Fick said in the more than 30 years she’s worked as a librarian, she’s seen heightened concern come and go when it comes to books dealing with sexuality. It’s a library’s job to represent the world we live in.

“Everyone has a right to disagree,” she told me in an interview on Friday. “The thing about the public library is we are here to provide access to a variety of viewpoints and support everyone’s right to read what they want to read.”

There’s an argument to be made, and it’s a good one, that Siouxland Libraries and the City of Sioux Falls could raise the proverbial finger to the state in this instance. It’s not a bad position. Make them send a strongly worded letter or whatever the state would do.

It’s a ridiculous byproduct of an unnecessary law.

Let’s be clear on this point: There is no evidence that any kid in Sioux Falls is checking out porn at the library.

C’mon.

This is the spirit of book banning seeping into our community libraries.

It’s projecting a Pierre viewpoint on Sioux Falls families they know nothing about, and don’t care to.

To be fair to legislators, the discussion about changes to the law when it was first debated in the House Education Committee in February was all about schools. They, in all likelihood, don’t know anything about Student Success Cards.

School libraries have been the target of book banners for a few years now and it’s not done.

At least that’s what Rep. Bethany Soye said during the debate of the bill, which passed unanimously, not just in the House Education Committee, but the full House and Senate as well.

Book banning is in vogue in the South Dakota Legislature.

“There are some very nasty pornographic materials that don’t belong in our schools in any form and this bill is not going to solve that problem,” Soye, a Sioux Falls Republican, said during the committee discussion.

It was Soye’s contention that the school districts, Sioux Falls included, can basically draw out the process when parents object to a particular book, suggesting that because it takes so long there are all kinds of objectionable materials in school libraries.

“A school board could adopt a policy where a parent has to dig through all the books and find which ones have pornographic material in and bring it to the board,” Soye said. “How are we expecting parents to do that when there are new books every year? Are they supposed to be the watchdog and make sure that the books don’t get into the schools?”

First of all, what they are really talking about isn’t actual pornography, not what most people would think of when they hear that word.

No, it’s sexuality.

Anything that discusses the biology or psychology of sexual topics.

There may be something that doesn’t fit your personal standards, your family standards, that doesn’t mean it’s obscene.

So yes, you do have to be a watchdog… for your family… not mine.

This isn’t a new discussion and it’s not going away.

“We’re not going to develop a silver bullet to take care of the whole thing but we’re going to take steps forward and probably bring a couple different solutions to tackle this topic,” Rep. Brian Mulder, a Sioux Falls Republican, said during the Education Committee discussion. “I think this is just step one in the process and I think it’s a good step.”

The censors and book banners aren’t done. This seemingly benign amendment to a law regulating online access is just one of many drumbeats in a purge of anything that doesn’t fit with their worldview.

Any suggestion of any lifestyle that isn’t within a narrow version of their social order is potentially obscene.

The Student Success Card has been a successful program that served about 300 students a year since it was started in 2021.

We can judge these parents and wonder why they can’t do something as easy as consenting to the privileges we all enjoy at a taxpayer supported public library. Or we can accept a Student Success Card – an admitted bypass of the parent – as the best thing for the child.

Those kids can still go to the library and read the books. They just can’t take them home.

“We will go back to what we were doing to encourage that love of reading,” Fick said. “But we’ll work harder to get the uninvolved parent involved.”

Which is a good thing and very difficult, as we know from the number of parents that don’t sign up for free and reduced lunch in the school systems.

Again, who’s to say why. We’re not them.

The reality is that a few books in the Siouxland Libraries System isn’t the problem. Fick said there are about 12 titles in the children’s collection that deal generally with sex education or human biology.

Twelve.

Out of thousands and thousands of books.

“I worry about a population that isn’t allowed to see multiple viewpoints and make decisions for themselves,” Fick said. “The fact that a library has a book that is contrary to your viewpoint doesn’t mean the library is saying you have to change your viewpoint.”

This post was originally published on here