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File written testimony against HB5417 and attend or even speak at a public hearing on Monday, March 11th in the Education Committee.
Librarians in Connecticut have gone “wounded fawn” at the legislature this session and are complaining that they’ve been challenged too many times by members of the public – the great unwashed – who simply don’t understand the very nuanced things they are doing with our children. Tailoring the perfect book for each child or simply leaving a book for them to bump into, leaves little time to explain to little people why certain books are in the library. We love you librarians, but you can’t have unlimited authority.
A bill at the legislature would tip the authority to remove books even more in favor of school employees instead of an elected Board of Education. It would strip discretion from Board of Education members and chill their freedom of speech and expression of religion. HB5417 sets out draconian restrictions on Board of Education members who recommend removal or even relocation of school library books.
The bill would even ban Board of Education members from removing or relocating sexually explicit materials from the shelves of grammar school libraries.
Remember that in 2021, the Connecticut Board of Education recommended children as young as 3rd grade be taught masturbation, so without the common-sense influence of Boards of Education and the public, who knows what materials will find themselves on the shelves of our local public school. (2021 Healthy and Balanced Living Curriculum Framework, Sexual Health p.12, 1.2.5).
We already know what is available on the shelves of local high schools. Take for instance, “Let’s Talk About It” – is a “how to” manual for teen sex that trivializes sex, pornography, gender dysphoria, masturbation and more. It is literally a Kama Sutra for children. It depicts how to instructions on sexual positions, illustrations on masturbation, anal sex, plugs (don’t ask), gender-splains how women with penises are “mostly estrogen bodies” and more. The only thing missing I think is inter-species intercourse and I feel like this would be included except some librarians fear the ASPCA more than families. Below is an excerpt with the explicit sex-acts and other imagers removed.
This book promotes dangerous and unsafe behavior for teens. School boards need the discretion to be able to move or remove books that do not align with its communities values – such as the book above. Parents need a real avenue to express their concerns about sexually explicit, vulgar, pornographic and obscene materials in the school library – not a Board of Education that has no authority. This bill silences parents and local Boards of Education about many of the books in the school library.
Currently, there is a balance of interests between school boards, superintendents, parents, the community and librarians in the content of school libraries as established in the Supreme Court Pico decision. HB5417 would tip that balance toward school staff, who regularly remind us that they know best. There needs to be a back and forth, not one side muzzling the other.
The American Library Association promotes books that regularly challenge community standards, so nobody should be surprised when their members are respectfully challenged in return. The head of the American Library Association, a self-described Marxist, has stated “We need to make trouble–good trouble, the kind of trouble that matters, the kind of trouble I became a librarian to get into–and we need to make it together.” With all due respect to librarians, “good trouble” invites “good trouble”, and the discretion of Connecticut Board of Education members and the community standards they represent – parents, grandparents, community members and voters, should not be displaced by self-described “trouble-makers” on staff at the school.
Please contact your legislator and members of the Education Committee and ask them to oppose HB5417.
