Lawmakers in Texas are seeking to impose harsh criminal penalties on school librarians and teachers who provide award-winning works of literature to students. Identical bills in the Texas Senate and House would make it a crime for librarians and teachers to provide books or learning materials that contain sexually explicit content, punishable by up to 10 years behind bars — whether or not a book has educational or literary merit.
Currently, if someone is charged with providing sexually explicit content to a child, they can argue that the content was provided in pursuit of a scientific, educational, or governmental purpose. SB 412 and HB 267 would remove this affirmative defense. This defense exists because, while some people provide explicit content to children to harm them, books that include sexual content have long been a valuable component of secondary education. Many classic works of literature, including “The Odyssey,” “Catcher in the Rye,” “Brave New World,” and “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest,” have sexually explicit scenes.
Under SB 412, which the Texas Senate voted to advance last week and now awaits approval by the House, teachers and librarians would no longer be able to argue that sexually explicit content can serve an educational purpose. Only law enforcement officials and judges would be exempted under the new law. SB 412 also leaves in place an exception if the adult providing the sexually explicit content is married to the child, which is legal in Texas, with a judge’s approval, if the child is at least 16 years old.
I wonder how they feel about banning the Bible.
There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses – Ezekiel 23:20
they will make an exception for the bible.
deleted by creator
I hate to say it, but with climate change spinning out of control and the death cult in charge of one of the most militarily powerful nations on the planet who have decided to go back to “drill, baby, drill” and strip mine the shit out of our national parks…
Yeah, it’s gonna be barbarism because under these conditions society will collapse.
We’re headlong into numerous environmental crises that there are not easy solutions for and instead of planting trees and getting to composting, the leaders of the world think we can technology our way out of this one. We can’t, it’s just not possible. We can’t technology our way out of biodiversity loss and a mass extinction.
In true Boring Dystopia fashion, though, we’re not even gonna get anything as exciting as Mad Max or Waterworld, and like the old saying goes, we’ll still be expected to show up for work while it’s all happening.
Texas being shitheels aside, I don’t understand all the hate in these comments for catcher in the rye. When I read it as a teenager I remember it resonating with me heavily. To me that’s a sign the author did a great job of putting himself in the mindset of their character.
I was never assigned it, but I’ve been meaning to read it just because of how much people hate it… Maybe I’ll end up hating it, but at least I won’t be a phony (heh) hating it by proxy.
I don’t like book bans and don’t agree with them.
That being said, fuck Catcher in the Rye. Shit book.
That also being said, fuck these lawmakers more. Shit lawmakers.
Ah.
I was hoping for a targeted banning, because that book sucks and is a waste of time over an actual classic.
It has valuable lessons. The museum chapter is awesome. (Just do(n’t) read it while listening to the “Cycle of Life” second movement of Brian Wilson Presents Smile like I did.)
What I learned from it was kill Ronald Reagan
Hmm.
Maybe I have been too harsh in my judgement.
