Republican governed the US States are taking strict measures to enact the conservative laws that demand school libraries to contain only “age-appropriate” content for the students.
Parental Approval Required On The Materials Kept By The School Libraries
In an attempt to do, a local school in Nashville, Tennessee has banned a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the holocaust in the last week. This became a national headline as the 1992 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel contained an illustration of a cartoon presumed to be that of a nude woman as stated by the McMinn County School Board. The removal of Maus from the curriculum on a false presumption and calling its language inappropriate ironically drove the sales of the book three decades after its release.
Tennessee is also undergoing a dilemma on how to enact the law that will ban teaching students about the concept of race and racism. This has been viewed as an attempt to erase the history of systematic racism in the US and shows the ignorance of Republican governed states.
Moms of Liberty, a conservative nonprofit group, in a posh area of Williamson County have raged against the material that is being taught in schools.
John Rich, a country singer, informed his followers via Twitter that he has discussed with the governor and Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn and they promised him that exposure to obscene and pornographic literature will be banned by introducing legislation.
Republican Governors of South Carolina and Texas have ordered a systematic review of state schools and whether their material is age-appropriate or not.
Legislative bills have already been passed that call on school libraries and have proposed to remove any obscene or harmful materials that could deem harmful for minors.
This is an attempt by the conservative officials to limit the exposure of children to books that speak on and educate about structural racism and LGBTQ. A bill is currently in the works that will prohibit schools to use materials or textbooks that support, normalize, or seem to promote the LGBTQ community.
Governor Bill Lee of Tennessee has been pushing to implement such laws and has called out school libraries to use only age-appropriate content. He has also asked libraries to make their materials available online so they can be reviewed and deemed appropriate by the parents as well. He has also filed a bill that would force the schools to post their material online and to review their policies regularly. The bill will likely be passed in the General Assembly.
These actions have been criticized heavily by the opponents and the Tennessee Library Association. Several people have called this an attempt to intimidate the libraries so that they do not buy controversial laws. Conservative officials have also been accused of intimidating people so that they cannot speak against such laws that prohibit teaching students about racism and LGBTQ. Librarians have also remarked that the procedures conservative officials are trying to implement strictly already exist and are just a mere attempt to take away the freedom of expression from people. They have also countered that libraries already post and make their materials available online and have procedures already in place that deal with parental concerns. This has also been called an act of censorship by several people.
Opponents have criticized these laws calling them an act of political polarization. This has been viewed as an attempt to intimidate certain communities that Republicans seem to discriminate heavily against as evident by their attempt to censor topics about structural racism and LGBTQ. Conservative officials that have used the name of parental concern about materials in libraries and who say that parents must approve the material have been criticized by stating that content assessment must be left off to the professionals in Education and librarians.
