Texas Bill Threatens Jail Time for Teaching Books Like "The Catcher in the Rye"

[douglas9]

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.

https://popular.info/p/texas-lawmakers-advance-bill-that

[murielm99]

1. We read "Catcher in the Rye" in my

junior year in an accelerated English class. That was in 1965. Only one parent objected. Her daughter went to study hall and read another assigned book and submitted a written book report. It was all done very quietly.

[OldBaldy1701E]

2. They need to keep on submitting any religious text that even mentions genitals.

Even animal ones.

Make them eat this law.

(So, they can allow an exemption if some dude wants to subject his 16 year old wife to crappy porn, as long as a judge allows it? )