Amendment added to bill that addresses book bans in school and public libraries

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana lawmakers are considering other avenues when it comes to the types of books children have access to.

The issue made for some fiery testimony during the house education committee on Wednesday.

Lawmakers want to establish a process that would allow parents to request the removal of a book at both school and public libraries if they view that book is obscene in nature.

However, librarians say this process already exists.

"Why are we making a law about it,” Julia Whitehead, the executive director at the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library, said during testimony. “It's already in place. Parents should be using that process. I don't understand why you would take up the taxpayers time or money with this when the process is already in place. “

According to several librarians that testified during the house education committee on Wednesday, if parents have an issue with a book on the shelves of libraries, they can let their concerns be known.

"I, as the director, would look at the book and the form the patron has filled out,” Vanessa Martin, Director at Greensburg-Decatur County Contractual Public Library, said.  “I would find reviews, look at the book as a whole and make a decision. If the patron didn't agree with it, then they could go to the library board. The board would have the final decision.”

Some parents say that process isn't working, which is why they feel the legislature needs to step in. They feel obscene materials are too easy to access in both public libraries and schools.

"We have pornography in our schools," Rhonda Miller, a concerned parent, said during testimony. "Not one of you that testified today addressed the harms that it is causing."
 
Lawmakers added an amendment to Senate Bill 380. The language mirrors that of Senate Bill 12, which passed out of the senate but hasn’t gotten a committee hearing in the house yet.

However, the amendment changes a few things. The amendment would require schools and public libraries to establish procedures concerning materials harmful to minors.

Also, schools or public librarians could be criminally prosecuted for distributing inappropriate material. Currently, librarians have protection under an education stipulation Essentially, they cannot be prosecuted for distributing materials considered harmful to minors by a parent if the book has educational value. This amendment gets rid of that.

"I'm concerned that if this amendment passes, all of my employees could potentially be charged with a level 6 felony for simply doing their job and following the policies that our library board has set in place, " Martin said.

Some parents that support this amendment would like to see it go further.

"This battle is far from over and we will continue the fight," Miller said.

Testimony on this piece of legislation lasted for four hours. Lawmakers will vote on whether to pass the amendment during the next committee meeting, which will likely happen next week.