A South Dakota legislative committee advanced a bill Wednesday at the Capitol in Pierre that would subject schools, universities, museums, libraries and their employees to criminal prosecution and jail time for allowing children to view material defined in state law as obscene or harmful to minors.
An opponent ofthe billsaid it would put librarians in handcuffs for lending a book to a child that some adults might consider inappropriate. One member of the House Education Committee who voted in favor of the legislation, Rep.Travis Ismay, R-Newell, suggested an arrest might be insufficient punishment.
If a librarian rented this out to my son or daughter, youd be lucky if you got hauled out of there in handcuffs, Ismay said. So, yes, if theyre breaking the law anyway, why would we have any problem with librarians getting hauled out of the library in handcuffs?
Ismay and other committee members who voted for the bill focused some of their comments on the book Tricks, which is marketed as a young adult novel from author Ellen Hopkins about five troubled teenagers who work as prostitutes. Several supporters of the bill criticized the book in their testimony as inappropriate for children and said its available in many high school libraries in the state. They said parents have had difficulty convincing local school administrators and school boards to remove such books from school library shelves.
Opponents of the bill said criminalizing the lending of a book with a Classs 1 misdemeanor is an out-of-proportion response to concerns about a books content. Eric E. Erickson, a lobbyist for the South Dakota Library Association, said thats the same class of punishment applied to hiring a prostitute and committing simple assault, with a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $2,000 fine.
Locking up our librarians, our professors, our teachers, our museum curators is not the answer, Erickson said.
Other bill opponents said some parents may not like the local procedures available to request the removal of a book from a school library, but those procedures are the appropriate venue for complaints. Rep. Mike Stevens, R-Yankton, who voted against the bill, said parents unhappy with the outcome of those procedures already have the ability to file a lawsuit.
Stevens sponsoreda billadopted by the Legislature last year that requires public schools and libraries to publish their policies for restricting minors from accessing obscene materials. He said that requirement, which took effect on Jan. 1 this year, is a better approach to the problem than the bill endorsed Wednesday by the committee.
The sponsor of the new bill, Rep. Bethany Soye, R-Sioux Falls, said last years bill is ineffective because of the existence of another state law. That lawexemptsschools, colleges, universities, museums, public libraries and their employees from prosecution for disseminating material harmful to minors and related offenses. Soyes bill would repeal that exemption.
State lawdefinesmaterial harmful to minors as any description or representation of nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement or sado-masochistic abuse if it predominantly appeals to a prurient, shameful or morbid interest, is patently offensive to prevailing standards about suitable material for children, and is without serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
Soye said the protection for material with literary, artistic, political, or scientific value is sufficient.
This is not a ban on any books, she said. If, specifically, were talking about a public library, you can still have the books. Adults, obviously, can read anything they want. Were just saying this is material thats harmful to minors, so you cant check it out to a minor.
Opponents of the bill said it would infringe on free speech and subject employees of the targeted institutions to prosecution for making subjective decisions.
Many people will have a fundamental disagreement on what is defined as obscene, said Sandra Waltman, of the South Dakota Education Association. Often it comes down to a difference in values something that should not be criminalized.
The committee voted10-5to send House Bill 1239 to the full House of Representatives.
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