The Colorado House approved a measure Thursday that would increase protections for school libraries and librarians when there are calls to remove books from shelves.
requires school districts and charter operators to draft formal policies that state when books can be removed and lay out the steps to challenge them. The measure also says library personnel can鈥檛 be fired or punished for choosing a book or refusing to remove it without a review. Finally, the measure says only parents of children in the school can request a book be removed, and a book can be challenged only once every two years.
The bill comes amid a wave of disputes over what is appropriate to put in school libraries. In August, the Elizabeth School District ordered 19 books to be removed from its shelves, saying they include descriptions of violence, discrimination, mental illness and sex. That dispute is still playing out. A judge last month, but the school board is .
Democrats argued their measure will protect librarians from retribution and districts from litigation.
鈥淭he idea that librarians who are highly trained professionals are not going to do what鈥檚 right, are not going to follow what they鈥檝e learned, are going to put inappropriate books from off the street into our libraries where kids can learn, is just such a wild notion,鈥� said Rep. Jenny Willford, a Northglenn Democrat who co-sponsored the bill. 鈥淯nderstand all of the work that goes into building a library collection.鈥�
Lawmakers spent just over three and a half hours debating the measure, and at first, it was unclear where their disagreements lay. Both sides said they support making books available to students, even ones that some people might find objectionable.
Judy Blume鈥檚 Are You There God? It鈥檚 Me, Margaret, Ayn Rand鈥檚 Atlas Shrugged, Alex Haley鈥檚 Roots, among others, were cited by lawmakers as books they personally found formative and yet had been taken out of school libraries.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 want to ban books,鈥� said Rep. Ryan Gonzalez, R-Fort Lupton. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 live in Fahrenheit 451.鈥�
Neither side objected to school districts鈥� writing policies to handle requests to remove books.
鈥淚 think we do need policies, and I think they should be local,鈥� said Rep. Chris Richardson, an Elizabeth Republican who once sat on the town鈥檚 school board.
Republicans nonetheless found fault in the bill's details. They unsuccessfully attempted to widen who can challenge books to include anyone living in a district 鈥� even if they don鈥檛 have children in the schools 鈥� and to shield the names of challengers from the Colorado Open Records Act.
Democrats did agree to add a reference to , the legal standard that helps courts determine when a work is obscene, to the bill. They said that will help districts draw a distinction between books that are obscene under the law and those that just have content that is objectionable.
鈥淭he underlying point of it is ... to support school districts with their responsibilities,鈥� said Rep. Jennifer Bacon, D-Denver.
Still, Republican lawmakers spent the better part of two more hours attacking the measure. They read aloud from books they felt objectionable, tried to get a plug for a conservative website added to the bill, and accused their opponents of opening the shelves of school libraries to pedophiles.
鈥淲e have police, we have school board members, we have teachers, that have been arrested for not having the best interest of children in mind,鈥� said Rep. Ken DeGraaf, R-Colorado Springs. 鈥淪o let鈥檚 just pretend that one of them could be a librarian.鈥�
That prompted a response.
鈥淭here鈥檚 been a lot of really outrageous accusations here,鈥� said Lorena Garc铆a, the Adams County Democrat and another bill sponsor. 鈥淲e are bringing a bill forward that is asking districts and other education entities to establish their own policy with some guardrails. ... That is it.鈥�
The measure still needs to go through one more vote in the House before heading back to the Senate for final consideration.
