Texas lawmakers advance bill that makes it a crime for teachers to assign "Catcher in the Rye"

[Nevilledog]

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

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.

In the last few years, Texas teachers and librarians have faced an onslaught of criticism from conservative activists and lawmakers for offering well-regarded works of literature to students. Books that have come under fire in Texas include Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye,” “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood, and “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker. In December, one district briefly restricted access to the Bible in an attempt to comply with a book-banning bill passed in 2023. Some activists have even targeted picture books about gender-identity or children with two parents of the same gender, saying such books are causing harm to young children.

*snip*

[LonePirate]

1. I wonder if they are carving out an exception for the Bible.

[SheltieLover]

4. No doubt!

[kacekwl]

2. They have nothing more

important to do. Texas citizens , are they no issues in your state that you need addressing ?

[unc70]

3. Do they have an exception for the Bible?

The Bible is loaded with sexually explicit scenes.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

9. Not to mention a recipe for abortion in Numbers.

OOPS!

[sinkingfeeling]

5. And yet some claim there is no country with as much personal freedom as the USA. LOL!

[exboyfil]

6. A child bride watching porn with her "husband"

is less damaging than reading an award winning book that has been a staple of high and college literature for four generations.

Right.


My old debate partner did his HS senior literature paper on Catcher in the Rye. This in Mississippi in the early 1980s. How we have fallen.

I personally find Catcher in the Rye as a bit of a drag (maybe it had more punch back in the 1950s to 1970s). I think Holden Caulfield is a whiny punk.

[Hotler]

7. Christian Taliban nt

[Johonny]

8. People that dont read banning books to people

That want to. Trump America, feel the freedumb.

[MineralMan]

10. Read a book. Go to jail.

[Wiz Imp]

11. Maybe it's because I read them more than 40 years ago

but I don't remember anything that I would call sexually explicit content in "The Odyssey", "Catcher In The Rye" and "Brave New World". Sure there's plenty of references to sex, but sexually explicit content? I don't see it.

I've never read "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" so I can't comment on that one.

[Henry203]

12. Book learnin' limited to Dr. Seuss