2024-02-13 05:01:32

Megan Tarbett, chair of the West Virginia Library Association, explains to members of the House Judiciary Committee Monday the process of how some books are challenged in public libraries. (Photo courtesy of WV Legislative Photography)

CHARLESTON — Lawmakers Monday finally took a look at a bill that might throw the book at librarians over books deemed by some to be obscene.
The House Judiciary recommended House Bill 4654 – removing bona fide schools, public libraries, and museums from the list of exemptions from criminal liability relating to distribution and display to a minor of obscene matter – to the full House in a 21-3 vote Monday evening following nearly 2 1/2 hours of discussion.
The bill would lift criminal liability exemptions from schools in the presentation of local or state-approved curriculum or public libraries and museums displaying obscene matter to a minor when the child is accompanied by a parent/guardian.
Del. Brandon Steele, R-Raleigh, is the lead sponsor of the bill. Steele said his intention was to lift criminal liability protections in libraries so that the criminal laws regarding displaying obscene material to minors without their parent’s supervision would apply universally.
“What this bill does is remove an exemption from an existing crime,” Steele said. “What no one seems to want to talk regarding in here is that this is a crime everywhere except the public library or a school or a museum.”
Steele believes he is protecting children from being groomed by child sex predators, though no evidence was presented that libraries are known grounds for pedophiles.
“What I hope the chilling effect of this legislation is is to remove the sanctuary for pedophilia that exists in our code,” Steele said. “I’m taking a vote to protect children from being groomed and targeted by pedophiles … and putting everyone in the same playing field. If it is a crime in the parking lot, it’s a crime in the building. Period.”
State Code defines obscene matter as anything an average person believes depicts or describes sexually explicit conduct, nudity, sex or certain bodily functions; or anything a reasonable person would find lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. According to State Code 61-8A-2, any adult who knowingly and intentionally displays obscene matter to a minor might be charged with a felony, fined up to $25,000 and face up to five years in prison if convicted.
“I’m pretty sure anything you pull up on your phone will be worse than what you can pull up at your local library,” said House Minority Whip Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio. “The bill itself won’t do a whole lot. It might have some librarians thinking they’ll get locked up or school teachers thinking they’ll get locked up or prosecuted, because what we learned today is there are grey areas to this.”
According to Megan Tarbett, chair of the West Virginia Library Association, all library systems in the state are different, but most have processes for the public to challenge books they find concerning. Review processes sometimes involve library staff or the library boards, which can decide to either keep the book, move it to a more appropriate section, or remove the book.
“Our collection development policies vary through library systems, but our library system chooses its books locally,” said Tarbett, a former member of the West Virginia Library Commission who serves as the director of the Putnam County Public Library.
“It might be your branch library, it might be a large central library, but usually the branch library chooses what is in there,” Tarbett continued. “They do look at national trends and they do look at award winners, but usually we’re choosing books that people in that community want.”
Tarbett said many libraries have unattended child policies that limit where children can go on their own without supervision. And some libraries have age limits for when minors can apply for their own library cards.
Tarbett testified that there were approximately 5.2 million books borrowed from 171 libraries in West Virginia in 2023, with 1.2 million books in children’s literature. Most of those children’s books were checked out using a parent’s library card. However, Tarbett might only recall approximately 50 times when specific books were challenged.
“Millions of books on the shelves, concerned parents all throughout this state, concerned citizens throughout this state, but we’ve had fewer than 50 challenges,” Fluharty said. “This bill belongs in the fiction section.”
Jeff Smith, a representative of MOVCAC (formerly the Marietta 9-12 Project), said his group has been working to have certain books his group consider to be obscene removed from the Parkersburg and Wood County Public Library to no avail. These books sometimes feature depictions of sexual acts. One book that was challenged was “Let’s Talk About It: The Teen’s Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human.”
“This was on the second level in the basement with ‘Teens’ this big above it,’” Smith said, demonstrating how big the sign was. “This is being marketed to teens and kids. We can call them teens, but they’re under 18. That book was challenged, but it met the criteria of the library.”
“When I look at that material and I look at (State Code) … I just can’t find any contemporary adult community standard that would find an average person – taken as a whole – would find that material has any artistic, serious literally, political, or scientific value,” said Del. Rick Hillenbrand, R-Hampshire.
Steven Allen Adams can be reached at [email protected]

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2024-02-13 04:11:43

Ghada Halawi wrote in “Call of the Nation”:

No assurances and no agreement soon. There are many scenarios once morest the backdrop of the deteriorating situation in Gaza and the city of Rafah, and all of them do not indicate that an imminent solution is on its way to being announced. Unlike last week, when talk began to advance regarding a framework for a ceasefire solution. But the people of solution and connection are looking forward to a settlement, and this is what Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Abdullahian told the officials, and he carried with him the truth of what the negotiations reached and the details of the offers presented for a ceasefire.

The Israeli insistence on invading Rafah so that its fate would be similar to Gaza might drag the region into a comprehensive confrontation, thus displacing the Palestinians who had previously been displaced from Gaza, and deporting them to Sinai “or to other places” in Jordan, which means the beginning of the end for the Palestinian issue. In the scenario that Israel seeks, it would control Rafah, then Gaza, and expel the Palestinians except for a small number who remain under its control. It then moves its war to southern Lebanon as part of a rapid military operation that it carries out following it has managed to control its northern borders and strengthened them with the presence of more than one brigade from the Israeli army. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is searching for a way out of his crisis, but he will only find it by achieving a military goal from Gaza to southern Lebanon. Such a scenario is met with maximum preparations by Hezbollah, which still adheres to the words of its Secretary-General, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, not to allow the fall of Hamas. If Israel completes the implementation of its plan to eliminate Hamas, the danger will double and force the axis of resistance to enter into a wide-scale war.

According to the description of those concerned, the situation is extremely dangerous, as neither a comprehensive war nor a settlement has matured. The scales of the settlement may be ahead of the possibilities of war, but its features have not been clarified and the parties are still seeking to improve their conditions in the field.

During his visit to the region, Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Abdullahian carried a summary of the solution formulas proposed with the Americans through Omani mediation, and the outcome of what Hamas reported regarding the meetings of France and Egypt regarding the framework agreement for a ceasefire. A short time ago, Iran received an American offer for a comprehensive settlement from Gaza to Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, based on the two-state solution. The condition was stopping the war in Gaza as a prelude to talking regarding other matters, and that Iran does not negotiate on behalf of its allies, but rather coordinates with them and leaves them to assess the situation and make the decision. the appropriate. In parallel, the possibilities were presented if the Israeli government insisted on entering the city of Rafah under the pretext of releasing prisoners, especially since the United States gave it cover for this by stipulating its President Joe Biden that its entry be based on prior planning. If Israel attacks Rafah and achieves its military objectives, this means that the axis is facing a difficult dilemma, because the fall of Rafah means the fall of Gaza and then moving to other axes, the first of which is Lebanon, where the disastrous scenario is that Israel launches a series of successive raids on Lebanon without its forces advancing into Lebanon.

However, a scenario like this is matched by another from the resistance axis, which says that what Netanyahu is doing will lead to a comprehensive war to protect his future, and therefore dealing with reality will be extremely cautious, but if the expansion of the war is imposed, then Israel will be surprised by the level of the military war that will be waged once morest it and the type of weapons used.

It is the most difficult month since the beginning of the flood process, as there will either be a major settlement or a comprehensive war. The game cards are in different hands, and each has its own purpose and goals. It is certain that all parties except Netanyahu want to reach a ceasefire, and it is not unlikely to pressure Hamas to accept the agreement in exchange for international and regional guarantees and to reject the Israeli demand to transform it into a political party.

Hamas, which carried out the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation without returning to its allies, received a decisive answer from them regarding the negotiations by agreeing to what it deems appropriate. The axis will prevent the fall of Hamas, but it will leave it free to decide on the terms of any agreement it reaches with Israel under Egyptian and Qatari sponsorship and with direct participation from America and France.

The picture will become clearer in the meeting expected to be held today in Cairo to complete the negotiations that will emerge in the form of a more flexible agreement than those discussed at the beginning, due to everyone’s need for a settlement, including the United States, which is preparing to enter its elections with the presence of Netanyahu, who makes the situation difficult for it, and Egypt, which will double the migration of Palestinians. It has its own economic burdens, as does Jordan. As for Iran, it has not yet stopped its negotiations with the Americans, and this in itself is an indication of its desire to reach a settlement in which Lebanon will be an essential part following Gaza.

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