HARRISBURG, Pa. — Republicans in the Pennsylvania State House are calling for more accountability over the books sitting on school library shelves.
In a Wednesday press conference, State Representative Tom Jones of Lancaster and Lebanon Counties unveiled a new page to his website. The page would allow parents to track if there are books with sexually explicit material in school libraries.
“Librarians and school districts need to be very careful about what they have and what they’re exposing children [to]," said Rep. Jones.
This comes as House Bill 1659 and Senate Bill 7 were introduced by Representative Russ Diamond (R-Lebanon) and Senator Ryan Aument (R-Lancaster.) The bills would identify sexually explicit content in school libraries and curriculum, and allow parents to choose whether their kids can read the books.
"Some of our schools are 'opt-out,' meaning a child was already exposed [to explicit material] without their parents' knowledge," said Rep. Jones. "The parent has to preemptively go into the school and protect their child against this when it should be the schools protecting them from this obscene material."
This week, libraries across the country are celebrating Banned Books Week to celebrate the freedom of reading and to highlight the number of attempted book bans in the U.S.
Some Central Pa. residents, like Gloria Allen, believe lawmakers shouldn't be regulating books in school libraries.
“I don’t feel like the politicians should be controlling this or there should be any change to the libraries," said Allen. “[Librarians are] the ones who have been in charge and governing these books for all this time. I don’t think the politicians have a right in this matter.”
The American Library Association reports there were 1,269 attempts to censor library books in 2022. That's the highest recorded number in the organization’s history.