House passes contentious library bill

BOISE — After lengthy debate, the Idaho House voted 40-30 Monday to pass HB 314, which requires public and school libraries to restrict minors’ access to materials deemed harmful.

The more than two hours of debate revolved around questions about definitions of what’s “harmful to minors,” where the parents’ responsibility lies in knowing what their children read, how much local control applies to local library and school district board policies, and if a civil penalty was appropriate. The bill would apply to private schools as well.

The bill is a version of one that the House Education Committee narrowly killed, with a lower civil penalty and a change so only the parent or guardian of a minor who was exposed to the materials deemed harmful can sue. HB 314 was later heard in House State Affairs, where it moved forward on a party-line vote, Idaho Reports reported.

Bill sponsor Jaron Crane, R-Nampa, told House members that the bill was important because it furthered the Legislature’s constitutional prerogative to promote “temperance and morality.”

“This is not a book-banning bill,” Crane said.

Under the bill, library boards or school districts could be sued for up to $2,500 if a minor obtained harmful materials and the library or school didn’t take “reasonable steps” to restrict access.

The bill defines harmful as any material, performance, or description or representation “in whatever form, of nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sado-masochistic abuse which are patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community.”

Some who debated against the bill highlighted that the definition of “sexual conduct” in the bill included any act of homosexuality.

“A private school shall not make available to a minor any picture of a person that depicts sexual conduct,” Rep. Chris Mathias, D-Boise, said. “Private schools can’t have books of two dudes kissing?”

Rep. Brent Crane, R-Nampa, said the bill is necessary because the state’s obscenity laws currently have an exemption for libraries and schools. He noted that this legislation is a compromise from last year’s proposed HB 666, which would have criminalized librarians who checked out books deemed harmful to minors.

“This stuff has absolutely no business being in the hands of our children,” Brent Crane said. “... It’s, I believe, probably as light of a touch as we’re going to be able to do on this issue and still have some teeth in it.”

Some argued that the bill shouldn’t apply to all young people under 18, but younger children should be treated differently than teenagers.

Rep. Lori McCann, R-Lewiston, said she would back the legislation if it applied to K-5 students, but thinks high school students could lose access to valuable literary works. She said she received a stack of letters from high school students in her district who asked that the Legislature not pass the bill.

House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, called the bill “ham-handed” in its treatment of all minors as the same.

“The upshot is that nobody under 18 is going to be allowed to have access to anything other than ‘Goodnight Moon’ and ‘Curious George,’” Rubel said. “... What a 17-year-old and what a 5-year-old can read is very, very different.”

Rep. Julianne Young, R-Blackfoot, said that one of the materials she saw that was available in libraries depicted a young girl who was sexually assaulted by her father.

“That, I believe, is a form of sexual abuse of children,” Young said of the depiction.

Rep. Dan Garner, R-Clifton, said he agreed with the intent of the bill, but not how it was applied. He argued it’s a local issue that should be dealt with by local school districts and library boards.

“There’s already a system in place to address these problems,” Garner said.

Rep. Elaine Price, R-Coeur d’Alene, said constituents in her district are frustrated with their local library board, which is appointed rather than elected and they have less recourse for getting books they find objectionable removed.

Rep. John Vander Woude, R-Nampa, said a convenience store owner would get charged if he sold pornographic materials to a minor and asked why libraries should not be held to the same standard.

Some in favor said the bill wouldn’t prevent any material from being located in libraries, only that they be located in adult sections. Others said the language may be so vague that it could have a chilling effect on what material will be in libraries at all.

Rep. Kenny Wroten, R-Nampa, said it would only take a few big lawsuits to have a chilling effect. He also said it’s up to parents to protect their own kids, not everyone else’s.

Jaron Crane in his closing argued the language in the bill wasn’t too vague and that parents can’t be present when their children go to the school libraries, which is why the legislation is needed.

“I don’t think that any of us should apologize for fighting for our kids,” he said, “and fighting for the morality of our state.”

The bill will now go to the Senate.

Guido covers Idaho politics for the Lewiston Tribune, Moscow-Pullman Daily News and Idaho Press of Nampa. She may be contacted at lguido@idahopress.com and can be found on Twitter @EyeOnBoiseGuido.