School librarians in Georgia could see criminal charges from a new bill.
On Monday, a group of Republican senators introduced a bill to the Georgia General Assembly that would allow school librarians to be charged with a misdemeanor if they allow students to check out ‘obscene’ books.
State law presently protects librarians at any school, college, or university from facing criminal charges for lending sexually explicit materials. SB 154, headed by Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Alpharetta, excludes school librarians from that protection.
Opponents of the bill, like the Georgia Library Media Association, say that if passed, the bill will punish students -- not librarians. Some opponents also speculate that librarians may over-police themselves to avoid prosecution by withholding books considered appropriate.
Many books recently banned or questioned for obscenity in the last five years often deal with gender identity, sexual orientation, or race. As the Atlanta-Journal Constitution reports, only one woman co-signed the bill and all are white.