Banned Books & Censorship - Longview

EveryLibrary is monitoring state legislation during the 2025 session that would limit Americans' freedom to read and think for themselves. Of most concern are proposed laws that would allow for criminal prosecution of librarians, educators, higher ed. faculty, and museum professionals.

Providing explicit sexual material to a student if such person is affiliated with a public or private elementary or secondary school in an official capacity. Defines explicit sexual material as any visual depictions of acts of sex and genitalia. Materials that are exempt include those that “have a serious artistic significance, works of anthropological significance or materials used in science courses.”

Violations of the law are a Class A misdemeanor resulting in a year in jail and a $2,000 fine.

Book Challenged: The King James Bible
The inclusion of The King James Bible in a high school library was challenged based upon a California statute that ‘exclude[d] from school and school libraries all books, publications, or papers of a sectarian, partisan, or denominational character.’ The California Supreme Court rejected the petitioner's argument, stating that: "The mere act of purchasing a book to be added to the school library does not carry with it any implication of the adoption of the theory or dogma contained therein, or any approval of the book itself, except as a work of literature fit to be included in a reference library."

Book Challenged: Annie On My Mind
Students challenged a Kansas school board's decision to remove this book, which depicts a romantic relationship between two teenage girls, from the school district's secondary school libraries. The court found that the school board's actual motivation for removing the book from the library was disapproval of the ideas contained therein, and thus the removal violated the First Amendment.

Book Challenged: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
A public school student's parent objected to the inclusion of this book in school libraries. Thereafter, the school board voted to restrict access to the book, as well as the rest of the Harry Potter series, by shelving them out of view and requiring parental permission to check them out. The school board reasoned that the books encouraged disobedience and involved matters of witchcraft and the occult. The court found that no evidence would have led the school board members to reasonably believe that the books would disrupt the schools were students allowed to have unfettered access to them. Further, it is impermissible to restrict access to books based on the ideas expressed therein. Consequently, the school board's decision to restrict access to the Harry Potter books was found to violate the First Amendment.