Who decides what kids should read? These bills take opposing responses to book ban activity

MADISON, Wisconsin — New bills in the state Capitol key into a trend among conservatives to give parents more control over what children are allowed to read in schools and libraries.

Both Democratic and Republican authors of dueling proposals agree that parents' involvement in their children's reading activities is a good thing. But lawmakers disagree over what the role of librarians should be in those situations and whether decisions about what is appropriate should apply to everyone.

One of the measures introduced would "ban book bans," as its four Democratic authors describe. The bill would take away local and state funding for libraries that restrict access to books based on "partisan or doctrinal disapproval" or "the origin, background or views of those contributing to the creation of the book or other media."

Though the bill faces a tough path through the Republican-controlled Legislature, it would bring repercussions for libraries or school districts in Wisconsin that are moving to restrict certain books from the shelves.

One of those districts is Menomonee Falls, which in October removed 33 books in one of the most sweeping bans reported in Wisconsin in recent years. The titles include Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five" and Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner."

District officials in Menomonee Falls said the removals were due to "sexually explicit content and/or profanity." The bill introduced by Democrats includes exceptions for the "age-based restriction on obscene or pornographic material" and books available in facilities like jails and prisons.

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On the other side of the aisle, Rep. Barbara Dittrich, R-Oconomowoc, introduced legislation to get parents, libraries and schools "back on the same team" after seeing librarians attacked, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, which she called "shameful."

Dittrich, alongside two other Republicans, put forward a bill that would automatically notify parents what books and materials their children under age 16 are checking out. Another would require school districts to fulfill a citizen's request to inspect a textbook or other curriculum materials within 14 days.

"If parents want engagement and they're concerned about materials, then this is how they can engage," she said. "The friction has just got to stop. And to me, this was a good way to solve it."

Notifications could go against children's right to privacy in libraries

While library records are usually kept confidential, parents with children under 16 are currently able to request that information. The new bill would instead automatically update parents with those check-out records within a day.

Dittrich said part of the intention of the legislation is to promote the existing tool and eventually put funding behind it, especially to help rural libraries set up notification systems or create posters or handouts for awareness.

Dan Rossmiller, executive director at the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, questioned whether the bill would impose a cost on school districts to implement notification systems.

He said his organization generally prefers to leave policy decisions up to local school boards based on ”local community values,” and he noted that school boards can already decide on their own if they want to implement a notification policy.

Officials with the state Department of Public Instruction, which oversees schools and libraries, said they were not involved in discussions about the bill. The department's staff is analyzing how the bills would impact libraries and students, a spokeswoman said.

The Wisconsin Library Association declined to comment on the bills, though Dittrich said she held meetings with the group. The organization is the local chapter of the American Library Association, which takes the stance that "children and youth have the same rights to privacy as adults."

"I see that as diametrically opposed to what we're trying to do with protecting children," Dittrich said. "There's an age of majority for a reason. Their brains aren't fully developed yet."

Dorothea Salo, an instructor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Information School, said the bill goes against "really bedrock, standard library ethics about letting people read what they want without interference, and without sharing that information."

Minors' right to privacy in the library has always been a debated point, said Salo, who teaches librarians and follows issues including online privacy and book banning.

"There are librarians who very much believe that all people have a right to read, to learn, to experience what they choose. And children are people, therefore they're covered under that umbrella," she said.

"Other librarians take the stance that raising children is tough, raising children in a very contested and sometimes difficult information environment is even tougher. And yeah, there are times when a parent really wants to know what their kids are looking at."

Could the bill impact students' exploration of books?

Amber West, an organizer with Leaders Igniting Transformation, a nonprofit that trains and works with youth on social justice campaigns, said she sees the proposal as an extension of book bans and other efforts to limit what students can read and learn about, with a target on material by or about people of color and LGBTQ+ people.

“It’s a bigger attack limiting what narratives students are receiving,” West said. “Public education is supposed to be this very vast and diverse curriculum and we’re limiting that.”

West said she discussed the proposed bill with the Milwaukee high school students she works with, who said it felt like a violation of privacy and a micromanagement of their library usage. She pointed to low reading rates across the country and argued it’s counterproductive to make students less comfortable in libraries.

“I think it could be super discouraging for students,” West said of the bill. “School is a place where they’re supposed to be creating that freedom of thought, freedom of curiosity and freedom of expression, and if we take away that autonomy from them, we hinder their learning process.”

Rossmiller "would imagine there would be concerns about whether this would have a chilling effect on a student’s willingness to check out particular materials."

Dittrich countered that children are able to explore "such a volume of things to choose from," including new releases, which librarians have a hard time keeping up with.

Salo said parents who strictly control access to books or online activity can form a "trust gap," and librarians must serve all patrons, including children with adverse family relationships.

Rep. Jodi Emerson, the lead author of the Democrats' proposal to prevent book bans, said there should be modifications as children get older. Dittrich said she would be open to amendments, but thinks parents should especially have discussions during their children's teenage years.

Emerson noted that parents may not want their children to read books mentioning murder or cancer, for example, if those issues have affected their family.

"But again, if you want to make some choices about what your kid is reading, that's about a conversation you have with your own kids. It's not about taking away that opportunity for every family," Emerson said. "Because we don't necessarily know why somebody feels like a book is offensive."

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Emerson said she introduced her bill in part because of book bans and open records requests impacting districts not just in Wisconsin, but across the country.

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The proposal is modeled after a new Illinois law that allows grant funding only for libraries that adhere to the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights — which opposes banning books for partisan or personal reasons and includes children's right to privacy and confidentiality.

While the Illinois law is "well-intentioned," it could actually embolden people seeking to ban books, explained Salo. If the library gives in, they could lose funding, based on the new law, and close. But if the library refuses those demands, it still "opens the door to endless harassment campaigns to yank local funding."

"There's no way to serve the community if you have people who are just going to shut down the library collection any way they can," she said.

Emerson said she would be "more than happy" to work with others and modify the bill but expects Republicans won't give it a hearing.

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Asked whether she supports the concept of book banning, Dittrich noted "there are other bills out there on my side of the aisle that would control materials, but I'm not on that legislation. I'm trying to come to a peaceable end here."

A bill introduced in May supported by nine Republicans, which would ban schools from using library aid money to purchase "obscene" materials, has not yet received a hearing.

Rep. Kristina Shelton, D-Green Bay, questioned the need for the new Republican bills, saying parents can lean on existing state statutes and public school districts are already transparent about sharing instructional materials. "Hard conversations" about what books are appropriate for children are sometimes necessary, she said.

"As a teacher myself, anytime a parent wanted more information from me — and I taught (what was) called sex education at the time — I had a whole process for that. Teachers want parents to be informed. School boards and school districts want parents to be informed," said Shelton, also a former member of the Green Bay School Board.

"There's involvement, and then there's micromanaging," Emerson said of parents' engagement with school boards. "And I think we need to figure out the difference between those two."

Librarians under intensified scrutiny

Lawmakers agreed that librarians are facing increased scrutiny, but disagreed whether the new bills would help or hurt the profession, which is already facing scrutiny.

While Dittrich said "making our librarians into these supervillains" is not right, Shelton said Republicans are responsible for "inflaming culture wars and going after teachers and librarians."

"(Librarians) love literacy and want to make it available to everyone, and they are trying to appeal to the different materials that everyone wants," Dittrich said. "So it's a challenging piece, and I just want to bring people together on this issue instead of having everybody clawing at each other."

When she discusses these trends with her students, Salo reminds them that public librarians "serve the entire community, everyone in it, no exception."

"I cannot legitimately say to them, 'It'll be OK.' It will not be OK for some of them," she said. "They could lose their jobs, could see their library closed. They could be accused of things that are borderline defamatory and have very little ability to push back."

"These are people who have made a deliberate decision to come back to school to do something that serves their community," Salo said. "And they have to be scared of being treated like this."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: These Wisconsin bills take different approaches to book ban activity