Bill on library book selection clears Assembly panel after four-hour hearing

An Assembly panel advanced a bill that would create a new, more uniform process for the removal of library books in a near-unanimous vote following nearly four hours of testimony Thursday.

The bill, which the Assembly Education Committee approved in a 7-1 vote with the no vote from Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia (R-Sussex) and an abstention from Assemblyman Erik Simonsen (R-Cape May), would require local districts to adopt discrete policies on library curation and removing books from school libraries while barring districts from granting requests that seek to remove books a filer believed were offensive but not age-inappropriate.

“Parents will continue to have the right to decide what their own child reads, but one parent should not have the ability to solely determine what another parent’s child reads,” said bill sponsor Assemblywoman Mitchelle Drulis (D-Hunterdon).

The bill’s authors have dubbed it the “Freedom to Read Act.”

The bill would require local districts to create written policies on library curation that bar book removals made on the basis of its authors’ backgrounds, origins, or views and require librarians to periodically review their collections for relevance and recency, among other things.

It would require local school boards to reject book removal requests filed by those without a connection to the district — someone other than a teacher, parent, or student there — and mandate district superintendents to convene boards to adjudicate requests for removal.

“Out-of-state individuals and organizations will no longer be able to ride into New Jersey with a political agenda and target our public libraries,” Drulis said.

Those committees must include the superintendent, school principal, a board representative, a grade-appropriate teacher, a parent or guardian of a child enrolled in the district, and a student, in some cases.

Individuals who filed the request for removal cannot sit on such a committee, and the superintendent may appoint additional members if they see fit.

The bill is a response to recent pushes by religious and anti-LGBT groups to remove books with themes or content related to sex and gender, among others.

“During the school day, parents are not present to give their consent and support their children who may view this material,” said Hilary Jersey, a co-leader with NJStandsUp, an anti-vaccine group. “Age-inappropriate content isn’t just in the school libraries. My seventh grader just shared that she read a school-supplied book about a 13-year-old who was pregnant.”

The final decision on book removals would remain with school boards under the bill, and the committees it requires must make their non-binding recommendations within 60 days of their next meeting.

The bill would require school boards to explain their decision when either removing a book or going against the recommendations of a committee, and books that survive a challenge would be immune from further challenges for one year.

The Department of Education would be required to draft a model policy on library curation, and the state librarian must draft a model policy on the adjudication of book removal requests.

The bill advanced Thursday was narrower than past versions of the legislation. It would no longer amend the state’s obscenity statute to add protections for librarians and teachers; instead it would immunize librarians who make good-faith efforts to comply with the bill’s provisions on curation and book removal.

Separate language that would have allowed librarians to lodge civil suits for protective orders against harassers was also removed by amendments, as was language that would have amended the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination to bar employers from considering a librarian’s actions on a given book removal request in hiring decisions.

Those changes softened some opposition but did little to turn its opponents into supporters.

“I’m grateful for that the freedom to read is more now like the freedom to remove, and I’m sure many school boards are going to remove many of these books that parents have been challenging for months and for years,” said Shawn Hyland, director of advocacy for the New Jersey Family Policy Center, which previously opposed the bill but was neutral Thursday.

The measure has yet to move in the Senate and must be approved by the Assembly Appropriations Committee before it sees a full vote on the chamber’s floor.