Senate Democrats comment on school library censorship bill

OKLAHOMA CITY – Senate Democrats issued the following statements after the full Senate approved a bill promoting censorship in school libraries.

“We have local elected school boards for a reason, so they can be responsive. I trust educators and school boards to maintain ways for parents to voice their concerns. Absolutely, it is important to review and determine if material is age inappropriate. But what is deemed offensive to one person may not be offensive to another, so we have to make sure our laws do not make our schools targets by folks with an ax to grind.”– Senate Democratic Leader Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City.  

“While no one condones explicit material in school libraries, historically, censorship of books has been used by both religious and political groups to suppress opposing views and reinforce a particular ideology. Intellectual freedom is essential in education and for critical thinking.” – Senate Democratic Caucus Chair Michael Brooks, D-Oklahoma City.

“We already have processes in place and a way for a parent to object to a book. This is a solution in search of a problem. The very idea that there are ‘thousands’ of these books in our public school libraries is a fallacy. If anything is there, it’s because of human error, and that will occur even under this measure. But the way this bill is written, we could have parents going after schools for having the Bible or other religious content in their libraries. It’s going to turn our schools into political battlefields.” – Sen. Mark Mann, D-Oklahoma City.

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For more information, contact: 
Sen. Julia Kirt at 405-521-5636 or Julia.Kirt@oksenate.gov 
Sen. Michael Brooks at 405-521-5557 or Michael.Brooks@oksenate.gov
Sen. Mark Mann at 405-590-4471 or Mark.Mann@oksenate.gov