Read A Banned Book
And complain if it's been wrongly banned
Background
The Des Moines Register’s issued freedom of information requests to all Iowa school districts asking that they provide lists of the books they are removing under SF 496 (PDF link), which goes into effect January 1, 2024. We have written about it a couple of times: “Iowa’s Children Deserve Better” and “Do Not Obey in Advance.”
The statute requires every school district to “establish a kindergarten through grade twelve library program that … contains only age-appropriate materials.” It defines “age-appropriate” as:
topics, messages, and teaching methods suitable to particular ages or age groups of children and adolescents, based on developing cognitive, emotional, and behavioral capacity typical for the age or age group. “Age-appropriate” does not include any material with descriptions or visual depictions of a sex act as defined in section 702.17.
A “sex act” is defined in Section 702.17 (which is part of the criminal code defining types of touch that can result in criminal prosecution if they are non-consensual) as follows:
any sexual contact between two or more persons by any of the following:
1. Penetration of the penis into the vagina or anus.
2. Contact between the mouth and genitalia or mouth and anus or by contact between the genitalia of one person and the genitalia or anus of another person.
3. Contact between the finger, hand, or other body part of one person and the genitalia or anus of another person, except in the course of examination or treatment by a person licensed pursuant to chapter 148, 148C, 151, or 152.
4. Ejaculation onto the person of another.
5. By use of artificial sexual organs or substitutes therefor in contact with the genitalia or anus.
6. The touching of a person’s own genitals or anus with a finger, hand, or artificial sexual organ or other similar device at the direction of another person.
This is a very, very specific set of acts that must be described or visually depicted for library materials to fail to be “age appropriate.” (Incidentally, because they both describe these acts in order to define them, both the Iowa Code and the dictionary appear to be banned from school libraries by this statute. I have yet to see a district pull either one.) The consequences of a violation are pretty draconian, so some districts are taking a very conservative approach to interpreting the new law. Nevada, for instance, has targeted 239 books for removal. Including George Orwell’s Animal Farm, which I read recently; I can recall no references to sex, but plenty to gaslighting.
Take Action
Check out the Register’s database of banned books. Read a book or two from the list, and if it seems to you that it doesn’t meet the criteria for removal, contact the board of any school district that removed it and tell them so. Especially if it’s your own school district.