Meeting Public Comments

Phyllis Peter

Parents already have the option to have their children opt out of any required reading and if you dont want your child to read a particular book, talk to your child. Dont take that book away from every other student in the school. Intellectual Freedom is a hallmark of a great country. I hope that we can see the value in a free sharing of ideas and knowledge and protect it in our schools.

Andrew Norris

Its written and presented like a comic or graphic novel remind me if candy cigarettes are allowed to be sold in stores in Iowa? This is presented to specifically lure kids of younger ages. Its sick and twisted. DO YOUR JOBS and get rid of this filth in our schools. Thank you

Darin Johnson

Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas and the majority ruled in favor of the children in the 1969 Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District. Fortas wrote: "It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." Students have First Amendment rights, and this includes intellectual freedom and the ability to have free and open access to books in our public schools.The titles that are being questioned are not obscene, and they are not being distributed to young children. Parents have more information about books in schools than at any other time in our history. I can search the titles in my children's school library from my cell phone. In addition, every public school already has policies in place for parents who object to specific books.Study after study confirms what good parents and teachers and librarians have known for years: Reading creates empathy and promotes understanding. Instead of censoring books, we should be reading books. Instead of giving hate, we should be reading "The Hate U Give." We must prize our intellectual freedom and maintain the free and open access to books in our schools.

Courtney Collier

Children should not be sexualized while at school by being given classroom instruction or materials that are pornographic in nature. I cant believe we have to even say that out loud. The books being challenged by parents in Iowa public schools are grotesque, graphic depictions and illustrations of rape, sexual encounters of all types including pedophilia. This is unconscionable. Many of these books are not intended for minor children under age 18. Our taxpayer funds should never be used to provide this obscene or pornographic material to students in k12. Showing pornography to children is a form of grooming. Disseminating pornography to minor children is criminal, and Iowa code needs to be clear on that, even if it happens at school. There needs to be strict selection criteria for schools to select books for school libraries and classroom or curriculum use. Public Ed has gone off the rails. Also to address is the books that contain vulgarity and profanity as part of required English curriculum in upper grades. This must be reformed. If our students speak or say the words and language in these books, they would be expelled from class. Why are we having them read it?

Michelle Lindell

North Polk Defends having child molestation, rape, and racists books. They have also added trans books for 812 year olds which I have in my possession currently. They are saying they will keep my sons and daughters from checking the books out that doesnt fix my children from seeing them IN the library without checking them out and it also doesnt keep the minors in the rest of the school from looking at them and then being around my children with their new found knowledge. This must end! This is not appropriate for childrens developing minds.

Anon PubicEmployee

If were going to allow pornographic content to be allowed for checkout in the school libraries, then by all means, lets remove restrictions on school issued iPads. Why is one ok, and not the other? Hypocritical?!!

Vicky Strand

These books aren't about removing or silencing any members of our community. It's about not exposing our children to additional garbage and filth. Many of these books showcase inappropriate or illegal behaviors. If you're going to showcase this socalled award winning literature let's just have some playboy magazines in our schools also. What's the difference?

Teresa Baustian

I admire and honor parents who are involved with their children's learning and know what their children are curious about, and what their children are reading. That's true parenting. Any endeavor, though, to have books removed from libraries and rendered unavailable to others is unAmerican. It's certainly the opposite of "parent's rights," because it imposes a state action on every parent, save the one who is seeking the removal of a book. It is statesponsored censorship and should be abhorrent to every American.

Elizabeth Salih

I am mexican and it has never mattered to me that I was "represented" by way of an author growing up with a love for reading! Kids care less about the author as they do about the story line. And the story told in these books are not something that enhances my kids cultural sensitivity at all. As a matter of fact, I'm insulted that the rationale for having these books in school is for cultural diversity. Are we to believe minorities like me can only come up with these kinds of abominable, distasteful writings? What a terrible thing to label minorities with. I pray you all realize this rationale for allowing these books in school is undermining racist to minorites, not uplifting. And it'd funny to me how many "white" people are fighting for these so call "cultural diversity" we the majority of us (those not brainwashed) are totally against. What we want is for culture to STOP looking at us for our "race" ...stop judging the book by the name on the cover! Judge me by my the content of my character and judge these books by their content! And stop using race as an excuse to expose my kids to porn. It's disgusting.

Paula Thome

Parents should be aware of what their children are reading and viewing. Parents already have to ability to ask for alternative reading material during class or alerts set up for checking out books. Parents dont have the right to deny every other student access. I have no assurance that the majority of people in opposition have actually read the books on the list. They are just taking the word of groups like Moms for Liberty. I will remain firmly opposed to censorship or banning books.

Whitney Smith McIntosh

I have three children who each attended public schools If I had been aware that their pornographic books in the library that they could read or check out at will I would have taken action earlier fortunately for me hopefully they had all graduated years ago so I pray that they did not have these books in the library while I understand that people are saying that children have access to pornography online on their phones and libraries and in their siblings bedrooms whenever they find their books and magazines none of that matters we should not be endorsing pornography by having it in the school libraries and while I understand that everybody has the first first amendment right to freedom of speech we tend to forget that there's a responsibility that comes along with our freedoms we need to be responsible for the upbringing of our children and the children in our community to make sure that they are not exposed to pornography that is endorsed by the school district.

Courtney Collier

This is not censorship, or book banning or book burning. Its common sense. Movie theaters restrict minors from rated R movies. This is the same principle. It should be common sense to restrict minors at school from accessing all media including printed materials and books that contain explicit or pornographic images, illustrations and depictions. These books can still be obtained at stores and public libraries but k12 schools should NOT be a place where these materials are offered. Our public schools already restrict students from accessing explicit and pornographic content on their technology. It is a no brainer, that this same standard would apply to classroom and school libraries materials. Also to consider is this, if social media and TV media cannot allow the content to be posted due to its adult explicit rating, how do we justify providing it to minors at school?

Jennifer Kastli

I find it fascinating that parents apparently dont want to have challenging conversations with their kids. It seems that banning books they find objectionableand that they probably havent readis one way of avoiding open conversations with our children and building trusting relationships with them. Books with challenging topics shouldnt be the topic of our legislative bills, but instead the topics at our dinner tables. Dont want your kids to read books with sex? Talk to them about it. Explain your values. Ask about theirs. I dont need the government to tell my child what they can and cant have access to. As a parent, those conversations are up to me. Please spend your time on more meaningful legislation.

Patty SeregAlexander

There is a direct correlation to sexual assault to the amount of pornography people are seeing. Many books available in our public schools that our young teens and high school students have access to is considered pornographic in every sense. A criteria needs to be established that protects students from being exposed to this vulgarity. Many of these books offensively portrays actual or simulated sexual act or sexual contact, an actual or simulated normal or perverted sexual act. Many of these books are also written for adults, and unfortunately, they are written at a second to fourth grade reading ability. Our schools have filters and safeguards on the lap tops, lets put safeguards and filters on the books available to young and malleable minds.

Anita Christensen

I thought we believed in parent choice and are against censorship. How can a small group of people dictate what books should be in my childs library? I believe it is the responsibility of the parents to monitor their child. Provide your school with a list of books your child shouldnt read and I bet they will honor your request. And I bet most schools would offer an alternate reading choice should a parent not like one used in a classroom.

Charlotte Heck

I don't understand the arguments for having these phonographic books in our school libraries! Since drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes are easily available to students, should these be allowed inside the school building? Since porn is easily seen on their phones and other devices, should these sites be allowed at school? Most people with common sense would say NO! If parents want their kids to read these books, then they can purchase them themselves or go to the local library. Some of these books were so graphic that they couldn't be read or viewed at school board meetings or on the local news. If school board members don't want these books read out loud during public comments (with mainly adults in the room), why are these books appropriate for young children? I am 100% pro freedom and pro the 1st Amendment! I am not wanting these books banned from being published or banned from bookstores and local librares. They just don't belong in our schools! Please pass HF 5 and get these books out of our schools!

Jenn Turner

He licked and kissed his way to the apex of my thighs, just as his fingers replaced where his mouth had been, pumping inside me as he, as he sucked, his teeth scraping ever so slightly I bowed off the table as my climax shattered through me, splintering my consciousness into a million pieces. He kept licking me, fingers still as I was moving.... But he remained kneeling, feasting on me, that hand pinning me on the table. A Court of Mist and Fury, by Sarah Maas. Found in at least 25 Iowa High Schools, ages 14 to 18. The arguments that these books are of educational value or are a target on LGBTQ or minority authors is false. This is a book by American, white woman, married to her husband since 2010. There is only one reason any of the books are in question graphic, sexual content presented to minors. It is hard for any of us opposed to believe that the only way authors can represent these communities is through graphic sex, assault, rape and profanity. These books have been brought to the attention of school districts but policies in place allow these books to remain Would this book (and this is a small excerpt) be legal to give you 14 year old neighbor? Or would that violate law or distributing sexual material to a minor? 728 Section 5 "Obscene Material" 728.2 Dissemination and exhibition of obscene material to minors Any person other than a parent or guardian of a minor (why are schools exempt from this law)

Kahri Plein

This issue already has a solution. There is a process to appeal decisions about school library books. Parents can talk to their own children about the types of books they would or would not like them to check out. Parents could even provide a list of books they dont want their child to check out. If you truly believe in less government control, why would you want more government control over school libraries? Additionally, why would you be writing legislation reducing the education requirements for librarians? If this is such a concern, wouldnt you want the most educated professionals choosing books for our school libraries?

Trista Evans

Books with sexual content have NO place in our schools. The internet has enough smut, we dont need more accessibility in our school libraries. Its an agenda to normalize, desensitize and sexualize our children.

Shellie Flockhart [Parent]

My kids phones have software that blocks the use of certain content. I monitor this. I check their accounts. I am the parent. Just because pornography is on the internet does not mean the school should provide it to students while in the school buildings. As for the books, i brought the book Looking for Alaska to our districts attention. The book was in our middle school library. Why bring it forward for reconsideration? For the explicit material and reference to porn. This book, more than once, explains that if you dont know how to do something sexual, its easy to just refer to porn. This was in our 7th and 8th grade building. I read the entire book. The first half was decentuntil it got dark, and then explicitvery explicit. Do i think these books should be in a public school library? No. Any parent can choose to purchase books for their home, for their kid. Students have access to apps on their personal devices where they can access bookswith their parents permission. The school library should never carry books that an adult can not read out loud at a meeting or post on social media. Pornography can ruin future relationships, intimacy, and turn into addiction. Why would we promote that in our schools?

Lee Plummer

History has never looked at the book banners as the good guys. Every idea Republicans have had for schools this year has been Chris Rufo culture war nonsense. Grow up and actually start legislating.

Randy Richardson

It's obvious that very few people commenting on this issue know the definition of pornography. The books in question all have serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value and therefore are not considered pornography. The Committee appears to be looking for a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. It's very easy for parents to let a school know that their child can't check out certain books. It's easy for schools to put certain books into a "reserved" area where only students with permission can check them out.I'm a grandparent of a public school student and I don't want a Republican legislature, or any legislature for that matter, dictating what books belong in a school library. For once let's give our teachers and librarians some credit and let them make decisions about the books that our children can access.

C.A. Turner

Choice of book selection happens within a individual freedom. Supreme Court case has settled we do not loose freedom when walking inside schoolhouse doors. Each school district has elected boards of directors. Let local districts govern their own school districts. Local people in communities pay taxes and property taxes to support their schools. Let their local Boards of Directors elected by the public decide what is best for the communities children. They are the parents of our district and not people who don't even live in our town. They don't represent us.

Janet Lark

What books ? Which authors? Who decides? I thought that was what ELECTED SCHOOL BOARDS are elected to do. I thought librarians select books. I thought they were educated to select age appropriate books.Legislators please legislate for the people of Iowa. Support education and support educators. Parents talk to your children. Discuss what they are reading in fact, read some yourself!

Jeffrey Fahrmann

Please support this bill to keep obscene and pornographic material out of our public schools. I honestly cant believe this is even being debated. Books are not being banned, as Im sure they can still be purchased on Amazon or checked out from some public libraries. Parents just dont want them available to minor children at school. Please use some common sense and keep the pornography out of schools.

Sara Ferneding

I am in full support of removing pornographic content from our schools for all of the reasons already mentioned by supporters in these comments. It disgusts me that so many people are wanting porn to be available to children. This is grooming & predator behavior. Please get it out of our schools.

Angela Wenell

You really are a knockout. His arms wraparound me, and his rough hands go straight to my boobs. I try to knock them away but am no match for his strength. You like it rough? 'Cause I'm just the guy to give it that way No extra charge.The words burn into my ear. "What? What the fuck did you say?" A sudden burst of will pushes him back, away. I turn to face him. He advances, a thin line of spit leaking from his mouth to his chin. I stare at evil. I said, no extra charge. Already paid two hundred dollars for a good time with you. Might as well make it very good.He's on me, yanking my hair, pushing me to my knees. He flips me over. You're even prettier from behind, know that? I hear his zipper lower. It is the loudest sound ever. "Don't," I try, but it sticks, pasted to disgust, lodged in my throat. Useless to plead. Useless to fight. He yanks down my shorts in a single swift motion. He is on me. In m Humiliating me in every possible way, right here on the kitchen floor. As promised, he is rough. Biting. Pounding. Shredding. Ripping. "Please?"The word bounces off him, pingpongs weakly in my ears. Trying to fight him only fuels him. For a fleeting second, I think maybe someone will come through the door to save me. And then, despite everything that's happening to me, I laugh out loud. Save me? What did he say? I already paid for a good time with you.I've been sold. And just who would sell me? The answer is all too obvious: Iris. My mother.Tricks by Ellen HopkinsNo amount of context can make this excerpt have any literary value. It's just obscenity. The real question I have, though, is why an adult would feel so strongly about minors having access to this kind of sexual content?There is no educational value. It's harmful, destructive, and has no place in the school setting. Training for mandatory reporters, which teachers are, says that providing obscenity to minors is a form of child abuse. It would be illegal in any setting other than a school. It's insanity, and our laws need to be consistent. This is not book banning. The absence of a book in a library does not make it banned, and removing it from a school library does not make it illegal to possess it. Yes, kids have phones, but I don't think we want to bring all internet content into schools. Do we also want to provide instructional material on how to make a pipe bomb or be a white supremacist? These are ridiculous arguments. It's really simple. Graphic sexual content does not belong in schools. There is no downside to removing it, but many many harms in keeping it. Enough.

Cathy Haustein

This reminds me of The Music Man when the Pickalittle Ladies of 1912 didn't like the library books and thought they were "dirty." I haven't read the all books people are upset about. I did read one that the Iowa Standard flamed and things were taken out of context for shock value. I'm not a fan of allowing a publication or a politician to inflame people for their own political gain. I suspect this is what's happening here. That being said, I don't support books that sexually degrade people (promote rape for example) or are misogynistic. I fear many people are getting mad about less, however and instead are censoring books and being authoritarians.

Anonymous Anonymous

I see talk that these books can't jump off the shelves in the hands of our children or that parents have a choice of restricting these books from there kids. Being exposed to porn at a young age, it wasn't just sitting around but hidden from us. All it took was my brother to show me where it was hidden and I was hooked. All it takes is one brother,friend,sister,librarian or teacher to show a kid where it is found and the kid can have long term effects from being exposed to porn. A lot of these books are written in the form of a comic book to lure young people in. These books have no business being in any grade level of school K12. We wonder why we have a mental health issue right now. With that I support this bill and ask that you all support it also. Thanks and God Bless

Josh Briggs

Books with images of sex acts, especially children participating in sex acts, dont belong in school libraries. It should really be that simple.

Tambi Heiter

Please explain why banning books is in any way, shape or form in the best interests of the pubic? Schools already have procedures in place for books to be put in their libraries. Why do the madeup delusions of these vocal extremist groups get to dictate what everyone else can read or not? Keep these decisions in the local control of schools! Stop this fascistic nonsense!

Jennifer Briggs

Not every child has access to a phone and is being exposed to pornography, obscenities, and felony committing behavior and even if they did, it would be no justification for providing a child with access to all of the above while in attendance at public school. Doing so means our publicly funded school institutions who are the only institution that accepts all students for free and where 90% of students go is supplying pornography to its communitys children by choice using tax payer dollars to do it. Ignoring the parents and community members who have a problem with it and asking them to leave if they do. I believe One superintendents words were if were too inclusive you should leaveSo Im just wondering what the new definition of inclusive is? Because it used to be an unwritten fact and trust between community and school that such things were not a topic of conversation and being handed out to students in wrapping paper. If a parent needs their child to have access to porn in order to feel inclusive they have another free resource we call the public library they can access. School, which is mandated by law, is not the place. This is common sense. Period.

Sally Strang

School districts in Iowa have trained librarians who choose literature that is appropriate for age, reading levels and cultural sensitivity. Local school districts need to have control over curriculum, books and how our tax dollars are spent. All of this banning of books is insane. Already, you are using my hard earned money to give wealthy Iowans tax breaks to send their children to private schools with no oversight. Strong public schools with the highest test scores in the country were what attracted me to this state. We can no longer claim those bragging rights and the responsibility lies on the shoulders of backward government.

Harry Ehrlich [Citizen]

Allowing or encouraging the availability and use of sexually explicit materials in any K thru 12 school setting is introducing our youth to information and suggestive behavior that they should not have without parental oversight. If it is available it will be utilized. Just because the Jones may think it is OK does not make it so. There are too many temptations as suggested by other commenters now much less keeping the materials coming at the direction of school system authorities. Would your mother want to read it? The true test! I support the proposed legislation!

Cindy Hofman

I want to know if there are any current laws in Iowa that prohibit books that contain a warning of graphic images or labeled for adults only from being available to minors in schools and public libraries. If there are laws protecting minors, why arent people being arrested. If teachers are mandatory reporters, why can books be available to minors containing illustrations of incest and sex acts? Why do books contain cartoon images of sex acts? Is this so they can fly under the radar and not be considered real live porn images? Why can teachers groom students? Talk to them if they feel like switching genders without parent knowledge? Who gave teachers this authority? Who gave teachers authority to help decide what gender a kid chooses? Why are people wondering why kid suicides are up at an alarming rate? Its because kids are confused by all the garbage thrown at them about gender reassignment. Teachers get paid to prepare students to become great citizens in our society. They are to teach the basics: math, reading, science, history. Teachers are not there to meddle in kids personal lives or to teach political division and racism. Teachers/Unions have waaaay too much power. This needs to stop. We must protect our kids from all of this perversion. The fact our legislators have to discuss this in Des Moines is sick and wrong. Weve let our country go down a dark hole. We must take our family values back. Our kids are our countrys future. Put a stop to these vile, sinful books. Lord, heal our land.

David Alexander [David A]

For those calling this "book banning" and spouting history. Remember the socialist who did this in the past did not ban porn. They only banned literature that challenged their authority. They also banned the individuals rights to own fire arms. So do we allow K12 children to carry fire arms? Its a constitutional right.

Nikki Stiles [Personal]

Things that are porn: Debbie Does Dallas. Things that aren't porn: literally every book found in public schools, none of which "lack serious political, scientific or literary value", none of which "appeal to the prurient interest", and none of which are obscene. Sex does not equal obscenity in the eyes of the law. Radical groups like Moms For Liberty use *PORN* as a red hot buzz word to obfuscate facts and rile parents. None of these parents choose to actually read the books themselves they waste your valuable time copying and pasting excerpts deliberately meant to be taken out of context from "reviews" written by....wait for it.... Moms For Liberty. If they're so gungho for liberty why are they trying to repeatedly violate the first amendment rights and other liberties afforded students? Libraries are places of "voluntary inquiry" and students' right to read is implied in the first amendment. (See attachment) TeacherLibrarians hold Masters degrees in library science. They refer to professional reviews from companies with a hundred+ years in the industry. They're licensed educators who use professional tools to make purchasing decisions. They are NOT porn pedaling ghouls out to steal the souls of children.

Heather Mathre

When government starts banning books, its no longer about governing. Its about the censorship of themes, ideas, gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality,history, etc the people in positions of government do not want citizens to have access to. Iowa Republicans scream about parental choice. Banning books takes away parental choice. Why do they get to chose what my children or other children read, but not me? Where is my parental choice? It apparently doesnt matter because they consider me a groomer or woke if I allow my children to read books they want to ban.

Elizabeth Arnold

Books provide an insight into other worlds and ways of thinking. Librarians are masters degree graduates with deep knowledge on collection development and how to select appropriate materials for their patrons. It is deeply troubling that parents wish to impose their values on all others, without the knowledge of why these items were selected. For those claiming pornography, please research what that means from a legal perspective. For those claiming they do not wish to ban books but just to restrict accessthat is indeed a form of censorship. Let those trained in their fields do their jobs. If a parent has a problem with an item, make that decision for your childnot anyone elses.

Melissa Coakley

As a parent, where are my rights to allowing my child access to these books? I have always had access to what my child is being taught. There is no question why Iowa is the only state not to have doubled in population, closed minded stunts like these. Good luck keeping teachers who are already feeling the frustrations of their lack of support, much less attracting new ones.

Margaret Harlow

The legislature is attempting to limit access to information and limit the voice and reach of writers. We all have the choice to select and curate our book choices. Banning books is a practice that doesnt work. Those wanting to read from a list of banned books will find a way. It is pointless, archaic, and shortsighted.

Steve VandenBerg

Inappropriate books pornography/bad language should not be available at schools. This does not substantially limit free speech and is best for our students and society. Why would people want students to learn pornography and swear words?

Patricia Benson

Books are essential for learning and stimulating creativity & imagination. Teacher librarians are well educated to sekect books for school libraries and classroom teachers are well educated to select books for their classrooms. No child is forced to read a book. Parents can ask to see lists of classroom materials and request other options for their child if they object to a particular book or lesson that is planned to be taught. Public school districts have a process for addressing complaints about books from parents, and a process for adding and removing books from school libraries and classrooms. Parents have the right to keep books that they find objectionable away from their child. No parent has the right to deny access to a wide variety of literature to other students in public schools. Banning books is morally wrong. Use your freedom of choice and avoid books you find objectionable, but don't take away my choice to read that book.

Dan Kleinman [SafeLibraries]

Dear Iowa Legislators:Explicit books may be removed from schools immediately. The American Library Associations creator of Banned Books Week said in the rare case a book doesnt make school book collection policy, get it out of there. Further, librarians remove explicit books from schools and do so immediately, without any fanfare or media attention whatsoeverbecause its the right thing to do, even for librarians who might otherwise oppose censorship. Finally, common sense holds that explicit books may be removed immediately, and that common sense is backed up by two polls proving the vast majority of parents oppose explicit books in public schools and want them removed. Theres not even any need for any materials reconsideration committee reviews or any delay at all. Books may be immediately removed under the 1982 United States Supreme Court case of Board of Education v. Pico. Indeed, parents have been so successful in removing Gender Queer, A Memoir by Maia Kebabe from so many schools, thanks to the Pico case, that the American Library Association created Unite Against Book Bans to counter just that.The only obstacle in removing explicit books from public schools is, lets be honest, librarians claiming such removals are First Amendment violations, as if the First Amendment guarantees the right of school librarians to provide school children with specific instruction on the proper use of s3x toys, web sites to advance their knowledge of sadomasichism techniques, and step by step instructions on how to use online apps like Grindr to meet homos3xual men for quick s3x.So to help in countering the misinformation of the librarians making these claims, let me list what they say followed by whats the truth backed up by reliable sources.Librarians say it is a violation of the Library Bill of Rights to keep children from any material whatsoever. They reference Article V that states, A persons right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of age. The Library Bill of Rights is part of the policies of many public libraries and school libraries. Its the foot in the door, the camels nose under the tent, the very means by which anything goes at any age for any material whatsoever. But what librarians dont tell anyone is that its an aspirational creed only from a library association based in Chicago, IL, and that a court has already ruled it means nothing. Think about this. Librarians argue parents should not control what school kids read, while at the same time the Library Bill of Rights makes some librarians from Chicago, IL, into who really controls libraries, and for them, its them, and your kids are going to read explicit material whether they like it or not because the Library Bill of Rights guarantees this right. Its subterfuge and a double standard. Frankly, any library adhering to the Library Bill of Rights is actually adhering to views of bullying librarians from Chicago, IL, who act like they know what they are doing and everyone thinks they do. To restore local control to libraries, the first step must be to extirpate the Library Bill of Rights and stop any further association with ALA or state library associations. Having that aspirational creed that means nothing in place is exactly why parents need the help of legislators to wrest control of schools and libraries from Chicago, IL, and return it to the public.Librarians say people are racist and homophobic and these are the reasons some parents oppose explicit material. This blaming tactic has worked for American Library Association for a long time. For example, when parents in Howell, MI, didnt want their school children reading a book containing s3x with animals, ALA pointed out the alleged history of racism in Howell, MI, then pointed a finger at the parents and the school board members saying they too were racistsbecause the author of the bestiality book had black skin. It worked, due to fear of the r word, the school backed down, and the kids read about animal s3x. Lots of kids identify as that same animal today and litter boxes are needed in school bathrooms, but Im sure its just a coincidence.Librarians say explicit books like Gender Queer, a Memoir are about the idea of alternative lifestyles and transidentified victims that homophobic people oppose, and that Board of Education v. Pico ruled books may not be removed from school libraries because of the ideas they contain. Therefore Gender Queer and the like cannot be removed. What they dont reveal is that the parties in the case stipulated, because it was obvious, that pervasively vulgar books may be removed forthwith. Gender Queers vulgarity pervades the entire work like a dead skunk in a wall makes the whole house smell. Indeed, its what everyones talking about. Its why legislatures are addressing it. Being as Gender Queer is pervasively vulgar, it may be removed immediately from schoolsno need for any materials reconsideration committees, an American Library Association idea that, like the Library Bill of Rights, goes completely against Board of Education v. Pico. And as it gets removed under the Pico case, it is not a violation of the First Amendmentunless anyone wants to argue the US Supreme Court are censors.Librarians say explicit books like Gender Queer, a Memoir contain valuable information for children. They say books like Gender Queer cannot be considered obscene as a whole, as required to be considered obscenity by the 1973 US Supreme Court case of California v. Miller. Similarly, librarians say only a judge can make a determination as to whats obscenity, and no one has yet ruled Gender Queer and the like to be obscene. In this case, the librarians are correct. Yes. I admit they are correct. But the whole obscenity angle and the use of the Miller case does not even apply to school books. It just makes for good talking points to fool people. It just makes it sound like librarians know what they are talking about and everybody thinks they do, so I guess we all must let the school librarians s3xualize the children nationwide because of the California v. Miller case that doesnt even apply. Nice try, librarians. Obscenity is not the issue; Miller does not apply to school books. Pervasive vulgarity is the issue; Pico applies to school books. Under Miller, Gender Queer must stay. Under Pico, Gender Queer may be removed immediately. Pico applies, Miller doesnt. So every time librarians or school policies use the phrase, as a whole, they are talking about Miller that doesnt apply. Every time librarians or school policies use the word obscenity, they are talking about Miller that doesnt apply. This is exactly why American Library Association keeps talking about obscenitybecause they know its a loser for parents and the children will get to keep reading the explicit material. It is also why when ALA does eventually talk about Pico, it says it prevents schools from removing books for the ideas they contain, but leaves out that explicit books may be removed immediately, and thats the issue with Gender Queer, not the ideas it contains. Those ideas are available in the thousands of other books and the proliferating ALA recommendations but that arent pervasively vulgar.Librarians say a recent poll ALA created shows most people oppose book banning. Guess what, we are Americans, we all oppose book banning. But, typical for people trying to fool other people into doing what they want but do not have the power to do themselves, ALA is misleading people. Book banning is not the issue in schools. The last book ban in the USA occurred over half a century ago. The issue is explicit books in public schools. Thats the issue, not book banning. So ALA polled something that doesnt apply but that can be used as a hammer to bully people and bully legislators. Further, ALA is fundamentally dishonest. When someone promotes a poll that doesnt address the issue but sounds close, and leaves out two others polls that directly address the issue but have the opposite results, thats fundamentally dishonest. Both a Harris poll and a Rasmussen poll show the vast majority of people oppose explicit books in public schools. If legislators act to make it easier for explicit books to be removed from public schools, they may do so knowing the vast majority supports them and they have the full backing of the US Supreme Court. Librarians say every kid deserves to be seen and to see themselves in the books they read. They talk about windows and mirrors. Kids should be able to look through a window to see how other kids live their authentic lives and look in a mirror to see their lived experiences. By this they mean the multitude of different genders such as a girl whos been led to believe shes a boy so she has her breasts cut off and now shes a e. Thats Maia Kobabe, the author of Gender Queer. She walks people through her thought processes others led her to believe, in gory, graphic, explicit detail thats fake and inappropriate for school children, and thats the window or mirror that librarians want school kids to read and study, instead of maybe the life and times of a nuclear physicist like Richard Feynman or maybe the works of the Bard himself, William Shakespeare. No, William Shakespeare is a dead white man to school librarians, so he has been systematically removed by them and replaced with, well, with Gender Queer and the like. Windows and mirrors! But heres what librarians dont tell you. The view the children get is fake. Its made up. There are only two s3xes, male and female. Do you see all those kids switching genders? That comes from the windows and mirrors that American Library Association wants and trains school librarians to show them. And the state library associations too, by the way. This is way dissociating from and defunding state library associations and the American Library Association is so important, by the way, but I digress. The point here is that these windows and mirrors on gender switching are fake, phoney, frauds that amount to pure propaganda. And that propaganda is for the Queer Theory Marxists who have switched class for gender in the neverending effort to bring about neverending revolution to America. So its propaganda. And whats significant about propaganda? Something the librarians will never tell you. Propaganda may be removed from public schools. If its propaganda, get it out of there. If its windows and mirrors on gender switching, its propaganda, and schools have every right to remove it immediately. How do we know? Its already been done. Its already been through the courts, right on up to the US Supreme Court. Vamos a Cuba was removed from a Florida public school precisely for being propaganda. It was a fake, phoney, fraud. Out it went. Oh you bet the American Library Association tried to stop that. They lost. Thats why they dont tell you about it. They lost. "The case sets precedent for districts to back parents' rights in future cases." So this is yet another means by which propaganda can be removed from schools. And the 1619 Project and CRT (Critical Race Theory) material is propaganda too, you know that, right? Out it goes. Buh Bye!Librarians say theres no child p0rnography in Gender Queer, its not child p0rnography. And were all supposed to believe the librarians. Know that American Library Associations half century de facto leader and creator of its Office for Intellectual Freedom, Freedom to Read Foundation, and Banned Books Week, Judith Krug, said that no librarian can possibly know whats child p0rnography, only a lawyer can decide that. Therefore, if they see what they think is child p0rnography, it really isnt, it must be ignored, and the rights of the child p0rnography viewer must be protected. So on the one hand librarians are trained they cannot know whats child p0rnography, and on the other hand, librarians are trained Gender Queer is not child p0rnography, because suddenly librarians know. Its a double standard, either the librarians dont know whats child p0rnography or they know Gender Queer is not child p0rnography. Either way, for librarians, child p0rnography is protected as intellectual freedom. The same Office for Intellectual Freedom ensured a public library that hid child p0rnography crimes for over two years won Intellectual Freedom Awards for protecting child p0rnography. Librarians say they are the experts and dumb parents and legislators should not step into the ring. Meanwhile the experts are giving intellectual freedom awards for protecting child p0rnography and training librarians to ignore it when they see it. These experts, from Chicago, IL, are the experts we are all supposed to follow instead of our own local communities, the US Supreme Court, and common sense. See how this works? See why librarians say they are experts and decisions should be left to them? Thats like leaving the decision on what school children should read to Alfred Kinsey who was a pedophile who had s3x with multiple children then reported that they enjoyed the experience of being raped. Oh yes, Kinsey Institute people write on the Office for Intellectual Freedoms blog, so theres that. These are the experts to whom were supposed to bow. Lets hope legislators see through this charade.Speaking of experts, ALA asserts its experts take into consideration book reviews, like those by Booklist. Booklist is an ALA entity. Its reviews reflect those of the wedontseechildp0rnography ALA generally. Worse, Booklist is essentially antiparent. At a recent ALA conference, it gave out buttons telling librarians they are better than parents and will overcome all their book challenges. This is a bullying tactic designed to encourage librarians to defy parents. And this is the organization we are to trust for book recommendations. The Booklist review for Gender Queer includes pronoun propaganda: Kobabe shares details of eir childhood. While Im writing this, the softwares spell checker identified eir as an error. It is! (https://www.booklistonline.com/GenderQueerAMemoirDeluxeEditionMaiaKobabe/pid=9764725). No where does Booklist detail the pervasively vulgar nature of the material.Not only dont review sources like Booklist reveal what parents need to know, but ALA actively works to ensure parents are kept in the dark. ALA found out Common Sense Media was giving parents information on the amount of s3xually inappropriate material in school books. Reaction? ALA censored Common Sense Media from its website providing guidance to parents then blacklisted Common Sense Media from being allowed in any state library association or any state school.For librarians, hiding things from parents and legislators is a regular practice. They feed you the false information they want you to think so you will act on your own as they would force to act if they only had the power. At the same time you are force fed propaganda, you are keep from knowing the real truth about the facts and the law or about what actions they take to collude together to keep you in the dark. So if anyone acts on advice from librarians or library associations, theres a solid chance they have been misled and intentionally so. Some examples of this have already been discussed above. But theres more, and its nefarious.For example, the Texas Library Association trains it librarians to violate Freedom of Information Act laws. When a book is challenged in schools, sometimes parents will file FOIA requests to get a behindthescenes view of how such books got into the schools in the first place and why they havent yet been removed. The answer is always because of some library associations pushing their anythinggoes views, but parents usually want to get the hard evidence to prove this, often via FOIA requests. So the Texas Library Association has responded by training its librarians to conduct public business relating to explicit school books via their own personal WiFi devices and personal emails precisely to hide both the contents of the collusive action to s3xualize school children and that the collusion is occurring via a hidden network of librarians working together to get that librarian trained in how to keep the s3xualization flowing. Parents are always derided by librarians for obtaining the assistance of groups such as Moms for Liberty, No Left Turn in Education, Mary In the Library, or MassResistance, meanwhile librarians have a hidden network of hundreds who help each other hone the messaging needed to block parents and legislators from knowing whats going on and from even knowing theres a hidden network in the first place. If anyones getting help regarding school book challenges, its the librarians, not the parents.And librarians even admit knowing the material is s3xually inappropriate for children. Yes, the Director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom admitted to that in training she gave librarians. She said librarians know some material is s3xually inappropriate but they would give it to school children anyway. How? Simple. By going to the woke playbook. Librarians are to reframe s3xually inappropriate work as diversity and inclusion. There, the magic words. Suddenly Gender Queer, known to be s3xually inappropriate for school children, is reframed as diverse and inclusive, and there it is, spread all throughout schools in America, all because librarians have been trained to call it diverse and inclusive. But ultimately, we found that the thing that needs to happen most, and it needs to happen before these bills are introduced, is sustained uh messaging that reframes this issue um that uh that takes it away from the idea that these are inappropriate for minors, or s3xually inappropriate for minors, and promotes them as diverse materials and programming that are about inclusion, fairness, and protection of everybody's right to see themselves, and their families reflected in the books in the public library. https://www.youtube.com/clip/UgkxkMJFBkH5IFLMAaQaDR1iups9FDZ5tNj. And did you notice she is specifically targeting legislators? Thats you. Shes targeting you. Shes saying before bills get to legislators, the legislators need to be made to think that the s3xually inappropriate books are actually about diversity and inclusion. And who doesnt want that, right? Really, legislators, parents need your help to counteract what librarians are doing, and theres the smoking gun, right there directly pointed at you to fool you before you even take up this issue. Are you going to be fooled today or will the parents finally get the help they need so the children of Iowa are protected from s3xualization in schools by school librarians?American Library Association even gives local advocates who support ALAs agitprop hidden moneybribes, essentially. A public library in Wisconsin making inappropriate materials available to children had a local advocate attacking the challenger get $1000 from ALA. It didnt make local news nor did any library media reveal this either. It was only revealed by a FOIA request. And what a coincidence, the teen librarian there went on to become Deputy Director of ALAs Office for Intellectual Freedom! Advocates for a school in Texas got a $5000 gift from ALA to promote ALAs views. So besides the use of violating the law, besides hidden networks of librarians colluding, besides reframing inappropriate material as diversity and inclusion, bribes are in the ALAs arsenal as well.Other ways ALA hides information is to publish in its own monthly magazine that only librarians read that they are to sneakily spread gender theory to children across America, specifically via Drag Queen Story Hour, and will you look at that, drag shows have become popularized and are now everywhere, just as ALA wanted. ALA does this sneakily precisely to keep parents and legislators from knowing this is happening. When I was involved in making this public, ALA first deleted the authors name from the article, then deleted the entire thing. A routine practice of ALA is to delete material thats subversive but that has been brought to public attention, often by myself. For example, ALA gave librarians a model library policy that included ignoring child p0rnography. After I reported on that, that model policy was replaced with an older version that no longer had such language. After I reported that ALA was the only media source to whitewash the rape of a child in a library as just the mother not paying attention, ALA updated the story to say the child was raped. After I reported that ALA faked the annual list of banned books by providing evidence I recorded of an author/librarian admitting ALA told her it faked the list to push a false LGBT narrative, the following year no books were listed as banned for LGBT reasons. After I caught the Office for Intellectual Freedom plagiarizing its Censorship Map for Banned Books Week, it finally admitted to the plagiarism, only by admitting the real author was exactly who I reported, and now the map has disappeared. Lying and keeping parents and legislators from learning what ALA is doing is routine with ALA. When they say anything to parents and legislators, its likely substantially false and misleading and designed to get people, especially legislators, to think they have no alternatives but to act as ALA would want them to act to keep the child p0rnography flowing to children.I could go on and on about how fundamentally dishonest is ALA, but I have to meet the deadline to submit this writing. I dont even have time to provide references for what I disclosed above other than to say it is all documented somewhere here: https://safelibraries.blogspot.com. I do highly recommend starting with reading this however:Details on Stopping Indoctrination in Schools and Libraries: Guide for Parents and Legislators on Obscenity, Drag Queen Story Hour, 1619 Project, Etc. https://safelibraries.blogspot.com/2023/01/detailsonstoppingindoctrination.htmlIll have to improve and update this for eventual publication but I can only do so much now and get it in on time for your evaluation. I welcome any questions and specifically requests for any primary sources to reinforce the above. Im Dan Kleinman of SafeLibraries, SafeLibrariespm.me, 9736108296, 641 Shunpike Rd #123, Chatham, NJ 07928, and Ive been reporting for almost a quarter century on the harm done by the American Library Association ever since my kindergartner got an ALArecommended inappropriate book.Thank you for your consideration of the above statements.Dan Kleinman of SafeLibraries brand library educational servicesSafeLibrariespm.me9736108296641 Shunpike Rd #123Chatham, NJ 07928

Shelia Miguez

Public schools should not have such disturbing, questionable material in libraries. Our children should not have to be subjected to books that take away innocence. I protect my children with filters on the internet. Thankfully, I believe schools do to. Take out the questionable books. Its utterly ridiculous that this is even in question. Can we please get back to learning the basics of education and leave these hot topics for home?

Rita McCord

Parents can submit lists of books to schools they dont want their children to check out. The rest of the students my children included shouldnt be required to follow someone elses opinions on what they can and cant read. Reading produces empathy for others. I dont want to teach my kids to be afraid to empathize with anybody, especially marginalized groups. And if safety were really a priority, there would be other legislation about mental health care being discussed instead of attacks on books. Please focus on what most Iowans need instead of focusing on growing groups to manufacture outrage at books.

Ben Whitver [Dark Lab Audio]

The Iowa GOP needs to stop their "ANT" crusade. Anti public schools, Anti books, Anti LGBT, Anti healthcare rights...Literally the Taliban. Vote blue in every election

Jill PURCELL

Moms for Liberty are not the arbiters of what is literature. Taking a few pages of a book and claiming it is pornography is ignorant and and shows they dont read many books. Books sometimes have to use tough and explicit language to convey an experience that some students may find themselves in. Parents can review what their kids read and check out but they cannot limit what others read. To expect the school to follow your limited world view is the definition of coparenting with the government.. Iowa continues to be a national embarrassment with these backwards laws.

Deborah Erickson

I've never seen such idiotic and uninformed comments. School libraries do not carry pornograghic material. Stop throwing your ignorance around. Hands off

Christy Humpal

Parents already have the right to ask for alternate reading materials for their students, and they have the ability to forbid their own children from reading books they feel uncomfortable with. What they DON'T have the right to do is dictate what other people's children can/can't read. What happened to the importance of parents choosing what is best for their own children? So many of these banned books teach lessons about the real world, and offer a glimpse into the experiences of people different from us, helping to build empathy or they allow students who don't feel that they belong to feel seen and important. Banning their stories tells these students, once again, that they have no place It is disingenuous to take one paragraph out of context and call a work of literature pornographic, and legislating school reading materials at the state level is one more BIG step away from the local control that Iowa's education system was built upon.

Deb Hansen

If you dont want your child to read a book, then dont let them. Every parent can ask for alternative readings for their student. A few parents cannot dictate what is right or wrong for the whole! What happens when someone asks to ban the Bible or Fountainhead? Then what will you say?!!!

Jill Swanson

You can already opt your child out of anything. Teachers make sure you know this. Shouldn't all parents have a choice? I've read some of these books in their entirety. The passages being used are being taken out of context. In addition, reading a book with gay couples will not make your child become gay, that's not how it works. If you were truly for parent choice and freedom, you would not be trying to ban books.

Darin Kerry

Im against weirdo wokester books at school not because Im worried about kids checking out a book that includes a step by step blow job guide or teaches them intersectional racism. Most normal kids hate books. I think the reason to throw out this trash is because of how much it will piss off all the right people the same people who would clockwork orange style make your kids read these book if they could. The same people who are seeing their monopoly of public indoctrination slipping away. The same people who are losing control of their school boards. The same people who are realizing they wont be able to turn this state into the peoples republic of Illinois. The same people who have seen their purple state turn to deep red. They are desperate to maintain some control over something. Pass this so hopefully some of these people will start to flee

Carol Meyer

Why is it when we say parents have choice, the choice is really government saying what we can and can't do. Blocking our freedoms. If you don't want your child to read a certain book then provide a list to the school and it will be taken care of. But when you ban a book you've taken away my parental choice in allowing my child to read it. Children rarely get ideas from books that are subversive. Those ideas come from movies. video games. YouTube, and tik tok. I would take a look at those statistics rather than just assuming a book is dangerous. There is more danger these days attending church.

Sarah Schaefer

I am very concerned about the legislature getting involved in deciding the books that are on the shelves of our schools. As a teacher and someone who came from rural Iowa, I know how much books open the door to the larger world. I support parents having conversations with their students and trusting local librarians (the experts) to choose what books are appropriate to offer students. I do not support taking orders from out of state activists and stepping back in time. Please stop beating up our schools and teachers and do not support this bill.

Carol Gottsch

Why are the people involved with Moms For Liberty, as well as Conservative groups dictating legislation? I am a Buddhist and I want my values and beliefs legislated. That makes no sense either. These groups promote hate and fear based on issues which dont even exist. Why would anyone want a world full of disinformation and hate?What good does it do?These groups efforts and anger would be better spent on important issues taking care of Iowans who need help. Food and housing insecurity. Clean air, food, and soil. When I read a leader of this group wants to shoot librarians: there is something very wrong and dangerous with these groups. They must be stopped now. Do you want a state and country where your values and beliefs are enforced by hateful and uninformed people financed by wealthy hateful crooks?No sense for children or grandkids or grandkids or grandkids.

Deb Blew

Why do some of you think that there is pornagraphic books in schools. Because some right wing politician told you there was. If so its bs. Go to a school and ask to see curruculums and libraries. I worked in schools for 22 years and never have I seen anything resembling porn. Good grief stop believing all the nonsense they are spouting.

Jennifer Allen

This bill takes control away from parents, by dictating to all parents what books their children can read based on the desires of a small subset of parents. Any parent who does not want their child to read a particular book is already able to remove their own child's access. But neither that parent nor the state should have any say in what MY children get to read. Please maintain the rights of ALL parents by opposing this bill.

Karey Brower

These books are pornographic in nature and sexually explicit. Its mind boggling how these pictures are allowed in the schools.

Jackie Chow

Legislators, please do not be swayed by the minority and their overblown fears and the disinformation. First of all, the average teenager only spends 12 minutes per day reading a book versus over 7 hours looking at screens. The fact is that professional teacher librarians are currently spending countless hours reading professional journals and reviews before choosing age appropriate books for their libraries. They currently have policies they are required to follow for this process. The fact is that the librarians only agenda is to provide a diverse collection where ALL students are represented. Most of the books that the minority finds offensive are in high school libraries, where students are 1 to 3 years from adulthood. If a student doesn't feel comfortable reading a book, they can exercise their own thinking skills and stop reading. If a parent is uncomfortable with their own child reading a certain book for class, they can opt them out, or if it is in a library they can ask that their student not be able to check it out. The system already works. High school is an important time for students to exercise their own critical thinking and decision making skills. If we continue to coddle them from every discomfort, and prevent them from thinking for themselves and being exposed to diversity, we are not preparing them to handle the big, wide world. Please do not let this minority group continue to spread their fear and make decisions for all parents. Talk to your children about the uncomfortable topics, share your values and empower your child to navigate the world. Parents should parent only their own child and not rely on the government to act as a pseudo parent. Please Iowa, do not go down the book banning path and become a dystopian society like in the books in our library, which sadly our students wouldn't be able to read because it would be banned.

Linda Schneider

NO BANNING OF BOOKS!I think students should have access to all of the books a library has. Period. Parents should do their parenting and work with their children on what they want them to read. Parents should monitor as needed, just like they should phones and computers at home, but I bet that their focus is libraries, not what is being ingested at home. One group of parents should not be able to ban what others want their children to read. I would prefer my children to be free thinkers and develop critical thinking skills and empathy.Students have access to far worse material on their computers at home and phones than what is in any library.I think having five people testify at this committee, from only one group and present one side is a travesty.

Suzette Kragenbrink

Choice. The governors message in her quest to allow families to make the personal decision which school to attend. Allowing schools to know their students and provide choice in the literature available is far better than assuming if one communitys opinion is shared by all. Iowa has never had a prescribed curriculum for teaching content, this conversation makes no sense except to allow a minority of voices effect everyone.

Jaimee Nicolino

One should always be skeptical of those who seek to inhibit access to information. Book banning is never the right answer, and those parents who are concerned about what their children may read already have many tools at their disposal to control their childs access. As President Dwight D. Eisenhower said, Dont join the book burners. Dont be afraid to go in the library and read every book.

Lisa Ralls

Education is not designed to fill kids' heads with memorized facts or with indoctrinated ideology. It is meant to help children think critically. Books do that. Families may not always agree with the content of certain books, but books offer them an opportunity to discuss important issues with their children and to understand that not everyone thinks the way they do. Books encourage acceptance of other points of view. Nonetheless, if parents do not want their children to read certain books, that's fine; there are already recourses they can use to see that their children are "protected" from books they don't like. But, it is totally against everything this country stands for to deny those same books to my child or anyone else's. Please uphold the freedom all of our children should have to read what they want to read, to think critically, and to view the world from other perspectives. Thank you!

Megan Smith

Our Republican leadership spent the last three years decrying that parents know best when it comes to children's education and what is best for them. Now, they claim that parents don't have authority to decide which books their own child should read, it's up to some backwards, regressive, fearful and bigoted parent to decide which books are even available. Is it too much to ask of our elected officials to have some consistency in their beliefs? Which is it, can parents decide or is the governments role to decide our healthcare and what we can read and even think? There are already processes in place for parents to object to, or remove their child from accessing books they don't agree with. Please go solve a real problem in this state, not a manufactured problem, created by out of state groups in order to gin up mass hysteria.

Kristine Moore

Republicans are always saying that they want the government to have a smaller role in peoples' lives. Our governor wants to control every moment of their lives, even the books that they read. No. That is neither her responsibility nor her right. Apparently power has corrupted her, and absolute power will corrupt her absolutely. I don't care what kind of pressure she puts on you, Republicans, oppose this. Make Iowa great again. Please.

Melisa Clapper

Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin it would be better for him to have a millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. JesusMy heart breaks over our failure to protect our children from those who wish to sin against them. The gates of hell will not prevail against the fight for the souls of our children. No flimsy excuse for exposing our children to harmful material will stand before the authority of our Heavenly Father.

Carin Birt

Please pass this bill and protect our kids. There is no need for this obscene material in our schools. Some argue that kids can find the information on their phones/tablets/computers anyway. How is that an argument? Letting the schools provide this filth is way out of line. Why do adults even want to give this material to kids? Some kids find ways to drink when they are underage, should we just provide it to them in school? I mean, they will do it anyway, right?!?

Eric O'Brien

Banning books is a fascist idea. The fact that Moms of Liberty are pushing this agenda and are the only ones to speak prove Iowa's fall into a White Conservative Christian state is here. Limiting Free Speech and blocking students' choice to read any book they desire is not the moral high ground a free and open society portrays. Continuing to push the harmful idea that the LGBTQIA+ community is involved with pedophilia and certain books are contributing to it is shameful and should be denounced by all elected officials. Legislation banning books is not necessary. Dismiss this bill and any similar ones to follow.

Nancy OKeefe

Iowa school libraries have always had a process for challenging books that a parent believes are inappropriate. There are steps to take. This is nothing new. What seems to be new is that some want to skip the process and make decisions for all based on the judgement of a few. Librarians work hard to make sure that library collections are diverse and meet the needs of as many young people as possible. It is not an easy task. Sometimes mistakes are made and that is why every district has a board approved process. Let the process work. Sometimes it takes time. The decision to ban a book should take time. It's a big deal and should never be done based on the opinions of a few.One more quick concept to think about, the beauty of libraries is that you can choose what meets your needs. If you make a choice that isn't for you, you can simply close the book and return it.

Anita Fischer [Protect My Innocence]

While I understand that pornography and sexually explicit material can be accessed online, that is not a valid reason to have books with this sort of material be put in front of our children. Schools are to be a place a learning, not a place of indoctrination and sexualization. That said, sexually explicit books of LGBTQ + and heterosexual activities or language should not be accessible to children!

Paul Deaton [None]

The Iowa State Legislature should not be determining which books are available for students in public or private schools. This decision should be between teachers, librarians, and parents. The claim parents dont know what books are in schools or can't control what their children read seems bogus. If the Legislature wants to do something, fund online access to card catalogs throughout the state. We dont need lawmakers telling us what to read.

C Kinn

I feel that Iowa schools should be restricting access to certain books due to their objectionable content. The schools already restrict access to websites with pornographic material on school laptops, including written pornographic content, so it makes good sense to keep these books out of school libraries and also classrooms where teachers provide reading material to students. Excusing schoolled access to these types of harmful materials on the grounds that children can get it elsewhere is unreasonable, just like we do not allow children to bring drugs or weapons to school just because they can get them elsewhere. Excusing schoolled access to these materials on the grounds that a "minority" should not set the standard for what is acceptable is unreasonable because any parent who WANTS their children to access these types of harmful materials can provide that access at home. It also doesn't even make sense, since many minorities have had a say in how our public schools are run in other matters. For instance, efforts have been made in the past to ensure that books written by black, Asian, Hispanic and other ethnic groups are available in schools to serve as inspiration for students. This serves an educational purpose for all students. There is nothing educational about pornography.

Melissa Droegemueller

My goal as a parent is to raise kind, compassionate children. One simple way to increase empathy is by reading books from diverse authors! My children know that not every book in the library is appropriate for them *right now*, which is why we have regular conversations about how to choose a book and why we go to the library together regularly so they have opportunities to practice selecting books with my support. (I do the same with all of their media: streaming services, games, Internetbrowsing, etc.)It is not the governments job to decide which books my children should or shouldnt be reading. Its mine. Iowa is a state that prides itself on small government, parent choice, and freedom please stand up to the fearmongering and support our states teachers and librarians.

Jodi S

Legislators We need you to legislate to remove the pornography in our Iowa schools. Parent's have gone in front of School Board's and asked for the sexually explicit books to be removed from school libraries and the majority of Iowas schools still allow the books in libraries. That process doesnt work. Legislators please understand this. And the parents who are okay with their children reading pornography can obtain the books elsewhere.Counselors and Psychologists understand the devastation porn has in society and in relationships. We need to educate parents and our communities on the effects of porn. Protect our childrens young minds! Thank you!

Jessica Chrystal [Grimes Area Democrats and Public School Employee]

Being scared of fictional characters and trying to ban the books they exist in is a bit ridiculous.We have other pressing issues that deserve the attention of our legislature, like declining rural communities,crumbling infastructure,consolidated health care and long term care centers closing throughout the state.But back to the books,we do have children that come through the school doors each day, kids who deal with those tough and hard subjects some of those characters face in the very books legislature want to ban.It's a solution for problem that doesn't exist ,that will only create more.Life is hard.Often not fair and sometimes messy.For those kids, it isn't a fictional story,it's a hard reality and through those books,they feel seen,heard,valued and for some those stories give them hope or just a escape from their every day realities at home.As a public School parent of a senior and a sophomore with a diverse arrray of freindsin a large district,we all don't share the same values. Who are you or anyone else in support of this bill to dictate what is right for my sons? Wether it be my straight or gay child.What happend to the party of small government? A party that now doesn't trust local school boards,teachers or parents to decide what's best for students and their own children?Never ever in all of history have those that they to ban books ever been the good guys.

Brandy Wedeking

Would not allowing Playboy magazine be considered "book banning" as well? There is only one reason to show children (anyone under 18) content that would be illegal to show on broadcast television: to sexualize children. If you want your child to be sexualized by this content, you may purchase it yourself. If you expose my child to this content, they will be removed from public schooling.

Brandy Wedeking

For those defending these books being in schools, have you seen the content? If not, here is a sampling of the content. Beware it is EXPLICIT and if you are at work you will probably get fired if you're caught looking at it. That should tell you something about it! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eaVaSvJnzlkkmz6xL05aUzliJrUX50jL/view

Tawny Wilson

Reasonable people can disagree on the age appropriateness of some of the material in the books under discussion . But this parent does not believe the current process is a good faith one. Multiple bills have been put forward trying to limit discussions of race and gender. This is bullying by the legislature to influence or limit those discussions. Name ONE time in human history when the group fighting to ban books or censure speech were the good guys. Vivek Ramaswamy American Entrepreneur

Molly Parrott

I am disappointed that representatives from Moms for Liberty are the only citizens allowed to speak tonight. That is not representative government and frankly, is unfair to the kids who NEED these resources available in their school libraries. We will look back on this dark and scary time in our state's history, with embarrassment and shame. Please vote down this nonsense. Kids need access to books that will expand their learning and worldview.

Kim Callahan

Please remove the Bible from all libraries as it contains sexually explicit content. Children should not be exposed to concepts like incest and rape, especially under the guise of religion. And when she had brought them unto him to eat, he took hold of her, and said unto her, Come lie with me, my sister. And she answered him, Nay, my brother, do not force me; for no such thing ought to be done in Israel: do not thou this folly. And I, whither shall I cause my shame to go? and as for thee, thou shalt be as one of the fools in Israel. Now therefore, I pray thee, speak unto the king; for he will not withhold me from thee. Howbeit he would not hearken unto her voice: but, being stronger than she, forced her, and lay with her.Bible : 2 Samuel (13) : 11 14

Addeline Morlan

My name is Addeline Morlan, and I am a senior at Carlisle High School and 18 years old. I will be voting in the next election. I am unable to attend tonights meeting to listen to the handpicked and one sided opinions of parents. I have a band concert. I am a student and my thoughts also count. I was a member of my high school debate team for four years. Debate has taught me to find and identify credible sources of information, and how to prepare both sides of an argument, even if it is not something I personally agree with. After watching adults in action these past few years, I believe this is a skillset that is vitally needed.Once adults became upset about books in our school library, I decided to learn more about why certain books were upsetting to adults, but not to most students. Therefore, I read Gender Queer, a book that is in question. I did not find it obscene or vulgar. In fact, I think the reaction is overblown, especially from those that have not taken the time to read it, the graphics in question are taken out of context. I felt this book was eyeopening to me as a person who has not experienced gender or sexual identity questions. I think that a book like this serves the dual purpose of both helping someone experiencing a similar situation, and also increasing empathy in those who do not struggle with gender identity. I beleive this is also true of books that center those in marginalized populations. According to Literacy Minnesota, Reading books with accurate representations of students' own cultures can contribute to selfworth within students, while allowing them to connect with themselves and their culture on a deeper level. Diverse representations of characters in multicultural books are beneficial to all readers. I believe that inclusion is kindness and that learning about others is never a bad thing.Carlisle Community School District educates students on The Learning Pit. We have been taught that learning is hard, and that when things are challenging, we can become uncomfortable. I have been required to read books that have made me uncomfortable, but I have recognized the value in the lessons learned after I have read them. It helps be become a critical thinker. This book is not required reading, and prior to it being brought up as a concern, had been checked out only once.Censorship undermines one of the primary functions of education which is teaching students how to think for themselves. Furthermore, according to a study by Ferguson, C.J. (2014)* Reading of banned books is associated with both increased civic behavior and little risk of antisocial behavior.Truthfully, if a high school student is looking for pornographic material, I do not think their school library would be their primary source. There is plenty of graphic and obscene materials readily available online and in stores that cater to that type of material.I am not a librarian, I am not an educator, I am not a trained expert in curriculum. I trust the professionals in these positions to make decisions on behalf of ALL students to receive a top notch education; one that prepares us to set forth in a global society as informed citizens armed with critical thinking skills, and the ability to collaborate and problem solve with a diverse population. I am counting on members of this committee to remember that Iowa needs a highly educated workforce in order to grow their economy. Respectfully, Addeline Morlan

Susan Atwater

Parents need to do their job. Raise YOUR kids and teach them to stay away from bad books, walk away from bad people and be responsible for their stuff. The government should not be telling me what I should allow my kids to read at school. I trust my kids to follow my rules and expectations. If by chance they come across a bad book we will talk about it and they will learn why the content is unacceptable. How about working on water quality in Iowa! That is killing our kids faster than a book. Do your job and stop making solutions for problems that don't exist.

Courtney Collier

First, thank you to the pedophile and child predator apologists that are outing themselves here in the comments. NO MINOR CHILD NEEDS THESE BOOKS. Thats like saying a minor child needs a Playboy. Claiming that the restriction of obscene, profane, vulgar and pornographic books at k12 schools is book banning or censorship is like saying that we have reentered the prohibition era since we are not serving Beer and Jack Daniels in the school lunchrooms. How is it that we are here today? Lack of a backbone. School administrators who dont want to be canceled so they go along with the nonsense that they know should not be a part of k12 education. To those administrators I say, you are just as guilty as the perverts who chose this material for a school or the pervert parents and adults who are here advocating to keep it in our schools. Shame on all of you. Luke 17:2It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.

Jean Schilling

Books should be selected by licensed educators not by parents fears and biases.

Andrew Kelley

Those who call for banning books have ALWAYS been on the wrong side of history. Our children deserve to learn about the real world around them and all the unpleasant truths within our history. This is how people learn and grow. Do not censor curriculum or ban books based on extremist, closeminded ideology.

Dave Frank

Stop wasting tax money on cheap, political stunts. Teachers know much more about what and how to teach children than politicians. Start making laws that improve peoples' lives and expand their freedoms. Dave

Kenneth Larson [PhD ]

The Legislatures should not be in the business to Ban any legimately published books.

Wendy Blake

Banning books is what nazi Germany did. This is reprehensible that this governor and her minions are contemplating. What a laughing stock Iowa has become.

Jason Van Clark

How offended will the people who are pushing this bill be when a school with differing views starts banning books that they want in their children's libraries? Perhaps a school founded by the Satanic temple takes issue with books that promote heterosexual relationships. Maybe an ultraconservative Christian school decides that any book about Pokemon is inappropriate because it promotes 'Pocket Monsters', which aren't real or Christian. Maybe an Atheistic school will ban books about religion so the kids can't be indoctrinated religion. What's left?

Glenda Mulder

History tells us that those looking to ban (or burn!) books are never the good guys!You have every right to decide what you want to read, and what your child should read. You do NOT have the right to tell others what they may have access to! Also, a work needs to be read in it's entirety, not quoted passages out of context. If the work makes you uncomfortable, all the more reason to read it with, and discuss it with children! History and change are messy and uncomfortable at times. We must learn from it, so we can grow.

Judy Russell

Librarians are trained professionals, wellequipped with meeting the needs of their individual school districts and their diverse populations. Students HAVE the choice to check out books suitable to them and their parents. Parents HAVE access to their child's assignments as well as the library collection. It is NOT the job of the parent to place their individual beliefs on the entire student population. Leave the job to the librarians and the local administration. Politicians making laws to oblige a few fringe parents is government overreach. Parents already have full access to this information. Politicians need to trust the people of Iowa. Parents need to trust their child to make their own choices. These freedoms we hold to be selfevident.

David SmolikHagen

Book banning is something we know about from Nazi Germany, it is not something we should even need to be discussing in the United States of America, let alone its "Heartland". The freedom of speech is protected in the first amendment of the Bill of Rights. Trying to cover this under "protecting our children" is a very slippery slope. Good books will get read, bad books won't. Don't try to legislate what should and should not be read.

Jennifer Nelson

It might have been a mistake, giving all those Master Educators bonuses to retire early, and replacing them with unexperienced newbies right out of Koch University. Now you don't trust the professionals in their own field.Perhaps you should move to Russia if you want the state/ideology to dictate/limit children's choices of literature. This is the United States of America, land of the free, home of the brave. We The People will pursue Life, Liberty and Happiness.

Lori Martin

There is absolutely no legitimate reason to have pornographic, sexually explicit books in our public schools. As others have commented, this material is also very widely accessible on the internet. That certainly doesn't prove that it is okay. We must do what we can to stop the sexualization of our children. Let's start in the school library!

Rebekah Schurz

I write as a high school student who has learned a lot from books. Ive learned how to be a better peer because of the very books that are up for debate tonight. Books teach us about others struggles, and how to grow our social and emotional skills. The world is not black and white, and books help us see this! Books give us choices of what stories, topics, etc. that we want to dig into. And choices is exactly what we have, these books are not pushed down students throats, so its a complete injustice and first amendment violation to ban books in Iowa. Do the right thing, lets not go back to the 1940s.

Nicole Dorhout [Panorama Secondary School]

Legislators need to think carefully about the potential unintended consequences of these bills. Any bill that creates more bureaucracy for classroom teachers will ultimately hurt students. Let me explain. I, along with many of my peers, spend hundreds of dollars of my own money each year. Much of that money, for me, is spent on copies of books that I think my students will enjoy. I know my students' interests, reading levels, and motivations better than the state does. If a bill is passed that feels like micromanagement on part of the state, I'll probably stop buying books. As a result, students will not have access to these supplementary materials. Secondly, any bill that requires a school to review a book within 14 days will be problematic. Educators are already stretched to the limit, and this bill would add more work to already overworked school personnel. Thirdly, the provision of the bill that would allow one school board to essentially micromanage the operations of every other school in the state is preposterous. When did we decide that local administrators and school boards cannot run their own schools? For these reasons, I vehemently oppose any bill that micromanages a school's selection of books.

Elizabeth Estling

As adults, we are responsible for raising our children to make good choices and to be critical thinkers. I am confident in my parenting skills and how I am raising my children. Therefore I have absolutely ZERO issue with my children being exposed to ANY kind of literature. Because I trust them to think. If something is uncomfortable for them, I trust them to talk to me. I also it's good for humans to feel uncomfortable. Step outside your own zone and experience someone else's story. Also. Especially at the teen level our children do not belong to us. They are their own humans and at some point they get to be their own person where we don't need to know every detail of their lives. And that's okay. Please leave the books. Please leave ALL the books. My kids will always have access to all the books but I want everyone's children to be able to love books.

Marta Nelson

It is not for someone else to decide what I read, what my children read, what my grandchildren read. My kids and I have discussed that it should be up to us to control their reading not ultra conservative busybodies.

Patty Zahm

Please, please, beware of censorship. You want parental control obviously. You just passed an unpopular voucher system, taking public tax dollars for nonpublic schools. But censorship of history real, factual history and of books reek of Naziism, fear of someone perceived as different than you, and straightout hate. I strongly dislike this trend toward depersonizing our state.

Oliver Bardwell [Iowans 4 Freedom ]

The exemption in the Iowa Code for schools k12 and libraries, for the penalties for exposing minors to obscene material, needs to be removed. Its obvious that the ALA and public school system has lost their sense of responsibility when it comes to protecting the hearts and minds of Iowas children and should no longer be exempt from the common sense law that governs the rest of society.

Denise OBrien [none - individual]

Our school teachers and librarians need to have the ability to make decisions about reading materials in the classroom and in the library. Banning books takes away the freedom of choice which seemed to very important in the private school voucher bill. Book banning is one of the first steps towards fascism. How does Iowa expect to attract teachers if they plan to micromanage the classroom? Please do not move this agenda forward.

Shelly Northway

Banning books will not stop children from reading them. Our children children have unlimited access to everything, including banned books, on the internet. I am personally more concerned with the cyberbullying, human trafficking and children having access to porn online. A book is meant to provide knowledge and understanding. A book of fiction helps the reader learn, think, imagine and dream. Why are we constantly trying to stop learning? Say NO to book banning. We need more thinkers.

Jan Slick

PLEASE to not allow books with explicit sexual content to be in our school libraries or classrooms.Why is it that when something goes against the norm of centuries it gets precedence?If some parents want their children to read this pornography (which it is), they can obtain it from their public library or, here's an idea, buy it for their HOME libraries!

Pamela Wilson

Banning books is just wrong. Parents can request their child not read an assigned book, but that does not give them the right to say my child cannot read it. BOOKS SHOULD NOT BE BANNED!!! Please return to passing laws for the common good instead of controlling lives.

Anonymous Anonymous

WHO IS THE IDIOT THAT KEEPS PRETENDING TO BE POSTING AS KARIN DERRY??? THE ONLY ONE WHO IS STUPID ENOUGH TO THINK ITS FUNNY IS YOU. HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF HARASSMENT???

Concerned Mother

It is the parents responsibility to monitor their childs reading material, to include cellphone usage. Certainly not the schools or governments. In my opinion, those parents that fight to ban literature in a library have chosen the lazy route of parenting. You cant regulate your child so you have chosen to regulate all children.

Amber Evans

In this day and age, banning books should not even be a topic of discussion. There is nothing in a school library that could be more obscene than what kids have access to on cellphones and computers. There is no hardcore pornography being distributed to students. If children are being exposed to this, the parents may want to check on what their children are able to access from home. There are already systems in place in our schools to address book challenges and parental concerns. Quit picking on schools, teachers and librarians.

Steve and Mona Gude

This bill is ridiculous. Schools should be able to provide a wide variety of books. Parents should be able to request that their kids not read or have access to them, if that is their choice. They just should not be able to prevent other kids from reading them, if that is THEIR familys choice.

Katy Krapfl

HiI am the parent of a child in the Iowa City School District. I am opposed to books being removed from school libraries. I believe every school should have a professional librarian who can guide children to find age appropriate materials. Local control should remain a hallmark of Iowa schools. Thanks

Patsy Martinson

Iowas students deserve to learn from an array of resources and receive an honest education without politicians getting in the way.Stop censoring books and historical content.

Concerned Citizen and Grandparent

I am in support of the bill that will remove vulgar, pornography and obscene material from School Libraries. Please protect innocent minds from reading these books. It has nothing to do with banning books. Books with pornographic literature and pictures have no business in the hands of children. School teachers and librarians are looked at as trusted adults in a childs eye, and they shouldnt be giving students opportunity to confuse and corrupt their minds. If an adult was to hand out this material in a mall parking or their neighborhood, they could be arrested, so why is it okay for teachers and librarians? Please protect the children, our future adults.

Brigit Barnes

Those who are concerned about porn being taught, or otherwise available to students, do not provide the title of the alleged porn. If parents are concerned about possible porn they should contact local law enforcement as porn is illegal. Simply parroting the term "porn" provides no insight or guidance as to what parents perceive as objectionable, and is simply a misleading meme to an otherwise substantive issue. Schools must be free to provide access to an entire host of points of view in order to provide students with analytical skills necessary in a complex society. Otherwise we simply substitute one "indoctrination " for another.

Claudia Tillman

Parents are trusted to make school choices for their children. Teachers are educated professionals who need to be trusted to make choices on appropriate books to use with students. Micromanagement of public schools by the state legislature is an overreach of power and totally unnecessary.

Luke Parris

Students deserve access to reading materials in school that reflect them as a person. If a parent finds that material objectionable there are already mechanisms to accommodate them. Teachers can find them an alternate book for required readings or they can simply not access the book in the library. Our schools have many books that include materials that an individual person might find objectionable. These books are never the topic of scrutiny. Instead books with minority and LGBTQ+ characters are often the target.These disingenuous compliants about such materials are nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to disenfranchise those that don't fit the status quo.If there was true freedom and school choice then this shouldn't even be a debate. Instead politicians and National lobbiest think they know what's best for Iowans.

Elizabeth Buchmeier

I would rather my child have access (which they already do its called the internet) to all content than start restricting content. What speech is next? Where do we stop restricting? It is up to parents to parent their children. Parents need to know whats in backpacks and have the ability to opt out of certain materials, but we need not be removing books from shelves. Other groups like (*cough not sees cough*) others in history have been proven repeatedly to be on the wrong side of history. I hope you all the fortitude to stop these ridiculous culture wars and focus on whats really important i.e. jobs, infrastructure, child care, clean air and water, etc. This is just divisive nonsense. Please stop.

Grant Wilson

Government Oversight is a curious thing, particularly when it is sought to be achieved in a state government dominated by a single party. In other areas, this would be called "regulatory capture." Which might be a cynical take. It might, but I can't help but point out that in a week where an Iowa senior living facility sent a woman who was not dead to a funeral home in a body bag, it is a surreal moment to then confront the topic the committee has voluntarily chosen to expend finite staffing and money on. It is a poor commitment to small, limited government, to seek to expand government towards the most subjective and vague, potentially expanding arena of directly micromanaging local districts on book purchases when these books are purchased through routine, standard vendors who are in the longstanding business of selling books to educational facilities. No one has purchased adult books from an adult bookseller. Adult books were not mistakenly shipped, nor somehow snuck past professional adults in large scale entities whose entirety of expertise is as book buyers and talent seekers. Absolutely nothing of note has happened, and no child can actually claim to have been harmed in any discreet fashion by any one of these particular books. I am a child of the early 80s. I grew up at a time when every middle school or high school teenager had seen Titanic multiple times in the theater, and I am not sure at what point between Jack being asked to paint Rose "like one of his french girls" and now the State decided it needed to enlarge its bureaucracy to deal with an imminent threat to the minds of teenagers. I would ask that the State put highly trained and licensed professionals in charge in every school district to curate our libraries, but of course there already is. They are called teachers and librarians. You already employ the solution. It is not a swelled favor seeking board of government book reviewers under partisan auspices. The underlying truth is that distribution of adult material is already a law. If any of these books were illegal, you would already have pursued that avenue. For the simple fact is they are just books you personally would prefer not to read. That, however, is not the job of limited government to police. Please try to focus on government oversight that will contribute to Iowans. Not Republicans or Democrats. Iowans. Not some parents, but all parents. The ones who chose to form public schools as our state backbone. You have just created a voucher system for schools who can teach with gusto any and all books you take issue with at the hearing, so I apologize, but it seems like an everchanging slew of double standards and political performance lacking substance or improvement of our educational curriculum.

Cheryl Elsloo

Why is the Iowa Department of Education so obsessed with sex for children?Is it a first ammendment right to dispense sexual content to children?Why is it important or necessary to have books with written and visual illustrations of sexual activity available to minors?What benefit is there in providing to children sexually explicit material that features detailed depictions of sexual acts between minors, adults, and more?Who gets to decide what children read?Because books that are inappropriate for minors have been found in Iowa schools K12 and in the children's and young adult/teen (1218) sections of public libraries, people have lost trust in those responsible. Because that trust has been broken, we now find ourselves in the situation of seeking legislation to remedy these crimes against minors. The common sense boundaries of age appropriate literature have been blatantly removed. And unfortunately, common sense isn't so common any more!As far as the Orwellian redefining of the term book banning, it's a red flag when words are redefined to fit a narrative. Book banning used to mean that the authors, publishers, distributors and owners of banned books would be arrested and punished. Now if a book is challenged, removed from a library or is made unaccessible to children it's "banned". And if anyone even questions a book, they are labeled a "book banner". This tactic of name calling is used when one is unable to defend the merits of their argument. If a parent wants to provide sexually explicit books for their children, they can do so in the privacy of their own home, but don't force all parents to put the safety and wellbeing of their children at risk to satisfy the demands of the few.

Claudia Brown

As a parent I can control what my child reads. I can do so by talking to my child and setting expectations. I can also reach out to the school, teachers, and librarian in order to share those expectations with them. However, I do not have the right to limit what other children read or what books they have access to. As an agnostic I would prefer my child not be introduced to religious literature, but I don't want the Bible banned. As parents we need to parent our children and let other parents' parent theirs. I also value small government and local control and it seems completely unnecessary and a waste of resources to pass laws to micromanage classroom bookshelves. If parents are worried about the books their children read, then parents need to take an active role in the education of their child, read the books with them and discuss those books. If a parent does not approve or a topic, author, ect. then is their job to communicate that to their child but it does not give them the right to limit the education opportunities of other children by demanding that certain books or materials be removed. If we remove every book that may offend someone then most bookshelves would be empty. Its not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written. The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers. Judy Blume

Alison Cocks

Denying people the opportunity to chose books is the opposite of what we believe and what is in our Constitution. Freedom of speech is enshrined. First, ban authors their rights to express themselves publicly and second, to deny reading choices because someone is uncomfortable with the topic is against the democratic process. There is already a process in place if parents are uncomfortable with a book. To ban books that a child can relate to or that parents comfortable with, is making a decision for them. It us not your right to decide. This is not the Iowa I grew up in where civil rights were paramount.

Maggie Canero

It is absolutely absurd to think that book bans are about protecting children from objectionable material. If parents want to dictate what their child can or cannot read, it is up to them as individuals to have an actual discussion with their child and sort it out. To deny access to books to other children is nothing short of a fascist agenda, as we have seen play out in history time and time again. Banning books has nothing to do with protecting children and everything to do with furthering an agenda that seeks to destroy queer and non white people. First they try to erase the stories, the history, the reality, the humanity of these people. Then they legislate their very existence. To give in to the vocal minority who cant even be bothered to learn about queerness or Blackness and see it as valid would be to once more allow our schools to become a safe haven for censorship, brainwashing, and alt right pipelines that will lead to the demise of our communities. Books are not the enemy here, and stories should be protected.

Janet Lesan [Concerned Citizen]

I have been in East Germany when the Wall was up. Books were actually burned; the bookstores were empty. What is the difference here? Do you want Iowa to become East Germany in the 1960 and 1070s? Iowa students should be able to learn from an array of materials. Plans are already in place for schools when a person objects to a book. To the parents who are complaining about this topic, would you like the legislature to tell your children what they can and cannot read? Probably not. Go to your local school and address your concerns there. What your friend may want to have taken out is something you may not. It goes both ways. Its not only overkill to pass this bill, but also what is called censorship! It has happened in Germany; do you want it to happen in Iowa. Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain. Iowa! I implore you to vote NO.Go after guns before you ever go after books! Guns kill peoplebooks do not.Thank you so much for voting no.

Sandy Wilson [Personal]

I support removing pornographic material from school libraries. If PARENTS demand their kids have access to these types of books, they have a plethora of opportunities to obtain them. NEITHER SCHOOLS NOR STAFF should be supporting pornography. Can we just get back to teaching kids what they need to become good American citizens who respect others? This material does NOT do that.

Meghan Schurz

NO BANNING BOOKS: As a recent graduate of Carlisle Highschool, we have been to endless school board meetings around the book Gender Queer. Every single person who was in support of banning books are bigots. The quote I will display is a direct quote from To*d Er*en (The Carlisle parent who will be speaking, from moms of liberty, was in full support of this and was actively supporting To*d in his attempts to release minors personal information and private social medias, who spoke out against this HATFUL agenda and showed up at MINORS workplace to harass them): "Being gay is a mental illness". This should give you a good idea of the kinds of people who you are validating and supporting with this law. Students deserve to have access to EDUCATIONAL materials. These "pornographic" books you plan on banning could be lifesaving. THEY ARE NOT ATTEMPTING TO BAN PORNOGRAPHIC BOOKS, THEIR ISSUE IS THAT THEY CONTAIN LGBTQIA+ MATERIAL. BY VOTING FOR THIS YOU WILL BE HELPING TO CREATING AN US VS. THEM AGENDA!!!!!! You will be validating every single child who thinks they are worthless because they are not a heterosexual person. It is time to fight for education and fight for the lives of these children and teenagers.

Thomas Hugo

Here's the thing...free speech and press exist in the U.S., no matter how embattled the principle has become in recent years of our nation's recentlyrevamped culture war. It's a thing, even when it makes some of us uncomfortable. Banning books and all of that is a slippery slope...do you really want governments telling you what information you're allowed to access? If I had to take a wild guess, I'd say no. To those of you who claim that public schools are "grooming our children and forcibly exposing them to sexual and pornographic material", ask yourselves the following question: do you genuinely believe this? Take a moment to think about the lofty accusations you're making. When has this actually occurred? Where has it occurred? More importantly, who has been telling you that this is happening? And why is every community across the nation freaking out about the exact same issue/one (at most) book? Here's the answer: people (or PACs, rather) are paying a lot of money to tell you that this is the case. I implore you to look up from your screen, dear reader. What you'll find is the real world in front of you, not some copyandpaste interpretation of it brought to you via corporate media. Be a person, not a piece of a disinformation machine. Use your passion to do something positive.

Julie Russell-Steuart [Chair of the Disability Caucus of the Iowa Democratic Party]

Reading is the great emancipator. The ability to understand that the world is bigger than our own experiences and viewpoints is part of our freedom as persons.To censor the experiences and viewpoints contained in books is to make the world smaller and more, not less, dangerous.Every student in Iowa is a person who should have the freedom to read, on any subject, and make decisions for themselves about what they read. Our schools should train critical thinkers, not followers.The impact of a single book at this age can be tremendous and lifechanging, whether it is seeing that you are not alone in your experience of gender, or a subject that needs exploring because it raises many questions. Support our students to maintain access to books that are important in their journey.

Amy Fisher

One of my best friends was a teacher for ten years and is now going to school to be a librarian. I assure you there is no pornography in our public schools. Take a step back and think about that accusation, its absolutely ridiculous. If we start banning books we take away representation and education both which help with our childrens mental health.

Tanya Keith [Concerned parent of 3]

Literature is not here to just make us happy and comfortable. It is to challenge our ideas and expand our world. Limiting our beliefs and literature to one point of view that is dictated by the state is Fascist. I want my children to have the freedom to read whatever they want. I trust that I have taught them my values and they know they can talk to me.I am concerned that Iowa is taking a sharp turn towards Fascist leadership. I want my state to be a safe place for all people. We need vibrant education in order to attract the best and brightest workers. I moved here 30 years ago and I've raised 3 kids here and started multiple businesses here. I wouldn't move here if I was starting over today because once Iowans are attacking gays, it won't be long before my Jewish family will not be safe. We must take a step back from this hateful rhetoric.

Theresa Garrison

Let the public school teachers do their job. The agenda of the republicans is they want to control our children. Stop it!!

BRENDA Barton

I do not want a bunch of politicians setting my children's curriculum. Let our teachers teach. The arrogance of our legislators and Governor is overwhelming. How dare you destroy our children's future. In the meantime we're running out of clean water.

Galen Howsare [Retired]

Determining books for a school district should be the responsibility of the locally elected school board. A statewide book ban is not required. By the way, if you ban guns, you can save lives.

Theresa Johnson [Retired teacher]

Iowa's children need to have a diverse selection of books available to them. The job of school librarians is to curate books and media. Let's trust school librarians to do this important work. Let's not succumb to fearmongering; librarians have done their jobs very well in the past, and we can trust them to continue to do well in the present and the future. Politicians who don't visit schools, work in schools, or see children 185 days a year don't understand the value of the school librarian. Let experts make expert decisions in choosing books and media.

JoAnn Hardy

Free countries dont ban books. Nazis are fond of banning and burning books. Study history.

Clare Smith-Larson

Legislators should NEVER interfere in the curriculum for public schools. Our teachers earn teaching degrees for a purpose. That purpose is providing students with the best and most comprehensive education possible. That education must include world history and current social issues as well as a variety of views of the world scene and the people who inhabit it.Concentrate on providing more funding for STEM subjects.Choosing which books to read and which ones to withhold should be the purview of librarians not legislators. Parents can individually withhold certain books from their children if they are not yet mature enough to process them effectively.Use your time and the mandate given you by voters to provide good funding for public schools, a hand up for those in need, and good tax provisions for funding the programs and services required for Iowans. We also need good roads, infra structure improvements, and incentives for new businesses specially new home town small businesses.Stop banning and start building again.Grace and peace,ClareAltoona