Earlier this year, North Dakota Republican lawmakers targeted sexual content in public libraries with a new law, removing or relocating “explicit sexual material” from the libraries’ children’s collections. Now, local officials are getting some complaints.
The Grand Forks School Board this week reviewed a complaint about six books in school libraries, but the board agreed with a committee recommendation that the books remain, though not all decisions were unanimous.
The board’s vice president, Dave Berger, said: “The role of the school library is to allow students to make choices according to their own interests, experiences and family values. Removing these books would be antithetical to individual freedom, democracy and a good education, the right to read, inquire, question and think for ourselves.”
Board member Dr. Eric Lunn added: “If somebody in the public is concerned about their children and pornography or things like that, they should be spending a lot more time talking about their iPhones or other electronic media and less about their reading.”
The Grand Forks County Commission recently heard another complaint about two books. Grand Forks State’s Attorney Haley Wamstad referred it to local police.
“The Grand Forks Police Department’s conclusion was that there wasn’t sufficient evidence to rise to the level of a criminal violation,” Wamstad said. “Our office was conferred and we agree with the conclusion of the Grand Forks Police Department.”
Gov. Doug Burgum said the new law “standardizes the process for local public libraries to review material when requested by parents, library users or other members of the public — a process already in place and working at nearly all public libraries across the state.”
He vetoed a broader bill allowing misdemeanor charges against librarians.