State Ed Board rejects measure defining and banning sexually explicit materials in school libraries

LINCOLN — The Nebraska State Board of Education rejected a push Friday by its highest-profile conservative member to define and ban sexually explicit books and materials from school libraries.

Aurora board member Kirk Penner told the Douglas County Republican Party in January that he figured his proposed changes to the Board of Education’s Rule 10 would fail.

He had said he hoped such an outcome would lead to the election of more conservative State Board of Education members. The measure failed to advance, 5-3.

During discussion before the vote, he pressed board members to explain the educational value of school libraries offering books and graphic novels that discuss or show sex acts.

“Ultimately, the question is why do adults feel the need to present this type of content to minor children?” Penner said, to applause from the audience.

Questions about exposure

Board President Elizabeth Tegtmeier said pornography could exacerbate some students’ mental health concerns.

Grand Island board member Sherry Jones said a “yes” vote would have continued the rules-changing process, disagreeing with some who testified that some students needed access.

“Porn doesn’t disappear if you read the whole book,” Jones said.

Board members who voted against Penner’s proposal said they agreed pornography should not be in school libraries but disagreed with what next steps to take.

For years, Republicans nationally have been engaging parents about social concerns with K-12 education to motivate conservative voters, especially in the suburbs.

Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin used it to strong effect during his 2021 win in purple-to-blue-leaning Virginia. The Nebraska Republican Party has embraced the approach locally.

Penner and conservative parents who testified Friday offered examples shared online by Moms for Liberty and similar groups pressing for changes.

Robbie Adams of Papillion testified in support. She said she helped organize 96 parents with students in 15 school districts in the Omaha area against obscene books and materials.

“Our tax dollars should not be used to purchase sexually explicit materials, especially not for minors,” she said. “These books are stealing our children’s innocence.”

‘Curating’ or banning books?

Heather Hall of Roca said she is a mom who supports Penner’s proposal but says it is being misunderstood as a book ban, though it would ban books that contain sexually explicit material.

She said she worked with her son’s high school teacher to make sure he didn’t have to read class-required books that included discussions of incest, assault and masturbation.

“I’m not a proponent of banning books,” Hall said. “That’s not what this rule is. It’s about curating books.”

One man from Whitney, Neb., Tony Tangwall, said he drove 450 miles to give Penner some support. He said “there is a tide rising in this state” to defend parents’ rights. He is running for the Legislature this year.

One woman said the line she would draw about sexual material is whether it “stimulates children’s genitals.”

‘Waste’ of taxpayer dollars

State board member Jacquelyn Morrison of Omaha said Penner’s effort represented a “bait and switch,” where he came to advance a rule but worked to continue the rules process behind the scenes.

She discussed a sex scene in the Bible, saying “people would go crazy” if someone tried to remove the Bible from libraries over an excerpt. Morrison said she was also concerned with removing books that could help students address difficult topics, such as incest or sexual assault.

“It has nothing to do with anyone wanting pornography in school,” Morrison said.

After Tegtmeier said the proposed rule change was about mental health, Morrison suggested the board dust off what was good about its highly criticized health education standards.

Members Patti Gubbels and Lisa Fricke said they do not want to ignore the issues that Penner addressed but said the education commissioner or local school districts could take the next steps.

Board member Deborah Neary of Omaha said that in previous revisions to Rule 10, which remain pending on Gov. Jim Pillen’s desk, none of the issues Penner identified came up.

She said repeating that process would be an “extreme waste of our taxpayer dollars.”

Product of ‘outrage politics’

Some parents who pushed back said they don’t fear their children having access to a wide array of information and don’t embrace government censorship.

Jamie Bonkiewicz of Omaha said she opposed the proposed changes. She described them as the latest evidence that Penner “is too radical to be on the State Board of Education.”

She said the proposal would remove requirements for buying books, hiring librarians and paying for databases that she said kids use to tell fact from fiction.

Bonkiewicz said kids are not accessing sexually explicit materials at school because most have access to phones and devices, many of which offer pornography on demand.

“There is no porn in school libraries…,” Bonkiewicz said to applause. “This is outrage politics at its finest.”

Allies of LGBTQ students said the State Board of Education should not embrace a right-wing-media-fed craze that puts already vulnerable populations at greater risk.

One father of a trans child in a Lincoln school told the board members that pulling books off the shelf that help such youths see and understand who they are would make things worse.

He said the Penner proposal would force kids like his to the internet for answers that are a lot less reliable.

“I do have to question how many of them are worried about keeping children safe,” he said.

Kevin Abourezk, a Lincoln father who described himself as a reporter and Native American, said his people recognize when politicians are trying to erase a group’s history.

“It is clear to me that Kirk Penner wants to erase LGBTQ history,” Abourezk said. “This is about erasure. It’s about hate. Don’t do it. Do not do it again.”

Librarians are ‘literacy cheerleaders’

Librarians and school board members said local programs already exist that allow parents to prevent their children from accessing certain materials from school libraries.

Several discussed local procedures already in place if parents want to have materials removed from school libraries.

Retired school librarian Sara Mitchell of Omaha said librarians want to help children love reading. She said they are “literacy cheerleaders” who “curate collections” to meet kids’ needs.

She said local school boards set “good selection policies” for books in school libraries and warned the board from reducing requirements for buying new books or cutting library staffing.

“Don’t be like Kansas,” where libraries have stagnated, she said.

State oversight of local control

Penner’s proposal would also require schools to provide more consistent and accessible digital and paper catalogs of books and other materials.

Under his proposal, such systems would need to be in place by the 2024-25 school year. Districts would have to verify that the catalogs are in place each year with the Nebraska Department of Education.

The proposal would standardize the process for objecting to materials and add a state process to probe the effectiveness of local efforts to investigate such complaints. The Department of Education would decide whether a violation occurred.

Marni Hodgen, a former state board candidate from Omaha, said working parents do not have time to screen book choices themselves.

Terri Cunningham Swanson, who was recently recalled from the Plattsmouth school board, said it is too hard to get librarians and school administrators to pull books from the shelves.

“How the crap is this even a question?” she asked. “I’m sorry, but the time for niceties is over. The time has come for flipping some tables and flipping some board seats.”

All four incumbents on the board up for election this year declined to seek reelection.

Promoting personal beliefs?

Doug Kagan of Omaha, who said he was speaking on behalf of Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom, said falling student test scores in math and science show parents need to get involved.

He said students should be reading books that inspire them into building better bridges or exploring space, instead of books about “why Johnny wants to wear a dress.”

Using some of the same language proponents of the measure have used, Abourezk said people should not use the public schools to push their personal beliefs on other people.

He said that the proposal would “do nothing to stop porn from entering school libraries” and that it would create oversight of school libraries by “people who hate LGBTQ people.”

“Our children would become less tolerant and less understanding of those peers,” he said.

Jessie McGrath, who said she moved to Nebraska to push back against anti-LGBTQ legislators, criticized the Penner proposal as infringing on free speech rights.

She said the state board should not be banning things they personally disagree with when other people have a different view.

”I think you should think long and hard about the constitutional nature of what this is trying to do,” she said.

Correction: This version of the article has been revised to correct the name of the person talking about who would provide oversight of school libraries.