House and Senate Democrats have begun to prepare a resolution aimed at blocking local “book bans” by parents who believe gender identity, social agendas and explicit sexual content should be removed from a child’s education, Politico reported Thursday.
The resolution, concerned about the spread of book banning, “reaffirms the United States’ commitment to supporting writers’ freedom of expression, and the freedom of all Americans to read books without government censorship,” according to Politico. Erika Sanzi, director of outreach for Parents Defending Education (PDE), told the Daily Caller News Foundation that PDE does not support book bans, yet believes explicit content is inappropriate in K-12 settings.
“Parents Defending Education has never supported book bans. The fact that most school libraries don’t stock ‘Art of the Deal’ does not mean the book is banned and the same goes for a book with sexually explicit illustrations and content deemed to be inappropriate in a K-12 setting,” Sanzi said.
The draft resolution references a 1982 Supreme Court decision, Board of Education v. Pico, which established a precedent that blocked schools from removing books from high school and junior high libraries in a “narrowly partisan or political manner,” according to Politico.
Hellbound and Down 