GUEST COMMENTARY
Library: Compromise takes leadership
In August, the Taylor Public Library board and library manager found a workable compromise between two deeply divided camps – a rare feat these days. They did it by hearing all sides, publicly deliberating and then deciding to move a sexually explicit book from the children’s section to the adult section. While neither side got everything they wanted, each received something valuable enough to accept the outcome. With the August Compromise in place, there was peace.
But that wasn’t the end of the story. Fifteen more sexually explicit works were found in the children’s section. Unfortunately, library officials abandoned their own precedent and ignored over 500 requests from residents to move explicit materials away from kids.
The heart of the concern is this: Solid scientific research has demonstrated the harms of early exposure to sexually explicit material, including deep psychological trauma and lasting damage. The materials parents and grandparents asked to be moved are shockingly graphic. And yet, library leadership elected to keep these works near the tables where children are taught to read. The only reason given was that other cities do so as well – “benchmarking.”
Passing the buck simply is not good enough for Taylor’s children.
Some people opposed moving the books because they said the young-adult section is not the children’s section and thus sexually explicit material is just fine. Put aside that it’s a ridiculous conclusion (the definition of YA includes kids as young as 12), the claim about the location of the books is not true. The library itself labels the YA books as part of the children’s section (the same way selfhelp or biography books are part of the adult section).
The signs reflect the physical reality of where the books are: Sexually explicit materials are in the children’s section and there is no disputing this point.
Furthermore, while most agree parents ultimately are responsible for the books their children check out, that doesn’t excuse deliberately placing sexually explicit materials in the children’s section where kids may happen upon them before parents can veto that choice. By the time a parent is vetting a book, the child has already pulled it from the shelf and flipped through it – it’s too late to prevent the harms associated with explicit material.
My wife and I own thousands of books. To be sure, it is not because I don’t love books or the library that I urge us back to the August Compromise, but precisely because I do love them. And most of all because I love my children. I want for them a happy, healthy childhood.
The increasingly adult-oriented culture in America poses numerous threats to kids’ well-being; it does not seem too much for parents to ask that the children’s section of the library not be one of those threats. The August Compromise, if it had held, would have kept the explicit books available for adults who want them, but away from small children who can be harmed by them.
Subsequent decisions should be easy – simply apply that precedent to all sexually explicit materials and move them out of the children’s area. That’s what should have happened, but didn’t.
For the sake of our children’s safety and health, for the sake of neighborly civility and compromise, the library board and manager should hear residents’ concerns and reconsider the decision to leave sexually explicit materials in the children’s section. They should restore the compromise reached this summer and move the materials into the adult section. If they will not, the city manager or City Council should override them.
That would show good judgment and real leadership.
