Now that the Missouri Secretary of State (SOS) is planning to adopt a new rule that will temporarily prohibit state libraries from sponsoring, promoting, or spending money on allegedly age-inappropriate books, parental rights advocates are hoping school libraries will follow suit.
“Hopefully, it will empower local school boards and parents to be able to go to those school boards and say, ‘If this is age inappropriate in the public library, how can this be stocked in our school libraries?’ and hopefully the school boards will follow legal authority and say, ‘If it's not age appropriate in the state libraries, we're going to remove it from the school district',” said Andrew Wells, Missouri state chapter president of No Left Turn in Education.
SOS Jay Ashcroft proposed the administrative rule last week. It would also prohibit state libraries from sponsoring, promoting, or spending money on drag queen story hours while Ashcroft is in office. He is up for re-election in 2024.
“We’ve had two libraries within the last month and a half that have sponsored drag queen story hours where children attended,” Wells told the St. Louis Record. “They promoted it. They put it up on their website and they had pictures of the performer on display inside the library.”
The rule requires the implementation of a state library certification that would discern between age-appropriate and non-age-appropriate books and if a particular library fails to follow the rule, it could potentially lose state funding.
“Are the employees who run the state libraries the parties we want determining what is age-appropriate?” Wells asked. “That’s why each library has to set up a process to determine what young adult and age-appropriate mean.”
Currently, there are 367 state libraries and 19 state bookmobiles in operation, according to SOS data.
Before it becomes law, the new rule will undergo a 30-day public commentary period. "We want to make sure libraries have the resources and materials they need for their constituents, but we also want our children to be 'children' a little longer than a pervasive culture many often dictate,” said Ashcroft in a statement online.
State Librarian Robin Westphal will oversee the collection of copies of each library’s adopted written policy as well as their policy for challenges when an event, book, or display is disputed as age-inappropriate by members of the public.
“It's going to be citizens reporting to the Secretary of State’s office when they see this material in the libraries or when they see these activities,” Wells added. “It has to be citizen-lead and citizen-directed because that's who's supposed to be in charge of the libraries are the citizens. They're the ones paying for them.”