Our David Zimmermann did a fine job reporting on New Jersey’s new ban on book bans, but I feel like one detail in the law deserves a bit more attention:
“Censorship” means to block, suppress, or remove library material based on disagreement with a viewpoint, idea, or concept, or solely because an individual finds certain content offensive, but does not include limiting or restricting access to any library material deemed developmentally inappropriate for certain students.
So it’s not censorship if the school library deems a book developmentally inappropriate for certain students — i.e., too mature in its themes, depictions, or descriptions of material. Of course . . . that’s why most parents object to the likes of Flamer, Gender Queer, and This Book is Gay.
Governor Phil Murphy and the state’s Democrats are patting themselves on the back for doing away with those closed-minded, prudish, Puritan “book bans,” . . . while leaving the window open for schools to not stock or remove the explicit books that started this controversy in the first place.