Graham Residents Ask the City to Move Mature Books Out of the Children's Section
Young County residents asked Graham's City Council to move or remove children's books with sexual and drug content. The council adopted a new reconsideration form.
Parents and grandparents in Graham have taken a question to City Hall that many Texas towns are now facing: which books belong in the children's section of the public library, and who decides?
Several Young County residents, along with advocates from outside the area, spoke at a recent Graham City Council public hearing and asked the city to move certain books from the children's section to the adult section or take them off the shelves, KAUZ-TV reported Oct. 29. The station said the books were challenged over drug use, sexual content, strong language, gun violence and racism.
At the same meeting, the council adopted a new library materials reconsideration form. KAUZ reported that the form gives residents a formal way to ask that a book be removed or moved after library staff review it.
What residents said
Young County resident Jon Garvey told the station that some of the books could harm children's development.
"For somebody under 18 years old to look at pornography something that's pornographic or descriptive, even with pictures- is not good development," Garvey said. "I think the Bible indicates that we get it in our brain first and then it goes to our heart. And this destroys the moral fiber that leads to their character."
He also said he was surprised that public libraries carry such material at all. "When I was in my 20s and 30s, this wasn't accepted. You had to go to a special place to get those. It wasn't in your library. So why should it be today?" he told KAUZ.
Not everyone agrees on the answer. KAUZ reported that some residents argue parents should have the final say over what their own children read, rather than the city.
Children's advocate Bonnie Wallace answered that it is hard for parents to keep up. "I have been in this battle for five years. I have a list of 2,469 books with very harmful content," she said. "How in the world is a mother that's just learning about the issue going to know the names of the books that she wants to opt her child out of?"
Graham's former City Hall, which the lettering says served from 1917 to 1968, photographed in September 2017. It is no longer the seat of city government. Photo: Renelibrary / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
What the library's policy says now
The Library of Graham's collection policy, as posted on its website, puts selection in the hands of the library director, working within policies set with the Library Advisory Board. It says a work "will not be excluded from the library's collection solely because it represents a particular aspect of life, because of frankness of expression, or because it is controversial."
The posted policy also says no item will be "sequestered" except to protect it from damage or theft, and that children "are not limited to the children's collection." It states that "responsibility for a child's reading must rely solely upon the parent or guardian, not with the library."
On complaints, the posted policy says only that the library director should be contacted when a patron asks for reconsideration. The new form adopted by the council gives that step a written process. KAUZ did not report what the form asks, how long a review takes or whether the council or advisory board hears appeals. Those details were not available in documents Dock Line could open before publication.
A local decision
Because this is the city's public library, the debate landed before the City Council rather than a school board. That also means the decisions belong to local officials who answer to Graham voters.
Texas libraries also do a great deal of quiet good work. In East Texas, Longview won a state grant to put a children's storybook along a walking trail.
Our view
Parents are right to care what their children read, and they are right to speak up at City Hall. Scripture tells us to guard our hearts, and children need grown-ups to help guard theirs. A children's section ought to be a place a mother can send her eight-year-old without worry. Sexual material does not belong there.
The library's posted policy puts the whole burden on parents. That sounds fair until you remember that no parent can read every book on the shelf. Good shelving is not censorship. Moving a book to the adult section keeps it in the library while keeping it out of a child's hands.
The council took a sensible first step with a written form. Now it should make the process open: post the form, publish the decisions and let a local panel of parents have a voice in appeals. Graham's library belongs to Graham's families, and they deserve plain rules.
