MILWAUKEE — School libraries and administrators could be put on notice if a student ends up with a book deemed to have "obscene" material.
Proposed legislation AB 308 is an effort by Republican state lawmakers to put restrictions on what books can and cannot be on school library shelves or in classrooms. The legislation looks to overturn a current law that provides protection for employees of public, private, and tribal schools from prosecution of an obscene materials violation.
"This is about making sure that the administrative officials in each school district are being prudent in the selection of materials," said the author of the bill State Rep. Scott Allen, Waukesha (R). "What this bill does is it says just because you happen to work for a school system does not make you immune from the liability of handing obscene materials to minors."
Ann Zielke, the mother of a soon-to-be 6th grader in the Muskego-Norway school district, is concerned the legislation could lead to widespread book bans across Wisconsin.
"I have concerns about kids who are going to be afraid and ashamed that that's me in the book that you're banning. You are saying it's not okay to be me. It's obscene to be me. And that has such a profound effect on kids," Zielke said. "You get to pick what's best for your kid. you don't get to choose what my child reads."
TMJ4 asked for Rep. Allen for examples of what would fall under the definition of obscene. At first, he was hesitant to answer and said, "I can't because I'm sure this is going to be aired during prime time when little ears are going to be around and I can't talk about those things."
Later in the interview, Rep. Allen gave the example of a book that includes descriptions of oral sex.
"It's one of those things where we know what's obscene when we see it. It's hard for us to describe. We may have some degrees of difference, but there's also a community but there's also a community standard," Rep. Allen said.
For Zielke, the vagueness of what is and isn't obscene is problematic.
"What may be obscene to one person, may not be obscene to another," Zielke said of her concerns. "Are we talking about violence? Are we talking about historical violence? The Holocaust, Japanese incarceration? Where does it start and where does it end? And who gets to pick?"
Rep. Allen also said what's considered obscene can vary from place to place.
"Each school district may have a different philosophical bend, moral bend as it would relate to what's in the prurient interests of the community," Rep. Allen said.
Tasslyn Magnusson in Prescott, WI is an independent researcher who has collaborated with PEN America, a non-profit organization that pushes back against book bans. Magnusson has been tracking book bans across the country for the last several years.
"The two [bills] that are coming in Wisconsin are two bills that we've seen sort of different versions of across the country," Magnusson said.
The second bill she's referencing is AB 309 which would prohibit the use of common school fund income distributions to purchase obscene material.
"This is vague and difficult to discern what people are supposed to do," Magnusson said of the proposed legislation. "When that legislation comes into play, as we've seen in Florida especially, large amounts of books are censored. They call it a chilling effect."
Magnusson also noted that books about and by the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities tend to be the most targeted.
According to PEN America, there were 1,477 instances of books banned across the country in the first half of the 2022-23 school year. Thirty percent of those were books about race, racism, or feature a character of color. Twenty-five percent have LGBTQ+ characters or themes.
The two proposed bills have been referred to the Committee on Education.
If the bills were to pass they would take effect in 2024, although Magnusson believes Governor Evers would veto them.
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