The Westerly Town Council last night rejected, after more than three hours of public comment, an effort to have it endorse a bill that would have expanded an anti-obscenity bill that could have resulted in banning books in school libraries.
The bill was introduced in the state House of Representatives in late April and is now in the chamber’s Judiciary Committee. The Westerly Council was only being asked to show its support for the bill.
If approved, the bill would expand legislation that, if in violation, could result in fines of $100 to $1,000 or imprisonment of up to two years, or both.
The proposed bill expands several sections of the existing law, and specifically references anyone under the age of 18. It also specifically targets “any public or charter school library” and the state library.
Librarians and teachers were among those urging the council last night to reject the effort for them to endorse the measure. Only a small number were in favor of a council endorsement.
Voting to reject the request were Council President Edward Morrone, and Councilors Kevin Lowther, Joy Cordio, and Mary Scialabba. Voting to endorse the bill were Councilors Phillip Overton and Dylan LaPetra. Councilman Wlliam Aiello abstained.
LaPetra said today that he was swayed to favor the bill by photographs brought by one individual, who has been a constant critic of the school committee on several issues, including demanding the school stop teaching Critical Race Theory, even though school officials have said it isn’t taught in the schools.
LaPetra also said he was unaware that the school committee had implemented a policy last year that allowed any parent in Westerly schools to prevent their child from reading a book in the classroom or school library, if the parent found the book offensive.
The bill in the House is like efforts in many red states that have resulted in banning hundreds of books, including many classics, including in Utah’s 72,000-student Davis School District, where it removed the bible from its elementary and middle schools when a parent complained of its use of “vulgarity or violence.”
Sponsors of the House bill include Democratic Representatives Samuel Azzinaro (Dist. 37 of Westerly), Deborah Fellela (Dist. 43 of Johnston), Arthur Corvesa (Dist. 55 of North Providence), Patricia Serpa (Dist. 27 of West Warwick), Gregory Costantino (Dist. 44 of Johnston, Lincoln, Smithfield), Charlene Lima (Dist. 14 of Cranston, Providence), and Ed Cardillo, Jr. (Dist. 42 of Cranston, Johnston). Also, Republican Representative Patricia Morgan (Dist. 26 of West Warwick, Coventry, Warwick).
Besides adding references to libraries, the bill would include public and charter school libraries, the bill would apply to cartoons and any animation.
The obscenity law makes illegal the promotion “for the purpose of commercial gain” any “show, motion picture, performance, photograph, book, magazine, or other material which is obscene.”
It defines obscene as:
- “That the average person, applying contemporary community standards (meaning Rhode Island) would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to prurient interest.”
- The work “depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by this chapter.”
- The work “taken as a whole lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”
- Defines sexual conduct as an act “of sexual intercourse, normal or perverted, actual or simulated, including genital-genital, anal-genital, or oral-genital intercourse whether between human beings or between a human being and an animal.”
It defines “sexual conduct” and “nudity,” but does not say who would be the judge over the standards it suggests. It doesn’t, for instance, define what it means by “average person” or “community standards of decency,” or who determines whether a product has “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”
