Texas bills threaten prison for teachers and librarians offering books like “The Catcher in the Rye”

Lawmakers in Texas are seeking to impose harsh criminal penalties on school librarians and teachers who provide award-winning works of literature to students.

Identical bills in the Texas Senate and House would make it a crime for teachers and teachers to provide books or learning materials that contain sexually explicit content, punishable by up to 10 years behind bars.

The bill would remove affirmative defense that the content was provided in pursuit of a scientific, educational or governmental purpose.

In Georgia , SB 74 would make libraries vulnerable to “a misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature” if they knowingly sell or distribute “harmful materials to minors” The bill excludes college and university libraries and librarians.

Arizona SB 1090 states that an employee or independent contractor of a public library in this state may not refer an unemancipated minor.