by Morgan Sweeney
Democratic-sponsored bills meant to inhibit censorship of books with sexually explicit content are advancing through the Virginia House of Delegates and the Senate this session — and not just along party lines.
House Bill 571, sponsored by Del. Karrie Delaney, D-Fairfax, passed the House Education Committee Wednesday 14-8, with two Republicans — Del. Carrie Coyner, R-Chesterfield, and Del. Baxter Ennis, R-Chesapeake — voting for the legislation.
Existing law endorsed by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin required the Department of Education to develop model policies for Virginia schools in 2022, attempting to ensure universal parental notification of sexually explicit educational materials and advance notice of alternative materials for their children. Schools were to implement similar policies by 2023. Republicans promised Senate Bill 656 was not a book ban bill.
But Delaney argued when presenting the bill before the subcommittee Tuesday that perhaps an unintended oversight had enabled schools to misapply the law as intended.
“Some school divisions have simply used the statute as a basis for removing the material. It’s a clear violation of the enactment clause with the prohibition on censorship in the bill, but the Enactment Clause does not appear in the online version of the code…” Delaney said.
“What we’re doing with this bill is moving the prohibition on censorship into the body of the statute.”
The Virginia Library Association’s Phil Abraham testified on behalf of the bill and explained what that means.
“The bill in no way restricts the authority of school systems to remove objectionable material from the classrooms, it simply requires that they use established challenge procedures to do so,” Abraham said.
The bill also won the support of Sen. David Suetterlein, R-Roanoke, both in committee and as the only Republican to vote for the bill on the Senate floor.
Nonetheless, some members of the public did speak against the bill on Tuesday.
“A lot has been talked about [with] the enactment clause. This is different language than what was in the enactment clause… when Senate Bill 656 passed,” said Daniel Davies of The Family Foundation.
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Morgan Sweeney is a staff writer covering Virginia and Maryland for The Center Square. Morgan was an active member of the journalism program as an undergraduate at Hillsdale College and previously freelanced for The Center Square.
