by Dick Hall-Sizemore
I have been wondering about the possible effectiveness of Del. Tim Anderson’s bill trying to give parents control over their kids’ access to material in the school library that contain graphic sexual material (HB 1379). Therefore, this weekend I asked my 16-year-old grandson, who is attending public school for the first him Johnny) restricted Johnny’s access to a book in the library. His answers surprised me:
1. Not many kids in his school use the school library.
2. The security in the library is so lax that Johnny could walk out of the library with the book in his backpack without school officials knowing it.
What I had expected him to say, and what I expect would commonly be the case, would be that Johnny would ask one of his friends, including possibly my grandson, whose parents had not put any restrictions on their access to books, to check the book out for him. Lacking that option, Johnny could go to the library during a study period and look at, or read, the book without checking it out.
This is not a bill offering a solution to a problem. It is a bill designed to score political points while giving false comfort to those parents who do not feel they know and can trust their kids.
