Bill To Remove Obscene Materials From School Libraries Slated For Senate Committee Hearing (Update 3/25/22)

***Update 3/25/22 – HB1944 scheduled to be heard on the House Floor on 3/28/22. If you support this legislation, you can find your legislator’s contact information HERE.

***Update 3/24/22 – Senate Bill 1944 was rolled to be heard at the March 29th meeting of the Senate Education Committee.

Image: Representative Scott Cepicky presents the bill to the House Education Administration Committee on March 16, 2022 Image Credit: capitol.tn.gov

The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –

A House bill that aims to prohibit educational institutions from making materials that are considered “obscene” or “harmful to minors” available to students has cleared the House subcommittee / committee process and soon will head to the House floor for a vote.  

The Senate version of the bill will be heard by the Senate Education Committee next week.  Contact information for the Committee can be found at the bottom of the article.

An amended version of House Bill 1944, sponsored by Representative Scott Cepicky (R-Culleoka-District 64) has made its way through the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee, full Criminal Justice Committee and the Education Administration Committee and will soon be scheduled for a House floor vote.

Michael Curcio (R-Dickson-District 69) was the only Republican to vote against the bill during the process with his No vote being recorded for the bill in the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee.

However, Curcio changed his vote to ‘Aye’ when the bill was heard in the full House Criminal Justice committee.

The amended bill, filed on March 9th, will be the version heard by the Senate Education Committee. 

It reads as follows:

SUMMARY OF BILL AS AMENDED (015408): 

• Prohibits local education agencies (LEA) or public schools from making obscene materials or materials harmful to minors available to students in the school libraries controlled by the LEA or public school. Excludes LEAs, public schools, and employees and private contractors of LEAs or public schools from the exception to the offense of obscenity if the LEA, public school, employee, or private contractor possesses obscene material that is harmful to minors on public school premises.

• Requires each local board of education and public charter school to adopt a policy that allows the parent or legal guardian of a student enrolled in the LEA or public charter school to report to the director of schools or the director of the public charter school, any material being made available to students through the student’s school library that is obscene or harmful to minors.

• Requires the applicable director to remove the questionable material from each school library under the respective director’s control for a minimum of 30 days. Requires the local board of education or the governing body of the public charter school to review and determine whether the material is obscene, harmful to minors, or appropriate for students no later than the next regularly scheduled meeting of the board or the governing body. Requires removal of material determined to be obscene or harmful to minors.

• Authorizes the Commissioner of the Department of Education (DOE) to withhold state funds in any amount from an LEA or public chapter school that fails to comply. Requires each LEA to submit an annual report to the DOE of the obscene or harmful material that is permanently removed from school libraries of the LEA.

Assumptions for the bill as amended (partial):

-Pursuant to Tennessee Code, harmful to minors means that quality of any description or representation, in whatever form, of nudity, sexual excitement, sexual conduct, excess violence or sadomasochistic abuse when the matter or performance:

• Would be found by the average person applying contemporary community standards to appeal predominantly to the prurient, shameful or morbid interests of minors;
• Is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable for minors; and 
• Taken as a whole lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific values for minors.

-It is reasonably assumed LEAs are currently prohibiting materials considered harmful to minors from being available to students in school libraries. 

-Tennessee Code establishes that it is a Class A misdemeanor with a maximum $50,000 fine if obscene material is distributed to a minor. The offense is enhanced to a Class E felony upon second or subsequent violation after a conviction. 

-LEAs will comply with the proposed legislation utilizing existing resources without a significant increase in expenditures or a significant loss of state funding.

-Local education boards and governing bodies of public charter schools will be able to amend their policies within existing resources and during their regularly scheduled meetings

The previous version of the bill was fairly sparse in its language with the new version filling in the blanks and leaving less open to interpretation.

PREVIOUS BILL VERSION:

SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 39-17-902(e), is amended by adding the following language at the end of the subsection: The exception in this subsection (e) does not apply to the possession of obscene material by a local education agency; a public school, including a public charter school; or an employee or private contractor of a local education agency or public school if the obscene material is harmful to minors and possessed on public school premises.

SECTION 2. Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 49, Chapter 6, Part 3, is amended by adding the following as a new section: 

An LEA or public school, including a public charter school, must not allow obscene materials or materials harmful to minors, as defined in § 39-17-901, to be available to students in the school libraries controlled by the LEA or public school.

SECTION 3. This act takes effect July 1, 2022, the public welfare requiring it.

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While the amended version makes no mention of the effective date that the law would go into effect, it is assumed that the effective date from the previous version would still apply.

The Senate version of the bill (SB1944), sponsored by Senator Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald-District 28),  has been placed on the calendar for the Senate Education Committee for March 23rd.

If you support this bill, contact the Committee members in advance of their meeting.  The contact information for the Republican members (who hold the super-majority vote) can be found below.

Senate Education Committee

Jon Lundberg (Acting Chair) – sen.jon.lundberg@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-5761

Mike Bell – sen.mike.bell@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-1946

Rusty Crowe – sen.rusty.crowe@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-2468

Ferrell Haile – sen.ferrell.haile@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-1999

Joey Hensley – sen.joey.hensley@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-3100

Brian Kelsey – sen.brian.kelsey@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-3036

Bill Powers – sen.bill.powers@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-2374

Dawn White – sen.dawn.white@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-6853

About the Author: Jason Vaughn, Media Coordinator for The Tennessee Conservative  ~ Jason previously worked for a legacy publishing company based in Crossville, TN in a variety of roles through his career.  Most recently, he served as Deputy Director for their flagship publication. Prior, he was a freelance journalist writing articles that appeared in the Herald Citizen, the Crossville Chronicle and The Oracle among others.  He graduated from Tennessee Technological University with a Bachelor’s in English-Journalism, with minors in Broadcast Journalism and History.  Contact Jason at news@TennesseeConservativeNews.com