(The Center Square) – During a Texas House floor debate, the issue of sexual assault of children was discussed, with some House Democrats arguing images and descriptions of such violent acts shouldn’t be banned from public schools and school staff who show them shouldn’t be prosecuted.
Not all agreed. Many Democrats joined Republicans to pass a bill that seeks to amend Texas penal code to allow for the prosecution of public school educators, librarians, medical and psychiatric professionals who commit “certain offenses involving material or conduct that is obscene or otherwise harmful to children.”
Current law exempts certain professionals from prosecution if they distribute material considered harmful for “educational purposes.”
State Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, and Rep. Jared Patterson, R-Frisco, filed identical companion bills (SB 412 and HB 267), authorizing prosecution against those who intentionally sell, distribute or display harmful material to a minor. They passed both chambers with bipartisan support and the bill heads to the governor for his signature.
Prior to the House passing the bill, Patterson during debate on the bill said that the law needed to be changed because when it “was written in the 1970s, it was based on a pro-pedophile study that says that babies are sexual beings.” The law “never should have been on the books” and needed to be changed “to protect our kids,” he said.
He also cited examples of “extremely pervasively vulgar and obscene [materials] that have been in our public schools,” saying that no “educator should be shielded by the law if they’re going to provide harmful materials to a child.”
The law “puts educators and those in the scientific and medical community on the same standard that anyone else in society would have if they want to show harmful materials to a child. The regular person walking down the street, working at the gas station, can’t show these materials to a child without facing consequences in the penal code,” he said.
In response to questions from some Democrats, Patterson said that harmful content isn’t subjective, is defined in state penal code, and has been ruled on by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“I can’t possibly see anything that contains harmful materials that would have any ‘serious literary value’ to a child. I just can’t. I don’t care if it’s a coming-of-age story. I don’t care if it’s a graphic novel. I don’t care if it’s one page out of 500. I cannot for the life of me understand how anyone would take that as a serious literary value for a child,” he said.
State Rep. Erin Zwiener, a Democrat who represents Hays County, gave an example of a criminal complaint filed in Hood County against a librarian for reading Toni Morrison’s, “The Bluest Eye,” which describes child rape and incest. Zwiener raised concerns that school employees could be put in prison for exposing children to such content.
“Let me be very clear,” Patterson replied, “if you provide that material to a child, you should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. We will start protecting children from this material in Texas starting the day Gov. [Greg] Abbott signs this bill into law.”
Zwiener then asked about protections for parents in the law, which Patterson said there are none. “Any person who shows harmful materials as defined under this law to a child, they should be prosecuted. If a parent wants to abuse their child, they should be prosecuted. If a priest wants to abuse a child, they should be prosecuted. If a teacher or a school bus driver or the guy at the filling station, they should be prosecuted.”
Zwiener also said that children needed to be “showed what sexual assault looks like” and the bill was “drumming up fear against books.”
She also said, “the legislation was designed to make educators and librarians more afraid and to further the lie that our librarians and teachers are trying to harm our students.”
In response, State Rep. Mitch Little, R–Lewisville, said, “Teachers and librarians that intentionally, knowingly or recklessly expose children to harmful content should be in fear in the state of Texas.”
When it comes to Nobel Prize winning authors like Morrison, he said there are still “some pieces of literature that are not appropriate for a school aged child. As reasonable people we should agree that certain works of literature are too mature for children to be subjected to in schools. As accomplished as those authors are, and as important as those works of literature are, they shouldn’t be exposed to children in schools.”
“Representative Zwiener … expressed concern that ‘we need to’ … I had to write these words down because I was shocked that they came out of her mouth … ‘show children what sexual assault looks like,’” Little continued.
“That is not the purpose of the school. It is not the purpose of a school in the state of Texas. It should not be the purpose of the school anywhere in the United States of America,” he said.
The majority of the state legislature agreed. The bill passed with bipartisan support in the Senate by a vote of 23 to 8 and in the House by vote of 99 to 31.
