On Tuesday, April 29, at 10:30 a.m., South Carolina lawmakers will consider a bill that would criminalize teachers and school librarians. We need everybody who can make it to show up in the Blatt Building (1105 Pendleton St., Columbia), Room 110, to speak out against this bill that would jeopardize the careers and freedom of more than 55,000 public school educators. The agenda for the House Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, and Special Laws Subcommittee is available here.
House Bill 4123, which sponsors call the "Protection of Minors from Pornography and Obscenities Act," would open educators up to the charge of "disseminating harmful material to minors," with a 10-year maximum prison sentence, for keeping books in school collections that contain "profane language." The term "profane language" is defined broadly to include any description of "sexual or excretory organs or activities in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards."
Whose community standards? Given that leaders in the far-right State Freedom Caucus Network are behind this bill, we can expect that this bill would be used to harass and even imprison educators. This bill seeks to overturn decades of First Amendment law and deputize Moms for Liberty activists as South Carolina's speech police. House Bill 4123 is the manifestation of modern McCarthyism. We need to fight it tooth and nail.
If you can, please join us on Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. to speak out against this egregious attack on academic freedom. If you can't make it, please contact your state lawmakers now to voice your strong opposition to this extreme, harmful bill.
