Another “obscene” book was found at a North Texas school library, the latest such occurrence amidst a push by state lawmakers to make it easier to prosecute librarians on obscenity charges.
Local conservative activist and former Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Carlos Turcios put a spotlight on the Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD) when he tweeted a couple of panels from a graphic novel titled Flamer.
A character from the work appears to be pressuring a younger character to join him in ejaculating into a Mountain Dew bottle, stating, “If you don’t c-m, you have to DRINK IT!”
Turcios wrote, “Why does FWISD continue to have books that are inappropriate for minors @FortWorthISD when will you remove this disgusting book?”
The Dallas Express reached out to FWISD for comment but did not receive a reply by press time.
As previously reported in The Dallas Express, parents and community members around North Texas have been encouraging their local school boards to better screen library materials so that works they consider to be obscene or pornographic are not made available to students.
The issue has expanded in scope, however, with concerned members of the public calling local police to investigate whether public libraries are making obscene or pornographic materials available to minors, according to the Houston Chronicle.
“None of this is a criminal matter,” said Aaron Terr, director of public advocacy for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), in an emailed statement to The Dallas Express. “Every claim I’ve seen that a book is legally obscene is completely frivolous. The bar for legal obscenity is very high. It isn’t met by speech that merely references sex, especially if the speech is part of a literary work.”
Texas does have criminal statutes that outline penalties for providing “harmful materials” to minors. The law also allows for an “affirmative defense to prosecution [if] the sale, distribution, or exhibition [of harmful materials] was by a person having scientific, educational, [psychiatric, medical], governmental, or other similar justification [or purpose].”
Some state lawmakers have filed bills this legislative session that would revise the criminal code, removing the explicit affirmative defense in cases where a person has a scientific, educational, governmental, medical, or psychiatric justification or purpose.
Rep. Jared Patterson filed one such bill, posting on Facebook earlier this year, “Currently, schools are able to purchase and offer to minor children obscene sexual content without facing the consequences in the Texas Penal Code. That changes this session.”