New Jersey lawmakers have a new tactic to fight the rise of censorship in schools good evening and thanks for joining us this Tuesday night I'm Brianna vanosi well it's a ban on book bands two Democratic state senators this week proposed a controversial Bill to all-out prohibit public schools and libraries from Banning books by requiring them to adopt the American library association's library Bill of Rights or a similar policy otherwise they risk having their District's state aid cut the legislation was inspired by librarian Martha Hixson Who challenged parents plans to ban books in the school district where she works proponents say it would prevent materials from being removed because of partisan disapproval but some parents and critics argue this isn't for the government to decide senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports this is not one person who looked through their child's backpack thumbed through the book or read the book and said Gee I'm concerned about this this is organized Martha Hixson says the latest Push by parents to ban books in public schools reflects a political movement organized by a few Fringe groups the school librarian successfully fought back book challenges at North hundred and Voorhees schools over lgbtq themed books like genderqueer but suffered personal attacks I was labeled at a board meeting by name as a pornographer pedophile and groomer of children it was life-altering she's back at work now but supports proposed legislation to prohibit libraries in public schools in New Jersey from Banning books at the risk of losing State education funding public libraries under the bill would also have to formally adopt the American Library association's Bill of Rights which bars censorship over partisan issues and requires material representing all points of view that put some teeth into Opera in that way and those teeth uh have to do with dollars you cannot ban a book without a consequence and the consequences the withholding of part or all of the state funding Senator Andrew zwicker is co-sponsoring the bill along with fellow Democrats Senator Teresa Ruiz he says Librarians shouldn't have to become Gatekeepers safeguarding the right to read the goal here is to dial down this attempt to ban books and move it back to conversations and legitimate conversations that parents want to have about what is being taught in schools Illinois already is implementing something similar so we are very happy because that basically means that we will have additional layer of support hey well Elliott heads New Jersey's Association of school librarians and says 20 percent of her more than 1200 members report book censorship often occurs without even getting to a school board for discussion we hear this from our membership all the time one parent one person makes a phone call to the superintendent Librarians and teachers are afraid of uh retaliation and they are afraid of their working conditions being affected by standing up to sensors The Washington Post today reported a small number of people across the country filed a disproportionate number of book challenges in the last school year the analysis showed 60 percent of the Thousand or so complaints came from so-called serial filers Who challenged at least 10 books at a time and most challenges targeted books with sexual content much of it lgbtq speakers at a recent rally in Trenton said parents have the right to do that and Republican senator Joe panaccio agrees everybody talks about state rights and Library rights and government rights what about parental rights what about the right of a parent to determine what is in the best interest of their child nobody wants to burn any of these books no we just want a rental oversight of what those kids can and can't say the American Library Association reports the number of book titles targeted for censorship hit more than 2500 last year a more than 38 percent jump over 2021 the association gave Hickson an award for her anti-censorship stand I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight news [Music] [Music]