NEWS-CHRONICLE PHOTO BY MICHAEL D. DAVIS — A sampling of some of the “controversial” books at the Toledo Public Library, from classics by John Steinbeck and Ray Bradbury to more recent offerings like “Maus” and “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.”

The first recorded suppression of literature was in China in 213 B.C. It has been a pattern throughout history, and now, over 2,200 years later, it’s still happening, even in Iowa.

Legislation was proposed this year that would lead to the banning of a laundry list of books in every single school district in the state, including South Tama and Meskwaki. Under the new laws, school districts would be required to obtain written permission for students to access materials listed on the statewide ban list from a legal parent or guardian.

Rep. Dean Fisher (R-Montour) wrote in his March 9 newsletter about the books that would be banned for overt depictions of explicit sexual acts.

“I have a list of 30 such books in various school libraries, many in this (legislative) district,” he said.

One such title is “Let’s Talk About It: The Teen’s Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being Human” by Erika Moen. A copy of this graphic novel, which covers topics from birth control to the safe consumption of porn to gender identity, was donated to the STC High School sometime last year.

“‘Let’s Talk About It’ contains sexually explicit illustrations with instructions, tips, and suggestions on how to perform various sex acts along with masturbation,” Rep. Fisher wrote.

Toledo Public Library Director Sheri McFate said there are a lot of kids who don’t have a parent or someone they can talk to about these subjects, so books like these can answer some questions and raise others.

South Tama County School Superintendent John Cain likened some of the illustrations in “Let’s Talk About It” to softcore porn and stated he wouldn’t show it to a 13-year-old.

Caitlin Peshel, a former STC student and mother who homeschools her three children, said this is a book she would “definitely buy for her kids when they reach their teenage years,” around 12-13.

“Sometimes books like this are the only way a teen has to learn about the real things in life” because their parents or the school is too uncomfortable. Kids are put at risk of “developing bad habits and possibly trauma from not getting correct, important information,” Peshel said.

Retired STC AP Literature Teacher Gary Zmolek worried the law could create a slippery slope effect.

“It opens the door to declaring anything with any sexual content obscene,” he said.

In the 35 years Zmolek taught at South Tama, the teaching of only one book brought him any grief — “The Book of Job,” a religious text. However, the complaints received about the book came not from the STC administration or any concerned parents, but from the students themselves. “Some of my evangelical students objected to my teaching it as a work of literature, since it was, in their belief, the word of God. On the other hand, students who thought of themselves as agnostics or atheists objected to my teaching a religious work at all,” he said.

Zmolek went on to say that he was never told not to use any educational materials, something that would lead to “better education, happier students, and a calmer society,” if applied on a grander scale.

“I think that teachers and parents should be able to have access to all books,” former STC middle school reading teacher Laura Edwards said. “If a teacher or parent does not think that a book is appropriate, then they can choose not to use it (in) their classroom.”

From “Of Mice and Men,” written in 1937, to “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” written in 2007, the push to ban books in the United States goes back to the same year the First Amendment originally gave Americans the freedom to read whatever they want.

In Kanawha, Iowa, in 1980; complaints similar to those being made today were raised then about the Pulitzer Prize winning book “The Grapes of Wrath” — like “Of Mice and Men,” also written by John Steinbeck — then described as an obscene work depicting sex acts.

The controversy reared its head in Iowa again back in 2018, when 63-year-old Robert Dorr made national news for taking several LGBTQ+ themed children’s books out of the Orange City Library and burning them in a barrel.

“Parents should not have to weed through every book in their child’s school library to know that their child isn’t being exposed to content that is not age appropriate,” Rep. Fisher wrote, explaining his reasons to support the proposed legislation. “This bill requires that all books in school libraries must be age appropriate and expands the definition of age appropriate in code to include what is NOT age appropriate.”

Some educators consider the determination of what is and is not age appropriate by the state to be another way that schools and government are striving to parent people’s children in a near Kafkaesque way.

“They call it ‘protecting children,’ when in reality, it is protecting adults and their authority and beliefs from being questioned,” Meskwaki Settlement School Language Arts Teacher Allison Fisher said. “Imagine being a child and seeing stories that represent you being pulled from shelves because they are seen as ‘obscene,’ ‘immoral,’ or ‘controversial.'”

Ms. Fisher designs her own curriculum at Meskwaki, letting kids read what she hopes will benefit them on more than one level and letting them choose books that she feels will open their eyes to the real world and grant them the opportunity to think for themselves.

In 1953, Ray Bradbury wrote in “Fahrenheit 451”, “Who knows who might be the target of a well-read man?” It could be said that with every additional banned piece of literature, “451” slowly transforms from science-fiction to prophecy.

“It all comes down to choice,” Assistant Toledo Library Director Brandi Harms said.

A book on a shelf does not demand to be read, but a shelf devoid of books demands inquiry. If and when the bill passes into law, two books will be restricted, if not permanently taken off the shelves at the South Tama High School Library.

They won’t be the only two, just the first two.