ALA | Oklahoma City Trustees Bar Sensitive Topics from Kids' Section

ALA | Oklahoma City Trustees Bar Sensitive Topics from Kids' Section: "Oklahoma City’s Metropolitan Library Commission has identified 12 social issues that it deems sensitive enough when treated in a children’s book to warrant the title being restricted to the parenting collection established by commissioners last fall. The 12 restricted categories are alcoholism, child abuse, child abuse prevention, child sexual abuse, child sexual abuse prevention, domestic/family violence, drug abuse, extramarital sex, homosexuality, medication abuse, premarital sex, and substance abuse.

“Please do not insult me and others like me by passing this reprehensible proposal that segregates us and equates us with child abuse, drug abuse, and family violence,” Rev. Dr. E. Scott James, who said he is gay, asked commission members before they okayed the guidelines in a 12–1 vote. Four commissioners were absent.

The titles in the collection will be off-limits to children age 12 and younger unless they have their parents’ permission to borrow the books, which will be limited to the reading-level categories of easy, easy-reader, and tween. “People on either side of the issue may be unhappy with [the] outcome,” library Executive Director Donna Morris said in the February 17 Oklahoma City Daily Oklahoman, “but it does preserve some of our existing policies that call for free access.”"