When I was eight, I stumbled across a book in my home called Questions Children Ask and How to Answer Them by Miriam Stoppard. It was a parenting book about addressing sensitive issues with your children and provided tailored explanations for each age range. Curious, I opened the book and flipped through its pages. Boy, was I surprised to read the most advanced description of how babies are made. My immediate reaction was, “there must be another way!”
As a child who accidentally found answers about sex before I was truly asking questions, I can assure you of some things. It did not cause short- or long-term harm, nor did it encourage me to look further into the subject. Developmentally, I was not ready to discover the anatomical truth about how babies are made. Like many kids, I found the reality gross. Most children do not seek out more information on topics that make them uncomfortable or that they’re not yet ready to face.
The Huntington Beach City Council is currently leading a proxy crusade against our public library system on two fronts, 1) privatizing the public library after voters previously rejected this measure and 2) preserving a 21-person Community Review Board (appointed directly by City Council themselves) to decide whether a book may be offered in the library.
The common thread among their remarks on this topic? Fear. Fear of children being exposed to ideas about sex, sexuality, and gender that do not align with the personal beliefs of the members of our local City Council and its board appointees.
Books help children understand many issues that have nothing to do with gender or sexuality. Whether it’s divorce, deployed parents, sickness, or death, removing books on these subjects doesn’t remove them from the reality of our world. Removing these books may inadvertently hinder a child’s ability to understand or cope with that topic.
According to City Council, a wide array of books falls under the category of “porn” from which they are “protecting” our children. Some titles of the “sinful” and “sexually explicit” content they want to remove: What’s Happening To My Body? – a puberty book for girls and parents – not porn. The Rainbow Parade – a story about a family’s first time attending a pride parade – not porn.
Who defines explicit content and age-appropriate information? Is it a child’s parents, or is it City Council?
Any rational member of our community would not want to expose children to porn. And they would also likely agree that City Council is disingenuous about their true aim, which is not removing porn from libraries but instead removing books that feature people, families, and ideas that fall outside a traditional archetype of heterosexuality.
City Council is insulting the people of Huntington Beach by masquerading their efforts as an “anti-porn” campaign. By framing the issue this way, they assume voters will look no further, do no research, or find the actual truth.
We must ask ourselves who is doing more harm, those plastering signs about porn – a first-grade reading level word – outside elementary schools or the libraries providing books that pertain to the human body?
There may, in fact, be a small number of books included in the children’s library that are not appropriate for a young child to look through unsupervised. As a parent who regularly brings her children to the library’s Story Time at multiple branches, I have yet to see them.
Let’s right size the potential risk. Let’s be honest about the possibility and consequences of an unsupervised, young child finding them in a library that carries thousands of books. And let’s remember who brings their children to the library in the first place – engaged parents.
Let’s imagine debating whether the library should include children’s books featuring desegregated classrooms, families with divorced parents, or women wearing pants. We’d like to imagine ourselves on the right side of history in those hypothetical scenarios championing equal treatment for equal peoples. Now is your chance to be that hero. Now is the time to see through the misinformation being promoted by fanatical leaders instilling their personal beliefs on our diverse and caring community.
Talk to your friends and neighbors. Stand up for the anti-politicization of the public library. Defend a parent’s right to decide what books their child can read. Protect our award-winning story time. Champion the freedom to read. Vote Yes on Measures A and B on June 10th.
Megan Cicurel is a native resident of Huntington Beach, where she raises two children. She previously worked for Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner (R) and lobbied in Washington, D.C. for municipal organizations in Southern California.
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Voice of OC is interested in hearing different perspectives and voices. If you want to weigh in on this issue or others please email opinions@voiceofoc.org.
Editor’s Note: This op-ed is part of a series allowing OC residents to add their voice to the library debate in Huntington Beach – ahead of a June 10th special election. We welcome opinions on all sides of the issue.
For a different view on this issue, consider:Â