Report From Ohio: “Bill Looks to Restrict ‘Harmful’ Books From Children Under 18 In Public Libraries”

Representative Al Cutrona introduced the unnamed bill last week that looks to restrict  some books in public libraries across the state. If passed, books that are deemed “harmful” would need to be put in a different section of the library and anyone under 18 would need a parent to check them out.

Harmful according to the Ohio revised code means “any material or performance describing or representing nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sado-masochistic abuse in any form.”

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“Anytime you take books away from anybody it discourages reading,” Jim Wilkins, the Executive Director with the Warren-Trumbull County Public Library said. “We don’t buy harmful things, or we try not to, but what somebody objects to a particular book somebody else wants to read so who are we to say what you should and shouldn’t have.”