The Montana House advanced a bill Wednesday that seeks to open up public school employees to prosecution if they show or provide children with materials deemed to be obscene.
House Bill 234, sponsored by Lindsay Republican Bob Phalen, passed its second reading in a 55-45 vote, with 13 Republicans voting against it along with all Democrats. It is scheduled for its final House reading Thursday.
Phalen, as he did in committee, told the chamber that he believes obscene material, like pornography, should be banned in schools just like it cannot be shown on billboards or openly in gas stations.
The bill was amended in committee to remove liability for public library and museum officials.
Phalen and others who voted for the bill said on the floor they believe the bill is about protecting children from obscene material in schools, while the measure’s opponents said it was a disguised effort to get books regarding the LGBTQ community out of children’s hands and to strip local control away from school boards that already vet what materials are in their libraries.
They are simply running out of ideas now. They are throwing crap at the wall and seeing what sticks. Like this is an actual issue.
I do not want some local group of…people…deciding what is an is not obscene. America goes round and round and round on this subject endlessly! From Playboy to Maplethorpe…to this…with countless stops in-between. This train never reaches the end of the line…because we keep adding new stops!
Adopted or failed, this legislation will do absolutely nothing to shield children from “Obscene materials”. This legislation will fail to do that utterly and completely…just as all the thousands of others before it have.
This train will never end, nor will it’s demands for human sacrifices! Lucky for the US, here nobody has any actual rights and everybody is disposable!