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Huntington Beach City Council to consider review board to stop some books from hitting public library shelves

Stephen Echeverria looks at a book in the used book section of the Huntington Beach Public Library on May 1.
(File Photo)
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The Huntington Beach City Council will consider creating a review board that could stop sexually explicit children’s books from hitting library shelves at Tuesday night’s meeting.

A resolution proposed by Mayor Pro Tem Gracey Van Der Mark would do just that.

The resolution states that no city library or facility shall allow children access to books or materials that contain any content of a sexual nature. Parental or guardian consent would be required before accessing or checking out these books.

Additionally, the resolution would create a parent/guardian review board to examine any new children’s books containing sexual writing, references, images or other sexual content. Each council member would be able to appoint up to three adult community members to the board, up to 21 total members.

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The board would meet at least twice a year and vote on whether children’s books recommended to the city library meet the city standards. If not, the review board may reject them.

Patrons walk out of the Huntington Beach Public Library on May 1.
Patrons walk out of the Huntington Beach Public Library on May 1.
(File Photo)

Van Der Mark first brought library books into the spotlight in June, when the conservative majority of the City Council voted 4-3 to support her item seeking to make books deemed by a panel to be obscene and/or pornographic unavailable to children. During the June meeting, Van Der Mark read from some of the books she considered explicit and inappropriate, including “Gender Queer,” “Grandad’s Pride” and “The V-Word: True Stories about First-Time Sex.”

“Parents, check these books out,” Van Der Mark said during the June meeting. “If this is what you want for your kids, go for it, but a lot of parents don’t know this material is in these books. A lot of parents don’t know these books are in the library. I know this because I’ve been doing this for six years ... These [proposed restrictions] are safeguards to protect our kids.”

The vote in June sought for City Manager Al Zelinka and City Atty. Michael Gates to work with staff and return with options from stopping minors from accessing such books at public libraries. A study session on the topic with suggestions is planned for 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, with Van Der Mark’s agenda item to come up later in the meeting.

Suggestions listed on the PowerPoint presentation include having a parental control library card, and requiring minors 12 years old and younger to be accompanied by an adult at all times in the library. Currently, that policy is for children 10 and younger.

Some in the community have expressed concern that Van Der Mark is trying to solve problems that don’t exist. The majority of the more than 600 emails received at the time of the June meeting were against her item.

According to city staff’s presentation, there have been only five challenges to the library’s current review system in the last five years, and none in 2023. One of the challenges was by Van Der Mark herself.

Huntington Beach Mayor Pro Tem Gracey Van Der Mark, center, listens to comments during a City Council meeting on June 20.
Huntington Beach Mayor Pro Tem Gracey Van Der Mark, center, listens to public comments during a City Council meeting on June 20.
(File photo)

Dina Chavez is a past president of Friends of the Huntington Beach Public Library. She said she spent Friday morning talking to representatives from groups like Fight for the First, PEN America and the American Library Assn.

“They’re all saying the same thing, that this is the most egregious thing they’ve seen so far for a public library,” Chavez said. “This is not a school, this is a public library and this is just insanity that they’re going this far.”

Attempts to censor library books nationwide have been growing. The ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom documented 1,269 demands to censor library books and resources in 2022, the highest number since the ALA began compiling data about censorship in libraries more than 20 years ago. Between January and August of this year, there were 695 more attempts to censor.

Van Der Mark has said multiple times that what she is seeking does not amount to a book ban, but Chavez disagreed.

“They’re basically getting a committee to do the book banning for them, right?” she said. “It’s still a book ban. A library of our size orders about 9,000 children’s books a year, so I don’t know where they think the committee’s going to find the time to read these books. It doesn’t seem like a workable plan at all.”

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