West DSM News

Iowa state Sen. Jake Chapman (R-Adel) is upset at teachers who are allowing their students to read what he believes to be obscene material. In an attempt to get the practice stopped, Chapman announced he is preparing legislation to ban the material from schools and expose the teachers to criminal charges.

Chapman wrote on his Facebook page: “These are teachers of the Johnston School District who are defending the distribution of what I believe to be obscene material and what I believe to be a violation of state law. These are also our so-called 'mandatory reporters.' Our schools should be one of the safest environments. It’s for that reason I have legislation being drafted to create a new felony offense under law Code 728. There will also be additional mechanisms to force prosecutions or allow civil remedies.”

Iowa code 728 prohibits the dissemination of obscenity to a minor, but there is a section that exempts public libraries and accredited schools.

Iowa State House Rep. Jake Chapman (R-Adel) | legis.iowa.gov/

Two books have drawn the scrutiny of a few parents in the Johnston School District. “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexei and “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas have been repeatedly challenged due to mentions of sex and discussions about race and racial identity, according to Iowa Starting Line.

Chapman appeared at a recent school board committee meeting in Johnston — even though he doesn’t represent the district — to express his views. He was one in a crowd of about 60 people that included parents, students and teachers to appear before a seven-member committee. As the president of the Iowa Senate, Chapman said he plans to utilize his platform to create laws banning obscene material in school and increase penalties.

“I can tell you, if this material was in my school, I’d be going to law enforcement,” he said in the meeting, according to Iowa Starting Line. “I would be asking for a criminal investigation. I would be asking for every single teacher who disseminated that information to be held criminally responsible.”

Chapman has made this one of his major talking points in the past. In October, he said there should be a criminal investigation into books in the Northwest High School library in Waukee where, during a school board meeting, a woman read excerpts from the memoirs “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson and “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe, and from the novel “Lawn Boy” by Jonathan Evison.

He doesn’t have the support of all teachers, parents, residents and readers of his Facebook. Morgan Kent Molden wrote: “No one in Johnston moved here so you could weigh in on what our kids choose to read. Kindly stay out of our kids’ libraries and let the teachers we actually came here for do their jobs. You sound ridiculous.”

Six teachers who spoke at the meeting provided context about how the books are discussed in their English courses, The Des Moines Register reported. The teachers said the books are suggested reading, but alternative titles are also available to students or parents who request them.

Neal Patel, a science teacher in the district, said diverse viewpoints benefit students. 

“I want you to understand that the entire goal of education is to get kids to think critically,” Patel said during the meeting, “and if we only provide text that is confirming the majority, they’re not really able to engage in that critical process.”

Keenan Crow, the director of policy and advocacy at One Iowa, an LGBTQ advocacy organization, said those who object to certain books point to small passages and themes, Iowa Starting Line reported.

“They’re taking the bits that they know are going to provoke some sort of disgust reaction as soon as they are shown or read aloud,” Crow said. “They’re completely decontextualizing all of that just so that they can activate some sort of disgust response in their audience, and that is only effective if you take those bits in isolation. If you read the whole text, it doesn’t provoke the same kind of response.”

Adrieanah Hamand, a senior at Northwest High School in Waukee, said books like those being challenged are often teens’ only source of information about safe sex and communication outside of the little bit of information they get in school.

“There are kids my age out having sex and practicing safe and unsafe sex and all that stuff,” Hamand said. “It’s not completely inappropriate for these books to be in our libraries.”