Educators are under attack in the Maine Legislature.

LD123 would subject Maine public school staff - including teachers, school librarians, nurses, counselors, and art teachers - subject to criminal prosecution under state obscenity laws. Maine school libraries could be harassed or prosecuted in court under obscenity laws for any books, ebooks, and educational resources in their library. Everyone who teaches health classes or art classes could be fined or even jailed over sensitive subjects. 

LD123 (2023) would expose everyone in our schools to jail time and costly lawsuits over anything any parent might find “obscene” - whether is it from classic literature or an anatomy textbook. Award-winning authors like Margaret Atwood, F. Scott Fitzgerald, or James Joyce could be caught in the crosshairs of ‘obscenity’ challenges. Groups like Moms for Liberty have gone after books about seahorses, Johnny Appleseed, and hurricanes. Even Winnie the Pooh was called into question for not wearing pants.

This isn't speculation on our part. In January, a teacher in Michigan was nearly hauled into court over a book. In Missouri, The police have been called out to schools repeatedly about books. It isn't reasonable to make criminals out of our educators and school librarians based on the whims of political parties and organizations. Maine needs to stand up for our educators before it's too late.

We need people like you to tell your state Senator to stop this bill before it goes any further. Please join the Maine Library Association (MLA), Maine Association of School Libraries (MASL), the ACLU of Maine, Educate Maine, the Maine Council for English Language Arts, the Maine Curriculum Leaders Association, the Maine Humanities Council, the Maine Chapter of the National Social Workers Association, the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, The Telling Room, and EveryLibrary in opposing LD123.