Iowa — The country’s largest book publisher, four authors and the state teachers union have filed a lawsuit challenging part of a new Iowa law that requires schools to remove books that describe or depict sex acts.
Dan Novack is the Vice President and Associate General Counsel for Penguin Random House.
Novack says Penguin Random House has filed a similar lawsuit against a Florida school district.
Melinda Lo — author of Last Night at the Telegraph Club — is another best-selling author who’s part of the lawsuit.
Laurie Hulse Anderson is the author of SPEAK, a story about a 13-year-old girl who struggles with the trauma of rape during her first year of high school.
Iowa State Education Association president Mike Beranek, a retired third grade teacher, says Iowa educators are trained in what are age-appropriate materials for classrooms and library shelves.
Earlier this week Governor Kim Reynolds said protecting children from pornography and sexually explicit content should not be controversial — and books with graphic depictions of sex acts have absolutely no place in Iowa schools. There are now two lawsuits challenged new state education policies. A lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Iowa on behalf of a group of parents and students also addresses a part of the law banning instruction about sexual orientation in elementary classrooms.
