House Bill 1419 was presented to the House Education Committee on January 18, 2024. The Bill prohibits materials that are obscene or harmful to minors in school and creates a procedure for removal and cause of action.
Children now have access to school library apps on their iPads and Chromebooks that contain pornographic content. This Bill would not prohibit sexual content but prohibit some of the worst x-rated and pornographic content that should never be available to children.
Included in the testimony, you can watch a former therapist and sex offender counselor at a New Hampshire prison. Listen to how she explains how one book on the school library app. allows children to access hyper-links to sexual predators. That’s considered sex trafficking. Not only are schools providing pornographic books to children through their library app, those children can also follow a hyper-link to websites that will put them in touch with child sexual predators. (1:38:06)
A lobbyist from the New Hampshire School Administrators Association. (NHSAA) OPPOSED prohibiting schools from making pornographic content available to children. Esther Asbell, Superintendent of SAU16 (easbell@sau16.org), is the Executive Director of the NHSAA. Why are they not speaking out against this dangerous content that is now available to children in our schools? Why are they opposing good legislation that will protect our children from pornography and child sex trafficking?
Sydney Leggett, from the NHSAA Equity Committee, essentially says that students have a right to access pornographic materials in the school. This Bill would infringe upon their rights and deny them access to porn and materials that show them how to connect with sexual predators.
(1:08:00)
I also addressed the committee to explain how an autistic child was exposed to pornographic content on his Chromebook. This child was punished because of the behavior he was exhibiting at school after accessing this content. (53:00)
Michael Bessett, Assistant Superintendent in the Kearsarge Regional School District (mbessette@kearsarge.org), also spoke in opposition to HB1419. I don’t know if he took a vacation day to testify or if the taxpayers in the district paid for him to oppose HB1419, but you can listen to all of the reasons he had for his opposition to legislation that would prohibit X-rated content in the schools, and a sexual predator’s ability to access young children.
Asst. Superintendent Bessett first describes that educators are protecting children. That is true for many, but we also know that school library apps are making x-rated content available to children and providing a path for children to connect with child sexual predators. He does a lot of talking about who gets to decide what is appropriate content, but it was Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart who was asked to describe his test for obscenity in 1964, and he responded: “I know it when I see it..” (1:13:30). If you want to see some of the pornography available to children today, follow this link. WARNING: It is graphic.
This Bill would not remove much of the sexual content available to children. It only prohibits the most extreme obscene content.
At the beginning, Rep. Glenn Cordelli introduces the Bill and explains why it’s needed. After listening to those in opposition, you have to wonder if they are willing to put children in a dangerous position. Will anyone in the school communities take responsibility if a child ends up sexually abused because they followed the hyperlink to a sexual predator?
The New Hampshire School Boards Association (NHSBA) took no position on the Bill, but their lobbyist testified to how much they disapproved of the language.( 2:02:00)
Finally, Stopitnow.org is an organization committed to stopping the sexual abuse of children. Here is what they say about making pornographic pictures available to children:
Showing pornographic pictures to a child is considered sexual abuse. https://www.stopitnow.org/advice-column-entry/is-it-considered-child-sexual-abuse-if-someone-shows-a-child-pornographic
See: Nashua Teacher’s Grindr-Sexting Case: Another Charge
When you hear adults object to prohibiting pornographic content to children and putting them in the path of sexual predators, how are parents to trust them? How are parents to trust our public schools. All this does is drive more families to seek education alternatives.
Thank you to the good teachers and administrators working in our schools. Sadly though, we are still finding predators among them. Those who oppose removing pornographic content for children remain suspicious to parents.
