CLN: Protection or performance?

The Community Library Network says its restrictions on children’s access to books are because it is following Idaho law. Is the CLN responding to parents, or creating restrictions far beyond what parents have requested?

Idaho law allows parents or guardians to identify materials they believe are harmful to minors and request that those materials be relocated. According to the CLN, 19 books have been brought forward through this process.

Nineteen.

Yet the CLN has identified 142 books for placement in its Mature Content Room. Most are young-adult titles.

How did 19 requests become 142 books?

The numbers become revealing when we consider what Kootenai County parents have chosen for their children. Approximately 85 percent of parents selected the card option providing their children unlimited access to the library’s collection.

That doesn’t sound like a community demanding sweeping restrictions on young-adult literature.

So why has the CLN gone so much further?

The trustees ran for office promising to protect children from harmful materials. They now restrict access to dozens of books, including titles written for young adults and used in high school classrooms.

If parents have concerns about particular books, they have a mechanism under Idaho law to raise those concerns. There is a difference between responding to individual parental requests and proactively restricting access to 142 books.

The public deserves to know why the CLN chose this approach.

Is this about protecting children? Or is it about making a political statement?

If it is about protecting children, the CLN should be able to explain its criteria, its numbers and its reasoning publicly.

Otherwise, it looks less like child protection and more like political performance.

LAURA MILKS

Rathdrum