A Win in Flagler County, Florida
I wrote a few days ago about the attempt to criminal charge librarians and school administrators in Flagler County, Florida, for daring to have All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson. You see, because Johnson’s memoir discusses their sexual experience and to people like Jill Woolbright gay sex is obscene, the book must be harmful to minors. Well the Flagler County Sheriff has completed its investigation and concluded what is obvious to anyone familiar with the law knows: the book is not obscene or harmful in any way.
Before returning to the book, I learned from the final investigatory report that someone had attempted to have Johnson charged with threatening Woolbright. A “reporter” for the rightwing extremist faux-news site Epoch Times sent a series of screenshots of Twitter interactions to the police. The key one is above and shows them using the common phrase “Finish Her,” a reference to the classic video game Mortal Kombat. While the sheriff accurately concluded this was not criminal, it should not be dismissed. Johnson themself says it best: this was an attempt to weaponize police against them.
Apart from that horror show, the investigation of the criminal book complaint was handled well, far better than some police departments that I’ve seen that just immediately passed the case to the prosecutor’s office. The claimed criminal conduct was based in Florida’s prohibition of distribution of harmful materials to minors. This statute is a common law and it incorporates the constitutional standard for obscenity. The detective focused specifically on the requirement that the book “Taken as a whole, is without serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.” He noted that All Boys Aren’t Blue is a best seller on Amazon with strong reviews and the description of the books. He then sought a legal opinion from the sheriff’s general counsel.
The general counsel reviewed the various legal provisions that give authority to the school to choose educational material, including library books. This is used to show that given the district’s review policy and its guidelines, no person in the school could be said to “knowingly” provide obscene material to a minor as the statute required. The key provision, however, is above. The general counsel states clearly that this complaint falls because the book clearly has serious merit: “this book is a widely recognized award winning piece of nonfiction which deals with difficult subjects of both social and political issues impacting this age group.” As such it could not be obscene and harmful to minors. I wish the counsel had engaged with the other requirements of obscenity law because All Boys Aren’t Blue is neither patently offensive nor predominantly appeals to a prurient interest in sex. But the Sheriff got it right in the end and it should be applauded.
The counsel closed the memo noting that “Whether or not this material is appropriate for students … is an internal matter fo the [School] Board and is best addressed through their processes.” Sadly, this lesson is too often lost on the modern round of censors. Just today I learned that an extremist group here in Utah, Utah Parents United, is training its members to report any book they find offensive to the police. While any responsible police department and/or prosecutor will reach the same conclusion as in Flagler County, the very threat of prosecution is meant to terrify teachers and librarians. Criminal charges are scary, even if they are frivolous. The far easier choice is to self-censor, to see a book described as LGTBQ inclusive or about Black people’s experience and pass on acquiring it. This is what the censors want and what has to be resisted.
