Topeka ? Fears that schools would be forced to ban books by such writers as Toni Morrison, Richard Wright and Maya Angelou doomed a bill Wednesday making it easier to prosecute teachers for promoting obscenity.

The measure, pushed by conservative Johnson County legislators amid a dispute over school reading lists there, would end the automatic protection elementary, middle and high school teachers enjoy from prosecution over materials used in classes. On a voice vote, the House sent the bill back to committee.

Although the House’s action didn’t kill the measure, Rep. Lance Kinzer, its most vocal supporter said, “I don’t think it’s realistic to think that we’re going to have too much success with it this session.”

Kinzer, R-Olathe, and other supporters said the bill closes a loophole that could permit minors to be exposed to pornography or other sexually oriented material. He acknowledged, however, that he hadn’t heard of any such instances involving schools.

Forty-two states have specific laws against promoting obscenity, and some, including Oklahoma and Pennsylvania, have an exemption such as the one in Kansas law, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. But others, including Colorado, Missouri and Texas, do not, the ACLU said.

Teachers opposed

Kinzer’s proposal drew fire from the Kansas-National Education Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union.

The union said teachers could be prosecuted if they used novels with vulgar language and sexual themes in English classes. Kinzer and others said they doubt such prosecutions will occur.

While Charlie Mitchell, the ACLU’s state legislative director, agreed that teachers couldn’t be prosecuted successfully over the books they use, the bill still represents an attempt to “chill speech.”

“It’s an attempt by the Legislature to dictate what’s being taught in the classroom,” he said.

Image problems

And Rep. Tom Sawyer, D-Wichita, said passing such legislation would create new image problems for Kansas, which already faced international ridicule over the State Board of Education’s past decisions to adopt anti-evolution science standards.

“It’s just one more way that some of these right-wingers are trying to control the agenda in schools, so only books they want to be read will be read,” Sawyer said. “We don’t need to be burning books in Kansas.”

Johnson County list

On legislators’ minds was the ongoing dispute between parents and officials in the Blue Valley school district in Johnson County over books on its reading lists. The novels to which parents object include Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Beloved,” Wright’s “Black Boy,” and Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” All three books are on Blue Valley’s reading lists for students.

Local parent group Citizens for Literary Standards in Schools, which has challenged books on the Blue Valley’s reading lists, says on its Web site that it wants to promote a “rigorous literary education” through better reading choices for students. Its list of alternatives includes classics such as “Ivanhoe” and “Moby Dick.”

“Sadly, most parents have no idea that deviant sex, including bestiality and pedophilia, for example, is included in graded reading assignments in their public schools,” the Web site said.

‘Real life’

Such reactions aren’t unusual when a book contains vulgar language or themes parents find objectionable, such as homosexuality or teenage sex, said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, deputy director of the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom. Often, critics don’t view the works as a whole, she added.

While parents may not like raw material, students sometimes embrace it because they see themselves or their problems in such novels, she said. The association recorded 405 formal complaints seeking to remove books from schools or libraries in 2005, though Caldwell-Stone said the actual number is probably much higher.

“A lot of books end up on the list because they deal frankly with real life situations,” she said.

Obscenity defined

Under Kansas law, material is deemed obscene if an average person, applying community standards, would find that it “appeals to the prurient interest” and involves “patently offensive” depictions of sex or nudity. Also, the material must lack “serious literary, educational, artistic, political or scientific value.”

Kinzer said the last requirement would protect teachers from being prosecuted for using novels that parents find objectionable, even if the Legislature passed the anti-obscenity measure. In fact, he said of Blue Valley’s upset parents, “I don’t think this legislation is really going to help them.”

Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline said he had no hand in drafting the legislation, isn’t involved in the Blue Valley dispute and hadn’t contemplated starting prosecutions if the bill were to pass.

But Caldwell-Stone said even the threat of prosecution would cause schools and teachers to censor themselves.

“Self-censorship is easy to go to when you don’t have the money for a defense attorney or when you don’t want to be held up in your community as a bad example,” she said.