Two Florida members of the right-wing anti-liberty group Moms for Liberty called police on a school librarian after a student checked out a YA novel. The student in question was 17 years old.
One of the extremists, Jennifer Tapley, reported the “crime” to the Santa Rosa County police, according to Pink News, telling them that “pornography was given to a minor in a school,” and that “a crime was committed. It’s a third-degree felony. And we’ve got the evidence.” She also compared the novel to Playboy.
And the illegal smut she was referring to? A teen novel called Storm and Fury, by Jennifer L. Armentrout that Harper Collins deemed appropriate for teens 14 and up. The novel has “one scene in which two characters make out and it almost leads to sex,” and for that, these maniacs think librarians should be arrested. (See them tattling to police in video at bottom of post, obtained by Popular Information.)
From LGBTQ Nation:
Tapley was accompanied by Tom Gurski, a fellow Moms for Liberty member.
The popular YA novel, Storm and Fury by Jennifer L. Armentrout, recounts a battle between humans and gargoyles fighting demons, with an 18-year-old protagonist named Trinity. There’s a make-out scene, and one character almost has sex. The book has been recommended by the Florida Association of Media in Education (FAME), a librarian association’s “Teen Reads” list, and by the School Library Journal. Barnes and Noble rates the book appropriate for 14- to 18-year-olds.
“It’s a serious crime,” Tapley adds. “It’s just as serious as if I handed a Playboy to [my child] right now, right here, in front of you. It’s just as serious, according to the law.”
Under Florida law, a book is “harmful to minors” if it “predominantly appeals to a prurient, shameful, or morbid interest” and is “patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable material or conduct for minors.”
Gurski said Storm and Fury, an epic novel clocking in at 512 pages, was checked out from Jay High School “by a 17-year-old, which is important because she is a minor.” Offending passages of the book shared with the officers were marked with orange Post-It notes.
According to LGBTQ Nation, police quietly closed the case.
