2023 Senate Bill 5: An Act relating to education and Declaring an Emergency

Senate Bill 5 would require local school boards to adopt a complaint resolution policy to address parent complaints and concerns about classroom materials they suspect to be "harmful to minors." This is classified as material that is deemed obscene or offensive to existing standards of what is suitable materials for students. It also requires the school to make sure that a student whose parent has filed a complaint does not have access to the material in question. This resolution policy is outlined in the bill as includes various requirements including that the school principal will determine whether student access to the material in question should be restricted and this decision will be subject to review by the local board of education.

KSVT opposes this legislation. While the premise of the legislation appears to be reasonable and benign, legislation that restricts our access to information and appears to be harmless on paper has historically and consistently been enforced in a discriminatory manner. PEN America states that over 40% of titles that have been banned across the country have protagonists or prominent characters who are LGBTQIA+ and 40% of banned titles feature prominent characters of color.  According to KSVT's Race to Learn report, 46% of students of color report that their racial or ethnic group is rarely or never represented in materials in the classroom. Furthermore, most Kentucky school boards already have policies in place to address parent concerns and restrict student access to obscene material. Legislation like Senate Bill 5 will only create more opportunities for the erasure of the stories of marginalized groups from classrooms, leaving students isolated and ill-equipped to interact with the diverse world they live in.