Voters Against Obscene Books in Public Schools

Voters overwhelmingly oppose sexually explicit books in public school libraries, and believe schools have an obligation to inform parents what their children are being taught.

A new national telephone and online survey by Rasmussen Reports and the Capitol Resource Institute finds that 89% of Likely U.S. voters think it is important that public schools fully inform parents about what is being taught to their children in classrooms, including 70% who say it is Very Important. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Sixty-nine percent (69%) of voters believe books containing explicit sexual depictions of sex acts, including homosexual sex, should not be present in public high school libraries. The majority opposed to sexually explicit books in public school libraries rises to 79% for middle schools and 85% for elementary schools.

“There is no such thing as ‘age-appropriate’ for obscenity and pornography in public school libraries,” said Karen England, president of the California-based Capitol Resource Institute (CRI). “If the public knew how many books containing explicit sexual depictions of sex acts where in their public school libraries they would be pulling their children out of school immediately.”

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The survey of 1,000 U.S. Likely Voters was conducted on September 20-21, 2022 by Rasmussen Reports and Capital Resource Institute. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Seventy-seven percent (77%) of voters are concerned that school-age children are being exposed to sexual material that is not age appropriate, including 55% who are Very Concerned. Only 20% are not concerned about children being exposed to inappropriate sexual material.

The survey found broad agreement across political and demographic categories. For example, 79% of whites, 73% of both black and Hispanic voters, and 72% of other minorities were at least somewhat concerned that school-age children are being exposed to sexual material that is not age appropriate. Majorities of Republicans (85%), Democrats (56%) and 69% of voters not affiliated with either major party believe it is Very Important that public schools fully inform parents about what is being taught to their children in classrooms.

Of the Likely Voters in the survey, 29% are parents of school-age children and 26% are grandparents of school-age children. Fifty-six percent (56%) of parents and 69% of grandparents are Very Concerned that school-age children are being exposed to sexual material that is not age appropriate. Seventy-one percent (71%) of parents and 83% of grandparents believe it is Very Important that public schools fully inform parents about what is being taught to their children in classrooms.

Among other findings of the Rasmussen Reports/CRI survey:

– Sixty-four percent (64%) of parents and 65% of grandparents are at least somewhat concerned that public school libraries contain material that is sexually age-inappropriate for the students in school.

– Forty-eight percent (48%) of parents and 68% of grandparents are opposed to public schools teaching children about homosexual lifestyles.

– Fifty-six percent (56%) of parents and 74% of grandparents are opposed to public schools teaching children about transsexualism.

– Seventy percent (70%) of parents and 86% of grandparents are opposed to public schools teaching children about how to perform sex acts.

– Seventy-eight percent (78%) of parents and 84% of grandparents believe it is important that parents have control over what books are present in public school libraries.

– Majorities of both parents (55%) and grandparents (59%) believe public school students should not be exposed to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual lifestyles before age 14.

Among the several controversial books to which CRI has called attention, This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson includes information about how to use dating apps and Internet sites to meet potential sexual partners. Sixty-eight percent (68%) of parents and (89%) of grandparents are opposed to public schools teaching children about how to use dating apps, including ones popular in the homosexual community.

“Clearly books like This Book is Gay, which includes information on using dating apps and craigslist for sexual hook ups is not supported by parents and grandparents,” said CRI’s Karen England, who criticized the American Library Association (ALA) for its opposition to parental input in public-school libraries. “The ALA knows what they are doing in promoting these books is not supported which is why they are so quick to label parents who object to obscene material as book burners.  It’s their attempt to bully and silence them.”

About half of Americans believe the popular social media platform TikTok is bad, and even more think it is dangerous for teenagers.

Americans are worried about the danger of school shootings, and support has increased for arming teachers to defend their classrooms.

Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to the public as well as Platinum Members.

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