Dallas-based Half Price Books is helping lead the fight against a bill being considered in Austin.
The bill would allow bookstores to be sued for selling or even displaying harmful material to minors.
Watch 온라인카지노사이트 5 free wherever you are
WATCH HERESupporters say it's needed to protect children, but critics call it censorship.
Workers at Half Price Books love reading but reading every book that comes through its doors, President Kathy Doyle Thomas says, is unrealistic.
But that, she says, is what her stores would be expected to do under a bill proposed by Republican State Rep. Nate Schatzline of Fort Worth.
Get top local stories delivered to you every morning with 온라인카지노사이트 DFW's News Headlines newsletter.
SIGN UP “How do we know in all of these books that we have in all of the stores across the state -- We don't know what's inappropriate. [They] could be inappropriate in Corpus Christi compared to Dallas, Texas,” explained Doyle Thomas.
would hold bookstores liable for "damages arising from the distribution, transmission, or display of harmful material to a minor."
Rep. Schatzline told a House committee last month that it provides parents with the option to sue those who expose children to obscene content.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
“As lawmakers, we have a duty to protect families and children from exploitation and from the unchecked spread of harmful spread of harmful materials in our communities and online,” said Rep. Schatzline.
Doyle Thomas says titles in the romance, mystery and self-help sections would be at the top of the list of those at risk of being targeted.
“When I saw the bill, I was just frustrated and mad and I thought we have to do something about it,” she said.
, Doyle Thomas wrote that HB 1375 is “a threat to all booksellers” and asked them not to interfere with their ability to do business in what’s seen by critics as the latest chapter in book censorship.
“Someone is trying to decide what I can and can’t read and my children can and can’t read and we do not think that’s fair or appropriate,” said Doyle Thomas.
The bill remains in a House committee.
The Texas legislative session is scheduled to end on June 2.
