Library books in Columbia County have become one of the topics in the Georgia House District 125 race.
C.J. Pearson held a town hall Wednesday, Feb. 7 to address the issue, which he says he has continued to hear about when he’s out in the community. So, he went to local libraries and found books including “My Rainbow,” “This Day in June,” “Rick” and “The Bare Naked Book.” The “Bare Naked Book” has been recently updated with new illustrations.
“And vibrant illustrations, they exactly mean that when they say vibrant illustrations,” Pearson said. “It’s disgusting, and that book is marketed toward 1 to 8-year-old children, talking about things like gender dysphoria, gender fluidity for little children who can barely read or write.”
The reason Pearson wanted to gather community members to discuss the library books was because a conservative community is not okay with such material, he said.
“The Left will say, ‘Oh, you’re trying to ban books,’” Pearson said. “I’m not trying to ban books. At the end of the day, if you want to be an adult and read these books, that is your prerogative. It is the United States of America, it is a free country. But what you will not do is indoctrinate little children to believe in your delusions. You will not do that. You do not have the constitutional right to do it. You don’t have the permission to do it…our children are not for sale, and we will protect their innocence.
At the town hall, Pat Daugherty of Oconee County said her group, Conservatives of Northeast Georgia, checked out over 100 books they had concerns about and held a book exhibit. They invited community members, local legislators and business members to come and look at the books.
“People were shocked,” Daugherty said. “They said there’s no way. But we didn’t have the best response from legislators.”
She said that librarians in Georgia are exempt from obscenity laws and mentioned Senate Bill 154, which would change that.
“A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Part 3 of Article 3 of Chapter 12 of Title 16 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to sale or distribution of harmful materials to minors, so as to provide that the provisions of Code Section 16-12-103 shall be applicable to libraries operated by schools; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes,” according to a summary of the bill.
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Daugherty said citizens and librarians should be under the same law, and if the argument is that people don’t want librarians to go to jail, there is a simple solution.
“Don’t hand out porn, and you won’t go to jail,” Daugherty said.
Daugherty said Georgia should have legislators who are willing to support acting on this topic, and Pearson would be one of them.
“I’m committed legislatively to do all that I can to keep this filth out of the reach of America’s young people, of Georgia’s young people,” Pearson said. “Our children deserve better. Again, I say they are not for sale. If these people want to raise their children one way, they are free to do that. But we will not allow that in our state, and we will not allow the left to California our Georgia.”
In old tweet, Pearson said: “If you don’t like porn, don’t watch it. Conservatives believe in limited government. At least we’re supposed to. Let parents do their job.” When asked if his opinion changed about government involvement, he said it didn’t.
“It’s the same issue,” Pearson said. “I’m all about personal control, but these are about minors. We’re protecting children. If an adult wants to watch pornographic material, that is their prerogative. But when it comes down to what our children are being essentially force fed, it’s a completely different category. Adults are free to do adult things, but minors, they deserve our protection, they deserve our support. That’s what this is about.”
Also, while addressing old posts, in a statement about a video circulating on X (formerly known as Twitter) where he talks about a claim from woman saying he paid for a sexual action, he said it’s an old video that does not reflect what he believes.
“From what I understand that video is from early in my high school career. It doesn’t reflect what I believe and definitely was a poor choice of words in that situation,” Pearson said. “It was high school drama. It’s nearly half a decade ago, we’ve moved on from it and we’re focused on the issues that actually matter to the people of this district, like giving Georgian’s a raise by eliminating the state income tax, fully backing the blue, reigning in out-of-control prosecutors like Fani Willis and Jared Williams. But also too, again keeping Georgia, Georgia, which is why we are here today.”
Keeping Georgia, Georgia is what Pearson wants to do with the library books. In Columbia County, Pearson has spoken to Commissioner Alison Couch and Dr. Sandra Carraway, the chair of the library board, but has not spoken to library staff about how books are chosen.
“I’m interested in doing so (speaking to library staff),” Pearson said. “I also think it’s important to note here that the Columbia County commission has a role to play in this. At the end of the day, they appoint the library board, they control the budget for the library.”
Commissioner Alison Couch, who was in attendance, gave a statement on Thursday regarding the town hall.
“I had the opportunity to attend Mr. Pearson’s presentation last night, where he weighed in on an issue that Columbia County has been diligently working on over the past year,” Couch said. “Many of the books on display last night are not in the Columbia County Library system. While others, are categorized in the adult section. There is still work to do on this important topic, and we will continue to put in the tireless effort that our community deserves.”
The controversy over certain books in Columbia County libraries is not a new one. Many citizens have put up books for reconsideration before the Columbia County Library Board over the last fe months. The board appoints a committee to read the books, they discuss them and then take a vote.
During the November 2023 library board meeting, County Manager Scott Johnson spoke to the board members about the reconsiderations and gave some guidance on how it needs to be handled. He said that since the board is a citizen advisory board, they can make recommendations about reconsiderations, but can’t make the final decision – that would fall to the head librarian.
“The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that content-based regulations violate the First Amendment,” Johnson said during that meeting. “You have to overcome what’s called the strict scrutiny analysis, which is almost impossible to overcome. So, in layman’s terms what that really means is you can’t treat books differently based on the topics within the books. You can treat books differently with exceptions like obscenity and inciting violence and things like that.”
During that meeting, Johnson said if the board finds the book to be obscene in some way – and there is a legal definition of obscenity – then it could be treated differently. But, moving a book to a different section or removing it from the library just based on the content is a violation of the First Amendment.
The Columbia County Library Board meets once a month. The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 22 at 11:30 a.m.
Stephanie Hill is the managing editor and covers Columbia County government for The Augusta Press. Reach her at stephanie@theaugustapress.com.
