In most U.S. states, no legal action can be brought against a school for making sexually explicit content available to kids. The very same materials, shown to a minor in another setting, would land a person in prison.
States have obscenity laws, intended to protect children and youth from harmful exposure to sexual content.
States also provide exemptions to these laws to schools.
Instituted by the American Law Institute’s Model Penal Code, published in 1955, these loopholes were added to states’ penal codes to protect schools from litigation for providing depictions of sexual content in lessons and texts for educational purposes.
The world has changed a lot since 1955.
Seventy-year old obscenity law exemptions have left the door wide open for reading materials and curriculum containing pornography to flood into K12 schools. Over the last decade, hundreds of explicit books detailing sex acts, abortion, incest, rape, and murder have entered school and classroom libraries.
In 2025, Texas removed its obscenity law exemption for schools with SB 412, amending the Texas Penal Code regarding the sale, distribution or display of harmful material to a minor.
SB 412 repealed the language in the law which stated, “It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under this section that the sale, distribution or exhibition was by a person having a scientific, educational, governmental, or other similar justification.”
Other states should do the same.
In 2026, obscenity law exemptions provide no barrier for influential activist groups such as GLSEN and Advocates for Youth to get reading materials and curriculum containing pornography into our K12 schools.
The American Library Association and the National Coalition Against Censorship help to make the way smooth for organizations like these by actively promoting sexually explicit books in schools and libraries.
These organizations and more work in lockstep with Planned Parenthood to ensure kids have access to detailed depictions of incest, rape, anal sex, oral sex, and more.
Planned Parenthood claims its support of such books serves as a way for children to gain access to sex education, should they live in a state that prohibits Planned Parenthood’s preferred brand of anything-goes, abortion-positive, gender-confusing, grooming sex-ed in schools.
Speaking of sex-ed, obscenity law exemptions also leave the classroom door wide open to obscene, grooming sex-ed programs, with zero legal ramifications, since the lessons supposedly serve “a bona fide educational… purpose.”
Pornography, or sexually explicit material, whether written or visual, is considered a critical and necessary tool at the core of modern day sex education, which really is social change re-education.
The “Comprehensive Sex Ed” movement aims to replace inherent protective sexual attitudes and values with attitudes that view barriers or guardrails regarding any kind of sexual activity as harmful.
Exposing kids to shocking sexual content is an integral aspect of the new sex-ed. Repeated exposure demolishes kids’ boundaries, desensitizes their conscience, and reshapes their attitudes regarding sex and sexuality.
In 2026, most U.S. states exempt schools from obscenity laws. These exemptions help to facilitate the social re-education happening in our schools now, and render any legal action to stop it dead on arrival.
It’s time to change that.
KIDS FIRST
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.