Missouri to ban sexual images in school library books

By SUMMER BALLENTINE
The Associated Press

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A new Missouri law will soon outlaw books with sexually explicit images from school libraries. The law takes effect Sunday. It will make it a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail for educators to give K-12 students books with photos, drawings or other visual depictions that are sexually explicit. There are exceptions for anatomy, biology, art or other images that are educational. The law does not ban written descriptions that might be considered sexually explicit. The Missouri Association of School Librarians says the law likely will only apply to certain comic books and graphic novels, which are longer comic books.