As the school year gets underway, 13 popular books were banned at Utah's public schools this week under a new law.

It's one of many moves around the country, threatening to reshape school libraries.

Lee Gaines of WFI reports on how in Indiana teachers may even be criminalized for providing

books deemed harmful. It is a parent's decision what their child is going to be

reading. This is totally inappropriate for K-2 students to be discussing this

with anybody but their parents.

Last year, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb signed a controversial book restriction bill that

made two sweeping changes.

First, it's now easier for community members to request the

removal of books from schools that they believe are inappropriate. Second, if a

teacher or school librarian provides a student with a book their parent believes is harmful,

and a prosecutor agrees, they could be charged with a crime and they can't use the book's

educational value as a defense.

Indiana Republican state senator Jim Toms co-authored the initial legislation.

These were pornographic books, something you would see probably in adult bookstores.

Efforts to restrict kids and teens access to certain types of books are happening across the country.

Penn America, a nonprofit that advocates for free expression,

documented nearly 6,000 instances of book bans in 41 states

and 247 public school districts over a two-year period.

37% of the band books included characters of color or themes of race and racism, and 36% in... of subcommittee thank you for the opportunity to testify today.

Pen America's Jonathan Friedman says Indiana's law doesn't ban specific types of

content from schools, but it does create a sense of fear and anxiety among educators.

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