McAuliffe vetoes bill to warn parents of sexually explicit books

Andrew Crider
Online News Editor

Gov. Terry McAuliffe vetoed a bill that would require teachers to notify parents if assignments had sexually explicit content, citing that such a measure was “unnecessary.”

House Bill 516 passed the republican controlled house in March with a 77-21 vote.

The bill would have allowed parents to request and be notified of teaching materials containing sexually explicit content. Under the bill, once school boards deem teaching materials, such as books and poems to be sexually explicit, such schools would then need to notify parents of students of the sexually explicit content.

In an official statement, McAuliffe said that he vetoed the bill in order to give school boards the freedom to decide for themselves what content to teach.

“We have long entrusted curriculum management to our local school boards,” McAuliffe said to the Washington Post. “School boards are best positioned to ensure that our students are exposed to those appropriate literary and artistic works that will expand students’ horizons and enrich their learning experiences.”

The statement also indicated that local school boards have already been debating the issue and that the governor did not want to take action until the local boards had decided for themselves.

If the bill had passed, Virginia would have been the first state to give parents control what books their child reads in school.

According to the Washington Post, Del. Steven Landes (R-Augusta), who chairs the House Education Committee, called the veto “disappointing,” and he would introduce legislation next year if similar regulations were not put in place.

The Washington Post also reports that the bill was stamped with a complaint from a parent from Fairfax County.

The parent, Laura Murphy, said, “We have long entrusted curriculum management to our local school boards. School boards are best positioned to ensure that our students are exposed to those appropriate literary and artistic works that will expand students’ horizons and enrich their learning experiences.”

The Washington post also reports that about half of Virginia school districts already require sexually explicit materials to be reported to parents.

Online News Editor, Andrew Crider

Andrew is a junior economics major who has written for student newspapers since he was in high school. Andrew is interested in political history, aviation, photography and running. He has a tendency to refer to his peers, coworkers and bosses as “ma’am” or “sir,” but is getting better about referring to his friends at the CT by their first names instead. // Facebook

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