Huntington Beach Ordered To Pay $1M For Censoring Library Books
On Monday, an Orange County judge ordered Huntington Beach to pay $960,000 for legal work done by four legal organizations fighting the city’s violation of the state’s Freedom to Read Act.
But the ruling is only tentative.
As The Orange County Register explained, the ruling is the latest development after the Huntington Beach City Council ordered that any books containing sexually explicit material in the children’s section should be removed to a separate area and only accessed with parental consent. It’s not clear how they defined sexually explicit, but The Register said that some of the restricted titles were “It’s Perfectly Normal” and “Sex is a Funny Word.” Both are designed to be educational, not prurient, and each had approximately 80% five-star ratings on Amazon.
The city council’s directive was issued in October 2023. In February 2024, a former librarian, two local teenagers, and a local nonprofit sued and won. The city was ordered to dismantle its restricted section, restore the library’s teen section, and establish legal protections for librarians, The Register reported.