(Yadusha “Dusha” Jones) – I sat in disbelief during the Assembly Committee on Education meeting on March 3, 2025, listening to the discussion around AB 445—a bill that threatens parental rights and public accountability in Nevada’s schools.
This legislation, which aims to restrict access to public school libraries as if they’re private domains, hands unchecked power to librarians while dismissing the voices of parents and taxpayers who fund these institutions.
During the meeting, a librarian and a representative from Read Freely Nevada boldly admitted that while parents can choose what their children read at home, they should have no say in what books line the shelves of public school libraries.
In other words, once your child steps through the school doors, your authority as a parent ends, and the school’s reign begins. AB 445 doesn’t just ask parents to step back—it demands they bow to the unchecked authority of school staff.
The bill grants librarians full autonomy, shielding them with immunity from criminal or civil liability for their choices. Immunity from what, exactly? If their decisions are truly in the best interest of students, why do they need legal protection?
Meanwhile, the legislation criminalizes objections from parents or community members—mentioning “criminal” four times, including on Page 5, where it states that library staff are “immune from criminal or civil liability for good faith acts” related to providing access to materials.
This isn’t protection; it’s a power grab.
The bill also throws around buzzwords like “censorship” (mentioned five times) and “diverse and inclusive materials” (highlighted on Page 2), implying that any objection to library content is an attack on progress. Yet most parental concerns—like those voiced by Moms for Liberty—center on sexually explicit content, not the race or identity of authors or characters.
AB 445 blurs this line, equating requests for age-appropriate vetting with bigotry. And who decides what’s “developmentally appropriate”? Not parents, apparently, despite the bill leaving that question unanswered.
Here’s the kicker: Clark County School District (CCSD) already locks down its libraries under Regulation 6150, requiring individual student logins and barring public access.
Speakers at the meeting glossed over this, instead complaining about the “inconvenience” of Freedom of Information Act requests and parental objections. Their solution? Pass AB 445 to silence dissent statewide.
They even boasted that schools could band together to dismiss objections to a book across multiple campuses in one secretive decision—no public notice required—and ban further challenges for three years.
This isn’t transparency; it’s a gag order.
Washoe County, by contrast, offers an open-source library system, a model Clark County parents are begging for with a petition to repeal Regulation 6150, now boasting over 400 signatures.
But instead of listening, AB 445’s proponents want to double down on secrecy and spread it across Nevada.
The bill’s defenders dismissed critics as “fringe groups”—you know, the same parents who show up to school board meetings, reading aloud from books deemed too vulgar for public discussion.
They’re tired of being told that graphic sexual content, regardless of its context, belongs in school libraries. AB 445 doesn’t just ignore them; it threatens to criminalize their right to question.
This flies in the face of the Nevada Department of Education’s own promises: to promote family engagement and ensure transparency and collaboration in policymaking. AB 445 is the antithesis of those values.
At 12 pages long, it’s a convoluted mess of control. Compare that to SB 248, a straightforward two-page bill requiring schools to publicly list all library and instructional materials—real transparency parents can trust.
AB 445 should die on the Assembly floor. It’s a direct attack on parental rights and public accountability. Instead, let’s rally behind SB 248 and demand schools serve students and families, not the other way around. Taxpayers deserve a voice, and our children deserve better.
Mrs. Jones is chairwoman of Moms for Liberty in Nevada. The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Nevada News & Views.
