LEWISTON, ME — JoAn Karkos is convinced that her local library panders in obscenity – and she’s determined to do something about it. What she’s doing at the moment is insisting that she would rather spend time in jail than return an overdue sex education book that she intentionally checked out last summer.According to 64-year-old Karkos, the book It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex and Sexual Health is not merely “dangerous” to children, but also a violation of the city’s obscenity ordinance.
Karkos appeared in 8th District Court last week to assure Judge Valerie Stanfill that she has no intention of relinquishing control of the book she borrowed from the Lewiston Public Library last summer, in spite of being ordered to do precisely that by week’s end.
Once outside of the courtroom, Karkos further assured local reporters that she has no intention of returning what she has taken. Instead, she insists that the library needs to change what books it orders. She contends that “civil disobedience” such as hers is necessary to bring the allegedly offending library into compliance with what she believes is the city’s obscenity law.
Alas for the morally outraged Karkos, Judge Stanfill was unmoved by arguments insisting that the book is inappropriate for the city’s library and that theft is an appropriate recourse.
“Even if this was the most obscene book ever published in the world, it is not a defense against the charge,” Stanfill informed those assembled.
Karkos has offered to pay for the book, which uses cartoonish illustrations to highlight topics including masturbation, abstinence, and sexually transmitted diseases, but the judge insisted that she can not force the sale of property which belongs to someone else. Instead, she urged Karkos to locate and return the book promptly.
After courtroom questioning, Karkos admitted that the book was on her person, but continued to refuse to hand it over even after being both asked and commanded to do so. Detention in the courtroom for an additional hour did not change her mind.
The Sun Journal reports that library director Rick Speer, who testified in defense of the library, is satisfied with the court’s decision. Speer, who believes that “an educated person is an empowered person,” observed that “We felt that one person does not have the power to keep the book from 36,000 citizens of Lewiston.”
Speer, who has been with the library for 24 years, says that the book has circulated 48 times during the past 13 years and that Karkos is the first person to take issue with it. He first learned of her complaint in a letter, which included a $20.95 check, and the assurance that she would not return the book since she felt it was inappropriate for children. The check was returned with a letter explaining that library books are not for sale and outlining the grievance policy for challenging purchasing decisions.
Although Stanfill has indicated that she will not allow Karkos to become a martyr for her cause, she has ordered the woman to pay a $100 fine within a month, in addition to returning the library’s property by 4:00 pm Friday.
When cross-examined by the city’s attorney, Karkos admitted that she never bothered to formally challenge the book’s inclusion on the library shelves because, “I knew I didn’t stand a chance.”
Instead, Karkos chose to retain the book and make her case in court, including accusations that the library contributes to the spread of STDs by carrying materials of a prurient nature. “Children are not meant to be sexually active,” she insisted.
Since the theft was announced by the media, Speer says that the library has received eight donated copies of the sexual education book, which has been praised by Planned Parenthood and condemned by anti-sex groups including Concerned Women for America.
