NE: Lawmaker called to resign for invoking colleague's name while reading a rape scene during debate
LINCOLN — A Nebraska legislative debate about keeping obscenity out of K-12 schools ended abruptly Monday night after a lawmaker, while reading a book passage about an explicit rape scene, invoked a colleague’s name into the reading.
State Sen. Steve Halloran of Hastings, during debate on Legislative Bill 441, warned state senators and those watching the livestream of legislative proceedings that he would be quoting from the hearing testimony on the bill. LB 441, Thurston State Sen. Joni Albrecht’s priority bill, seeks to crack down on obscenity and pornography in K-12 schools.
One person testifying at the March 24, 2023, hearing on LB 441 read passages from a book entitled “Lucky,” by Alice Sebold, which includes a graphic description of a rape Sebold survived in college.
“Lucky” was one of the most banned books in the country during the 2021-22 school year.
While reading the testimony Monday, Halloran inserted the name “Senator Cavanaugh” at the end of select sentences about the sexual assault. He didn’t specify which Cavanaugh — both Machaela Cavanaugh and her brother John serve in the Legislature.
https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2024/03/18/lawmaker-is-called-to-resign-for-invoking-a-colleagues-name-in-rape-scene-during-debate/
= new reply since forum marked as read
