PHOENIX — Gov. Katie Hobbs has rejected a bill that Republicans claim would have prevented another educator from shooting pornography in a public classroom.
Senate Bill 1696 was filed this year after a Lake Havasu City couple lost their jobs for allegedly making sexually explicit content on school grounds for the subscription platform OnlyFans.
The bill would have prohibited state entities from "exposing minors to sexually explicit materials" or using state facilities to "film or facilitate sexually explicit acts."
In her veto letter, Hobbs said she agrees not all content is appropriate for minors but felt SB 1696 was a "poor way" of addressing those concerns.
Hobbs said the bill was written in such a "vague manner that it serves as little more than a thinly veiled effort to ban books."
The bill passed through the Arizona Legislature with little support from Democrats.
State Sen. Jake Hoffman, R-District 15, said he found the governor's veto "sickening" and advocated for implementing legal repercussions for misusing Arizona's classrooms.
"These should be safe spaces for our kids to learn in, not venues for the sexually explicit adult entertainment industry," Hoffman said in a statement.
The Arizona Education Association celebrated the governor's veto, claiming it would have potentially stopped teachers from recommending classic books like "1984" and "The Great Gatsby" to students since both of those novels contain scenes involving sex.
But Republicans seem to insist the bill's aim was to stop educators from misusing public facilities for adult activities.
A husband and wife were let go from the Lake Havasu Unified School District last year after officials discovered they had allegedly used the campus to make explicit content after hours.
In a statement, one of the teachers said she regretted making the video on campus but said she was forced to start making online content due to her low teaching salary.
She added that she loved teaching and claimed none of her students were aware of the online content until after she had resigned.
The Mohave County couple is apparently not the only instance of teachers getting caught for using classrooms to create inappropriate internet content.
According to the Arizona Board of Education, a former kindergarten teacher in Marana resigned in 2021 after she allegedly posted pornographic photos of herself online that were taken on school grounds.