News: Censorship Dateline

Schools

Oklahoma

On February 22, Rachel Roberts, spokesperson for Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor, confirmed that his office is reviewing 55 books to determine if they violate the state’s law on obscene material.

The books came under review when the Attorney General’s Office received complaints from the conservative pressure groups Tulsa County chapter of Moms for Liberty and Reclaiming Oklahoma Parent Empowerment.

Oklahoma statute §21-1024.1 defines obscene material as that which “includes any representation, performance, depiction or description of sexual conduct, whether in any form or any medium . . . if said items contain the following elements:

Depictions or descriptions of sexual conduct which are patently offensive as found by the average person applying contemporary community standards

Taken as a whole, have as the dominant theme an appeal to prurient interest in sex as found by the average person applying contemporary community standards, and

A reasonable person would find the material or performance taken as a whole lacks serious literary, artistic, educational, political, or scientific purposes or value.

The books subject to scrutiny by the Attorney General’s Office include award-winning works, literary classics, and a preponderance of books with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/ questioning, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) themes. Many of the titles included have recently faced challenges at Oklahoma schools.

O’Connor said, “I think the first thing we have to decide is at what ages are our kids ready for exposure to images that many think are pornographic? And and then we have to also look at things and decide for our community standard, what is pornography?”

When asked if the obscenity statute could be applied to written material, O’Connor replied, “I guess it could. Some of those things are questions of what’s appropriate. It may not be pornography, but it still may not be appropriate. A lot of the effort seems to be, in some circles it’s considered cool to expose kids to drawings of, say, homosexual sex in a diagram. And many parents, including me, disagree with that–whether it’s homosexual or heterosexual sex.”

Two days later, O’Connor ended his office’s investigation, tacitly admitting that the books in question did not meet the current legal standard of “obscene materials” and pointing to legislative efforts to expand that definition.

Referring to HB 4012 and HB 4013, O’Connor said, “I understand that there is proposed legislation that has been introduced in this new session to address these parents’ concerns.”

HB 4013 would expand the definition of obscene materials. It received a “do pass” from the Judiciary Criminal Committee.

HB 4012 would codify the challenge and reconsideration process and create a “community standards review board” in each school district, tasked with creating community standards for school library and classroom materials. It was referred to the Common Education Committee.

The titles briefly subjected to review by the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office were:

Reported in: The Oklahoman, February 23, 2022; The Frontier, February 22, 2022, and February 24, 2022.

Bentonville, Arkansas

At the February 15 board meeting for Bentonville Schools, a group of parents and community members requested the removal of four titles from the high school library.

Jason Maxwell, who is running for office as a state representative and who does not have any children in the district, was among those calling for the books’ removal.

Maxwell identified the titles they objected to as The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, and A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas.

The Bluest Eye and The Kite Runner are on the Advanced Placement (AP) English Literature Test reading list. Jennifer Morrow, executive director of secondary education, said that another of the books Maxwell complained about, The God of Small Things, is on the International Baccalaureate literature class reading list.

Board President Eric White said the timing of this book challenge appeared to be political as it aligned with the beginning of the mid-term campaign season and the titles challenged had circulated fewer than 10 times in the past five years.

White also noted that the school board had approved a policy in December allowing district parents to challenge reading material and designate titles their children aren’t allowed to read.

On March 2, the College Board sent AP teachers a reminder of the principles the AP program stands for, including opposition to censorship. They indicated that institutions censoring required instructional material would lose their AP license for the related courses, rendering students ineligible to receive AP credit.

No formal requests for reconsideration were received for the titles the group spent nearly an hour objecting to during the board meeting’s public comment section.

Reported in: Arkansas Democrat Gazette, February 16, 2022; Education Week, March 14, 2022.

Gunnison County, Colorado

At the February 15 meeting of the Gunnison County Library board, library director Drew Brookhart announced they would not be removing or relocating Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe. The book was challenged in November, 2021, by community member Rebecca White. It was the first book to have been challenged while Brookhart was director.

After the announcement was made, Gunnison County Library District staff received four additional requests to reconsider Gender Queer: A Memoir between February 22 and March 23.

Gender Queer is a nonbinary coming-of-age graphic novel. Kobabe wrote and illustrated it in part to explain what it means to be nonbinary and asexual. It received an Alex Award, a Stonewall Book Award, was nominated for an Ignatz Award, and was included on the Young Adult Library Services Association’s 2020 list of Great Graphic Novels for Teens.

Ashley Weinmeister, a leader of Spectrum, the club for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/ questioning, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) persons at Western Colorado University, spoke in defense of the book during the February board meeting.

“Growing up asexual sucked,” said Weinmeister. “Having a book like this is the difference between growing up thinking you are broken and knowing that you are not alone. It belongs in the young adult section . . . where it will be the most useful to the most people who are in the most dange right now. LGBTQ youth are five times more likely to commit suicide than their peers. Do we want them to feel more alone? I don’t.”

Two copies of the book are currently available in the library’s young adult section; an ebook copy is also available for download through OverDrive. It is unknown when a response to the four most recent challenges to the book will be made.

Reported in: Crested Butte News, February 23, 2022, and May 25, 2022.

Brevard County, Florida

The Brevard Chapter of Moms for Liberty raised objections to 19 titles at the March 22 meeting of the Brevard County School District (BCSD) board, alleging they violate state pornography statutes.

Moms for Liberty cited “alternate gender ideologies,” “racially charged commentary,” “references to abortion,” and “criticism of Christianity” as reasons they were challenging the books.

The group previously challenged Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe during a BCSD board meeting on October 11, 2021. It was removed the same day by Superintendent Mark Mullins without a formal review process, in violation of district policy.

School board member Jennifer Jenkins offered some resistance to the group this time. “These are only available in our high schools for our high school students for ages recommended for these books,” she said. “You do not get to wear a shirt with the word ‘liberty’ on it while you’re practicing and advocating censorship. And you don’t get to do it for anybody else’s children.”

Board member Katye Campbell, however, agreed with the members of Moms for Liberty. “My eyeballs and own conscience was seared from reading some of the things I was reading,” said Campbell.

Moms for Liberty had submitted formal requests for reconsideration of 41 titles at the time of this writing.

While BCSD indicated they would not make determinations on the books challenged at the March meeting as they first wanted to update their policy to allow for books to be challenged district-wide instead of school-by-school.

The policy revisions were approved on May 10. Some school administrators did not wait that long to act, however. Florida Today reported that some of the challenged books were removed from school libraries without formal review by a reconsideration committee.

At the district’s Bayside High School, AP English teacher Adam Tritt was asked to remove Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut from his classroom library. It was also removed from the school library.

In response, Tritt started a fundraiser to provide copies of the book to students outside of school. The Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library donated 1,000 copies of Slaughterhouse-Five to the cause.

Titles challenged in this case:

(See: Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy, v.6 iss.4: Censorship Dateline: Schools: Melbourne, Florida)

Reported in: FOX 35 Orlando, March 23, 2022; Florida Today, May 11, 2022; WKMG, June 8, 2022.

Palm Beach, Florida

On March 28, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis denigrated the children’s book Call Me Max by transgender author Kyle Lukoff during a press conference for the signing of the Parental Rights in Education or “Don’t Say Gay” law (See: this issue: For the Record: Florida).

In response, Palm Beach County School District deputy superintendent Ed Tierney wrote a memo to district principals instructing them to examine the content of books to ascertain compliance with the new law.

Tierney instructed all copies of Call Me Max and I Am Jazz by transgender author Jazz Jennings be removed from elementary school and classroom libraries and placed in “a location where students do not have access.”

School board member Erica Whitfield indicated this was only the beginning. “We’re doing a deep dive now into everything,” said Whitfield. “Our intention is to be in compliance with the law.”

On April 18, the National Coalition Against Censorship wrote a letter to the school board urging the immediate return of the books to library shelves, as “the law applies only to classroom instruction and says nothing about school library materials.”

In late April, the district’s Diversity and Equity Committee recommended that removal of books from school libraries stop until the law goes into effect on July 1.

Committee member Emmy Kenny urged the school board “to consider the lives of our students over the financial impact of being sued. It is proven and well known that seeing your identity reflected in the curriculum decreases suicides.”

Despite this, the comprehensive survey of library material continued. Every book flagged by a teacher as containing material that could be in violation of the law was removed for review. Additional copies were sequestered in places no student could access.

The graphic novel Flamer by Mike Curato and the book A Guide to Gender: The Social Justice Advocate’s Handbook by Sam Killermann were specifically indicated for removal by the district.

A Guide to Gender contains the learning tool “the genderbread person,” which explains that gender identity, gender expression, anatomical sex, sex assigned at birth, sexual attraction, and romantic attraction are all independent variables. It was previously used in a 12th grade human development course.

A giant poster of “the genderbread person” bearing the words “Found in Florida” in red was used by DeSantis as a prop during his press conference.

Reported in: South Florida Sun Sentinel, April 6, 2022; National Coalition Against Censorship, April 20, 2022; The Palm Beach Post, June 13, 2022.

Walton County, Florida

In March, Superintendent A. Russel Hughes ordered the removal of 58 titles from the online catalog and all school libraries in the Walton County School District. Hughes instructed librarians not to talk about the books’ removal.

The list, titled “2021 Porn in Schools Report,” was created by Florida Citizens Alliance (FCA) and given to Hughes by Lisa Robertson, a teacher who is also a member of the local chapter of Moms for Liberty.

Many of the books on the list have lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/ questioning, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) characters, authors, and related themes. Others are by Black, indigeonous, and people of color (BIPOC). Some are sex education titles.

The “porn” list includes the charming children’s book Everywhere Babies and the graphic novel adaptation of the popular and award-winning Scottish time travel romance series Outlander.

FCA, led by CEO and co-founder Keith Flaugh, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. In addition to supporting parental rights legislation and opposing the Florida Education Association teachers’ union, they identify and demonize books that “glorify LGBTQ identities to our children.”

Twenty-four of the 58 titles on FCA’s list were held by Walton County school libraries. No review process was followed prior to their removal.

The mass book banning went public when Robertson informed the school board about it during the public comments section of their April 19 meeting.

Some in attendance shared concerns that the school district was not following their process for handling book challenges. Board member Jason Catalano brushed aside these concerns, stating the “Porn Report” itself fell outside of their procedures.

Books challenged for their appearance on the FCA “2021 Porn in Schools Report”:

Reported in: Northwest Florida Daily News, April 25, 2022; Washington Post, April 22, 2022; WJHG, April 19, 2022.

Cherokee County, Georgia

During the March 17 Cherokee County School District board meeting, Michelle Brown read a sexually explicit excerpt from Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. Brown has children who attend an elementary school in the district. The book is held by high school libraries.

Board members requested Brown stop reading explicit passages as younger children could be watching the meeting online. When she continued, the board ruled her out of order. As a result, the video went viral on social media and was widely promoted on conservative media outlets Fox News and PJ Media.

Brown again raised objections to high school library holdings of Homegoing during the April 21 school board meeting. “The only purpose of these books is to sexualize our children and normalize harmful behaviors,” said Brown.

High school junior Lily Carras disagreed. “As someone who has also read the books currently being challenged, I can say with full confidence that they are not pornographic material,” said Carras. “Books stand paramount as a weapon against ignorance.”

Brown’s in-meeting activism took place in the lead-up to school board elections in the May primary. Brown supports four conservative candidates running for the four open seats on the seven-member board.

Brown leads a group of parents and grandparents attempting to remove books from library collections. She sent a list of 225 titles to the district in March. Formal requests for reconsideration have been submitted for 14 titles.

The only challenged titles which have been publicly disclosed are Homegoing, The Handmaid’s Tale (graphic novel) by Margaret Atwood and Renee Nault, and The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. The outcomes of the reconsideration requests are unknown.

Reported in: Atlanta Journal-
Constitution, April 26, 2022.

Forsyth, Georgia

On January 25, Forsyth County Schools sent an email to all district schools that a list of eight books must be removed from curricula, school libraries, and classroom libraries, and four others must be moved to high school libraries.

The books withdrawn and relocated were from a list of 30 titles created by the private Facebook groups No Left Turn Georgia, Truth in Education, Mary in the Library, and Concerned Parents of Forsyth County. An additional title they requested removal of, Check Please! #hockey by Ngozi Ukazu, had previously been removed as the result of another challenge.

The titles removed and targeted consist primarily of books dealing with themes of race and racism, gender identity and sexuality, and reproductive rights. Many have authors who are Black, indigenous, or persons of color; women; and/ or who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/ questioning, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+).

At the February 15 school board meeting, Concerned Parents of Forsyth demanded an independent audit of the more than half million titles in the school system to remove all “pornography.”

Associate superintendent of teaching and learning Lee Anne Rice and chief technology and information officer Mike Evans announced proposed changes to the district’s reconsideration process at the March 15 school board meeting.

Rice and Evans said the proposed changes would increase parental involvement in library material selection and allow books to be challenged at the district-level instead of reviewed at the school-level.

The district’s existing policy does not appear to have been followed with regards to the titles withdrawn and relocated district-wide in response to challenges raised by conservative pressure groups in January.

Also during the March school board meeting, parents raised raucous objections to the books Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. One mother was removed from the meeting and will not be readmitted until she puts in writing that she agrees to follow the rules of the meetings.

Titles challenged in this case:

Reported in: Forsyth County News, January 30, 2022, and March 11, 2022; WSET March 30, 2022.

Savannah, Georgia

A group calling itself the School Board Action Team began attending board meetings of the Savannah-Chatham County Public School System in January to speak out against nine books they consider to be “obscene.”

For months, they read excerpts from the books during the public comments section of every board meeting. The books are all available in high school libraries and two of the titles are also in middle school collections.

Beth Majeroni, the leader of the School Board Action Team, does not have children in the district. She is a board member of the conservative women’s organization Ladies on the Right.

The group appears to be more dedicated to making a commotion than to following procedures to have the titles’ place in district collections formally reviewed. They have deliberately refrained from filing requests for reconsideration, a necessary step to initiate the review process. Majeroni said they’re hoping for a legislative response instead.

Titles challenged in this case:

Reported in: Savannah Morning News, April 28, 2022, and May 3, 2022.

Coeur D’Alene, Idaho

Requests for reconsideration of Prince and Knight by Daniel Haack and The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish by Lil Miss Hot Mess were received, reviewed, and rejected by a committee of the Coeur d’Alene Public Library.

The announcement of the decision to retain the titles in the children’s section was made by trustee Steve McCrea during their February 24 board meeting.

“There are parents that like these books in the library,” McCrea said. “They want access to them for their children.” He stressed that, “they’re very benign. There’s no sexualization. There’s no pornography. There’s nothing explicit in either of those two books.”

Both of the books challenged depict characters who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/ questioning, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+). The committee’s report on the two titles they reviewed stated that “It is not disputed that . . . sexual identity or gender are important topics for parents to discuss with their children.”

Claridge was not satisfied with the board’s adoption of the review committee’s recommendation. She stated that Idaho statute 18-1513 prohibits distributing obscene materials to minors. She asked that the books be placed in a “LGBTQ/ Transgender” section of the library, since they aren’t being withdrawn.

Numerous parents in attendance raised misguided and overtly homophobic objections. Wendy Smith said, “Some books are designed to entice young people to the LGBTQ lifestyle.”

Heather DeHay cited three additional titles she wants removed from the library, Auntie Uncle: Drag Queen Hero by Ellie Royce, Diary of a Drag Queen by Crystal Rasmussen, and My Fairy Godmother is a Drag Queen by David Clawson.

“Aside from the brainwashing of young minds into the LGBTQ agenda, we should be deeply concerned with a growing movement to normalize the sexualization of our children,” said DeHay.

McCrea stressed the library has a responsibility to represent all points of view and all community members. He stated matter-of-factly that the books are not “brainwashing children.”

“You don’t have to allow your children to read these books,” said McCrea. “You are the parent. You don’t have to check the book out of the library.”

During the meeting Claridge also voiced objections to Jonathan Evison’s Lawn Boy. She demanded that the book be relocated to the adult section. This would be impossible, as it was already shelved there.

Reported in: Coeur d’Alene/Post Falls Press, February 27, 2022.

Allen County, Indiana

A group of parents requested the removal of Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings from the 10th grade curriculum during the February 14 school board meeting of the Northwest Allen County School District.

Angelou’s account of her life through age 17 portrays how her love of literature and the power of words helped her cope with racism and childhood sexual trauma. It provides examples of resisting racist oppression and navigating male-dominated society as a woman. It was nominated for a National Book Award in 1970.

The parents challenged the book due to its presentation of molestation and rape and because they felt it was racist. They provided recommendations for alternative books that could be read, including The 47 Financial Principles and Finances for Teens.

Additionally, Southwest Allen County School Board candidate Amanda Tokos began recruiting “book investigators” to report material in school and classroom libraries that are “harmful” to minors at all four Allen County public school systems.

Tokos is the administrator of a private Facebook group called the Advisory Book Club of Allen County, which claims it is “saving kids one book at a time” by diminishing access to books.

The group seeks to “expose harmful books in an effort to educate our community and our legislators, as well as to create evidence in an effort to have them removed from the schools and restricted from minors in public libraries.”

Reported in: WANE, February 14, 2022; WPTA, March 18, 2022.

Indianola, Iowa

After three recently challenged books were retained throughout the Indianola Community School District, parents came to the April 12 school board meeting to demand an easier method to keep children from reading.

Suggestions that were made included adopting a rating system for books, requiring parental permission for books with more mature content, and withdrawing any library books that are “disgusting, vulgar, sexually descriptive, and essentially illegal in public.”

The district’s formal reconsideration process was reviewed. During the explanation, it was also revealed that books are sometimes reviewed informally.

Board president Rob Keller said he would prefer a more proactive approach to removing or curtailing access to library material, such as the “parental notification and permission requirement” that principal Jeff Siebersma proposed, requiring signed permission slips for any material identified as “young adult, mature, or adult crossover.”

Board member Ben Metzger also voiced support for this approach.

At the April 26 meeting, most who spoke out during the public comments section opposed the efforts to restrict access to books.

Eric Christensen said “There are all kinds of ughly things, uncomfortable things, to read about, but all of those have a place in our library.”

Lynn Cory, who has served on the district’s reconsideration committee, stated flatly that “pornography does not exist in our schools.”

Cory praised the librarians who selected materials and the teachers who used them in class. “I cannot tell you how impressed I was listening to their conversations and rationale[s] for the books they chose at the reconsideration committee meetings. It made me feel proud to be a part of this district.”

The recently challenged books were:

Reported in: Indianola Independent Advocate, April 13, 2022, and April 27, 2022.

Oskaloosa, Iowa

On November 9, 2021, the Oskaloosa Community School District received requests to reconsider 14 titles. Reasons for the challenges included homosexual content, sexually explicit passages, and that portrayals of police brutality could “create a negative view [of] law enforcement.”

A reconsideration committee was formed and met four times from the date of the challenge until January 30, to review 12 of the titles. Two of the titles which were challenged, Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe and All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson, were not held by the district, so they were not reviewed.

The committee recommended that all but one of the titles be retained without restriction. Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg, was restricted to high school use, and the copy that was held by the Oskaloosa Middle School library was relocated to the Oskaloosa High school library.

Additionally, the committee recommended that alternate titles be provided on request for the two titles which were part of the curriculum, Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. Parents whose 8th grade students are assigned Flowers for Algernon will now be sent letters explaining the book’s content.

The titles that were challenged and retained without restriction were:

In a separate incident in January, a group of parents organized in opposition to the Oskaloosa Elementary School’s proposed adoption of the Wit & Wisdom curriculum, alleging that teaching about Civil Rights constituted “child abuse.”

The five titles included in the Wit & Wisdom curriculum that were specifically objected to by the group were:

On February 8, the board voted 5-2 to approve the curriculum.

Reported in: Iowa Starting Line, January 31, 2022, and February 9, 2022; Office for Intellectual Freedom challenge reports.

Derby, Kansas

On February 16, the Library Committee for Derby Public Schools voted to remove Sherman Alexie’s award-winning book The Absolutely True Diaries of a Part-Time Indian from the library at Derby North Middle School.

Additionally, the book was taken off of the teacher selection list, meaning that it can no longer be taught at Derby High School. They also ruled that warning labels indicating mature content would be added to the copies that are available for checkout at the high school.

Three members of the school board served on the committee. The request to reconsider the novel was submitted by the grandparent of a student.

Holly Putnam-Jackson, assistant superintendent of curriculum, advised the committee that the district’s legal team cautioned against labeling books as explicit or asking parents to approve their children’s library selections.

A request to reconsider the novel We Are Not From Here by Jenny Torres Sanchez was also received. Copies of the book were obtained as part of a grant. While the committee reviewed the book, the outcome was not reported and is largely moot as the teacher who used the book is leaving the district and taking all copies with her.

At the district’s February 28 board meeting, former city councilor Cheryl Bannon spoke against the censoring of classroom and school library books. She said that if Alexie’s novel wasn’t age-appropriate, then neither was The Bible.

Bannon submitted a request for reconsideration for The Bible, which is used in an elective “Bible as Literature” course at Derby High School. The Library Committee voted to retain it in school libraries and on the teacher selection list.

Reported in: Salina Post, March 8, 2022, and March 30, 2022.

Shawnee, Kansas

In April, formal requests for reconsideration were submitted for five books at the Shawnee Heights Unified School District.

State senator Rick Kloos personally met with superintendent Tim Hallacy to voice his opposition to the award-winning book Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe.

State senator Renee Erickson also spoke out against Gender Queer, claiming that if she found images from the book on a colleague’s computer, she would report them for possession of child pornography.

On May 16, the school board voted to approve the recommendations from the Book Review Committee to retain five books which had recently been formally challenged.

Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness by Anastasia Higginbotham was retained at the Shawnee Heights Elementary School library by a vote of 4-3, but with the option for parents to restrict access for their children.

Beyond the Gender Binary by Alok Vaid-Menon was retained without restrictions at the Shawnee Heights Middle School library by a vote of 7-0.

All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson was retained without restriction at the Shawnee Heights High School library by a vote of 5-2.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas was retained at the Shawnee Heights High School library and a s part of the 9th grade English Language Arts curriculum by a vote of 6-1. Students have the option to read To Kill a Mockingbird as an alternative assignment.

Gender Queer was retained without restriction at the Shawnee Heights High School library by a vote of 4-3.

Reported in: Topeka Capital-
Journal, April 21, 2022; Kansas Reflector, May 17, 2022.

Shawnee Mission, Kansas

During the public comments section of the October 25, 2021, meeting of the Shawnee Mission School District (SMSD) board, Debbie Detmer spoke out against student masking requirements and read excerpts from school library books she considered to be inappropriate for children.

Sabrina Hardy also read excerpts from a number of books she felt should not be available from school libraries.

One of the titles read from, All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir Manifesto by George M. Johnson, was also objected to by Sean Claycamp at the September 27 meeting.

All Boys Aren’t Blue was included on a list of supplemental reading material for young adults which was distributed to some district students.

Formal requests for reconsideration never seem to have been submitted.

Based on the descriptions provided on videos of the public comments uploaded by “Little Family on the Prairie,” the real objective may have been to influence the upcoming board election.

One description inaccurately and misleadingly states, “This mother reads the material currently allowed in SMSD classrooms under the school board authority of Mary Sinclair and Heather Ousley, who are running for re-election Nov 2. Students of all ages are introduced to violent material, pornographic literature, and other objectioanble content aimed at indoctrinating minors thanks to this current board’s agenda-driven curriculum.”

Both video descriptions end with the statement: “VOTE THE BOARD OUT ON NOV 2.”

None of the books read from are used as part of any district curricula. Both Sinclair and Ousley were re-elected. To date, no further objections to reading material available at district libraries have been raised during board meetings.

The other titles objected to at the board meeting and on Facebook were:

Reported in: Shawnee Mission School District Board of Education Special Public Comment Meeting Minutes, September 27, 2021, and October 25, 2021.

Lafayette, Louisiana

In February, a patron requested that the Lafayette Public Library remove DVD copies of the documentary Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood.

The unrated film tells the story of Scotty Bowers, who arranged sexual encounters for closeted gay, lesbian, and bisexual movie stars from the 1940s through the 1980s. It is based on Bowers’s book Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars.

On March 9, the review committee voted to retain the film in the library.

The committee consisted of two librarians and one appointed board member. Due to a board-initiated policy change, this is the final materials challenge that will be handled in this fashion by the Lafayette Public Library. Committees reviewing future challenges will consist of two appointed board members and one library staff member.

Members of the public have raised objections that this will open the process to political influence.

On April 18, the library board voted 6-0 to restrict circulation of Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood to people 17 and over and require ID to check it out.

Reported in: The Acadiana Advocate, March 7, 2022; KATC, March 10, 2022; Daily Advertiser, April 19, 2022.

Wicomico County, Maryland

During the public comments section of the Wicomico County Public Schools’s (WCPS) March 8 board meeting, the Delmarva Parent Teacher Coalition (DPTC) voiced concerns about the book All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson and called for its removal from district school libraries.

According to their website, DPTC works “to make sure that the use of propaganda, identity politics, and extreme socialism are not integrated throughout the state curriculum.” Members in attendance read short excerpts from Johnson’s affirming and award-winning memoir about growing up Black and queer.

No formal request for reconsideration of All Boys Aren’t Blue was received, however WCPS superintendent Donna Hanlin had the books removed from high school library shelves without discussion and in violation of the district’s established policy and procedures.

Hanlin released a statement that two school library media specialists removed the book on their own accord because “they did not recognize the extremely graphic nature of this book when it was ordered. They corrected their own mistake, meaning that it didn’t need to go through the review process.”

On March 22, the National Coalition Against Censorship sent a letter to the WCPS board of education, urging them to return their copies of the book to library shelves, follow their formal review process, and “make it clear to all district personnel that compliance with board regulations is not optional.”

Their letter also reminded the board that ignoring book challenge procedures potentially exposes the district to legal liability. “The Supreme Court has limited the ability of public schools to remove library books. In particular, the Court has said that books cannot be removed because of disagreement with the views expressed therein.”

Salisbury PFLAG Executive Director Mark DeLancey indicated that PFLAG plans to take legal action.

Reported in: Maryland Coast Dispatch, March 17, 2022; National Coalition Against Censorship, March 22, 2022; Delmarva Parent Teacher Coalition, March 9, 2022; Salisbury Daily Times, March 17, 2022.

Worcester, Maryland

All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson was challenged twice by high school parents in the Worcester County Public Schools system following complaints about critical race theory and gay sex voiced during the February 15 board meeting.

Numerous parents and community members defended the title during the March 15 board meeting, though detractors also persisted in raising objections to it.

Copies of the book are available in all four district high schools. Through August, there is no indication of a recommendation from a review committee regarding the book.

Based on a comment made at the April 19 meeting that “the book” was being allowed in schools, but the American flag wasn’t, it appears to have been retained. Further context for the alleged disappearance of American flags was not provided. This is the last reference to the book that appears in their minutes.

Reported in: Maryland Coast Dispatch, February 17, 2022, and March 9, 2022; Salisbury Daily Times, March 17, 2022; Ocean City Today, March 24, 2022; Worcester County Public Schools Board of Education minutes, February 15, 2022, and March 15, 2022, and April 19, 2022.

Rochester, Michigan

Local parents formed a group on Facebook focused on searching the Rochester Community Schools’ online catalog for books they consider to be “pornography.”

The group spoke out against four titles during the February 7 board meeting and read passages from several of them. Numerous emails and were also sent to district administrators about the titles.

The books were indefinitely removed from circulation. On March 14, after administrators received a letter complaining a fifth “pornographic” title was found in the collection, Flamer by Mike Curato was also removed from circulation.

Three of the five titles have lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/ questioning, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) characters, themes, and/ or authors. One is a science fiction novel about women’s rights and reproductive rights. The last is a memoir recounting the author’s experiences growing up in a dysfunctional family struggling with poverty.

Titles challenged in this case:

Reported in: Office for Intellectual Freedom challenge report.

Hinds County, Mississippi

On March 2, Gary Road Elementary School Assistant principal Toby Price read I Need a New Butt by Dawn McMillan to second grade students over Zoom. He was placed on administrative leave that day and terminated from his position two days later for violating the standards of conduct section of the Mississippi Educator Code of Ethics.

Principal Jenetha Lampkin was originally supposed to read to the students during the meeting. When she didn’t show, Price improvised by grabbing a book he had nearby, because it was a favorite of his children.

More than 21 percent of those living in Hinds County fall below the poverty line. Price said, “We have a lot of reluctant readers. I am a firm believer that reluctant readers need the silly, funny books to hook them in.”

In a letter sent to the school board on March 21, the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) called on them to rescind their action, stating that it created “a chilling effect among teachers, who fear that they, too, will suffer consequences if they ever dare to bring new or different ideas or perspectives to their students outside of approved curricula.”

NCAC also stated that, “Imposing such a harsh penalty for reading a rather innocuous book sends the message to students that even a slight deviation from social norms is so egregiously wrong that it merits the most severe punishment that the district can mete out.

Price had no prior disciplinary issues and said he had previously read the book to students while working at other school districts.

Reported in: New York Times, March 11, 2022; National Coalition Against Censorship, March 21, 2022.

Madison County, Mississippi

Members of the pressure groups Madison MS Mommas, Madison County for Freedom, and a local chapter of Moms for Liberty voiced objections to school library materials during the public comment sections of the December, January, February, March, and April board meetings of Madison County Schools (MCS).

Almost all of the 22 titles targeted featured Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/ questioning, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) characters. The books dealt with themes of race, racism, gender identity, and sexuality. Most also had BIPOC or LGBTQIA+ authors.

The target audiences of the various books ran the gamut and some were held in district elementary school, middle school, and high school libraries, accordingly.

Mississippi MassResistance celebrated the district’s move to restrict access to the challenged titles in an April 11th post and indicated that their members were among those speaking out during the April 4 board meeting. The Southern Poverty Law Center categorizes MassResistance as an anti-LGBTQIA+ hate group.

MassResistance member Lindsey Beckham, was one of the people who voiced opposition to the books during the meetings. She said that was concerned about critical race theory.

During the week of April 18, the district announced that parental permission would be required for students to check out any of the challenged materials. MCS director of communications Gene Wright said that a review committee was being formed to evaluate the books and make recommendations to the district about them.

On August 1, the board voted unanimously to approve the superintendent Charlotte Seals’s recommendation to continue restricting access to 10 of the titles. Eleven of the challenged titles will no longer require parental permission. No recommendation was provided or voted on for Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany Jackson.

Titles challenged in this case:

Reported in: Mississippi Today, April 22, 2022, and August 1, 2022.

Nixa, Missouri

In mid-February, members of the groups Concerned Parents for Nixa and No Left Turn in Education challenged 17 titles in libraries of the Nixa Public Schools District.

All of the books challenged had lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/ questioning, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) and/ or non-White authors.

During their May 12 meeting, the school board voted to remove Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel and All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson from all school libraries.

An additional seven titles were removed from library shelves, but will be made available to students who receive parental permission to access them. Those titles were:

The board voted to retain Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.

During the meeting, teachers were accused by Concerned Parents of Nixa members of “peddling radical gender theory and critical race theory.”

Members of Concerned Parents of Nixa also called for the resignations and terminations of staff members and school officials who voted to retain the titles or were otherwise complicit. They also suggested laws were being broken by having these books in libraries as they are “illegal to distribute to minors.”

More than a dozen Nixa high school students spoke out in favor of retaining access to all titles and presented a list of 316 signatures from classmates supporting keeping the books in their libraries. “These signatures represent students from all grades, genders, ethnicities, who believe they will benefit from access to these books in the library without restriction,” said junior Justice Jones.

Another student, Meghana Nakkanti, said “It is a student’s personal choice to engage with them. If they feel uncomfortable, they can stop reading or skip pages. However all students lose access to diverse ideas when books are restricted.

These titles were also formally challenged by the group:

Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin

Concerned Parents of Nixa have also raised written, verbal, and online objections to district library holdings of Jewell Parker Rhodes’s Ghost Boys and Something Happened in Our Town: A Child’s Story About Racial Injustice by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, Ann Hazzard, and Jennifer Zivion.

On May 17, the ACLU issued a formal “demand of preservation of tangible and electronic evidence” requiring Nixa schools to preserve “all tangible and electronic evidence and the suspension of routine destruction of documents that relate to the review and removal of books and other written materials from school libraries.”

The move seemingly indicates an intent to file a lawsuit against the school district.

Gillian Wilcox, deputy director for litigation at the ACLU of Missori, said that the First Amendment “protects students’ rights to access and receive information.”

“It is especially concerning that the recent, coordinated book bans largely focus on authors of racial and sexual minority communities,” said Wilcox.

At the June 28 board meeting, five school district policies were updated without discussion or description of the changes. The board voted 5-0 to revise the policies as part of the consent agenda. The policies changed were:

The online agenda did not provide the name of the policies dealing with school library materials, but did include the names of the other two policies.

During the September 13 board meeting, Heidi Hadley, an English professor with students enrolled in Nixa schools, spoke out against the policy changes and the manner in which they were made.

“Making policies that take the ability away from media specialists to be responsive to the need of their student population in their selection of books and media centers in their classrooms is, quite frankly, education malpractice,” said Hadley.

Reported in: Springfield News-Leader, May 12, 2022, May 17, 2022, September 15, 2022, Office for Intellectual Freedom challenge report.

Auburn, New York

During the public comments section of the December 14, 2021, board meeting of the Auburn Enlarged City School District board resident Barb Stotler voiced an objection to the fact that George M. Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto was available at the Auburn High School library.

“This is a book on homosexuality. You could open the book into various places within and it was just pornography, nothing more,” said Stotler.

All Boys Aren’t Blue is a memoir about Johnson’s experiences growing up as a queer Black man which Kirkus referred to as a “captivating merciful mirror for growing up Black and queer today.”

Johnson’s memoir received numerous accolades including being the American Library Association’s 2021 Rainbow List selection for Young Adult Nonfiction, one of the Young Adult Library Services Association 2021 Teens’ Top 10, one of the 2019 Outstanding Books for the College Bound, and a selection for the Goodreads Choice Award.

More people came to the January 11 board meeting to protest the book. After the meeting, a formal request for the book’s reconsideration was submitted and a review committee was formed to evaluate if the book would remain in the collection.

Nine of the ten people who spoke about the book during the January 25 school board meeting supported keeping it available from the library. Among them was Steve Gamba, the high school’s choral and music director.

“To focus on only a few paragraphs and pages to characterize an entire book is both narrow-minded and wrong, while at the same time, invalidating the struggles of and further marginalizing the LGBTQ+ community here at Auburn High School,” said Gamba

Stotler was the one of ten who spoke out opposing the book, this time stating that making it available to children violated “laws both state and federal pertaining to obscenity and minors.”

On March 6, it was reported that the review committee recommended retaining All Boys Aren’t Blue in the high school library collection. They also recommended that the board consider revising policies to allow parents to restrict their own childrens’ access to specific library materials.

Reported in: The Citizen, January 30, 2022, March 6, 2022, and July 30, 2022.

Wappingers, New York

On January 18, 2022, a member of Moms for Liberty and the grandparent of a student in the Wappingers Central School District submitted formal requests for reconsideration of a number of titles, only one of which was held by a district library. She alleged the book is “indoctrinating our children” and “promoting pornography.”

The district’s Instructional Reveiw Committee evaluated the title held, Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer: A Memoir. On February 9, they voted unanimously to retain it at the John Jay High School library and encouraged the other high school in the district, Roy C. Ketcham High, to purchase it for their library.

However, Superintendent Dwight Bonk submitted his personal recommendation for the book’s removal to the school board and on March 14, they voted unanimously to abide by Bonk’s recommendation and withdraw Gender Queer.

Reported in: Mid Hudson News, March 18, 2022.

Charlotte, North Carolina

Members of Moms for Liberty demanded the removal of a book assigned in a 9th grade class during the public comments section of the February 8 board meeting for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS).

The book, The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow, explores race, class, and gender through the story of Rachel, a biracial girl orphan who is raped at age 16. It was added to the curriculum to help improve the diversity of authors and content in the classroom in response to feedback from students, teachers, and community members.

An alternative reading assignment was already available, however the Moms for Liberty members requested that the book be removed from the district.

Community members were informed about the formal reconsideration process CMS has in place to handle concerns about reading materials.

Moms for Liberty members again spoke out against the novel during the March 8 school board meeting. It does not appear that any formal request for reconsideration was submitted in this case. CMS has not indicated if the book will remain part of the curriculum.

Reported in: WCCB, February 10, 2022; The Charlotte Observer, March 24, 2022.

Iredell, North Carolina

Moms for Liberty began protesting what they called “pornographic” books during the public comments section of the February 14 meeting of the Iredell-Statesville Schools Board of Education.

Moms for Liberty members initially raised concerns regarding 33 titles, though only two have been publicly disclosed are Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher and Another Day by David Levithan. By the March 14 meeting, that had burgeoned to 75.

At the April 4 Committee of the Whole meeting, District media coordinator Karen Van Vliet said that after an initial review of the 75 challenged titles, 11 would undergo a review by committee. She said the other titles were either not held in district libraries or were books of nonfiction, including books about racism and biographies, which would be retained without formal review.

Referencing the 1982 Supreme Court case Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District v. Pico, Van Vliet said that, “School officials do not have the right to pull books off a library shelf simply because they dislike the ideas in those books.”

“Even as minors, students have First Amendment rights to receive information and ideas; however school officials can remove books that are pervasively vulgar,” continued Van Vliet.

Van Vliet also stated that the child of the parent who filed the 75 requests for reconsideration of library materials had not checked out any of the challenged titles. Nor had the child checked out any other school library book. She added that the challenged titles had been checked out over 1,500 times and no complaints were received from the parents of those who read them.

After noting that the parent had plagiarized their objections instead of independently evaluating the titles, Van Vliet stated that, “Moving forward, we need to ensure that parents adhere to the process as set forth by board policy.”

Following Van Vliet’s report, Superintendent Jeff James expressed different concerns from the ones she raised. “It creates some issues when we accuse principals of being purveyors of pornography on their shelves,” said James.

At the April 11 board meeting, after listening to nine people’s objections to library books, James said “We are just as concerned as anyone that spoke tonight. None of us want to have filth, pornography, or anything else sitting on our shelves, accessible to our kids.”

“The conversations have not gone on deaf ears,” continued James. “We are proceeding to change our processes in selecting our books. This didn’t happen overnight, so it won’t be fixed overnight.”

Board member Bill Howell said that those who spoke up were “not a minority. That is what was referred to as the silent majority that woke up during the pandemic to find out their rights were being taken away. It is time we take back our government.”

At the May 9 board meeting, James stated that more than 100 titles had been pulled for review and would not be available for checkout until they had been approved by a nine-person panel. He said there would be an opportunity to appeal their determinations to the board.

In response, board member Bryan Shoemaker said he hadn’t read the books, but that he has a problem with the language used in the excerpts read by Moms for Liberty members. He appreciated learning from James that the books had been removed as he “is in favor of doing what is morally and ethically right.”

Board member Martin Page also expressed appreciation that the books were removed from library shelves. Board member Knight said he hoped the process could be expedited. Howell said “we should not have books in the hands of kids that they should not see.” Board member Sam Kennington thanked James for “bringing back common sense and compromise.”

The sole board member who voiced opposition to the book banning efforts was Charles Kelly, who spoke of the book burnings that took place in Nazi Germany during the 1930’s and said that he “shudders at the thought” of following that path.

At the June 13 board meeting, Superintendent James made transphobic comments about how he would personally deal with anyone who put up a poster of Caitlyn Jenner (whom he called “Bruce Jenner dressed as a woman”).

James then announced that he had received two book lists from Moms for Liberty members, totalling more than 125 titles. He stated that he’d provided them with information about when the books were purchased and how many times each had been checked out.

James said that starting with the 2022-2023 school year, parents would be able to opt their children out of being able to access specific titles at the library. He also announced that going forwards, a committee would vet all book purchase requests submitted by school library media specialists.

Reported in: Iredell Free News, February 15, 2022, and April 9, 2022; Iredell-Statesville Schools Board of Education Minutes, April 11, 2022, May 9, 2022, and June 13, 2022.

Ashland, Ohio

On March 10, a patron of the Ashland Public Library expressed concerns over what they considered to be pornographic content in books for children and teens. They wanted to know how to bring their concerns to the board. That patron was part of a larger group led by pastors from the Ashland County Ministerial Association (ACMA).

The group began attending and speaking out at library board meetings in April, levying allegations of child pornography against library board and staff members. Another group called the Intercessors joined ACMA in protesting the books. By July, meeting attendance had swelled into the hundreds, overflowing from the meeting room into the hallway.

Some of the books objected to were added to the collection as part of a book drive initiated by Colorful Ashland, which raised $1,000 for library books. Staff vetted the list of books Colorful Ashland selected and added 120 of them to the collection. Many contained themes related to race, racism, gender, gender identity, and sexuality.

Two of the titles challenged by the group, This is Our Rainbow: 16 Stories of Her, Him, Them, and Us by Katherine Locke and Wonderful Women of the World by Laurie Halse Anderson, were relocated to the adult section of the library.

The board determined that three other challenged titles would remain in the juvenile nonfiction section:

The final title the groups objected to, It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris, was already shelved in the adult section of the library. The board decided it would remain there.

Reported in: Ashland Times Gazette, June 10, 2022, and August 11, 2022; Ashland Source, July 14, 2022, and September 9, 2022.

Buckeye Valley, Ohio

Plans for Jason Tharp to read his childrens’ book It’s Okay to be a Unicorn! at West Elementary were jettisoned by the Buckeye Valley school district in response to parent complaints that the book “was promoting a gay lifestyle.”

Tharp said the book is about growing up when you feel like you don’t fit in and is part of a series of books he wrote to help boost kids’ self-confidence and speak out against bullying. He said the book is about being yourself and loving who you are and not about sexuality.

“It doesn’t mean cause there’s rainbows that it’s a book about being gay,” said Tharp.

Emails obtained by WSYX indicate that board members did not approve of what they perceived the book’s message to be.

Board member Tom Ailabouni wrote, “We are telling kids that being gay is ok? And wear clothes to create a rainbow? Are we out of our minds? Get ready to talk more lawsuits. This is not ok.”

Board vice-president Donald Dickie wrote, “I think it would be in the best interests of the district to cancel Jason Tharp coming to West. These types of things are exactly what we have been fighting against. Why would we welcome an author who is pushing LGBTQ ideas on our most vulnerable students?”

The decision to cancel Tharp’s speaking engagement about kindness, uniqueness, and chasing your dreams was made after Ohio state representatives Mike Loychik and Jean Schmidt introduced HB 616, a bill modeled on Florida’s HB 1557, commonly known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law.

Reported in: WSYX, April 7, 2022, and April 22, 2022.

Enid, Oklahoma

On April 11, the board of the Public Library of Enid and Garfield County voted 3-2 to revise their policies to state the library would not promote books or host programs on “the study of sex, secual activity, sexual perversion, sex-based classifications, sexual preferences, sexual identity, gender identity, or that are of a sexual nature.”

The policy change was enacted in response to a debate that took place at a prior board meeting about Pride Month displays and programs for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/ questioning, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) community members.

Board chair Joseph Fletcher said the language used in the policy revisions was taken from the original draft of Oklahoma SB 1142, which would ban all such materials from schools and school libraries. SB 1142 never made it

Cammeron Kaiser, state director of Free Mom Hugs, felt she had a read on the board’s intentions in making such a change.

“I’d expect if you were to remove books that referred to gender identity, no book would show a child with a woman as a mother or a man as a father, because these are not only referring to gender identity, but sexual idenity,” said Kaiser. “What I believe your actual intention is, is to erase an entire segment of the population.”

Others in attendance at the meeting, like Stephanie Ezzel, a bisexual woman with an LGBTQIA+ child, felt like they were being specifically targeted by the change.

“You’re coming for my child and I’m not okay with that. Please allow my child and myself the same representation as everybody else,” said Ezzel.

In order to comply with the board’s policy change, the library canceled a number of upcoming programs and events. These included a presentation from the Enid YWCA on sexual assault prevention and abusive relationships, the library’s Shameless Romance book club for patrons 18-and-up, and their Pride Month displays.

On May 3, Enid city commissioners met in executive session to discuss a possible lawsuit against the City of Enid regarding the library policy change.

As a result of that meeting, on May 24, the library board voted unanimously to again revise their policies. The new revision requires library displays to be suitable for a general audience inclusive of elementary school children.

The policy now also allows third-party exhibits that include “adult content” which can be installed with approval from the library director. These may remain on display for up to four weeks.

Both library displays and third-party exhibits are prohibited from including material that is obscene or harmful to minors. The statutory definitions for both terms were included. “Adult content” is not defined in the policy.

After the announcement of the new policy change was made, Enid’s LGBTQ+ Coalition said it would ask the city to exhibit a Pride Month display at the library. They said it would include a selection of books from the library and Mayor George Pankonin’s proclamation declaring June to be Pride Month.

Reported in: Enid News & Eagle, April 11, 2022, April 16, 2022.

Medford, Oregon

On April 22, it was reported that the Medford School District removed all English and Spanish-language copies of Renee Nault’s graphic novel adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale from school libraries as a result of a parent’s complaint.

Natalie Hurd, communications and community engagement director for the district, said that a committee including two librarians and other school officials was convened to evaluate the book. The committee “determined the graphic novel does not meet the needs of the school nor the needs of individual students,” said Hurd.

Hurd added that district officials are reviewing their graphic novel selection procedures.

In June, the school district’s attorney Thad Pauck disclosed that the committee argued against the book’s removal. The decision to remove it was instead made by district superintendent Bret Champion.

Pauck released this information in response to questions posed by the Oregon Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee and the Oregon chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Reported in: Yahoo! News, April 22, 2022, and June 28, 2022.

Central Bucks, Pennsylvania

During the public comments section of the March 8 Central Bucks school board meeting, members of the group Woke PA raised objections to the availability of the books Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe, All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson, and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.

The books portray the lived experiences of Black and/or lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) individuals.

Most of the books which were challenged, such as Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison, The Bluest Eye, and All Boys Aren’t Blue were removed from district libraries. It is unclear if Gender Queer was also removed.

It was also announced at the meeting that rights to the school edition of Jonathan Larson’s musical Rent had been secured and the Central Bucks High School West would put on a production of it during the fall semester.

On March 23, school administrators canceled the production.

During the April 12 school board meeting, members of the school’s drama club said district administrators objected to the inclusion of queer relationships in the musical. Administrators did not make any public comment as to why they had reversed course.

On July 26, Central Bucks School District voted 6-3 to approve a restrictive policy barring “sexualized content” from school libraries. The five-page policy forbids things like “implied written description of sexual acts or implied nudity” from middle school library books.

The new policy also requires that each school library “shall maintain a printed list of materials onsite and on the school library website that shows what has been selected as well as what is lated for acquisition.” It states that “parents/ guardians have the right to review student school records, including but not limited to books checked out by their child.” Additionally, it grants parents the right to opt their child out of access to specific titles.

Julie Zaebst, senior policy advocate at the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, said “It’s not very hard to connect the dots between this policy and these other school district actions that have a clear anti-LGBQ and T bias.”

In response to the policy change and the belligerent climate of censorship efforts, teachers also began purging books from their classroom libraries. According to parent Kate Nazemi, a member of the anti-censorship group Advocates for Inclusive Education, “In Central Bucks we’ve seen teachers removing their classroom libraries, because they don’t want to be targeted.”

On September 24, anti-censorship advocates paraded through Doylestown. The march was led by individuals costumed as books that were challenged at the Central Bucks School District or elsewhere in the state.

Reported in: The Bucks County Courier Times, March 13, 2022; The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 29, 2022, and April 16, 2022.

Franklin, Pennsylvania

On March 7, the Franklin Regional School District announced it would “pause” use of the graphic novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi in a freshman honors English course.

The pause occurred after school board members requested administrators to review its use. The board members who requested the review said they had received calls and emails from district residents about the book.

Persepolis was previously approved by the district’s curriculum committee, included in a public 30-day curriculum display for parents, and approved by the school board. An alternate text was already available for parents who wished to opt their children out of reading it.

At the meeting, student Colin Burch said of himself and several classmates that, “We all read it. Your fears regarding this book are unfounded.”

Parent Len Culley asked, “Why are those who oppose the novel allowed to dictate the curriculum after it was already approved?”

The five people who spoke during the public comments during the March 21 board meeting all urged the district to restore Persepolis to the curriculum.

The paused curriculum continued to be discussed during the public comments section of board meetings through May 2. As of September 19, the board has taken no action to either unpause use of Persepolis or formally remove it from the curriculum.

Reported in: Tribune-Review, March 7, 2022; Franklin Regional School District Board of Directors Meeting Minutes, March 21, 2022, April 11, 2022, and May 2, 2022.

Littlestown, Pennsylvania

In April, 2021, Janell Ressler submitted formal requests for the Littlestown Area School District (LASD) to reconsider a list of 34 books she believed to be in violation of both propriety and state law.

On Facebook, Ressler made numerous posts characterizing an LASD school librarian as a sexual deviant and child pornographer. The board sent Ressler a letter asking her to desist from making defamatory comments about staff.

On April 25, it was reported that five of the books Ressler challenged would be retained, based on prior board approval for use in the curriculum. Those five are:

At their June 20 meeting, the board approved a motion requiring parental approval for students to check out physical or electronic copies of any book on the American Library Association’s list of the 100 most challenged books. The policy will go into effect in the 2022-2023 school year and the list of books requiring parental approval will be updated annually.

During the meeting, Ressler said, “The books I have brought to your attention are criminal. If they are acted upon, the people doing these acts should be arrested. And be in prison.” She then demanded that the board “remove the librarians from decision-making about books,” advocating for the board to assume responsibility for selecting all library materials.

The outcomes of the challenges to the following titles remains unknown:

Reported in: Gettysburg Times, April 20, 2022, and June 15, 2022; Office for Intellectual Freedom challenge report.

Manheim, Pennsylvania

At the December 13 meeting of the Manheim Central School District, Danielle Nelson raised concerns about the book Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan, which her child had checked out from a school library. Nelson had filed a formal request for reconsideration of the book on October 19.

Discussion of the book came up again during the public comments sections of the January and March board meetings. In March, Terrie Eshleman and Genevieve Zercher said that as public officials, board members needed to represent the views of their community, not their personal ideologies.

Eshleman cited the 1982 Supreme Court case Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District v. Pico.

“I ask this school board to rebuff any calls to remove books from our school libraries,” Zercher said. “Librarians are trained to curate a collection of materials for all the people in the community, not just those who are the loudest, not just those who may be in a majority group.”

Nelson has not returned the book to the library. A formal review of it is pending the book’s return.

Reported in: LancasterOnline January 29, 2022, Manheim Central School District board minutes, December 13, 2021, January 24, 2022, and March 28, 2022.

Union Grove, Tennessee

A group of parents called for the removal of the book Dragonwings by Laurence Yep from the 6th grade curriculum during the public comments section of the February 11 Blount County Schools board meeting.

School administrators informed parents during the meeting that it will be changing its ELA curriculum in response to challenges to the book that they had received.

They announced that students who were currently reading the book for class will simply advance to the next unit. Forty-three of the district’s 754 sixth graders had requested an alternative reading assignment prior to suspension of Dragonwings from the curriculum.

Yep’s book chronicles the Chinese-American experience in San Francisco in the early 1900’s. It received the Phoenix Award in 1995 and was a Newbery Medal runner-up when it was published in 1975.

Parent David Coleman, who was one of five parents who submitted a formal request for reconsideration of the title, said “This book is not appropriate for any American student.”

Coleman also alleged that teaching the book violated Tennessee law. Coleman was referring to legislation banning the teaching of certain concepts about race and racism signed into law on May 24, 2021, and which went into effect on July 1, 2021. The law is commonly known as a ban on “divisive concepts” or critical race theory.

Coleman said that the district would “continue down the woke CRT agenda” if the book continued to be taught. “We’re trying to draw a line in the sand,” he said.

(See: Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy, v.6 iss.3: For the Record: Nationwide).

Reported in: The Daily Times, February 12, 2022.

Canyon, Texas

A parent challenged four titles held in school and classroom libraries of the Canyon Independent School District (ISD):

The parent organized a campaign against the district and its teachers through her website “Texans Wake Up.” The site claims “our children are being sexualized and politically indoctrinated in public schools via library resources, sexuality education, and mental health programs.”

The site specifically targets all LGBTQIA+ materials, sex education, social emotional learning, and anti-bullying initiatives as violations of “conservative Christian beliefs.” It contains a list of books she deems “not appropriate” which can be filtered by Texas school district. The site also provides guidance on how to “put the school on notice” and make “offensive moves” against it.

A committee reviewed the titles and recommended that they all be retained. However, it was announced on July 30 that the district would not follow the committee’s recommendations and would withdraw all but The Living, instead. The Living was returned to the shelves, but with a label indicating that it is “Mature” and requires parental permission to be checked out.

Reported in: Amarillo Globe-News, April 20, 2022.

Eanes, Texas

On February 22, challenges to a list of 333 titles were raised during a board meeting of the Eanes Independent School District (ISD). The list of books was created by the Travis County chapter of Moms for Liberty and promoted on social media by Eanes Kids First.

The majority of the books challenged dealt with race, racism, and the lives and experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/ questioning, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) people. During the meeting, detractors characterized the books as including inappropriate political and sexual material.

A deluge of requests for reconsideration flooded the district over the coming months. Official forms have been submitted for 129 titles, including some that were not on the original Travis County Moms for Liberty list, but which have been challenged by Moms for Liberty groups elsewhere or were part of state representative Matt Krause’s target list (See: Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy, v.6 iss.4: For the Record: Texas).

Due to the extraordinary volume of requests, the district created a website displaying the current status of every book challenged, the date it was challenged, and a link to the committee report once a determination is made. For the sake of transparency, the site even includes all six challenges that were made to Eanes ISD library materials prior to 2022.

All titles which have been challenged are listed below along with the outcomes, when known:

Reported in: Austin American-
Statesman, February 23, 2022; Eanes Kids First, February 23, 2022; KXAN, May 16, 2022.

Fredericksburg, Texas

On February 14, a list of 42 books was challenged at the Fredericksburg Independent School District (ISD) by members of the group Gillespie County Republican Women. Tara Petsch, a member of the group, claimed the books were pornogrpahic and contained “discussion of sexual preferences.”

Most of the books challenged have prominent characters who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/ questioning, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+). Others are about the lives and experiences of Black and Latinx people.

The group is using their book banning efforts as a fundraiser under the banner “Make Schools Safe Again.”

At their March 21 meeting, the board of the Fredericksburg ISD voted unanimously to revise their policy governing the reconsideration of library material. Ten titles were also removed from district libraries, though only four were reported: Jesus Land: A Memoir by Julie Scheeres, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews, Crank by Ellen Hopkins, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chobosky.

Under the new policy, reconsideration committees are now required to decide within thirty days of a challenge being made. Additionally, school officials can remove books regardless of a committee’s recommendation and even if no formal review of the material has taken place.

On April 4, the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) sent a letter to the board of the Fredericksburg ISD condemning this policy.

In it, they reminded the board that “The Supreme Court has limited the ability of public schools to remove library books,” and that “Well-crafted book challenge regulations ensure that those illicit concerns do not infect the adjudication process. When a district ignores those regulations, it creates suspicion that it has acted improperly.”

Finally, NCAC urged the return of all removed books to their library shelves.

The additional titles challenged in this case were:

Reported in: Fredericksburg Independent School District Board of Trustees Minutes, March 21, 2022; National Coalition Against Censorship, April 4, 2022; Office for Intellectual Freedom challenge report.

Katy, Texas

The rash of book challenges has continued to occur at the Katy Independent School District (ISD). Nearly all of the books challenged were about the lives and experiences of Black and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/ questioning, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) individuals. Two of the books appear to have been challenged as a form of counter-protest.

During the last week of February, student activists distributed 400 copies of 32 separate titles by LGBTQIA+ and Black authors. They dubbed their initiative FReadom Week and said the books challenge the notion of White supremacy and heteronormative society. Some of the titles distributed were donated by Voters of Tomorrow.

One of the students who led the effort, Meghan Sadeghi, also addressed the board of Katy ISD on February 28. She said that as an Iranian American, she does not feel represented by the school’s library collection.

“Growing up, I didn’t necessarily see people like myself in books that I read,” said Sadeghi. She added that by removing representation from the books available in libraries, “We allow room for further bigotry.”

(See: Journal of Intellectual Freedom & Privacy, v.6 iss.4: Success Stories: Schools: Katy, Texas; v.7 iss. 1: Censorship Dateline: Schools: Katy, Texas).

Latest challenged titles at Katy ISD, with outcomes where known

Reported in: Houston Chronicle, December 8, 2021, April 6, 2022; KTRK, February 28, 2022.

Prosper, Texas

On January 28, the Prosper Citizen Group Political Action Committee called for the Prosper Independent School District (ISD) school board to remove more than 80 titles from school libraries, alleging they were inappropriate for children.

Most of the books challenged had characters and/ or authors who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/ questioning, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+).

Administrators instructed district librarians to permanently remove approximately 30 of those titles from their shelves, because they did not align with “community standards.” The district’s policy governing the reconsideration of library materials was not followed.

The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) sent a letter to Prosper ISD’s board of trustees on March 23, stating that “it is entirely improper for district employees to ignore duly adopted district regulations.” NCAC informed them that “ignoring book challenge procedures exposes the district to potential legal liability.”

NCAC called on Prosper ISD to return the improperly removed books.

The titles challenged at Prosper ISD on January 28 are:

Reported in: National Coalition Against Censorship, March 23, 2022; Local Profile, May 5, 2022.

Suffolk, Virginia

During the April 7 school board meeting, several board members raised concerns about the inclusion of Sharon Creech’s Walk Two Moons on a list of reading choices used in a middle school literature course.

Board member Sherri Story characterized the book as “filled with death and sadness.” While she hadn’t read it, she said that based on a review, the book “is intensely depressing.”

Maria Lawson-Davenport, director of curriculum and instruction, said that Walk Two Moons is an award-
winning title with an indigenous main character. She stated the importance of having a reading list with “diverse characters, making sure that we’re representing all of our students.”

Lawson-Davenport also reminded the board that parents can always ask for an optional book if they object to one on the list.

Chair Judith Brooks-Buck said the board’s task was to approve the course, not an accompanying reading list.

Board member Heather Howell asked who was responsible for vetting the reading lists.

Lawson-Davenport said that teachers, library media specialists, the instructional team, and the administrative office read the books prior to their use in a course and approve them.

Board member Tyron Riddick said he hadn’t read the book, and would not recommend it due to the “social-emotional learning situation.”

Brooks-Buck said she didn’t feel the board was in a place to remove a title that no board member had read.

Riddick motioned to approve the course, but refrain from approving the reading list until a future board meeting.

Brooks-Buck asked if Riddick intended for the board to approve all teacher book lists going forwards. Riddick did not answer.

The motion passed by a 6-1 vote, with Brooks-Buck the lone dissenter.

Reported in: Suffolk News-
Herald, April 19, 2022.

Berkeley County, West Virginia

At the February 7 board meeting, a parent challenged the use of The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison in the 10th grade honors English curriculum at Berkeley County Public Schools.

Superintendent Patrick Murphy stated that the district does not currently have a review process, but that one is in development. He also announced that the district would remove the book from all school libraries until it underwent review.

On February 21, Murphy announced that use of the book would be suspended for the remainder of the year.

Reported in: Journal-News, February 6, 2022, and February 22, 2022.

Cadott, Wisconsin

On March 15, the School District of Cadott Community held a special meeting to listen to parent Casey Yeager’s complaints about six books which are available at elementary school libraries.

Yeager challenged 12 books in total, but a review committee had already recommended that the district retain 6 of them–a decision she was appealing to the school board.

The books challenged primarily pertain to the lived experiences of people who are Black and who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/ questioning, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+). One sex education title was also challenged.

On March 28, the board voted to retain three titles: Deepest Breath by Meg Grehan, Hurricane Child by Kacen Callender, and Melissa (previously published as George) by Alex Gino.

They voted to restrict access to Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag by Rob Sanders to students in grades 4 and up.

They voted to completely remove Protest Movements: Then and Now by Eric Braun.

Finally, they voted to move The Baby Tree by Sophie Blackall from the library into the guidance counselor’s office.

The other six titles challenged by Yeager have not been reported on.

Reported in: WEAU, March 16, 2022, and March 28, 2022.

Cedarburg, Wisconsin

On March 16, the majority of reconsideration committee members voted to remove The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini from the 10th grade curriculum at Cedarburg High School.

The book was challenged by the parents of a sophomore at the school even though the student had already been assigned an alternate text at their request.

The parents who challenged the book served on the committee along with the high school principal, the curriculum coordinator, a high school reading specialist, and two librarians.

The teachers using the book were not consulted as part of the review process nor allowed to speak at the review meeting. The student’s parents, the principal, and the curriculum coordinator voted to remove the book from the curriculum.

The decision was endorsed by the superintendent.

Reported in: WTMJ, March 16, 2022; Office for Intellectual Freedom challenge report.

Prisons

New York

Heather Ann Thompson’s authoritative account of the 1971 Attica prison riot was banned from more than a dozen prisons in New York. The New York Civil Liberties Union and the Civil Rights Clinic at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law filed a federal lawsuit in response.

According to Betsy Ginsberg, director of Cardozo’s Civil Rights Clinic, Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy “is a carefully researched account that includes the perspectives of incarcerated people, prison guards, their families, government officials, and members of the public” and denying incarcerated people access to it “runs counter to this country’s core values.”

Reported in: Democrat &
Chronicle, April 1, 2022.