Booksology With this new ban, Utah remains the state with the most banned books, ahead of South Carolina with 21.
Utah passed one of the strictest public school book laws in 2024. House Bill 29 (HB 29) would allow parents to object to books they deem to be “confidential material” and would permanently ban books from all public schools in the state if the books are deemed “objectively confidential material” or “pornographic” by state law in at least three public school districts or two public school districts and five charter schools in the state. The bill went into effect on July 1, 2024 and started with 13 titles.
The bill is retroactive, meaning the list includes titles that met state guidelines prior to the bill’s commencement date. Pursuant to HB 29, a public or charter school must notify the State Board of Education whenever it removes books that are considered “confidential material.” If the book meets the criteria for removal, all The school will be notified and expected to be disposed of.
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Currently, 23 books are banned in Utah public schools. Sixteen of these books are written by women, with an average publication date of 2009. In other words, Most of these books have been on the shelves and available for many years and have never had any problems until this created crisis.. Here is the list:
What’s important to understand about this law is that even though it claims to be about “local control,” schools in the state are forced to follow decisions made in other school districts. There are 42 public school districts in Utah. two The Davis and Washington school districts account for nearly 80 percent of the books banned statewide.
bag of bones It wasn’t banned in Washington, but it was banned in Davis. The other three districts where Dr. King’s books were banned include Tooele, Jordan, and Granite, making it the first district to contribute to a statewide ban.
Utah will likely add more books to this list as the school year progresses. Of course, despite the claims of the federal Department of Education, these books are not the only ones banned in states with book bans. Individual school districts can ban books they deem inappropriate. Of course, this will help add more titles to the state list. Because books only need to be removed in three school districts before they are removed everywhere.
Utah isn’t the only state with a book list like this. South Carolina also maintains an approved list of books that must be removed in all public school districts. The list includes 21 titles, making it the most censorious state when it comes to banning state-sanctioned books. There is also a pending lawsuit in the state, brought by the ACLU on behalf of the South Carolina School Library Association and three public school students under the age of 18.
Tennessee also has a legal mechanism to enact a statewide school library ban, but has not yet added any titles to the list. In that state, the Secretary of State is targeting public libraries instead. Florida officials also distributed a list of books the state deemed inappropriate and should be removed from school libraries, although the state has no law allowing the creation of state-sanctioned banned lists.
None of these laws apply to private or homeschool institutions. That’s intentional.
More books are expected to be added to the list in the coming weeks, as Utah is implementing book bans in waves. States are working backwards from the law’s implementation date, and as we see more books banned in the future, those books may continue to become older and older titles. Clearly, the lawsuit filed against HB 29 will not stand in the way of the most important initiative in the state’s education system: removing books that have been on shelves for decades.
