Booksology Under Rule 43-170 (R-43-170), decisions regarding school library content will be in the hands of the South Carolina Department of Education. Materials deemed to have a “sexual content description” are inappropriate for the school and should be removed. What the phrase means is intentionally vague, allowing the opinions of a small number of individuals within the state to be decided on behalf of all students and parents throughout the state.
The South Carolina Department of Education, led by Ellen Weaver, has used taxpayer money to hire lawyers to support the school’s book, Banning Bill, to set up an Educational Materials Review Board (IMRC) where state parents can file complaints. This allowed individuals to exert great power in what is available not only in public schools but also in schools throughout the state.
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All ten books voted on the list of banned titles were challenged in Beaufort County School District in 2023. Each was voted by the school review board and allowed to stay on the district shelves. One parent, Elizabeth Zaray, was behind a request to remove nearly 100 titles challenged at Beaufort County schools, including the titles listed above, which are prohibited by the state. With new South Carolina law, she and others like her now have the opportunity to accept their complaints beyond their school districts and potentially pulling books all State public schools. Szalai was also behind the state’s ongoing complaints that banned four books in February.
Each single parent had the extraordinary power to ban books statewide. One parent is responsible for revoking the student’s right to access the book At all public schools in South Carolina.
Complaints for each banned and held books are available on the South Carolina Department of Education website (here the final decision and related documents are live, here the decision and related documents are live. Take your time reading them and understanding that these decisions are being made regarding the theory of conspiracy and the selection of cherry blossoms distributed by moms for groups like freedom. One member of the board of directors of today’s meeting suggested that some of the titles in question could be used by older students or librarians to “indoctrinate” young people.
For all discussions about “local control,” the power given to the state board of education to remove statewide books is the exact opposite. The South Carolina Department of Education is an arbitrator of what is inaccessible to students from state public agencies, not those who live or work in these communities.
None of this fell without a fight. At the state board of education committee meeting, advocates of freedom of reading appeared in support of the book being discussed and support both public school librarians and educators. Many people, including members of Protruth South Carolina, Midlands Apple, Family and Book Bans and Liberation, will be read in the lobby where the meeting was held.
On Instagram, families for Book Bans shared news of the department’s decision.
We are truly disappointed that there hasn’t been any further discussion following last month’s vote that could postpone the vote and correct the deletion. As always, we will continue to fight. Our work is not over.
Here is the complete list of books that are banned in all South Carolina public schools.
Three states have legal mechanisms that allow a statewide book ban, but only South Carolina and Utah have used it so far. The other state is Tennessee. South Carolina uses its latest list of bans forbidden books to ban more titles than Utah, where 17 books are currently banned in all public schools.
