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October 2022:

At a single school in Beaufort South Carolina, 97 books were challenged. The books could no longer be used until evaluated by a proper library material review committee. Many parents were in direct protest with the books being taken away.

In Florida, three laws were passed that challenged teachers' choices in classroom texts: HB 1557, HB 7, and HB 1467. These laws prohibit discussing sexuality in k-3rd grade classrooms, force schools to add all books to an online database open for reviewing/ challenging, and censors the way race can be discussed. Teachers faced penalties such as losing their jobs or licenses for defying these regulations in their classrooms. This harmed school libraries and curriculum plans as well.

-Anastazia Zander

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More Information

Titles removed from Beaufort County School District libraries for administrative review:

1. "A Lesson in Vengeance" by Victoria Lee

2. "All Boys Aren't Blue" by George M. Johnson

3. "All the Things We Do in the Dark" by Saundra Mitchell

4. "Almost Perfect" by Brian Katcher

5. "Ask the Passengers" by A.S. King

6. "Beautiful" by Amy Reed

7. "Boy Girl Boy" by Ron Koertge

8. "Burned" by Ellen Hopkins

9. "Breathless" by Jennifer Niven

10. "City of Heavenly Fire" by Cassandra Clare

11. "Clockwork Princess" by Cassandra Clare

12. "Collateral" by Ellen Hopkins

13. "Confess: A Novel" by Colleen Hoover

14. "Cool for the Summer" by Dahlia Adler

15. "Court of Frost and Starlight" by Sarah J. Maas

16. "Court of Mist and Fury" by Sarah J. Maas

17. "Court of Thorns and Roses" by Sarah J. Maas

18. "Court of Wings and Ruin" by Sarah J. Maas

19. "Crank" by Ellen Hopkins

20. "Damsel" by Elana Arnold

21. "Eleanor and Park" by Rainbow Rowell

22. "Empire of Storms" by Sarah J. Maas

23. "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer

24. "Fade" by Lisa McMann

25. "Fallout" by Ellen Hopkins

26. "Felix Ever After" by Kacen Callender

27. "Flamer" by Mike Curato

28. "Forever for a Year" by B.T. Gottfred

29. "Foul is Fair" by Hannah Capin

30. "Gabi, A Girl in Pieces" by Isabel Quintero

31. "Glass" by Ellen Hopkins

32. "Go Ask Alice" by Anonymous

33. "Grit" by Gillian French

34. "grl2grl" by Julie Anne Peters

35. "Grown" by Tiffany D. Jackson

36. "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

37. "Hopeless" by Colleen Hoover

38. "I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter" by Erika L. Sanchez

39. "Identical" by Ellen Hopkins

40. "I'll Give You The Sun" by Jandy Nelson

41. "Impulse" by Ellen Hopkins

42. "It Ends With Us" by Colleen Hoover

43. "Kingdom of Ash" by Sarah J. Maas

44. "Last night at the Telegraph Club" by Malinda Lo

45. "Layla" by Colleen Hoover

46. "Leah on the Offbeat" by Becky Albertalli

47. "Living Dead Girl" by Elizabeth Scott

48. "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov

49. "Looking for Alaska" by John Green

50. "Lucky" by Alice Sebold

51. "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" by Jesse Andrews

52. "Milk and Honey" by Rupi Kaur

53. "Monday's not Coming" by Tiffany D. Jackson

54. "More Happy Than Not" by Adam Silvera

55. "Nineteen Minutes" by Jodi Picoult

56. "November 9" by Colleen Hoover

57. "Oryx and Crake" by Margaret Atwood

58. "Out of Darkness" by Ashley Hope Perez

59. "Perfect" by Ellen Hopkins

60. "Push a novel" by Sapphire

61. "Ramona Blue" by Julie Murphy

62. "Red at the Bone" by Jacqueline Woodson

63. "Rumble" by Ellen Hopkins

64. "Scars" by Cheryl Rainfield

65. "Shine" by Lauren Myracle

66. "Skin" by Donna Jo Napoli

67. "Smoke" by Ellen Hopkins

68. "Sold" by Patricia McCormick

69. "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson

70. "Stamped" by by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds

71. "The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein

72. "The Black Flamingo" by Dean Atta

73. "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison

74. "The Carnival at Bray" by Jessie Ann Foley

75. "The Duff" by Kody Keplinger

76. "The Female of the Species" by Mindy McGinnis

77. "The Fixer" by Bernard Malamud

78. "The Freedom Writers Diary" by The Freedom Writers with Erin Gruwell

79. "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood

80. "The Haters" by Jesse Andrews

81. "The Infinite Moment of Us" by Lauren Myracle

82. "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini

83. "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold

84. "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky

85. "The Poet X" by Elizabeth Acevedo

86. "The Truth About Alice" by Jennifer Mathieu

87. "The Upside of Unrequited" by Becky Albertalli

88. "The You I've Never Known" by Ellen Hopkins

89. "Thirteen Reasons Why" by Jay Asher

90. "This One Summer" by Mariko Tamaki

91. "Tilt" by Ellen Hopkins

92. "Tower of Dawn" by Sarah J. Maas

93. "Tricks" by Ellen Hopkins

94. "Water for Elephants" by Sarah Gruen

95. "Wintergirls" by Laurie Halse Anderson

96. "Yolk" by Mary H. K. Choi

97. "YOLO" by Lauren Myracle

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Small group compels Beaufort County Schools to remove nearly 100 library books

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Superintendent Frank Rodriguez temporarily took the books out of circulation until they could be evaluated. The residents' demand comes at a time when politicians like Ellen Weaver and groups such

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In November of 2022, Moms for Liberty, a group who is a vocal opponent of critical race theory and the inclusion of LGBTQ+ themes and texts in schools, endorsed approximately 270 candidates who were running for school board elections across the country. The group is originally based in Florida and has been actively vocal in defending and protecting parental rights and they endorsed candidates who are going to “put the focus back on education instead of indoctrination”.

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LGBTQA+ books are mostly being targeted.

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A county in Georgia was attempting to reach a resolution agreement to ensure no students in the school were going to be harassed or "be subjected to a hostile environment" based on the type of books being banned or censored.

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In Iowa there is a bill that was actually put into action on July 1st that specifically banned any books with “sex acts” from public schools. However, the law was flawed because it disproportionately affected books that were multicultural in the aspect of queer literature because they do discuss sexuality in a way that other books may not. It also notes that discussions in schools about gender identity and sexual orientation are not to be brought up in academic settings in grades kindergarten through sixth grade. The defense of this law is that the texts were not age appropriate according to the actual language used in the bill which is titled SF496.

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School Board Hearing on June 13, 2023 in Hanover County, VA

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This is not to be confused with the New Hanover School Board in North Carolina. The School Board of Hanover County, Virginia—just north of Richmond—voted to grant itself the authority to ban books. In fact, the board can vote to ban a book without any request by students, parents, schools, or the public. The policy’s criteria for a book to be banned are basically that the book be considered obscene, vulgar, and sexually explicit. Immediately following the new policy’s approval, 19 books were banned. In August 2023, the Hanover County School Board directed librarians to use BookLooks to determine the appropriateness of a book within the library. BookLooks is an online book rating tool with affiliations with right-wing advocacy groups. Currently, there have been over a hundred books banned from Hanover County schools.

Links:
https://www.wric.com/news/local-news/hanover-county/hanover-county-school-board-grants-itself-authority-to-ban-books-in-new-policy/

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/virginia-school-board-deploys-moms-for-liberty-associated-book-banning-tool/

http://booklooks.org/