SC Board of Education at odds during latest book ban discussion
The state board postponed a vote Tuesday on 10 books that were considered for a statewide ban.
Earlier this month a review committee unanimously recommended the titles be banned statewide.
The books the recommended for bans are:
'Collateral' by Ellen Hopkins
'Empire of Storms' by Sarah J. Maas
'Half of a Yellow Sun' by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
'Hopeless' by Colleen Hoover
'Identical' by Ellen Hopkins
'Kingdom of Ash' by Sarah J. Mass
'Last Night at the Telegraph Club' by Malinda Lo
'Living Dead Girl' by Elizabeth Scott
'Lucky' by Alice Sebold
'Tricks' by Ellen Hopkins
A final vote on the recommendations was scheduled for Tuesday but some board members expressed concerns about the wording of Regulation 43-170. That regulation was promoted by S.C. Department of Education staff that defines any book containing a 'description' of sexual conduct as age-inappropriate for grade K-12.
'I am concerned about potential abuses of a process that we intended to be fair and equitable,' said board member Maya Slaughter.
According to the regulation, board members do not have to read the whole book but can make a decision based on passages only.
'Looking at these texts outside of the arc of their full stories is a mistake in my view,' said Board member Antony Vincent.
It only takes one person to make a challenge to a book. So far, the majority of the 27 challenges are coming from one Beaufort County woman, Elizabeth Szalai. Szalai also spearheaded the previous review of 97 books by panels connected to Beaufort County Schools.
'I don't think somebody from Beaufort should make me drive here from Myrtle Beach every meeting to talk about more books,' said board member Ken Richardson. 'My question is, when does this thing stop?'
After the debate concluded, board member Jackie Lynn eventually made the motion to table a vote on the 10 books.
'It is reassuring that the State Board of Education is prioritizing the rights of families, students, and educators rather than the handful of South Carolinians who feel scarily comfortable taking the rights of others. I hope that the board will take the time to craft a democratic policy that considers the full context of a written work,' said Josh Malkin, Advocacy Director for the ACLU of South Carolina.
So far, 12 books have been removed from South Carolina school libraries since the regulations went into effect last year. According to the regulation, if the Board of Education rules in favor of a challenge, the books will be pulled from all school libraries statewide. Most schoolbook bans are limited to the school district in which they are imposed.
South Carolina is one of three states, in addition to Utah and Tennessee, with a mechanism for statewide schoolbook bans established by state law. Utah has mandated 17 books banned for all schools in the state. So far, Tennessee has not had any state-mandated book bans.
If all 10 of these titles are banned, as the committee recommends, South Carolina would surpass Utah with the most state-mandated bans impacting all public schools.
There is no word on if the board will ask to change the regulation, or if these books will be up for debate again.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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