Some US school districts have removed over 400 books. Here’s how WA districts compare
Banned Books Week begins on Sunday, kicking off a week-long annual event celebrating the freedom to read in the United States and bringing awareness to the growing issue of book bans nationwide. McClatchy News will publish several stories throughout the week, highlighting local and national issues surrounding book censorship in the U.S.
There have been over 1,500 book challenges and bans in the United States since September 2021 across 86 school districts in 26 states, according to a collaborative list maintained by PEN America, a non-profit created to defend free expression through literature.
That number increases going back to the start of 2021. The American Library Association tracked 729 challenges to 1,597 books in 2021, setting a record for the most challenges tracked by ALA in a single year.
It’s a stark reminder of the speed and ferocity that book challenges and bans have picked up in the United States in recent years, with many of the challenges focused on books that highlight sexuality or the LGBTQ+ community.
The following list highlights the top 10 school districts in the United States that have banned or removed books from libraries since fall 2021, according to PEN America.
Some districts have reversed their decision on book removals due to protests but remain on the list due to initially banning or removing books.
Top 10 school districts for book removals
Central York School District, Pennsylvania - 441
North East Independent School District, Texas - 435
School District of Indian River County, Florida - 161
Granbury Independent School District, Texas - 131
Fredericksburg Independent School District, Texas - 42
Bristow Public Schools, Oklahoma - 38
Goddard Public Schools, Kansas - 29
Prosper Independent School District, Texas - 23
Brevard Public Schools, Florida - 20
Klein Independent School District, Texas - 19
The Central York School District tops the list, having banned 441 books that almost entirely focused on titles related to people of color in a school board meeting on Nov. 9, 2020. The agenda refers to the books as the “diversity resource list,” and the board voted unanimously, 9-0, to “not allow it to be used in classrooms.”
Following student-led protests, the school board reinstated the “diversity resource list” in a meeting on Sept. 20, 2021, after an hour of hearing citizen comments.
The North East Independent School District, just north of San Antonio, Texas, removed over 430 books from its shelves in December 2021, replacing them with “books on similar topics,” according to the San Antonio Report. District officials permanently removed 110 of those books upon further review and returned the rest of the books to library shelves.
For a book to be banned, it must first be challenged. A challenge can be filed by anyone, with the most common reasons being that the book is “sexually explicit,” contains “offensive language” or was “unsuited to any age group,” according to the ALA.
Although different school districts have different policies for reviewing a book, the most common steps include examining the institution’s initial selection policy for a book, gathering resources such as book reviews and relevant best-of-the-year list distinctions, and reading or re-reading the book.
The school district’s board will then vote on whether to uphold the challenge or reinstate the books.
Banned books in Washington state
Washington state has had four books across three school districts removed from its shelves since fall 2021. The Kent School District removed All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson, Jack of Hearts (and other parts) by L.C. Rosen, and If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo in January 2022.
Jack of Hearts (and other parts) was reinstated in a 2-1 vote by the Kent School Board in June after the ACLU of Washington threatened legal action in a letter to the district.
“Banning books runs counter to the District’s nondiscrimination policy and is harmful to students,” the letter reads. “The fact that the only book in question that is being removed under the guise of protecting youth from sexual themes happens to be an LGBTQ+ themed book is blatant discrimination and runs afoul of the District’s own policy.”
Debate over the other two books continues.
The Central Kitsap School District and Walla Walla Public Schools both banned Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe in the last year. The book remains off library shelves in both school districts.
States that have removed books from shelves
The following list is the 26 states tracked by PEN America that have removed books from library shelves at some point since September 2021. Some of the books have since been reinstated but are counted due to initially being pulled from shelves:
Texas - 713
Pennsylvania - 456
Florida - 204
Oklahoma - 43
Kansas - 29
Indiana - 17
Virginia - 15
Tennessee - 15
Missouri - 14
Georgia - 13
New York - 12
Utah - 11
North Carolina - 6
Wisconsin - 5
Washington - 5
Ohio - 4
Iowa - 4
Illinois - 4
New Jersey - 3
Michigan - 2
South Carolina - 1
Rhode Island - 1
Minnesota - 1
Maryland - 1
Alaska - 1
Arkansas - 1
