A sweeping new South Carolina law could dramatically restrict the books available to students in public schools and school libraries, according to a report in the Post and Courier.
Under the provisions of the state law, schools are prevented from providing students with books and materials that are not “age and developmentally appropriate.” The policy further bans some books for all age groups, specifically those that contain descriptions of “sexual conduct” and “excretory functions.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina said in a statement that the new law could be used to remove titles ranging from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales to George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four to the children’s picture book Everyone Poops.
The new law was proposed by the South Carolina Department of Education in November under the direction of Superintendent Ellen Weaver, a close ally of Moms for Liberty, the conservative activist group that has advocated for book removals across the country. The law’s provisions include a requirement that school districts must list on their websites all books and media that students can borrow, and that these are subject to approval by the state Board of Education, not the school districts.
The Department of Education claimed that the law “doesn’t restrict free speech, discriminate based on an author’s viewpoint or eliminate local control,” according to the Post and Courier article.
Alan Gratz, a founding member of the new activist group Authors Against Book Bans, disagreed. “By reversing the decisions of trained librarians about what goes on their shelves, the law both eliminates local control and restricts free speech,” Gratz told Kirkus. “As for not discriminating based on viewpoint, if history is any guide (and by history I mean last week), books by LBGTQ+ and BIPOC authors will be disproportionately affected.”
Gratz is the author of a middle-grade book, Ban this Book, which was recently banned in a Florida school district.
The South Carolina law took effect on June 25.
Marion Winik hosts NPR’s The Weekly Reader podcast.
