Districts Spend Thousands on Book Challenges, Legal Battles in Utah, Florida | Censorship News

Documents show the high cost of book challenges and legal battles over censorship in Utah and Florida school districts; challenged books stay on shelves in Watertown, NY, and Buncombe County, NC; and more.

Book Bans Cost Utah Taxpayers Thousands of Dollars. Here’s How Much Two School Districts Spent. | The Salt Lake Tribune
The Davis (UT) School District alone spent more than $27,000 on book challenges during the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years, according to records obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune. Over those two years, the district reviewed around 100 titles. While not all were removed, they did ban the 13 books that are now prohibited in every public school across Utah.

Florida School Board Pays Over $100K to Defend Ban on Book About Same-Sex Penguin Pair | Tennessee Democrat
The Escambia County (FL) School Board has spent more than $100,000 to keep And Tango Makes Three off its library shelves. That amount makes up only a minority of the legal fees the board has paid out for recent book ban-related lawsuits.

Under Tennessee’s Stricter School Library Law, Some Books Quietly Disappear | Tennessee Lookout
A recent survey of members of the Tennessee Association of School Librarians found that more than 1,100 titles have been removed, with more under review. One librarian anonymously reported pulling 300 titles at a single school since the start of the academic year. 

New York State School Board Holds Off Removing Books from Library Shelves | 7News
The Watertown, NY, school board decided to pause any motion on removing 47 books from library shelves at the high school. The list shows books being banned in other parts of the country, causing some controversy.

Discussing Book Bans with Newbery Winner Dave Eggers | MSNBC
The author talks about how he views his role as a writer in this era, the efforts to ban books, why and where they’re happening and this reactionary moment in history.

Florida’s School Book Battle Moves into Public Libraries | Tampa Bay Times
At the same time the Nassau County, FL, school district agreed to return dozens of books to its library shelves, the Pasco County government was removing some of the same books from its public library system.

Texas Public Library Proposes Restricting Books Without Parents’ Permission | Lonestar Live
Corpus Christi, TX, is one of the latest battlegrounds in Texas’s fight over access to books, as the public library board proposes restricting titles without allowing parents to decide what’s appropriate for their children. The conservative-majority public library board recommended policy changes to restrict minors from certain content without parental input, remove references to diversity and the freedom to read, and make it easier to challenge books.

North Carolina Library Board Rejects Three Book Ban Requests | Mountain Express
A resident requested the removal of three books from the Buncombe County (NC) Library System shelves: The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb, Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us by Jesse Bering, and Bad Sex: Truth, Pleasure, and an Unfinished Revolution by Nona Willis Aronowitz. The Library Advisory Board unanimously recommended that Buncombe library director Jason Hyatt keep all three selections in the collection. 

Billings School Board Looks at New Library Policies | Q2
New laws involving school libraries led the district to review its library book policies, following the Montana School Boards Association recommendations. 

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