By Delayna Earley
The Island News
Four more books have officially been removed from South Carolina public schools after the South Carolina Board of Education voted during their meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 4.
This decision comes less than a month after the state’s Instructional Materials Review Committee recommended in their meeting on Jan. 9 that the books should be removed due to their sexual context.
The four books that are to be removed are “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson, “Flamer” by Mike Curato, “PUSH” by Sapphire and “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky.
The books were part of a challenge put forth by Beaufort County resident Elizabeth “Ivie” Szalai, who first made headlines in October 2022 after she challenged a list of 97 books within the Beaufort County School District which led to a year-long review process of the books.
During the district’s review, only five of the books were removed and all four of the books recently challenged by Szalai at the state level were not removed and were still in schools.
This is the first time since the state’s regulation was put into place that a book has gone through the appeals process from start to finish.
The Regulation 43-170 allows the banning of books in South Carolina public schools if the material contains any descriptions or visual depictions of sexual conduct.
Board member Beverly Frierson (5th Circuit – Kershaw, Richland) raised questions about the decision to ban some of the books based off a “vague” definition of sexual content that would ultimately lead to some students feeling alienated, ignored or not heard based off of their personal experiences with trauma or sexual preference or identification.
“We made no judgement as far as the material because of LGBTQ or because of any other sort of mention of sex. Just because a book mentions sex, there are plenty of books that mention sex, but don’t give graphic descriptions,” said board member Christian Hanley (9th Circuit – Berkeley, Charleston). “When you look at the state statute for what is sexual material, that’s not at all vague. That is actually very specific…It’s a binary choice. Either there’s sexual material in the book or there’s not. After we make the determination if there is sexual material in the book or not, if there’s not then we go to age and the other developmentally appropriate standards. When there’s sexual material in the book as defined by state statute, that’s it. We’re finished with our review.”
All but two of the South Carolina Board of Education voted to remove “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” “Flamer” and “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” while only one board member voted against removing “PUSH.”
Adding the four books to the previous seven books that were voted to be removed, the number of books that are currently banned from S.C. public school library shelves has risen to 11.
Books that were already banned in S.C. public school libraries are “Normal People” by Sally Rooney, “Ugly Love” by Colleen Hoover, “Damsel” by Elana Arnold, “A Court of Thorns and Roses” by Sarah J. Maas, “A Court of Mist and Fury” by Sarah J. Maas, “A Court of Wings and Ruin” by Sarah J. Maas and “A Court of Frost and Starlight” by Sarah J. Maas.
The board did vote to keep “House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros and “Bronx Masquerade” by Nikki Grimes in libraries after it was found by the committee that they were age appropriate and did not contain sexual content.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, there were many people who stood up to express their feelings about banning the books.
Additionally, Hanley said that the S.C. Board of Education had received a letter from the Beaufort County School District letting them know that most of the books that are being submitted for review have already gone through the review process at the district level, so he said they are working together to figure out a timeline.
Families Against Book Bans (FABB) in Beaufort, who generally speaks out against banning books in public schools, had a few members who traveled to Columbia to offer support and speak during the S.C. Board of Education Meeting on Feb. 4, and to combat the decision made by the board they are asking for community members to purchase copies of the books from a Black-owned book store called Liberation is Lit in Columbia.
The owner of the store will send the books to FABB in Beaufort, who in turn will pass out the four banned books within the community and with various organizations that they partner with around the state to “be sure that these books get into the hands of students and families who want and need them.”
Ivie Szalai did not respond for comment before press time.
Delayna Earley, who joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
