Seven books go back on BCSD shelves
By Delayna Earley
The Island News
OKATIE, S.C. – No additional books have been banned following the June book review committee meeting at Okatie Elementary School on Wednesday, June 14, 2023.
Seven books were up for review during the meeting – Ask the Passengers by A.S. King, Collateral by Ellen Hopkins, A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas, Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott, More Happy Than Not by Adam Silva and Perfect by Ellen Hopkins.
All were voted to be returned to library circulation for grades 9 through 12 only except for Ask the Passengers, which will be returned to library circulation without any restriction.
Reviewing the 97 books that were originally removed from Beaufort County School District (BCSD) libraries has, to date, taken nine months and will likely continue into the fall.
During this time, committees have reviewed 61 books and all except for four have been approved to return to library circulation.
It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover, Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult and The Haters by Jessie Andrews have all been removed from school district shelves, and Identical by Ellen Hopkins will be returning to the review process due to a split vote during the May review committee meeting.
Ruth James, of Lady’s Island, who has participated in four book review committees, said that she continues to participate so that she can be a voice for those in the community who are mortified that there is a group of people that could potentially change the trajectory of the school district, yet due to their circumstances they cannot participate.
“The audacity of these people who say that you can just go to the library, well not everyone can just go to the library,” James said. “The distance between someone’s home and the public library could be miles and there is no public transportation here.”
James continued to say that while she understands that everyone has different sensitives and what is vulgar to some may not be vulgar to others, but she would never think to tell a child what they can or cannot read, but would instead allow their parent to do that.
The Island News may have been the only local media who attended the book review committee meeting on June 14, but the meeting was also attended by 60 Minutes journalist Scott Pelley and a small production team from the show.
Pelley, who also attended the BCSD school board meeting on Wednesday, June 13, was encouraged to cover the book banning process in Beaufort by his news producer, Henry Schuster, who lives on Lady’s Island.
Schuster had seen some of the coverage of the 97 books and the committees that were going to be reviewing the books, so he signed up to review a book.
In April 2023, he received an e-mail telling him that he had been assigned a book to read and review during the May book review committee meeting.
The book that he was assigned to read and review was called Fade by Lisa McMann, which was ultimately decided to be returned to library circulation for grades 9 through 12 only.
“I joined the committee out of curiosity,” Schuster said. “I was surprised about the decision to ban the books to start with and surprised about the way that it unfolded, but I was also curious about it.”
Schuster said he didn’t sign up thinking he was going to get a story out of this.
“When I went on May 11, I went as a Beaufort County citizen, but that doesn’t mean that you check your journalist brain at the door,” said Schuster.
After participating in the book review committee meeting, Schuster said he went home and sent Pelley a message suggesting that they do this story.
“One of the first things that struck me about the committee meeting was that there was a sheriff’s deputy there,” Schuster said. “The whole process was very orderly and eye-opening.”
Pelley agreed, they submitted a story proposal and a month later they were here covering the next round of books being reviewed.
Schuster said that right now, 60 minutes is doing reruns, but he expects that this story will run sometime in the fall after they have completed their reporting and the new season of the show begins.
“I don’t think that we will be doing any more shooting in Beaufort, but we have more reporting to do and more interviews to do,” Schuster said about the episode, “and those will take place over the course of the summer.”
According to a statement that BCSD spokesperson Candace Bruder made after the May book review committee, there should be one more review committee meeting during the school district’s summer break.
Delayna Earley lives in Beaufort with her husband, two children and Jack Russell. She spent six years as a videographer and photographer for The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette before leaving the Lowcountry in 2018. After freelancing in Myrtle Beach and Virginia, she joined The Island News when she moved back to Beaufort in 2022. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
