By Delayna Earley
The Island News
The final set of books have been reviewed by committees, bringing the total number of removed books in the Beaufort County School District (BCSD) to five of the original 97 books challenged.
The final six books were Beautiful by Amy Reed, grl2grl by Julie Anne Peters, Layla by Colleen Hoover, The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle, YOLO by Lauren Myracle and A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee.
Of the books reviewed during the last book review meeting on Nov. 29, three books were returned to library circulation without restrictions, two were returned for specific grades.
One book, Beautiful by Amy Reed, will be removed from Beaufort County School District (BCSD) libraries for five years before it can be re-evaluated.
Layla by Colleen Hoover, grl2grl by Julie Anne Peters and YOLO by Lauren Myracle were all returned without restrictions, while A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee and The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle were returned to Grades 9 through 12 only.
In total, there are five books that have been removed from BCSD libraries, 91 books have been reviewed and returned in some capacity and one book, Breathless by Jennifer Niven, which was never reviewed due to the fact that it was never in any BCSD libraries.
As the year-long process of reviewing the books draws to a close, list originator Ivie Szalai and Melinda Henrickson, head of Families Against Book Bans (FABB), commented on the process of reviewing the books.
Szalai said that she feels that the process has been extremely frustrating and has not been a fair process as she feels that the district has the authority to remove any book that is not educationally suitable or age appropriate.
During the review process, she said that she knows people who submitted interest in serving on a committee but were never chosen.
Hendrickson, while generally happy with the outcome of the review committees, said that she is also frustrated with the process and wishes that Beaufort County School District had followed their own policies instead of removing all of the challenged books from library shelves.
She is also frustrated that most of the books were able to be removed from circulation following a committee meeting involving, in some cases, only three committee members in attendance.
As for what is next, both women said that they are turning their attention toward new legislation at the state level that is being discussed regarding banning books in South Carolina.
Delayna Earley 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.
