Fight Censorship!

South Carolina passed one of the most restrictive censorship laws for school libraries and classrooms in the nation. The law is intentionally designed to be vague so it can be used to strike anything that promotes diversity of thought.

Ellen Weaver, South Carolina’s far-right State Superintendent of Education, is closely aligned with the infamous Moms for Liberty, an organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center describes as a far-right extremist group plagued with scandals. The State reported Weaver spent millions on banning books including retaining a private attorney with political connections to manipulate a rule change allowing the department greater control in banning books.

The South Carolina Department of Education said it is ending a 50-year partnership with the S.C. Association of School Librarians (SCASL) over concerns about materials in school libraries. Superintendent Ellen Weaver sent a letter to the SCASL president saying the department is formally ending its relationship with the organization effective immediately.

The regulation prohibits any textbooks, library books or other materials that include “descriptions or visual depictions of ‘sexual content,’ as that term is defined by Section 16-15-305(C(1).” The ACLU-SC says that the new law could be used to remove classics from South Carolina school libraries, including titles ranging from “To Kill a Mockingbird” to “The Canterbury Tales” to “1984.”

Here is a list of challenged books to be discussed, appropriately, on Halloween by the South Carolina State Board of Education. For more information on how to participate in that hearing, click here.

In 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision Island Trees v. Pico. In that landmark case about school censorship, the court ruled:

“[L]ocal school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books and seek by their removal to ‘prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.'”