Republicans Attack School Officials Over Law They Created in Tense Meeting

A Utah school district was derided by conservative lawmakers on Monday for removing the King James version of the Bible from elementary and middle school shelves, even though statewide Republicans wrote and voted to pass the legislation that led to the ban in the first place.

The ban is a result of a Davis School District (DSD) parent initially making a request on December 11, directly in reference to a state law enacted in May 2022, claiming that the Bible is "one of the most sex-ridden books around." The request wasn't made public by district officials until March, when the Bible was among 80-plus literary works reviewed by a district committee.

Book bans became more increasingly common in 2021, as more than 1,597 were either challenged or removed across the country, according to a report by the American Library Association.

The majority of challenges were made about books "by or about Black or LGBTQIA+ persons." In January of this year, a Virginia school district removed 21 books from school libraries, including some authored by Stephen King and Margaret Atwood, citing adult content. This week, Illinois Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker signed the nation's first bill to legally prohibit library book bans.

Republican members of the Administrative Rules Committee questioned DSD officials for about 90 minutes, while officials countered their concerns about the Bible's removal by pointing to a Republican-sponsored House Bill 374, which targeted LGBTQ+ books deemed "inappropriate."

Upon the bill's passing, individual school districts were tasked with setting up a policy for books to be reviewed and to ban any containing "pornographic or indecent" content, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.

The request made in December by a district parent, whose name was redacted, included eight pages of Bible verses that cited bestiality, rape and incest.

"Incest, onanism, bestiality, prostitution, genital mutilation, fellatio, dildos, rape, and even infanticide," the parent wrote in the request. "You'll no doubt find that the Bible [under state law] has 'no serious values for minors' because it's pornographic by our new definition."

The King James version of the Bible was the only version removed. Other versions still remain available for students of all ages across the district.

That version included "porn," the parent argued, adding that the removal of other literary works were less warranted. The parent also sarcastically thanked the Utah legislature for bringing the law forward.

Utah Representative Mark Strong said Monday that the district's decision to ban the King James Bible was "bogus" and a move toward "accepting the religion of atheism and hedonism." State Senator Curb Bramble called it "offensive." State Representative Brady Brammer said the district should be "ashamed."

Brammer told Newsweek that the removal is not part of a "book ban" per se, but rather an application by the school district using the language from the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court case Miller v. California,which modified the definition of obscenity and take into account "whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value."

"I confirmed that for the DSD committee to ban the Bible, they would have to find the literary, artistic, political or scientific value was not sufficient to overcome any questionable content," he said. "The DSD confirmed this was the case. Had they merely used a bright line rule that if the book describes certain acts, it is automatically removed, I could have understood an overapplication of a set standard like that."

Instead, he said, the committee "used a balancing standard" and appeared to try "to make a point rather than balance the issues at hand" compared to other evaluations. He argued that printing of the Bible on the Gutenberg press was a major driver of the Renaissance, that the book inspired Michelangelo, Handel and countless other artists, and was "the primary driver of literacy in the Western world."

"I stand by my comments....A finding that there was not sufficient literary, artistic, political, or scientific value to overcome any passing vulgarity or violence in the Bible is nonsensical," he added. "It requires a blindness to the both the religious and secular value of the Bible.

"The committee that made this decision should be ashamed they failed to recognize these facts. Moreover, the fact that a committee could come to this conclusion does indicate the process used by the committee—which was developed by the school district—is broken."

District Superintendent Dan Linford said they were just trying to "follow the law." He said that since March, the school district has seen 101 books challenged. Of those, 60 reviews have been completed—the Bible being the most recent—and 37 books have been removed.

State Representative Ken Ivory, who wrote the bill, wrote in a June 1 Facebook post that the legislation is not a "book banning" bill but "merely requires that all instructional materials be age appropriate and not contain obscene and indecent, sensitive materials."

"The KJV Bible is a challenging read for elementary or middle school children on their own," Ivory added. "Traditionally, in America, the Bible is best taught and best understood in the home, and around the hearth, as a family."

Newsweek reached out to Ivory via email for comment.

A spokesperson for the school district told Newsweek that the discussion surrounding the King James Bible's removal is an "important issue that our district is working to resolve."

Christopher Williams, communications director for the district, told Newsweek via email that the removal of the Bible version has since been appealed by an individual who would like it retained at all levels.

The process will involve an appeals committee consisting of three members of the Davis School District Board of Education, who will make a recommendation to the entire board on whether to retain or remove the book from library circulation.

"Also, immediate action is taken after a review committee makes a decision," Williams said. "So, if it decides to remove a book, it is removed. If an appeal reverses that decision, the book is placed back on the shelves."

It was estimated that seven to eight elementary and junior highs, out of 92 total district schools, had the Bible—which is not taught as part of the curriculum—on its shelves.

The Book of Mormon is now being considered for removal, as well. There have been no other requests made regarding religious texts.

Update 06/14/23, 5:16 p.m. ET: This story was updated with comment from Christopher Williams.