Books With Inappropriate Content Removed From School Libraries To Comply With Updated Tennessee Law

Image Credit: Multnomah County Library / CC

The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –

After consulting with the district’s legal personnel, almost four hundred books considered to contain inappropriate content have been removed from school libraries in Wilson County to comply with an update to the Age Appropriate Materials Act of 2022.

A hot topic on many of the Wilson County School Board agendas since 2021, many of the books brought to the board from concerned parents and citizens have finally been taken out of circulation in the county’s public schools.

Lawmakers voted earlier this year to make adjustments to the law after previous versions of the legislation created a painstaking process by which books could be challenged at the county level.

The update prevents books that contain “nudity, descriptions or depictions of sexual excitement, sexual conduct, excess violence or sadomasochistic abuse” from being made available to K-12 public school students.

Under the law, each school must post a list of library materials publicly on their websites and create policies pertaining to review of these materials, including book challenge procedures for parents, students, and staff.

Challenges that do not receive a response from a school board within sixty days may be taken to the Tennessee Textbook and Instructional Materials Quality Commission.

Concerned parents in Wilson County began bringing up the issue of books with pornographic and inappropriate sexual content in the school libraries in November 2021. The school board responded by creating a Mature Reading List and a process for reviewing books that involved a committee reading two of the challenged books a month.

Some of the books that were brought to the committee ended up on the Mature Reading List, that parents had to opt into beginning with the 2022-2023 school year if they wanted their high school students to have access. Some of the books remained in circulation and available to all, and a few were removed entirely.

In June 2023, the board voted to remove two books from author Elana K. Arnold – “Damsel” and “Infandous” – books that conservative board members Joseph Padilla and Dr. Beth Meyers said included physical and sexual abuse, violence, and bestiality.

A similar vote the following month resulted in “Redhood” – also by Arnold – being moved to the Mature Reading List after a motion to remove it from Wilson County Schools failed. The book review committee recommended that “Fun Home” by Alison Bechdel be withdrawn from circulation. 

Last month, the Rutherford County Board of Education removed six books to comply with the law, two of which were titles from Sara J. Maas, an author known for writing sexually explicit content in her young adult books.

Tennessee School District Complies With Amended Library Law And Removes Several Obscene Books

Those books – “Queen of Shadows” and “Tower of Dawn” – were also removed from Wilson County along with twelve other titles by Maas.

Two other contested books, “Identical” by Ellen Hopkins, and “Breathless” by Jennifer Niven were also removed. Nine other titles by Hopkins were likewise taken out of circulation.

The list of 390 books, which comprises mostly texts that were in high school libraries, also included five removed from elementary schools, and thirty-seven books from middle schools.

About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.