A Georgia school district may have violated students’ civil rights by removing certain books from its libraries, creating a “hostile environment” for students based on race, sex or national origin, according to the United States Department of Education.
The department’s Office for Civil Rights is investigating whether Forsyth County Schools violated students’ rights, and announced a settlement Friday.
In a letter to the superintendent of Forsyth County Schools, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights said that in the fall of 2021, the district began receiving complaints from some parents that library materials sexually explicit or contains LGBTQ content. The district eventually responded by removing some textbooks. The debate over removing the textbooks has left some students feeling targeted, said Catherine E. Lhamon, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the education department.
The district has taken steps to “try to follow a non-discrimination policy,” he said, but those steps aren’t enough to address the hostile environment.
“When they removed the books, there was a lot of discussion in the school community about which books to remove, and it seemed like the books that were removed were about LGBTQI+ people, and about people of color , “Ms. Lhamon said. “Students hear that message and feel unsafe responding.”
The Department of Education said the district agreed to take certain steps as part of the settlement, including conducting a survey of students about their school environment and submitting to ongoing monitoring by the Office for Civil Rights.
In a statement, Jennifer Caracciolo, a spokeswoman for Forsyth County Schools, said the district is “committed to providing a safe, connected and thriving community for all students and their families. With the implementation of these OCR’s recommendation, we will continue our mission to provide an unparalleled education so that everyone can succeed.”
The Georgia Department of Education’s involvement marks an important step in the Biden administration’s efforts to address textbook omissions, and underscores the degree to which textbook bans have become a powerful national force. political issue. Recently, President Biden pointed to book bans as a new threat to American freedom in a video announcing his campaign for a second term.
“As we see this issue of textbook removal and textbook banning grow across the country, it is important to remind every school community that they have a federal civil rights obligation not to act in a bad way.” environment based on the race or gender of their students,” Ms. Lhamon said. “We are ready to enforce the laws.”
Over the past two years, free speech organizations have tracked a spike in book bans across the country, fueled by a growing and organized movement to remove books on certain subjects from in school districts and libraries.
PEN America has counted more than 4,000 instances of book removals since it began tracking bans in July 2021. A recent report from the American Library Association found that efforts to ban books nearly doubled by 2022 last year, and reached the highest level the organization has seen since it began collecting data on book bans more than 20 years ago. Most of the targeted books were titles that featured LGBTQ themes and characters, or works that dealt with race and racism, the two organizations found.
Opponents of book bans have expressed alarm not only at the sharp increase in bans, but at the methods used to challenge books. While in the past, challenges to the book mostly came from concerned parents, many now come from the organized efforts of conservative groups like Moms for Liberty and Utah Parents United, or from statewide laws that make it easier to getting the titles.
In recent months, a counter-movement of those opposed to the removal of the book has begun to form. In Llano, Texas, a federal judge ordered the county to return 17 banned books to its library, after a group of residents sued county and library officials, arguing that the removals of the book is unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment rights of citizens.
In Illinois, the legislature passed a law that would withhold funding from libraries that remove books, or refuse to adopt a policy against book bans.
Last week, PEN America and publisher Penguin Random House, along with a group of authors and parents, filed a lawsuit against a Florida school board and district for removing the book.
“Children in a democracy should not be taught that books are dangerous,” Suzanne Nossel, chief executive of PEN America, said in a statement about the suit. “Freedom to read is guaranteed by the Constitution.”