From Book Riot:
Davis School District in Utah–a 70,000+ district north of Salt Lake City–has officially removed the Bible from elementary and middle schools. This may be the first official removal of the religious text from schools in the country following a district’s review process. The decision comes after a parent complained about its vulgarity and violence. That parent was angry about the district’s previous decisions to remove books like Looking for Alaska and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian in accordance to Utah’s new sensitive materials law.
In their complaint, they noted the right-wing “parental rights” group Utah Parents United as prompting the creation of the law and the moral panic around books across the state, stating that the group’s pressure was undermining student education and their First Amendment Rights. The parent noted that the Bible was conveniently left off Utah Parents United’s naughty books likes, despite being “one of the most sex-ridden books around.”
The Bible will remain on shelves at district high schools, and an appeal has already been filed over the decision.
Although Utah’s 2022 sensitive materials law (House Bill 372) applied to the novels removed from the district, that was not cited as the reason for the Bible’s removal. Instead, the review committee found passages too vulgar and violent for those younger than high school age. The law allows committees to apply the standards as they see fit, and Davis District has exercised this flexibility several times. This is one of the reasons why such laws remain a concern: the latitude they offer districts means that a committee can make any decision they would like to, however they would like to, without consideration for the value of a text–nor how such decisions infringe on First Amendment Rights of students.
Whether or not the formal complaint filed against the Bible in December was satirical does not matter to the district. They followed the procedure set forth in their policy and treated it as real; the outcome was perhaps not expected.
Link to the rest at Book Riot
Talk about unintended consequences,
The world, and especially the United States, is chock full of timid, fearful little people who bluster at every opportunity and imagine themselves General Manager of the Universe. If I suddenly developed the magical power to do so, I would lock them all in one gigantic room and let them battle it out while the rest of us get on with living our lives unencumbered by willful ignorance.
Meanwhile,
Humans, the Dervishes
Around they spin, an insignificant blight,
gluttony and pride their finer traits,
all sorts of fingers in all sorts of pies
and minding everybody’s business, all
while sitting smugly on their little rock,
arms folded, full of reservations.
The universe moseys past, its hands
in its unassuming pockets, head
shaking side to side, embarrassed,
and wondering what the fuss is all about.
***
(from Beyond the Masks by Harvey Stanbrough)
This is one of the reasons why such laws remain a concern: the latitude they offer districts means that a committee can make any decision they would like to, however they would like to, without consideration for the value of a text–nor how such decisions infringe on First Amendment Rights of students.
(Emphasis mine)
Isn’t this sort of a broad interpretation of First Amendment Rights?
Very much.
SCOTUS has long maintained minors in school have constrained rights. For privacy and for speech. Neither is absolute.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech_in_schools_in_the_United_States#:~:text=The%20Supreme%20Court%20ruled%20broadly%20that%20students%27%20freedom,known%20as%20the%20Tinker%20test%20for%20substantial%20disruption.
Note that it is not students’ speech that is being constrained here.
What worries the pearl clutchers is that these laws constrain the god-given right of teachers, librarians, and supervisors to inflict their non-educational beliefs on children regardless of parental concerns.
Students have a right to read billions of books. Nobody is constitutionally obligated to provide material so students can exercise that right.
Can this marriage be saved? If not, who gets custody of the nukes?
Sure.
They’re headed to therapy next year where the kids will point out who is way out of line.
(Or the neighbors that pick a fight and help settle the matter overnight.)
Either way, the 6% is getting a cold shower.
Fair enough.
As long as they’re taking the law seriously and not just making a gesture.
Fact is no religious materials should be in pubkic schools.
But that includes modern cults of the political variety.
I confess to never having read the Book of Mormon. Does it have similar passages “too vulgar and violent for those younger than high school age?”