SC school district sued over book ban, another pulls novels as lawmakers debate CRT

A South Carolina school district in the Upstate is being sued by a group of parents who say the banning of a high school-level book on racism and anti-racism in America is unconstitutional and in violation of the First Amendment.

On behalf of their minor children, three sets of parents in Pickens County along with the NAACP filed a lawsuit last month in federal court against the Pickens County School District, alleging the district’s removal of the book, “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You” by Jason Reynolds and Ibra X, amounts to “politically and racially motivated censorship that cannot be tolerated under the First Amendment.”

“I think what the lawsuit shows is that what we’re seeing is a concerted, coordinated effort to advance censorship across South Carolina,” said Jace Woodrum, executive director of ACLU South Carolina. “It seems like what our legislators are doing is throwing out red meat for their extremist base.”

“Stamped,” a New York Times No. 1 best seller, traces the history of racist ideas in America and explores how those ideas manifest today, according to the book’s description.

Pickens County district officials could not be reached for comment in response to the lawsuit, which comes as the state Senate readies to debate legislation — passed by the House earlier this year — that would prohibit certain concepts, including those considered to be promoting critical race theory, from being taught in South Carolina’s public schools.

Critical race theory is a process of examining how institutions and public policies — such as zoning, policing, banking, health care and more — have created or increased inequality.

In addition to the Pickens County ban, the Anderson 1 school district recently removed several books — including “The Handmaid’s Tale”, a book chronicling extremest measures taken to curb abortions in a dystopian American society — from its shelves following complaints made by parents and national conservative parents group, Moms for Liberty.

State Sen. Sandy Senn, R-Charleston, who first disclosed the book’s removal on the Senate floor last Wednesday, said the move was prompted by remarks made by her and other female senators relating to a recent abortion debate.

“This is something that simply should not be tolerated,” Senn said last week “And it is interesting that we are now here discussing critical racy theory-type bills and we have something pulled from (public school) shelves just because of our discussion,” Senn said, referring to The Handmaid’s Tale.

School board overrules book review committees

Although two separate review committees unanimously found the book “Stamped” to be developmental appropriate for high school students last fall, the Pickens County School Board ultimately chose to ban the book for five years.

The move fuels what critics of anti-CRT legislation say are increasing attempts by conservative extremists to censor the historical plights of Black Americans in public education.

“Political conservatives have taken the position that teaching students about America’s racist history and trying to remedy the legacy of racial injustice is somehow un-American,” the lawsuit said. “Lately, the political fight over how Americans should be thinking about, talking about, and responding to our corporate legacy of racism has hit a fever pitch.”

The book was challenged last fall by three parents whose children attend D.W. Daniel High School in Pickens County, arguing that “Stamped” “promotes socialism,” and “demonstrates radical Marxism infecting our schools and our culture,” according to the lawsuit.

The Pickens County School District follows a four-step policy for receiving and responding to challenges to instructional materials or library resources. The first step involves the parent notifying the school’s principal about instructional materials in question. Following that, the principal appoints a school-level board of review composed of a teacher from the school, a media specialist or instructional coach, an administrator from the school and a parent or legal guardian of a child enrolled in the school.

After reviewing “Stamped,” the committee unanimously agreed that “this text is developmentally appropriate for high school students to analyze accuracy, tone, argument, and bias,” and recommended that the book “should remain as a resource available to students at Daniel High School, whether in a classroom or on a bookshelf,” according to the lawsuit.

Dissatisfied with the committee’s decision, one parent appealed the finding, prompting the district superintendent to assemble a district-level review committee, which ultimately unanimously agreed that “Stamped” was an appropriate educational resource for high school students.

A slew of parents continued to challenge the book during a Pickens County school board meeting last August, with one telling board members that he “would fight to the death” in ensuring that his children aren’t “being indoctrinated by a racist, anti-American, Marxist ideology,” perpetrated in “Stamped,” according to the lawsuit.

State Rep. Thomas Beach, R-Pickens, also spoke before board members during that meeting, threatening “adverse action” against the board from the state or from the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus if “Stamped” wasn’t removed.

Beach, a freshman legislator who is a member of the freedom caucus, alleged the book taught students about sex and “pushed” critical race theory.

Parents suing the district over the book’s removal, however, rebutted Beach in their federal complaint, saying, “There was no suggestion that ‘Stamped’ contains inappropriate language, vulgarity, or adult sexual content.”

“The 20 white South Carolinians who act under the banner of the Freedom Caucus believe that their opinions on race are correct and that all other opinions are wrong and dangerous,” the lawsuit said.

In the end, following threats to be voted out of office if they did not remove “Stamped”, board members voted unanimously to remove the book for a period of five years, despite school-level and district-level review findings, according to the lawsuit.

“Put simply: Rather than embracing the diversity of opinion that exists on the important and unavoidable issue of race in America, the Board simply voted to remove a book because it contained ideas about racism and America that the all-white Board didn’t like,” the lawsuit said.

Woodrum said the anti-CRT proposals “are not coming from parents with children in our school districts,” adding that he wants his 7-year-old son, who attends a public school in Columbia, to learn about the country’s history.

Late last month, the Anderson 1 school district decided to temporarily remove a set of books deemed by some parents to be “vulgar.”

In a statement provided to The State, district officials said they were “notified by a parent that there may be some books in an Anderson One high school library that may contain obscene and/or vulgar material.” The district said the books are in the process of being reviewed to ensure compliance with state law and the district.

But Woodrum said if what happened in Pickens County is any indication of how school boards will respond to recommendations made by review committees, books removed in Anderson County will likely remain off the shelf.

In its final week of session, the Senate will debate H. 3728, which passed the House in February, mostly on Republican party lines.

“Even though school boards have processes for evaluating materials when parents bring complaints forth, they’re ignoring these processes and taking books off the shelf,” Woodrum said. “And that’s what scares me about this bill, that we will just see more of that, less process and more attacks on educators who actually have training and expertise in putting age and developmentally appropriate materials in the hands of our kids.”