Utah school district removes Bible from elementary and middle schools following complaint

A Utah school district is removing the Bible from elementary and middle school libraries after receiving a complaint from a parent about its contents. 

It follows the passage of a Utah law…

A Utah school district is removing the Bible from elementary and middle school libraries after receiving a complaint from a parent about its contents. 

It follows the passage of a Utah law last year prohibiting “sensitive materials” in schools, intended to give parents a say in what books their kids have access to in public school libraries. 

In the first five months after the law was enacted, parents filed around 250 book complaints. In December, one parent requested the removal of the King James Bible from the Davis County School District (DCSD).  

The parent claimed in the request the Bible has inappropriate content has no “serious value for minors.” 

In March, DCSD spokesperson Chris Williams said the request to ban the Bible would be reviewed, according to ABC4

“We don’t jump to conclusions, we go through the entire process. We don’t blow off one request because we think it’s silly,” Williams said at the time. 

Last week the review committee decided it would remove the Bible from among its 79 elementary and middle schools in the district, though it will remain in high schools. 

The district’s ruling determined the Bible’s content did not violate the 2022 law but does include “vulgarity or violence not suited for younger students,” according to local media reports

Rep. Ken Ivory, R-Salt Lake, who sponsored the bill on sensitive materials, had initially questioned the sincerity of the Bible complaint, but after DCSD’s ruling, says the Bible is a “challenging read for elementary or middle school children on their own.” 

“Traditionally, in America, the Bible is best taught, and best understood, in the home, and around the hearth, as a family,” Ivory wrote on Facebook about the decision. 

DCSD isn’t the only district dealing with requests to remove the Bible. 

A school district outside Fort Worth, Texas pulled the Bible and 40 other books, including the diary of Anne Frank, following complaints from parents last year.  

Activist Chaz Stevens petitioned for Florida schools to “immediately remove the Bible from the classroom, library and any instructional material,” adding “I also seek the banishment of any book that references the Bible.”  

A school district in Kansas is also reviewing the Bible following the request from two students to remove it from the school last month.  

At least some of the complaints about the Bible in schools appear to be in retaliation of similar complaints leveled against graphic pro-LGBT books or new state laws, such as Utah’s, which facilitate book reviews and removal.