(COLUMBIA, S.C.) — PEN America and the ACLU of South Carolina raised alarm today over the potential banning of 10 more books statewide in S.C. public schools on April 1.
The 10 book titles are largely for young adult readers by women and LGBTQ+ authors that focus on diverse groups or difficult real-world topics. In an initial vote earlier this month, a review committee unanimously recommended the titles be banned statewide. A final vote on the recommendations is scheduled for Tuesday at 1PM ET by the state Board of Education.
If all 10 of these titles are banned, as the committee recommends, South Carolina would surpass Utah with the most state-mandated bans impacting all public schools. Most school book bans are limited to the school district in which they are imposed.
“By removing students’ access to books about topics like grief, sexual violence, consent, and identity, these bans aren’t protecting young people–they’re doing the opposite,” said Madison Markham, program coordinator, Freedom to Read, at PEN America. “Supporters have claimed enforcing Regulation 43-170 isn’t about banning books–but state-mandated censorship of public school libraries absolutely is. The South Carolina’s Board of Education must put the brakes on censorship in South Carolina schools.”
Josh Malkin, advocacy director at the ACLU of South Carolina, said: “Since 2023, South Carolina’s brilliant students, families, educators, and librarians have been warning the State Board of Education about the damage an overly broad book regulation would cause. Now one person effectively has veto power over what library books are available to 800,000 students in our public schools. We’re seeing the dangerous outcome of a bad policy, and we’re calling on the board to revisit that policy before it causes more damage.”
The books the review committee recommended for bans are:
- Collateral, by Ellen Hopkins
- Empire of Storms, by Sarah J. Mass
- Half of a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Hopeless, by Colleen Hoover
- Identical, by Ellen Hopkins
- Kingdom of Ash, by Sarah J. Mass
- Last Night at the Telegraph Club, by Malinda Lo
- Living Dead Girl, by Elizabeth Scott
- Lucky, by Alice Sebold
- Tricks, by Ellen Hopkins
South Carolina is one of three states, in addition to Utah and Tennessee, with a mechanism for statewide school book bans established by state law. Utah has mandated 17 books banned for all schools in the state. So far, Tennessee has not had any state-mandated book bans.
Regulation 43-170, pushed into law by State Superintendent of Education Ellen Weaver, bans books containing any descriptions or visual depictions of “sexual conduct,” regardless of the book’s merit. In 2024, a coalition representing hundreds of authors, five publishers, and multiple advocacy organizations, including ACLU of South Carolina and PEN America, sent a letter to South Carolina’s legislators asking them to stop the regulations from going into effect.
So far, 12 books have been banned by removal or restriction statewide in S.C.. public schools since the regulations went into effect last year. The majority of the 27 books successfully challenged at the state level have come from one woman who challenged 97 books in Beaufort County Schools.
Read more about the state’s censorship regulations.
Contact: Suzanne Trimel, PEN America, STrimel@PEN.org, 201-247-5057; Paul Bowers, ACLU of South Carolina, PBowers@aclusc.org