This week, across the country, public school teachers welcomed students into their classrooms. In some states, though, families heading back to school are finding things have not stayed cool over the summer.
Utahans, for example, will no longer be able to find 13 books (12 of which were written by women) at their school library after the state’s Board of Education determined the titles contained “Objective Sensitive Materials.”
More accurately, according to the law that went into effect on July 1, at least three of the state’s 41 school district boards have decided the books are indecent. It’s the first of its kind. Previous bans have tended to be more localized to certain districts, like the one in Iowa that removed Native Son, Ulysses, The Color Purple, and (no kidding) a picture book about U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.
PEN America has warned that allowing a few districts to prohibit literature statewide is antidemocratic. Nonetheless, more books will likely be added to Utah’s “No Read” list, and when they are, public school libraries are barred from selling or redistributing them. Instead, they must be “disposed of.”
Other states are poised to follow Utah’s lead. In fact, South Carolina already did. With a Moms for Liberty ally leading the charge, they implemented a ban so restrictive yet poorly written that it could conceivably remove Shakespeare from shelves. Still under consideration in Idaho is a book ban that would apply to any act of homosexuality. And a proposal in Tennessee would allow a complaint from a single person to escalate to a statewide ban.
The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom reported that more books were banned in U.S. schools and libraries last year than during any other year on record, even as a supermajority of Americans oppose books bans.
The uptick in censorship by religious extremists has had some unintended consequences. Utah, Florida, Missouri, and Texas have all wrestled with the question of whether to remove one title that’s brimming with sexuality and violence: The Bible.
That’s very much not the case in Oklahoma. State Superintendent Ryan Walters, whose attempt to control libraries was foiled earlier this year by the state’s Supreme Court, declared instead that “every teacher and every classroom in the state will have a Bible in the classroom and will be teaching from the Bible in the classroom.”
Several districts have stated they will not comply with the directive, despite Walters’ repeated threats. At least one parent has already filed a lawsuit, and one brave teacher penned a particularly scathing op-Ed this week.
As another writer pointed out, all of this—the removal of some books and the insertion of religious texts—is uncannily reminiscent of a 19th century campaign by the Sunday-School Union, which alleged that the Bible was “essential to the proper training of the young” while secular literature was “sweet poison” for kids.
Today, they call it “pornography.” What qualifies is anything and everything, apparently, that offends a Christian nationalist’s sensibilities—namely the experiences of non-white, non-heterosexual, and non-Christian people. On the fifth page of Project 2025’s “Mandate for Leadership,” Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts calls for distributors to “be imprisoned” and for purveyors, including “educators and public librarians” to be “classed as registered sex offenders.”
Superintendent Walters has called the teachers’ union a “terrorist organization” and told noncompliant teachers and administrators to “go to California.” It’s no wonder then that the state is facing a massive teacher shortage and has had to issue a record number of emergency teacher certifications just to keep schools operational.
The implications of a nationwide “Ed Scare” go well beyond a logistical crisis into a more existential one. Under this level of censorship and ideological control, what will become of free expression, free speech, and free thought? Without free thought, do our schools become places of indoctrination rather than education?
American Atheists will continue monitoring the situation in Oklahoma and working with our volunteers on the ground to identify opportunities for potential legal action or other interventions. You can show your support by contributing $10 or more today. Be sure, too, to sign up for Action Alerts so our Policy Team can let you know about potential book bans in your state.
In solidarity,
Melina Cohen
Communications Director
American Atheists is a 501(c)(3) non-partisan, nonprofit educational organization that relies on the support of members like you. Contributions are tax-deductible. Our Federal Tax ID Number is 74-2466507 and our Combined Federal Campaign number is 52217.
American Atheists
225 Cristiani Street
Cranford, NJ 07016
United States