A Utah school district has removed the Bible from all elementary and middle school libraries after someone objected to its contents, KSL.com reported.
A Davis School District committee designed to flag books that contain sexual content determined last week that the Bible would be allowed in high school libraries but not in elementary and middle school libraries within the district. The committee will review the matter again after an appeal was filed on Wednesday to make the book available to all grade levels once again.
The anonymous challenge to the Bible was originally brought in December of 2022. When asked by KSL.com if the challenge was a serious attempt to have the Bible removed or just an activist taking advantage of the district’s policy to make a statement, Davis School District director of communication Christopher Williams said district officials treat all challenges the same.
Speaking to KSL this week, Williams said the district decided to only make the book available to high schoolers “based on age appropriateness due to vulgarity or violence.”
“That decision has since been appealed by an individual who would like it retained at all levels. It will now go to an appeals committee consisting of three members of the Davis School District Board of Education,” Williams said. “That committee will then make a recommendation to the full Board of Education whether to retain or remove it from school library circulation. The board will then make the final decision.”
Last year, the Utah Legislature approved a bill that conservatives said would weed out pornographic material from K-12 libraries and classrooms.
The Bible is known to contain graphic violence and sexual content, such as murder, incest, beheadings, sexual violence and genocide.
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