Today the South Carolina Department of Education’s Instructional Materials Review Committee voted to remove 10 books from all K-12 public school libraries and classroom collections. The State Board of Education will take a final vote on this recommendation at its April 1 meeting.
The following statement is from Communications Director Paul Bowers at the ACLU of South Carolina:
Today we saw the absurd outcome of an absurd policy. Regulation 43-170 sets the same standard of age-appropriateness for kindergartners and high school seniors, and as a result contemporary classics are being banned on a near-monthly basis. We warned the State Board of Education in 2024 that passing this overly broad policy would open the floodgates for book banners to impose their will on all South Carolina families, and that is exactly what is happening.
The committee voted unanimously to remove the following books on the basis of a regulation that prohibits any book containing a description of “sexual conduct":
- Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
- Lucky by Alice Sebold
- Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott
- Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
- Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas
- Identical by Ellen Hopkins
- Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas
- Hopeless by Colleen Hoover
- Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimananda Ngozi Adichie
- Collateral by Ellen Hopkins
The committee voted unanimously to recommend banning each book for all grade levels. A video recording of today’s hearing is available on our YouTube channel playlist, along with video recordings of previous committee hearings.
The author Ellen Hopkins, who had 3 of her books recommended for removal today, was one of the speakers who spoke out against book banning at today’s hearing. Author Malinda Lo also submitted written testimony to the committee (see below) and spoke out about the potential ban on her blog and via a two-part Instagram video (part 1 and part 2).
The statewide instructional materials policy Regulation 43-170 passed out of the State Board of Education after State Superintendent Ellen Weaver hired an outside attorney at a cost of more than $40,000 to promote and defend the regulation, as reported by The State newspaper. Among other things, the regulation empowers one person to request a statewide book ban by appealing local book removal decisions to the state level. Many of the books being banned were previously reviewed and allowed to stay on the shelves in Beaufort County Schools.
The S.C. Department of Education is currently in the fourth round of its statewide book purge since Regulation 43-170 passed without the usual legislative vetting process in June 2024. So far, the department has ordered educators to remove the following books from all public schools:
- Damsel by Elana Arnold (the author responded via a blog post on our website)
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
- Flamer by Mike Curato
- Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover
- All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson
- A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas
- A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
- A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
- A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
- Normal People by Sally Rooney
- Push by Sapphire
The board has also decided to partially restrict access to Ellen Hopkins' novel Crank. The book remains in high school libraries, but a parent or guardian must fill out an opt-in form for a student to borrow it. Hopkins previously responded to the attacks on her work in the blog post "Here's what you lose when you ban my books."
