SUMMERVILLE – In the largest recent attack on the freedom to read in South Carolina schools, a book-banning activist has demanded that 160 books be removed from Dorchester School District 2. The ACLU of South Carolina urges the Dorchester 2 school board to stick to its existing policies and reject this book-banning attempt at its next meeting February 12.
In December, one person submitted a spreadsheet of 572 titles that she wanted the district to purge from its classrooms and libraries. According to district records, only 160 of those titles were present in the schools at the time of the request. The challenged books include contemporary classics like Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, 20th-century masterpieces like Toni Morrison’s Beloved, and award-winning young adult novels like I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez.
This total exceeds the scale of mass book ban attempts in Berkeley County Schools (where 93 titles were challenged in 2023) and Beaufort County Schools (where 97 books were pulled from shelves in 2022 and all but 5 were ultimately returned after a lengthy review).
“School board members should take courage in the fact that copy-and-paste book ban requests like this one are both immensely unpopular and clearly prohibited under existing district policy. We encourage the district to throw this book challenge in the recycling bin and continue the vital work of education,” said ACLU-SC Executive Director Jace Woodrum.
The ACLU-SC makes the following recommendations:
First, the school board should be aware of the coordinated nationwide effort to harass educators and purge books, particularly those by LGBTQ+ and Black authors. The ACLU of South Carolina has tracked hundreds of book challenges in 12 counties since 2020 and is currently suing the Pickens County School District over its politically and racially motivated ban on the book Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You.
Second, we believe the board should adhere to its own policies regarding book challenges, which are an effective safeguard against mass book bans. Board Policy IJL (Library Materials Selection and Adoption) clearly states that book challenges may only come from a parent or guardian of a student in the district. This person must complete a challenge form for one book at a time and submit it to their child’s school principal. An in-school materials review committee will then review a book within 30 days, at which point the parent or guardian may appeal to a District Citizen’s Review Committee.
What we have seen instead is that one person with no children in the district submitted an entire spreadsheet of books that she wanted to ban. Instead of reading the books and filling out forms demonstrating her comprehension of the material, she copied and pasted ratings from the book-banning clearinghouse websites BookLooks and Rated Books.
Third, the board should consider the damage done to students' learning environment by overriding the judgment of school librarians and teachers. The book banners want the district to remove books that were already selected and approved by educators. Overriding their judgment without a public due process is a disservice both to students' education and an insult to the professional expertise of educators. At a time when schools are already struggling with a staffing crisis, Dorchester 2 can scarcely afford to chase its employees away.
The following is a list of titles currently held in Dorchester 2 schools that book-banning activists are seeking to remove. The full PDF showing all 600+ challenged books, including ones that were not on school shelves, is available at the bottom of the page or via the Dorchester 2 school board minutes.
A Child Called “It” by David Pelzer
A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones: The Graphic Novel, Volume 1 by George R.R. Martin
A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire by Jennifer L. Armentrout
A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee
A Stolen Life by Jaycee Duggard
All the Things We Do in the Dark by Saundra Mitchell
Allegedly by Tiffany Jackson
Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher
America by E.R. Frank
Ask the Passengers by A.S. King
Assassination Classroom, Vols. 1-8 and 11 by Yusei Matsui
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Blankets by Craig Thompson
Boy Girl Boy by Ron Koertge
Boy Toy by Barry Lyga
Brave New World: A Graphic Novel by Aldous Huxley, adapted by Fred Fordham
Bumped by Megan McCafferty
Burned by Ellen Hopkins
Cheer Up: Love and Pompoms by Crystal Frasier
Chosen by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast
Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare
Collected Poems, 1947-1980 by Allen Ginsberg
Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas
Cool for the Summer by Dahlia Adler
Crank by Ellen Hopkins
Damsel by Elana Arnold
Daughters Unto Devils by Amy Lukavics
Dime by E.R. Frank
Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia
Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi
Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
Fade by Lisa McMann
Fallout by Ellen Hopkins
Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
Flamer by Mike Curato
Follow Your Arrow by Jessica Verdi
Forever for a Year by B.T. Gottfred
Forever… by Judy Blume
From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Gabi, A Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero
Glass by Ellen Hopkins
Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
Grit by Gillian French
Grl2Grl by Julie Anne Peters
Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson
Guyaholic by Carolyn Mackler
Heroine by Mindy McGinnis
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
I Am Margaret Moore by Hannah Capin
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
I Never by Laura Hopper
I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
Identical by Ellen Hopkins
Impulse by Ellen Hopkins
Infandous by Elana K. Arnold
It’s Perfectly Normal, Fifth Edition by Robie H. Harris and Michael Emberley
Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera
Juliet Takes a Breath: A Graphic Novel by Gabby Rivera
Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas
L8r, G8r by Lauren Myracle
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison
Let’s Talk About Race by Julius Lester
LGBTQ+ Athletes Claim the Field: Striving for Equality by Kirstin Cronn-Mills
Life is Funny by E.R. Frank
Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian
Little and Lion by Brandy Colbert
Looking for Alaska by John Green
Love Lies Beneath by Ellen Hopkins
Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk
Man O’ War by Cory McCarthy
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson
More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera
Native Son by Richard Wright
Nick and Charlie by Alice Oseman
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
Not My Problem by Ciara Smyth
Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez
People Kill People by Ellen Hopkins
Perfect by Ellen Hopkins
Push by Sapphire
Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas
Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
Red Hood by Elana Arnold
Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley
Rumble by Ellen Hopkins
Shine by Lauren Myracle
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Slaughterhouse-Five: A Graphic Novel by Kurt Vonnegut with Ryan North and Albert Monteys
Smoke by Ellen Hopkins
Sold by Patricia McCormick
Someone I Used to Know by Patty Blount
Speak: The Graphic Novel by Laurie Halse Anderson
Spinning by Tillie Walden
Storm and Fury: Harbinger, Book 1 by Jennifer L. Armentrout
SuperMutant Magic Academy by Jillian Tamaki
Tangled Webs by Lee Bross
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson
The Book of Pride: LGBTQ Heroes by Mason Funk
The Carnival at Bray by Jessie Ann Foley
The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and Ash Series) by Jennifer L. Armentrout
The Duff: A Novel by Kody Keplinger
The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis
The Fixer by Bernard Malamud
The Freedom Writers Diary by The Freedom Writers
The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
The Haters by Jesse Andrews
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Kite Runner: A Graphic Novel by Khaled Hosseini with Fabio Celoni and Mirka Andolfo
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (this book is listed twice)
The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski
The Opposite of Innocent by Sonya Sones
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu
The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli
The War of Two Queens (Blood and Ash Series) by Jennifer L. Armentrout
The You I’ve Never Known by Ellen Hopkins
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki
Tilt by Ellen Hopkins
Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas
Traffick by Ellen Hopkins
Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
TTYL by Lauren Myracle
Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi
Vampire Academy (Book 1) by Richelle Mead
Vanilla by Billy Merrell
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchison
What Girls Are Made Of by Elana K. Arnold
Where I End and You Begin by Preston Norton
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
Yolk by Mary H.K. Choi
