ATLANTA — There’s a battle over what books are appropriate for students in districts across metro Atlanta, and following a recent 2022 law in Georgia, many are wondering if schools must notify anyone if a book is banned.
In recent months, a Cobb County teacher was fired over the book she read to her class. This case centered around parents telling the school district about a book they deemed inappropriate, but in Marietta, parents have been fighting to put a book back on the shelves.
THE QUESTION
Under Georgia’s new law, can a school remove a book without alerting the public?
SOURCES
THE ANSWER
Yes, under Georgia’s new law, a school can remove a book without alerting the public.
WHAT WE FOUND
In April of 2022, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed Senate Bill 226 into law.
It outlines a new process for challenging a book’s content and allows parents to request a book be removed from school libraries if it contains “material that is harmful to minors.”
The law is tailored to target books that include sexual content.
“The standard is actually really good. It’s fair,” Ramsingh said. “It tracks the Miller versus California standard which is ‘Does a work have no literary value, no artistic value, no scientific or political value?’ So, if the policy were interpreted strictly in accordance with that test, I think very few materials would be banned under it.”
If a parent wants to challenge a book, they must put the complaint in writing and give it to the principal.
The principal, or the principal’s “designee,” has seven business days to decide whether to remove the book and ten days to let that parent know the decision. According to Ramsingh, if the principal agrees the book should be removed, the law does not require public notice.
“If the principal agrees with the parent that the book is harmful, that’s it. The book can be removed and that’s it,” she said.
And if not, the parent can appeal to the school board, but the law still does not require anything to be published publicly.
“They do have to give the parent the opportunity to speak at public comments, but as I read the law, they don’t have to necessarily debate the merits of this book in public,” Ramsingh said.
If the parent disagrees with both the principal and the school board, only then does transparency kick in.
“If the principal and the school board agree that the book is not harmful, only at that point within 15 days does that book title get published and then they have to keep it on the website for at least a year,” Ramsingh said.