H.B. 29 Sensitive Material Review Amendments
Ivory, Ken; Weiler, D | Published on 2/13/2024
Since the passage of H.B. 374 in 2022, over 262 books have been removed across 17 school districts in Utah. The problem isn’t that too few books have been banned—but that removing books from school libraries is already too easy. Lawmakers use the term “criminal porn” to make it seem like the books being removed have no redeeming value. Instead, books already banned in Utah deal with serious issues such as sex trafficking (“Tricks” by Ellen Hopkins) and rape (“The Bluest Eye” by Nobel-prize winning author, Toni Morrison). The majority of books removed from Utah schools address racial or LGBTQ themes, and many are written by people of color. Just because some parents don’t want their children exposed to diverse authors and topics does not give them the right to deny these perspectives to everyone else.