Metro Atlanta school’s book bans may break civil rights law, federal officials warn
A schoolteacher collects library books from students who just graduated and but borrowed them before schools were shut down at Yung Wing School P.S. 124 on June 29, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)
FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. - The U.S. Department of Education has found that a suburban Atlanta school district’s decision to remove some books from its libraries may have created a hostile environment that violated federal laws against race and sex discrimination.
The legal intervention by the department’s Office of Civil Rights could curb efforts to ban books in other public school districts nationwide, especially when bans are focused on books that include content about LGBTQ and nonwhite people.
The Forsyth County school district settled the complaint, agreeing to explain the book removal process to students and offer "supportive measures" to students who may have been harmed. Forsyth County will also include questions about the issue in its yearly school climate survey of middle and high school students next year.
The federal intervention came after months of contention over books in the 54,000-student district. Forsyth is Georgia’s most affluent county, a rapidly growing suburb about 30 miles north of downtown Atlanta.
Forsyth County in January 2022 removed eight books, including Toni Morrison’s "The Bluest Eye," but allowed seven to return after further consideration. It excluded only "All Boys Aren’t Blue," a memoir about growing up as gay Black man by George M. Johnson.
Federal officials wrote in a letter Friday that Forsyth County erred not so much in the removals, saying "the district limited its book screening process to sexually explicit material." Instead, officials found that the problem was how district officials talked about removals at school board meetings.
"Communications at board meetings conveyed the impression that books were being screened to exclude diverse authors and characters, including people who are LGBTQI+ and authors who are not white, leading to increased fears and possibly harassment," the department wrote.
One student came to a board meeting to warn "about the school environment becoming more harsh in the aftermath of the book removals and his fear about going to school," the letter says.
Becky Woomer of the Forsyth Coalition for Education, which has opposed book removals, said the findings back up fears that the school district was endorsing anti-gay views.
"Having those views validated, yeah, I think it harms students," Woomer said. "And when the books were put back on the shelves, it was done silently. So there was never this sense as a school community ‘OK, we messed up, we’re sorry.’"
Jennifer Caracciolo, a spokesperson for Forsyth County schools, said a statement to students will help dispel those impressions.
"It’s more about making sure we communicate with the students," she said.
Protests over books viewed as inappropriate had been led by a conservative group, Mama Bears of Forsyth County. Members read sexually explicit passages from school books until the school board chairman ordered them to stop in March 2022, noting board policy prohibits profane remarks. Members of the group argued that if the books were inappropriate to be read at a board meeting, they were inappropriate for children.