COBB COUNTY, Ga. — At Thursday’s Cobb County School Board meeting, Superintendent Dr. Chris Ragsdale announced six more books would be removed the school district’s library system.
A statement shared from the school district described the action as the district removing “more sexually explicit books from schools.”
The accompanying statement from the superintendent said it was another step in the district’s ongoing process of removing books with sexually explicit and/or graphic content from the school system’s libraries.
With the removal of the latest six books, the total now taken out of circulation for CCSD is at 26.
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Defending the removal, Ragsdale urged those in favor of keeping the books in the school system’s circulation to read the excerpts, research the books and to go online to learn more about them.
In previous actions to remove books, Ragsdale explicitly noted that the removals were not what he would describe as a book ban, but that the district had chosen to “not provide sexually explicit content to children.” He also compared the process of reviewing or limiting children’s access to rated “R” movies.
As Channel 2 Action News has reported in the past, criticism of the previous removals were related to the books’ natures as including LGBTQ characters and experiences.
Critics of the removals have claimed the district is banning books with LGBTQ+ themes.
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Channel 2 Action News reported in May that a lawsuit was filed against the district over the book removals, alleging that by doing so, officials were creating “a hostile environment for students through practices that include censoring books and learning materials that feature, tell the stories of, or are written by LGBTQIA+ people and people of color.”
In the latest statement from Ragsdale, he said “The media assets of this District are and will remain broadly inclusive of the diverse individuals, groups, stories, and experiences of our nation. They will not, however, contain sexually explicit and graphic language inappropriate for children in a public school,” adding that if parents wanted to provide their children with the materials at home, the district would respect that choice, but “we are not going to impose that choice on other people’s children.”
According to the school district, the six books removed on Thursday are:
- A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
- A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
- A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
- A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas
- A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas
- Ironfire by David Ball
The books that were previously removed from school district circulation were:
- Laid edited by Shannon Teresa Boodram
- Crank by Ellen Hopkins
- Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
- Push by Sapphire
- Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
- It Starts with Us by Colleen Hoover
- It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover
- The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle
- The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
- Identical by Ellen Hopkins
- All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
- Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera
- Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson
- City of Thieves by David Benioff
- Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
- Flamer by Mike Curato
- Blankets by Craig Thompson
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
- Lucky by Alice Sebold
- Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
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