EveryLibrary: “Landmark Civil Rights Agreement Over Book Bans in Forsyth County (GA) Schools”

(UPDATE May 22, 2023): Full Text of Statement: U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights Resolves Investigation of the Removal of Library Books in Forsyth County Schools in Georgia

—End Update—

From an EveryLibrary Post/Statement):

EveryLibrary applauds the US Department of Education Office of Civil Rights for pursuing an investigation of the Forsyth County School District in suburban Atlanta, GA., into Title IX and Title VI violations over book bans, censorship, and their impacts on minority students in the district.

According to public filings, on May 19, 2023, the Office for Civil Rights posted a Letter detailing the outcome of its investigation along with an official Resolution Agreement for the district to follow over the next academic year. Through the first half of 2022, the District pursued a policy to remove books with both LGBTQ and BiPOC themes, characters, and stories. With the release of the Letter and Resolution Agreement, we clearly see that removing books from Forsyth County School libraries – combined with a continued hostile rhetorical environment for racial and sexual minority students – violated students’ civil rights.

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The Office for Civil Rights’ findings in this matter are clear. Forsyth County School District violated the civil rights of both racial and sexual minorities in removing the books from the school library and that the “District’s media center book screening process may have created a hostile environment for students”. The OCR Letter states that “[T]he District’s responsive steps related to the book screening process were not designed to, and were insufficient to, ameliorate any resultant racially and sexually hostile environment” (emphasis added). As detailed in the letter and the Resolution Agreement, book bans, the communications about why books were being removed, and the ongoing rhetoric by district leadership about LGBTQ and racial issues constituted a violation of their students’ civil rights. OCR states that “Prior to the completion of OCR’s investigation, the District agreed to resolve the issues of this investigation” and that the Resolution Agreement is not an admission of guilt by the school district.

According to the OCR letter, while the district focused on removing books with LGBTQ themes, “[C]ommunications 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.” In an article from June 2022 citied in the OCR letter, a sophomore who self-identified as a brown, female person, said “this is something that affects me,” while highlighting another quote by a senior stating, “I’m openly queer, openly transgender, and so it really hits close to home when people are like, let’s not have diversity.” Another student said the school environment grew “more harsh in the aftermath of the book removals and his fear about going to school [increased]”.  It appears that this politicized rhetoric about the content of school library books contributed to OCR’s findings about discriminatory behavior.

Learn More, Read the Complete Statement From EveryLibrary (about 1380 words)

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