UNITED STATES NEWS

Utah school district returns the Bible to shelves after appeals and outcry

Jun 20, 2023, 5:46 PM

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Bible will return to the shelves in a northern Utah school district that provoked an outcry after it banned them from middle and elementary schools last month.

The Davis School District, which educates 72,000 students north of Salt Lake City, said in a statement on Tuesday that its board had determined the sacred text was age-appropriate for all district libraries. In allowing the Bible to be accessible to students regardless of their grade level, the board sided with 70 people who filed appeals after it was banned last month.

“Based on their assessment of community standards, the appeal committee determined that The Bible has significant, serious value for minors which outweighs the violent or vulgar content it contains,” the committee wrote in a decision published along with school board materials on Tuesday.

The committee’s reversal is the latest development in the debate over a Utah law allowing parents to challenge “sensitive materials” available to children in public schools. Parents’ rights activists successfully lobbied for the legislation in 2022 amid a broader national wave of scrutiny facing the materials accessible in schools and libraries — particularly about race, gender and sexuality.

In statehouses from Florida to Arkansas, Republicans have enacted laws that expand parents’ power to challenge what’s available in schools and libraries and, in some places, subject librarians to criminal penalties for providing materials deemed harmful to minors. The legislative effort is one prong of growing push to ban certain titles; the number of attempts to ban or restrict books across the U.S. in 2022 was the highest in the 20 years, according to the American Library Association.

In Utah, the effort to ban the Bible reignited debate about the standards used to judge the content in books. The initial challenge was filed by an unnamed individual who criticized the conservative parents’ activists clamoring to remove books from libraries and the standards they have lobbied the state to adopt.

“Utah Parents United left off one of the most sex-ridden books around: The Bible,” the challenge said, referring to one of the primary groups involved in curriculum battles. “You’ll no doubt find that the Bible .. has no serious values for minors because it’s pornographic by our new definition … If the books that have been banned so far are any indication for way lesser offenses, this should be a slam dunk.”

The challenge also derided a “bad faith process” and said the district was “ceding our children’s education, First Amendment Rights, and library access” to Parents United.

The committee’s decision to remove the Bible vexed advocates for expanding local control and parents’ ability to challenge books. Republican Ken. Ivory, the lawmaker who sponsored the state’s “sensitive materials” law at first opposed the Bible’s removal and called the challenge “a mockery.” He later said the text was best read at home but ultimately pushed for its return to schools and attacked the process that removed it from Davis County schools.

In an interview with The Associated Press earlier this month, Ivory said lawmakers should revise the law to ensure book-removal decisions have to be overseen by elected officials at open public meetings, not the kind of committee that decided to remove the Bible from middle and elementary schools in the Davis School District.

At Davis School District’s board meeting on Tuesday, school board members said their majority-parent review committee was convened and had made its initial decision — and weighed appeals — in line with the law.

“The magnitude of the value of the Bible as a literary work outweighs any violence or profanity which may be contained in the book,” Davis School District Board Vice President Brigit Gerrard said.

United States News

FILE - Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump speaks to Texas state tr...

Associated Press

Appeals court upholds gag order on Trump in Washington case but narrows restrictions on his speech

A federal appeals court in Washington on Friday largely upheld a gag order on former President Donald Trump in his 2020 election interference case but narrowed the restrictions on his speech.

1 hour ago

FILE - Migrant families wade through shallow waters toward Roma, Texas, March 24, 2021. A federal j...

Associated Press

Federal judge prohibits separating migrant families at US border for 8 years

A federal judge on Friday prohibited the separation of families at the border for purposes of deterring immigration for eight years.

2 hours ago

Associated Press

Indiana secretary of state appeals ruling for US Senate candidate seeking GOP nod

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indiana secretary of state is appealing a ruling that a law stipulating voting requirements for a candidate’s party affiliation is unconstitutional in a decision that lifted the hopes of a U.S. Senate hopeful who wants to run as a Republican. The Indiana attorney general’s office filed the notice of appeal Friday […]

3 hours ago

Associated Press

Nashville Police investigation into leak of Covenant School shooter’s writings is inconclusive

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Nashville Police have “exhausted all available investigative avenues” in the hunt for the person who leaked pages from a school shooter’s journals to a conservative commentator, the department announced in an email sent to media late on Friday. The writings are part of an ongoing legal battle over whether they should […]

3 hours ago

Associated Press

Arkansas man sentenced to 5 1/2 years for firebombing police cars during 2020 protests

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The ringleader of a group who admitted to firebombing several police cars in Arkansas during the 2020 protests over the killing of George Floyd has been sentenced to five and a half years in federal prison, while three of his co-defendants were sentenced to 18 months each. A federal judge […]

4 hours ago

Associated Press

Guest lineups for the Sunday news shows

WASHINGTON (AP) — ABC’s “This Week” — Secretary of State Antony Blinken; former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. ___ NBC’s “Meet the Press” — Sens. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and Chris Murphy, D-Conn. ___ CBS’ “Face the Nation” — Shalanda Young, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget; Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and James […]

4 hours ago

Sponsored Articles

Follow @KTAR923...

The best ways to honor our heroes on Veterans Day and give back to the community

Veterans Day is fast approaching and there's no better way to support our veterans than to donate to the Military Assistance Mission.

...

Dierdre Woodruff

Interest rates may have peaked. Should you buy a CD, high-yield savings account, or a fixed annuity?

Interest rates are the highest they’ve been in decades, and it looks like the Fed has paused hikes. This may be the best time to lock in rates for long-term, low-risk financial products like fixed annuities.

Follow @KTAR923...

The 2023 Diamondbacks are a good example to count on the underdog

The Arizona Diamondbacks made the World Series as a surprise. That they made the playoffs at all, got past the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Wild Card round, swept the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS and won two road games in Philadelphia to close out a full seven-game NLCS went against every expectation. Now, […]

Utah school district returns the Bible to shelves after appeals and outcry