Cobb County removes 13 more books from schools for ‘sexually explicit content’

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — The Cobb County School District announced more than a dozen additional books had been removed from the school systems’ libraries this August.

According to officials, a Cobb County elementary school parent, Lindsey W., was supportive of the move, saying that “Schools aren’t telling parents how to parent; however, schools have a responsibility to make sure materials available to children are age-appropriate.”

The district said 13 books were removed for containing what they identified as sexually explicit content. Previously, district officials removed seven other books from the system’s libraries.

Cobb County Schools insists that the removals are not bans, but instead the actions are CCSD “simply choosing not to provide sexually explicit content to children.”

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Superintendent Chris Ragsdale announced the removals Thursday, saying he was “bringing an update to our ongoing book review process, which we began when we learned sexually explicit and graphic content was available to children in our elementary, middle, and high school media centers. Recognizing our legal and moral obligation to protect students when they are at school, we reviewed the content and, when it was inappropriate, stopped providing unrestricted access to children.”

He added in a written statement provided by the school district that “We did not make this decision casually but did so after reviewing the content in question” and compared to removal to limiting access to R-rated movies and the use of internet filters to keep students off of adult content while using district computers.

The district’s actions were described as a “very surgical process,” and said the district remains committed to providing works by and about an “incredibly diverse array of authors, characters and experiences,” but stressed that the books would not contain sexually graphic language, illustrations, experience or language.

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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.

Following the previous removals, a federal civil rights complaint was filed against the Cobb County School District by the National Women’s Law Center saying that Cobb County Schools created “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.”

“Following our review process, we have decided the following thirteen books contain sexually graphic or explicit language, illustrations, or situations that are inappropriate for children, and therefore, it would be inappropriate for the Cob County School District to continue to provide our students unrestricted access to them,” Ragsdale continued.

The books removed, bringing the district’s removals to 20 in the past year or so, are:

• 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
• 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

Previously, Cobb County Schools removed:

• Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
• Flamer by Mike Curato
• Blankets by Craig Thompson
• It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
• Lucky by Alice Sebold
• Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

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