Summary
Following the removal of eight books from a school library in the Wentzville, Missouri school district, a group of students and others brought a challenge to the district policy for the removal of library books. Under the policy, challenge material is blocked until, at the earliest, after:
- A review committee is appointed, meets and prepares a recommendation;
- The recommendation is sent to the school board; and
- The school board votes whether to make the ban permanent.
No standard governs the school board’s decision, and it cannot be appealed. While policy provides a general timeline for committee review, it has not been followed for any of the banned books. No timeframe governs the school board’s decision.
The eight banned books were:
- “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970)
- “Heavy: An American Memoir” by Kiese Laymon (Scriber, 2018)
- “Modern Romance: An Investigation” by Aziz Ansari and Eric Klinenberg (Penguin Press, 2015)
- “Gabi, a Girl in Pieces” by Isabel Quintero (Cinco Puntos Press, 2014)
- “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic” by Alison Bechdel (Houghton Mifflin, 2006)
- “Invisible Girl” by Lisa Jewell (Atria Books, 2020)
- “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020)
- “Lawn Boy” by Jonathan Evison (Algonquin Books, 2018)
In February 2022, the Missouri State Conference of the NAACP and the St. Charles County Missouri Unit of the NAACP joined the lawsuit.
Amicus Brief
In April 11, 2022, the American Booksellers for Free Expression, Association of American Publishers, Authors Guild, and Comic Book Legal Defense Fund submitted an amicus brief in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. The brief argues that none of the books removed from the library, as listed above, could possibly be considered harmful to minors or obscene under the Miller/Ginsberg test, established by the United States Supreme Court:
- None of the books appeal to the prurient interest of minors.
- None of the books, taken as a whole, are patently offensive to the adult community as to what is suitable for minors.
- All of the books have serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors, as evidenced by the dozens of awards received by these books, many of which specifically lauded the books’ contribution to the academic and social development of minors.
The brief also argues that the school board’s procedures unconstitutionally restrict older minors’ First Amendment rights.
Background
During the 2021-2022 school year, the Wentzville R-IV School District pulled the eight books listed above from the school library circulation. On February 15, 2022, the ACLU of Missouri filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri on behalf of two students and their parents. On March 14, 2022, the NAACP joined the complaint, noting that the books that were removed presented “the viewpoints of racial and sexual minorities.”