Utah bans books that protect children from abuse

The story of Utah's book bans continues to make international headlines. In addition to the 13 books on the statewide “do not read” list, over 140 other titles have been publicly reported as being banned in schools across the state. This is surely an undercount, as there is no requirement for schools to notify parents and taxpayers of book removals.

Some say we need to ban books to protect children. In fact, many of the books banned in Utah deal with difficult topics, including sexual assault. And these books – which are available to teens, not young children – help them protect themselves, their friends, and their siblings from abuse. Many authors have said that their own experiences with abuse inspired them to write their books. They are writing the books they wish they had read when they were abused and didn't know how to get help – or even knew it wasn't their fault.

According to the Utah Women and Leadership Project, child sexual abuse is a significant problem in Utah. One in five girls reported experiencing sexual violence in the past 12 months. Seventy-nine percent of sexual assault victims in Utah reported being abused as minors. The impact of this abuse is significant. The Utah Women and Leadership Project reports that childhood sexual abuse victims are up to 40 percent more likely to drop out of school and are four times more likely to develop symptoms of substance abuse.

And yet, some Utah lawmakers continue to falsely label books as obscene and pornographic based on a few lines taken out of context and not read aloud at public meetings. This fails to meet the standard required by both state and federal law in determining books harmful to minors – namely, whether the material as a whole appeals to prurient interest and whether it lacks significant literary, artistic, political or scientific value.

We challenge anyone who supports book bans to explain why the depiction of sexual assault is so tempting. In fact, it is repulsive. And many of the books banned in Utah are bestsellers and winners of prestigious literary awards, so these works are certainly valuable.

And what happens when committees of parents and teachers read and evaluate books as a whole? Most of the time, they decide against removal. Only by reading a book can one determine its value. And yet, current Utah law does not allow books to be read before they are removed. It must also be noted that Utah's “sensitive materials” law forces school districts to remove books simply because other districts have chosen to remove them. This is a clear violation of the principle of local control and allows a small minority to use the power of the state and the threat of prosecution to impose their views on others who hold a different opinion.

This extreme overreach of state legislation not only deprives locally elected bodies, voters and taxpayers of their rights, but also drives potentially life-saving books off library shelves.

[Was there a book you read as a child that challenged your beliefs or changed your perspective? Tell us about it.]

Some have falsely claimed that a law is necessary because of a lack of curation and parental input in school libraries. However, in 2022, the president of the Alpine School Board testified that there is a process in place that works well. He pointed out that librarians are trained professionals and that there are policies in place that allow individual parents to restrict access for their children.

Similarly, an assistant superintendent of schools at the Utah State School Board (USBE) testified that out of a collection of 200,000 titles in one district, only 10 controversial titles (0.005% of the collection) were removed. The curation “success rate” was therefore 99.995%. Notably, the cost to taxpayers of removing these 10 books was $20,000 and 500 hours of labor.

There is legitimate political debate about what books should be available to students, but those policies have always been set by locally elected school boards in conversation with parents. Like most Americans, we believe that ultimately it is parents – not politicians – who are best placed to set limits for their children on reading (as they do with any activity) and to discuss those limits in the context of their family's beliefs and value system.

Peter Bromberg is a board member of Let Utah Read and deputy director of EveryLibrary, a national nonprofit that builds voter support for libraries. Peter is a librarian for 32 years, former director of the Salt Lake City Public Library, and co-chair of the Utah Library Association's Advocacy Committee.

Christina Allen is a board member of Let Utah Read, Utah author and president-elect of the League of Utah Writers. Christina writes fantasy novels for teens, including her middle grade novels Relatively Normal Secrets and The Secret Benefits of Invisibility. She also writes picture books for children and short stories and poems for former children.

Paisley Print is a board member of Let Utah Read and a former Utah Poet Laureate. She is a highly respected and award-winning author of four nonfiction books and seven volumes of poetry and is a Distinguished Professor at the University of Utah, where she directs the American West Center. She is currently poetry editor at High Country News and co-chair of the Utah Chapter of PEN America.

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