Just a little over a month since adding two additional titles to its ever-growing list of books banned in every public school across the state, this week, Utah’s “sensitive materials” law has added another book to its ranks. Tricks by Ellen Hopkins was added to the list this week, and now, school officials must work to remove the title from their institutions. It is the second book by Hopkins to be banned in the state. Tricks was published in 2009.
Utah passed one of the strictest bills related to books in public schools last year. House Bill 29 (HB 29) allows parents to challenge books they deem “sensitive material” and it also outright bans books from all public schools in the state if those books have been deemed “objective sensitive material” or “pornographic” per state code in at least three public school districts or two public school districts and five charter schools statewide. The bill went into effect July 1, 2024, and it started with 13 titles on it.
The bill is retroactive, meaning that titles which met the state’s guidelines prior to the bill’s start date were included on the list. Per HB 29, any time a public or charter school removes a book deemed “sensitive material,” they must notify the State Board of Education. If that book meets the threshold of removals, all schools will be notified and expected to dispose of it.
There are now 17 books prohibited in any Utah public school. Of them, 15 are written by women, and their average publication date is 2011. This means that most of these books have been on shelves and available for many years and caused no issues until this manufactured crisis. The list is as follows:
- Tilt by Ellen Hopkins (2012)
- Damsel by Elana K. Arnold (2018)
- Tricks by Ellen Hopkins (2009)
What is important to understand about the law is that despite claims this is about “local control,” schools in the state are forced to follow the decisions made in other districts. There are 42 public school districts in Utah, but two districts account for nearly 80% of the books banned statewide: Davis School District and Washington School District.
Davis and Washington are two of the three schools that led to the banning of Tricks.
In January, Utah’s State Board of Education also further clarified the law as it applies to students. No students are allowed to bring their own personal or public library copies of any of the state’s banned books onto school campuses. Student freedom to even carry these books to class for their own free reading is against the law. The state goes so far as to issue guidance for how local educational agencies can approach students who bring any of the above 17 books to school.
We’re going to continue to see more books added to this list in Utah as the school year carries on. These are not, of course, the only books being banned in the state where book bans are happening, despite claims by the federal Department of Education. Individual school districts are allowed to ban any books they deem inappropriate–which, of course, helps add more titles to the state list as only three districts need to remove a book before the book must be removed everywhere.
Utah is not the only state with such a book list. South Carolina also retains a sanctioned list of books that must be removed in every public school district. As of writing, there are 11 books banned in South Carolina public schools, with 10 more books to be considered for state-sanctioned banning on March 13.
These laws do not apply to private or homeschool institutions. That’s intentional.
If and when the Department of Education is eliminated under the new administration, expect to see more state departments of education implementing similar book ban lists under the guise of “local control.”