This morning, Virginia’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) met to – among other things – discuss what it’s found about its survey of Virginia School Library Book Removals since July 2020. See below for video, screenshots and a few highlights.
- “Most book removal activity was concentrated in a small number of school divisions“
- 63% of school divisions removed no books, while five school divisions – Hanover, Rockingham, Goochland, Madison and Spotsylvania counties, all very “red” politically – accounted for about 75% of all book removal actions. Hanover County – which went 68% for Youngkin in 2021 and 62% for Trump in 2024 – alone accounted for a whopping 36% of book removal actions.
- Overall, 223 titles were removed (either by an individual school or an entire school division), with the most commonly removed book being “Gender Queer” (7 divisions removed that book), followed by “Tilt” (6 divisions removed the book); “Identical” and “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” (5 divisions each); and “Beyond Magenta,” “Burned,” “Fallout,” “Lawn Boy,” “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” “Smoke,” “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” “The Bluest Eye,” and “Tricks” (4 divisions each).
- Why were books removed? The main reasons given were: “Sexually explicit content,” “Division regulation,” “Local policy,” “Determination of developmental inappropriateness,” and “Vulgar language.”
- As JLARC points out, the 2022 law which divisions frequently cited to justify their book removal decisions “does not prohibit use of material with sexually explicit content or require its removal from school libraries.” Also, the law requires that parents be allowed to request alternative material for their child and also that parents be notified when instructional materials are going to include sexually explicit content.
So, clearly, most school divisions aren’t removing books, but a handful are REALLY into removing books – many of which just so happen to tackle themes (sexuality, gender, race, etc.) that they don’t like hearing about. Of course – hypocrisy alert! – most of the school divisions removing these books voted heavily for Donald Trump, who represents the antithesis of many (if not all) of the values – just think about Trump’s disgusting, predatory behavior towards women for most of his life, for instance – that these folks claim to care so much about. So maybe, just maybe, these books they’re so offended by aren’t the problem that needs to be addressed?
