ACLU-SC Threatens Student Protections from Sexually-Explicit Material in Schools
This week, the American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina (ACLU – SC) filed a lawsuit on behalf of the South Carolina Association of School Librarians and three public school students against the South Carolina Superintendent of Education and the Greenville County School District. The lawsuit challenges SCDE Regulation 43-170, which prohibits the use of instructional materials that are not “Age and Developmentally Appropriate” for students and explicitly prohibits instructional materials that “include[e] descriptions or visual depictions of ‘sexual conduct,’ as that term is defined by Section 16-15-305(C)(1).” This does not apply to religious texts or to health education.
This is not the first time that decisions on instructional materials have been challenged. Two lawsuits were recently dismissed due to a lack of legal standing. One challenged the removal of Ibram Kendi’s Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You from Pickens County schools, and the other challenged the removal of the same book from Lexington 3’s library, plus the non-renewal of a course code for the AP African American Studies course and a certain “anti-CRT” proviso in this year’s State budget. The latter case is currently pending appeal.
Tell me more about this regulation.
SCDE Regulation 43-170 was drafted to standardize the curriculum selection process across the state and to protect our students from being exposed to sexual material inappropriate for their age or outside parental guidance. Approved unanimously by the State Board of Education following hundreds of public comments, numerous standing-room-only public hearings and collaboration with district leaders from across the state, the regulation creates a complaint process whereby people can submit instructional materials for review, first by their school district Board and later by the State Board of Education. Opponents typically use the term “book banning” to describe this process, but that is a gross misnomer – the instructional material that schools provide to their students constitutes government speech, so this regulation does nothing to limit access to books outside of a public school setting.
Shouldn’t parents have the right to decide what their kids read?
Absolutely. Think of this regulation as a “dress code for books” – just like a parent can decide what clothes they are comfortable with their children wearing outside of school, they can decide what they are comfortable with their children reading and watching outside of school. However, as an arm of the government, public schools have the right and responsibility to ensure that there is an acceptable baseline for what students can wear and what they are able to access while they’re at school.
Consider this – we have the right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. The government cannot put you in jail for owning a firearm (in most cases, there are specific exceptions), but the government does not have to purchase and provide a firearm for you. The government is also able to prevent people from carrying their own firearm on government property. You may have the right to read or access sexually explicit material, and the government cannot put you in jail for doing so (again, with some specific exceptions); however they are not required to provide the sexually explicit material and are able to prohibit that material in schools.
The regulation makes a specific reference to a long-standing state statute to define the types of sexually explicit material that do not belong in schools. Many people would not be comfortable reading the statute aloud in public, let alone allow their children to read graphic descriptions of these acts as a part of their teacher-assigned reading or be allowed to borrow from their school library. Contrary to misinformation spread online and even by one of South Carolina’s Congressmen, this regulation does not at all “ban books on Rosa Parks” or “on Martin Luther King Jr” – it does not remove books on the basis of race or political ideology.
How many books have been removed from public schools?
To date, just 22 books have been removed entirely from South Carolina public schools or require parental permission for access following review by the State Board of Education. The process is very transparent, and South Carolinians can access complaints and excerpts from challenged and removed books on the State Board of Education’s website. Be warned, however, that many of the excerpts are explicit.
Opponents believe that the review process could be abused by single individuals (before this Regulation existed, for example, one parent submitted 97 complaints about books to the local school board in Beaufort County, resulting in 14 removals), but that has not been the case. The State Board has not wielded this power irresponsibly, taking time for a great deal of thought, consideration, and discretion before removing a book from public schools or restricting student access.
This lawsuit seems to be a concerted effort to allow our children to be exposed to graphic sexual content in the name of free speech and wholistic education. We stand firmly with SCDE in ensuring that parents have the right to expose children to different materials as they feel they are ready, rather than having that material provided to them in a school setting.
