Cobb County Schools Hit with Civil Rights Complaint Alleging ‘Wave of Censorship’ After Removing Explicit Books from School Libraries

A Cobb County School District (CCSD) spokesperson told The Georgia Star News on Friday that a complaint from the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) to the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) repeats  “made-up narratives espoused and circulated by a small community group which includes candidates for local office.”

NWLC’s complaint accused the school district of violating students’ civil rights by removing inappropriate books from school libraries. The complaint was filed on Monday against CCSD for creating a “hostile environment” for students by allegedly “censoring” books written by or about LBGTQIA people and people of color (POC).

The spokesperson said, “Local political candidates, including those running for Board, repeating a made-up narrative doesn’t make it true and community groups who want to promote access to sexually explicit content for minors, doesn’t make it right.”

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School Library Journal Promotes Summer Book List Recommending Gender-Identity Picture Books for Georgia Children Three to Five Years Old

Grade schoolers reading

School Library Journal (SLJ) promoted We Are Kid Lit Collective’s 2024 summer reading list, which includes recommendations for books about gender identity for children as young as three to five years old.

SLJ, a professional resource for school librarians and educators, shared the release of We Are Kid Lit Collective’s recommendations for their yearly summer reading book list in a post on the Facebook platform on Thursday.

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Cobb County School District Superintendent Chris Ragsdale Announces Removal of Inappropriate Books from Media Centers

Chris Ragsdale

Cobb County School District (CCSD) Superintendent Chris Ragsdale announced the removal of four books containing “lewd, “vulgar,” and “sexually explicit” content from school media centers in a Board of Education meeting Thursday night.

“Tonight, I am announcing that four additional books are being removed after having gone through our very thorough district process: ‘It Ends with Us,’ ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower,’ ‘Lucky,’ and ‘Thirteen Reasons Why.’ The review found all four of these books to contain lewd, vulgar, and sexually explicit and graphic content inappropriate for a public school,” Superintendent Ragsdale said during the meeting.

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