Spotsylvania schools superintendent Mark Taylor has removed 23 more books from county high school libraries, the division announced late Monday night, bringing the total number of titles he has removed to 37.
“The decision, based on State Code and SCPS Policy IIA, defines criteria for removing materials that contain sexually explicit content,” a news release from the division states.
The books that have now been banned from high school libraries include “Song of Solomon” by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Toni Morrison; “Homegoing” by Yaa Gyasi, which traces a Ghanaian family through enslavement and racial prejudice in the U.S.; and “Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher, a novel about a teen’s suicide.
PEN America, a nonprofit that protects free expression, defines a school book ban as “any action taken against a book based on its content and as a result of parent or community challenges, administrative decisions, or in response to direct or threatened action by lawmakers or other governmental officials, that leads to a previously accessible book being either completely removed from availability to students, or where access to a book is restricted or diminished.”
Read the full story in the Richmond-Times Dispatch.
