Free speech groups on both sides of the political aisle are blasting a new South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) regulation that empowers state officials to remove books containing “sexual content” from local school classrooms and libraries.
The rule, which opponents call a book ban, went into effect on June 25 without legislative review. Typically, the S.C. General Assembly scrutinizes and votes on new regulations within 120 days of the time they’re formally proposed. But when legislators don’t act, the rule becomes law automatically. This time, in what some lawmakers have called an oversight, they missed the deadline.
Calling it “part of a troubling nationwide book ban trend,” the ACLU of South Carolina denounced the rule as a threat to parents, students and teachers.
“Superintendent Weaver is seeking to hand unprecedented power to pro-censorship groups, overriding students’ freedom to read as well as parents’ right to direct their own children’s education,” said Josh Malkin, the organization’s advocacy director. “At a time when we can’t afford to lose more educators, the superintendent’s book banning policy would place mountains of paperwork and a threat of punishment on the backs of public school teachers and librarians.”
On the other side of the political spectrum, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), which is known for opposing what it calls “cancel culture” on college campuses, was equally concerned about the regulation’s impact.
“Blanket bans like this one in South Carolina impose one-size-fits-all, top-down mandates that require school district administrators to review library books without analyzing whether the specific content is suitable for specific age groups and grade levels.” said FIRE legislative counsel John Coleman. “That means schools have to ban 18-year-old high school seniors from encountering any library books that describe sex, which could include staples of high school reading lists like Brave New World, The Color Purple, and 1984.”
For its part, SCDE says the new rule is not a book ban because it doesn’t outlaw the sale of books in bookstores.
“This regulation deals with government employees acting in their government roles to select and buy materials using government funds that will be owned by the government, kept in government buildings, and used by government officials to administer a government program,” the department said in a statement. “This regulation says nothing about what children or parents can buy and read on their own time and dime.”
In other recent news:
Bills protecting sex trafficking victims, expanding daycare workforce could soon be law. The House and Senate returned to the Statehouse this week to pass a $14.5 billion budget funding state government through July 1, 2025. Lawmakers also reached several compromises in bills regarding sex trafficking victims and childcare workers.
Legislative session ends with goodbyes, flurry of bills. The South Carolina General Assembly met for what is expected to be the final day of the 2024 session Wednesday, taking up a flurry of bills and giving several lawmakers a chance to say goodbye.
S.C. lawmakers pass $14 billion budget. Pay raises for teachers and state employees, a permanent income tax cut, money to fix roads and bridges are just a few items in South Carolina’s final budget for the next fiscal year.
Gender gap to widen in S.C. Senate. After Tuesday’s primary runoff elections, only one of the five ‘sister senators’ who stood together to vote against the six-week abortion ban will remain in the Senate. “Which one of you will step up to the plate and take over what I’ve been doing for the last 12 years?” Lexington County GOP Sen. Katrina Shealy, a leader on children’s and elderly issues, asks colleagues in her farewell speech.
S.C. legislators approve changes to judicial selection process. In the final minutes of the S.C. General Assembly’s last day, lawmakers approved a bill to change the way the legislature selects judges. The bill now heads to Gov. McMaster to be signed into law.
S.C. General Assembly may consider expanding Medicaid. South Carolina remains one of only 10 states in the nation that still refuses to expand Medicaid eligibility, but some state lawmakers want a committee studying health care in South Carolina to at least consider the advantages of expanding Medicaid.
S.C.’s new public health agency ready to launch. The 50-year-old Department of Health and Environmental Control will split into two — the Department of Public Health and the Department of Environmental Services — starting July 1.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!