Bible will circulate in Davis District school libraries K-12
The Bible will remain in Davis School District’s elementary and junior high school libraries after a unanimous vote by the district’s school board on Tuesday to overturn a review committee’s decision.
In May, the review committee determined the Bible should be removed from junior high and elementary school libraries but remain in circulation in high school libraries. The Bible had been challenged under a state law, which permits “sensitive materials review.”
The school board, acting as an appellate body to the review committee, came under fire during two legislative meetings last week, with one legislator calling the decision to pull the Bible from school library shelves “an embarrassment to the state.”
Another said banning the Bible was “reprehensible.”
Many state lawmakers took issue with the review committee process, arguing that elected officials should be responsible for decisions whether to remove or retain challenged books and other materials.
The district’s policy and practice has been to use lottery-selected review committees, with a parent majority, to conduct the book reviews. Review committee decisions can be appealed to a committee made up of elected school board members.
“Within days of the announcement of this determination, the district received several appeal requests and immediately began processing appeals,” according to a statement issued by the school district following the school board’s vote.
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Addressing the school board, Davis School District’s Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Logan Toone said some have thought the Bible’s content was deemed to violate the “bright line” rule.
“That’s not accurate,” he said.
The review committee found that it was age appropriate for high school only, a decision that was “almost immediately” appealed, he said.
“The reconsideration of the Bible today is not an exception to our policy. It is a direct application of our policy as it’s written. It’s important to note that because of concerns that would exist if we all of a sudden started to create exceptions for specific books that we like or that align with our personal religious perspectives or something like that,” he said.
Toone said a total of eight copies of the King James version of the Bible were in a handful of Davis District’s junior high and elementary school libraries. The district has some 60 elementary schools and 17 junior highs.
Members of the Davis School District Board of Education expressed thanks to the volunteer review committee that reviewed the Bible, which many board members noted worked to uphold state law and board policy with its careful review.
Board member Derek Lamb said he was sorry that those in “top leadership positions treated us this way. I thought we were working together. They all will get a call from me.”
Board President Liz Mumford said schools are often compelled to act as mediating institutions. The board is “navigating differences of opinion in the communities we serve,” she said.
“The situation before us tonight is challenging because it’s something that’s at the heart of what we each believe in. For me, as a person of faith, as a person who has a strong conviction for constitutional principles, and someone who values books, it’s a lot of things that come together in one decision,” she said.
The challenge to the Bible was lodged Dec. 11, 2022, according to the district’s library website, and one of the lengthiest challenges undertaken by a review committee, according to district spokesman Christopher Williams.
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HB374, passed by the Utah Legislature in 2022, defines “sensitive material” as instructional materials that are pornographic or indecent, colloquially referred to as the “bright line” rule in state code.
The school district’s statement refuted any suggestions that the review committee’s decision or the district’s policy or process “have been intentionally manipulated to undermine Utah’s sensitive materials law HB374. This is wholly untrue.”
The statement notes that the school district “has always acted with intent to uphold the law and maintain school libraries free from harmful material. As soon as HB374 went into effect and guidance from Utah State Board of Education and the Attorney General’s Office was received, the district began revising policy and implementing library media reviews.”
Thus far, the district committees have reviewed 60 books, 37 of which were removed from all libraries due to “bright line” rule violations, according to the statement. Fourteen books were restricted at some school levels due to age appropriateness, and nine were retained at all levels, the statement said.
According to the statement, the district’s library review policy will likely be revised, “but the Davis School District stands by the process currently in place. The committee-based process is thoughtful, methodical, respectful of varying perspectives and compliant with Utah law. It allows for appeals to be considered when a committee’s decision seems to be at odds with community values. The process takes time and it isn’t perfect, but it is working.”
The statement continued: “We urge the community — including policymakers — to continue to support a thoughtful committee-based process for library media reviews currently in place.”
