A complaint was filed in Utah over the weekend requesting The Book of Mormon, a sacred text used by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, be removed from school libraries.
Christopher Williams, Davis School District’s director of communication confirmed the complaint, saying “The district received a request…to review the Book of Mormon. The district will treat this request just like any other request, and will follow the policy as outlined in the 4I-202 School Library Media Centers policy.”
The policy outlines the process by which sensitive materials are reviewed, including if the text meets “all elements of the definitions of pornographic or indecent materials” and “whether the material is age appropriate due to vulgarity or violence.”
Just last week, Davis County reviewed the Bible and determined it would remain available at district high schools but removed from all elementary and middle schools. An appeal has been filed by an anonymous individual in an attempt to reverse the decision.
Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the director of the association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, spoke with the New York Times about the situation, stating that the recent complaints against scripture were “certainly a kind of advocacy that might encourage both school boards and state legislators to think more carefully about what they’re doing.”
She added, “It highlights the fact that censorship is not the answer — that any book is vulnerable to censorship. And that’s not what we should want in this country.”
According to reports, the complaint referenced the violence in the Book of Mormon, including battles, beheadings, and kidnappings. The official process to review it can take weeks or months.
