ATLANTA (AP) 鈥� The U.S. Department of Education has found that a suburban Atlanta school district's decision to remove some books from its libraries may have created a hostile environment that violated federal laws against race and sex discrimination.
The legal intervention by the department's Office of Civil Rights could curb efforts to ban books in other public school districts nationwide, especially when bans are focused on books that include content about .
The Forsyth County school district settled the complaint, agreeing to explain the book removal process to students and offer 鈥渟upportive measures鈥� to students who may have been harmed. Forsyth County will also include questions about the issue in its yearly school climate survey of middle and high school students next year.
The federal intervention came after months of contention over books in the 54,000-student district. Forsyth is Georgia's most affluent county, a rapidly growing suburb about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of downtown Atlanta.
Forsyth County in January 2022 removed eight books, including Toni Morrison's 鈥淭he Bluest Eye,鈥� but allowed seven to return after further consideration. It excluded only 鈥淎ll Boys Aren鈥檛 Blue,鈥� a memoir about growing up as gay Black man by George M. Johnson.
Federal officials wrote in Friday that Forsyth County erred not so much in the removals, saying 鈥渢he district limited its book screening process to sexually explicit material.鈥� Instead, officials found that the problem was how district officials talked about removals at school board meetings.
鈥淐ommunications at board meetings conveyed the impression that books were being screened to exclude diverse authors and characters, including people who are LGBTQI+ and authors who are not white, leading to increased fears and possibly harassment,鈥� the department wrote.
One student came to a board meeting to warn 鈥渁bout the school environment becoming more harsh in the aftermath of the book removals and his fear about going to school,鈥� the letter says.
Becky Woomer of the Forsyth Coalition for Education, which has opposed book removals, said the findings back up fears that the school district was endorsing anti-gay views.
鈥淗aving those views validated, yeah, I think it harms students,鈥� Woomer said. 鈥淎nd when the books were put back on the shelves, it was done silently. So there was never this sense as a school community 鈥極K, we messed up, we鈥檙e sorry.鈥欌��
Jennifer Caracciolo, a spokesperson for Forsyth County schools, said a statement to students will help dispel those impressions.
鈥淚t's more about making sure we communicate with the students,鈥� she said.
Protests over books viewed as inappropriate had been led by a conservative group, Mama Bears of Forsyth County. Members read sexually explicit passages from school books until the school board chairman ordered them to stop in March 2022, noting board policy prohibits profane remarks. Members of the group argued that if the books were inappropriate to be read at a board meeting, they were inappropriate for children.
The board then banned one member, Alison Hair, from attending board meetings. Hair and Mama Bears Chairwoman Cindy Martin sued in federal court, winning a ruling in February that the ban violated their First Amendment rights. The group then resumed reading books at meetings.
Martin on Monday said the settlement would let the federal government 鈥渃ontinue to find ways to infiltrate the public school system with their radical agendas," saying federal officials had found no legal violations.
鈥淭his is not about books,鈥� Martin wrote in an email. 鈥淭his is about the federal government using bully tactics against our school system to indoctrinate our children into the LGBTQ ideology.鈥�
Book challenges have continued in Forsyth County under a that allows parents to challenge material they consider obscene. The district last month agreed to not let any students check out one book, 鈥淭he Handsome Girl and Her Beautiful Boy鈥� by B.T. Gottfried, without a parent's signature.
The book challenges in Republican-dominated Forsyth County followed conservative claims that the district was teaching harmful material on race. That controversy sometimes centered on district efforts to include nonwhite students in what was once an . White mobs drove out the county鈥檚 entire Black population in 1912.
Georgia is just one state that has made it easier to challenge books. The American Library Association reported more than to books nationwide in 2022, by far the most since the ALA began keeping data 20 years ago
Last week, authors, parents, publisher Penguin Random House and writers' group PEN America sued Florida鈥檚 , saying the school board was removing and restricting books even though a review committee recommended keeping them.
In December, the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights said it was investigating a school district in , after more than 100 books, including some LGBTQ themes were pulled from shelves.
Jeff Amy, The Associated Press
