10 more books pulled from South Carolina public school shelves
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCBD) — Another 10 books have joined the growing list of titles banned from South Carolina public school libraries and classrooms following a Tuesday vote by the State Board of Education.
The board voted during its May 6 meeting to pull the books from all K-12 shelves as part of a larger agenda. Dr. David O'Shields and Rev. Tony Vincent were the only dissenting votes.
The Instructional Review Materials Board recommended on March 13 that the titles be removed under a rule adopted last June that bars books containing descriptions or visual depictions of 'sexual conduct.'
The addition of these 10 books brings the total number of removed or restricted titles to 22, meaning South Carolina surpasses Utah as the nation's leader in state-mandated book bans for all schools, according to nonprofit PEN America.
The latest set of removed materials includes the following:
Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
Lucky by Alice Sebold
Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas
Identical by Ellen Hopkins
Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas
Hopeless by Colleen Hoover
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimananda Ngozi Adichie
Collateral by Ellen Hopkins
The decision comes weeks after the board moved to delay consideration during its April 1 meeting in to allow for further legal guidance on the review process.
The regulation uses the definition for 'sexual conduct' outlined in a portion of the state's obscenity law to determine what is considered 'age and developmentally appropriate' material for K-12 schools.
While some public educators testified that the definition was too broad and left room for inconsistency in what is and isn't allowed, a Department of Education staff attorney argued that precedent had already been established.
The attorney, Robert Cathcart, said that passages in some of the books were long enough and contained enough explanatory detail to 'paint that mental image' required to meet the removal standard previously set by the board.
But, O'Shields, the superintendent of Laurens County School District 56, was doubtful that the statute was correctly interpreted during review, pointing to a section of the code that says material should be considered 'as a whole.'
He warned of unintended legal consequences, while also noting that only half of the titles were even available at one of his district's high schools, with some having only been checked out a handful of times.
'I can't in good conscience, after having done my own autopsy of what we have, I cannot and will, if necessary, be the only dissenting vote because I think we're misreading the law,' O'Shields said at the time.
Critics have also taken issue with how books are challenged. The regulation established a system by which parents can challenge materials in their child's school that they believe fail to meet the standard. Parents must make a 'good faith effort' to address their concerns at the district level first, but can appeal local decisions to the State Board of Education.
In this case, the challenge of 10 titles originated from one parent in Beaufort County — the same parent who has sought to have more than 90 titles pulled from public school shelves statewide.
'The state is continuing to leave educational decisions for all students up to one parent,' said Josh Malkin, advocacy director for the ACLU of South Carolina. 'This is problematic and counter to the foundational democratic ideals of public education.'
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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