SALT LAKE CITY — After the Board of Education voted unanimously to reverse a previous decision and allow the Bible at all Davis School District libraries, one parent said she wasn't surprised.
"My initial reaction when they announced they were going to pull it from elementary and junior highs was it was ridiculous," said Nichole Mason, president of Utah Parents United. "When the appeal was made, and the decision was overturned I was like 'Yup, I knew that was going to happen.'"
Mason believes when deciding a book's place in school, like the Bible, it's important to look at community standards.
"The community standard accepts the Bible. We send our kids to church every week to learn lessons from the Bible, so it's certainly appropriate for elementary and junior high students," she said.
While the Bible is back, some are worried about how laws related to book censorship in Utah and across the county are impacting certain groups. The American Library Association says 2,571 book titles were targeted for censorship in 2022, with the vast majority of them written by LGBTQ+ authors or authors of color.
Jeanetta Williams, President of the Salt Lake branch of the NAACP, says it's important for kids to read books that reflect their individual backgrounds.
"Our children should be able to read about it, to discuss, and ask questions about it, so we do our young folks a disservice when we tell our young folks you can't read the books," Williams said.
Despite what happened with the Bible, Mason still believes in Utah's book review process, while others like Williams do not.
"This is part of the curation process of what's appropriate for a K-12 student library," Mason said.
"The books that they have selected to be banned, we need to make a strong effort to get those books back into the schools," Williams said.
