Following a public outcry, Bibles will once again be available on the shelves of schools within a northern Utah school district. Last month, the Davis School District, situated north of Salt Lake City, faced criticism after it banned Bibles from middle and elementary schools. However, during a recent board meeting, district officials announced that they had reassessed the situation and determined that the sacred texts were suitable for all district libraries. The board took into account the appeals of 70 individuals who opposed the initial ban. Consequently, students of all grade levels will now have access to Bibles in the district’s schools. The committee’s change of stance represents the most recent development in the ongoing discussion surrounding a Utah law that grants parents the right to contest the presence of “sensitive materials” in public schools, concerning their children.
CBN News reports:
Bibles will return to the shelves in a northern Utah school district that provoked an outcry after it banned them from middle and elementary schools last month.
Officials from the Davis School District located north of Salt Lake City, said at a board meeting Tuesday that the district had determined the sacred text was age-appropriate for all district libraries.
The vote was unanimous, according to KSL-TV.
The board sided with 70 people who filed appeals after it was banned last month. Now Bibles will be accessible to students regardless of their grade level.
“Based on their assessment of community standards, the appeal committee determined that The Bible has significant, serious value for minors which outweighs the violent or vulgar content it contains,” the committee wrote in a decision published along with school board materials.
The committee’s reversal is the latest development in the debate over a Utah law allowing parents to challenge “sensitive materials” available to children in public schools. Parents’ rights activists successfully lobbied for the legislation in 2022 amid a wave of new laws targeting the materials accessible in schools and libraries — particularly about obscene, graphic sexual content.
The 2022 Utah law has been used to question dozens of books across the state considered by some to be inappropriate for children and in some cases even pornographic. In protest to those attempts to protect children, an effort to ban the Bible sprung up, reigniting debate about the standards used to judge the content in books.
As CBN News reported, an unidentified parent had requested the school district remove the Holy Bible from its schools for inappropriate content through the district’s website.
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