As the school year gets underway, the driving force behind Utah’s “sensitive materials” laws is taking a moment to crow about the 13 books banned statewide from public K-12 libraries.
As he stood among supporters at the center of easels displaying passages from the books, Republican state Rep. Ken Ivory said the works were too “pornographic” to show elsewhere. He told a packed room of adults in the Utah State Capitol to see for themselves what has been in schools.
“This is not ‘Catcher in the Rye.’ This is not ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’” he said. “These are X-rated materials.”
Each of the displayed posters had pink sticky notes covering certain words Ivory feared might make the selections too “obscene” to legally show in public, at the advice of legislative attorneys. Some of the words alluded to sexual activity and suicide. Multiple selections were from fantasy writer Sarah J. Maas, one of the seven authors on the statewide list.
Ivory’s new law, which updated his original “sensitive materials” law, created the mechanism for a statewide ban. Titles have to first be removed from either three school districts, or two school school districts and five charter schools, for being “objective sensitive material.” That means the work is considered “pornographic or indecent” as defined in state code.
The Utah State Board of Education keeps track of when books meet that threshold and can overturn any of the bans. They released their first list in early August.
Joining Ivory for his Aug. 29 news conference were parents, members of the clergy, educators and Utah Congressman Burgess Owens — who told the assembled crowd the passages on display were “smut.” Many enthusiastically agreed.
“What we’re seeing here in these books is Marxist ideology that hates everything we stand for,” Owens said.
“Utah has it right once again. We are the state that prioritizes our kids.”
Utah State Board of Education member Jennie Earl told the crowd she was grateful for the engagement of parents, educators and administrators. Earl said as school districts and charter schools continue to report books they deem objective sensitive material, “we may have other books that [will] be removed that meet this criteria that is harmful for minors.”
Pastor Chuck Beickel of Faith Baptist Church pointed to the posters and called on the authors to repent.
“These authors will bow their knee before the King of kings and Lord of lords, and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,” Beickel proclaimed, which was met with “amen” from the crowd.
“I hope they'll take this warning. I hope they'll change their hearts and change their minds.”
Ivory also had a bone to pick with the news media over coverage of books being banned. He again singled out KSL, which is part of a company owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He said the coverage was condescending to the parents and lawmakers who pushed for this to happen.
“We had some media that announced and said that it was a ‘dark day’ when we were protecting children from materials that they can't quote to adults, that cannot be read on the radio to adults, that you cannot post on social media to adults,” he said.
One of the easels on display was completely covered. Under the red shroud, which some attendees peeked behind, was an entire page from poet Rupi Kaur’s book “Milk and Honey,” which made the list of 13. The page was a poem inside the outline of a naked woman’s body.
While many of the passages were from books on the list, others were books that Ivory said were still in some Utah public schools. After the news conference, Ivory pointed to the passages from the books that have not been banned and said “while much work has been done, we believe there is still more work to do.”
