SALT LAKE CITY — Demonstrators at the Utah State Capitol raised their Bibles in the air, demanding the book be put back on library shelves in some Davis County schools.
"There’s only one — The Book! And it’s the word of God," a pastor said to cheers from the crowd.
About 200 people showed up for the midday rally on Tuesday, protesting a decision by the Davis School District to remove the Bible from some elementary and junior high library shelves. They called for Governor Spencer Cox and the Utah State Legislature to fix it.
It was a state law that sparked the controversy. The law on "sensitive materials in schools" allows for challenges to books that may have objectionable content like violence, vulgarity and sexual content. Across Utah, school districts have dealt with such challenges and it has led to the removal of some books. Critics of the law have said the books targeted largely deal with race and LGBTQ issues.
The law led to someone in the Davis School District filing a challenge to the Bible, citing instances of rape, prostitution and incest. Recently, another challenge was filed in the Davis School District over The Book of Mormon, a central text of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"It was done as a political stunt really from people who were upset that there were any challenges done to books. There are people who think no book should be removed from K through 12 settings," said Nichole Mason, the president of Utah Parents United and a parent whose children attend Davis County schools.
At the time, the Davis School District said the Bible did not violate the new state law. But a committee apparently determined it was not "age appropriate" for elementary and junior high readers. That decision infuriated the people at Wednesday's demonstration.
"They violated the law and they violated the rules and so that’s got to be fixed," said Gayle Ruzicka, the president of the Utah Eagle Forum. "Whatever we have to do to fix it."
Rep. Ken Ivory, R-West Jordan, who sponsored the law, blasted the district and accused them of violating their own policies.
"You’ve got a secret, anonymous committee ... not following their own policy, not following the law and then announcing to the world an absurd determination," he said.
But Rep. Ivory insisted to FOX 13 News this was not the slippery slope of his own law, as some critics feared when he first ran the bill in the Utah State Legislature.
"Quite frankly, no. When you apply the standard in open, public meetings, I'm very confident that things are going to sort out," he said. "We’re going to deal with obscene and indecent materials and get those out of schools, and histories like the Bible when they apply the appropriate standards, are going to be perfectly fine."
Mason told the crowd an appeal has been filed with the district over the Bible and she has been assured the process would go forward. The Davis School District confirmed that in a statement to FOX 13 News late Wednesday.
"At this point, the sensitive materials review of the Bible within the Davis School District is not complete. A request to appeal the earlier decision has been submitted, and an appeals committee, made up of three members of the Board of Education, will review that decision before making a recommendation to the full school board for its consideration," the statement said.
"The district continues to follow the state law, and it has done so with 60 titles its reviewed and 37 titles that have been removed from school libraries. Its sensitive materials policy is written so that committees, composed of a majority of parents chosen by lottery on each review committee, make those initial decisions."
Rep. Ivory said he will make changes to his law to clarify processes surrounding book challenges. He is pushing for it to be added to an anticipated special session of the Utah State Legislature. If not, he will pursue it in the 2024 legislative session.
"I hope other districts will take notice from this and clean up their processes to say if you’re going to evaluate something based on vulgarity and violence, you need to have a very clearly established criteria like the law dictates," Mason said.
