MARIETTA, Ga. — The board of education for Marietta City Schools voted to reject an appeal from parents who wanted the board to keep 23 books that had been removed from libraries and media centers.
The vote took place Tuesday night. It was 6-1 to remove the books, despite the appeal from parents. The dissenting vote came from board member A.B. Almy.
This rejected appeal comes after the board voted on Dec. 12 to approve the superintendent's list of recommended books to be removed. Per protocol, there is a 30-day appeal window to appeal any book recommended for removal.
So, parents took action and appealed to keep each of the 23 books.
At Tuesday night's meeting, parents on both sides tried to sway board members.
"Straight up, these books have saved lives," said one parent, agreeing with others who believe the books should remain because they help children understand real-life issues that the children and their friends are facing; some of the books deal with LGBTQ issues.
Opponents of the books said the issue, to them, is simple:
"We aren't saying that this is about LGBTQ material," said a parent. "It's about removing sexually explicit material from our schools."
After the meeting, another parent, Becky Simmons, applauded the board's decision to remove the books.
"If those scenes (in the books) were put in a movie, some of it would be X-rated," Simmons said. "Our tax dollars should not be paying for it."
According to the Marietta City Schools Board of Education, parents' appeals were received--and subsequently rejected--for the following books, which will now stay out of the schools:
- Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany Jackson
- Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin
- More Happy than Not by Ada Silvera
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chobsky
- Crank by Ellen Hopkins
- The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle
- 13 Reasons Why by John Asher
- City of Thieves by David Benioff
- Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera
- A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
- A Court of Thorn and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
- A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
- A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas
- Lucky by Alice Sebold
- Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
- Blankets by Craig Thompson
- All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
- This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson
- I Love You, Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle
- It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover
- Identical by Ellen Hopkins
- Grasshopper Jungle: A History by Andrew Smith
- The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
In all, Marietta City Schools decided to remove 25 books, including "Flamer" by Mike Curato. This book revolves around a gay teen struggling with his identity at summer camp.
"We're disappointed," said Karla Jacobs after the meeting.
Jacobs is a parent who helped organize the new group "Marietta in the Middle" to advocate for various policies and actions in the school system-- and to oppose removing the books.
"Parents are angry," Jacobs said of the board's decision to remove the books. "They're angry at having their desire to be the ones making choices and reading materials for their children, co-opted by the school board."
School Superintendent Grant Rivera said he and four other educators who reviewed all 20,000 library books found that the sex depicted in 25 books has no historical or academic value.
And Dr. Rivera said that Marietta Schools' entire process was done publicly.
“There are districts around the country, some close to Marietta, where books are being removed in the middle of the night," Rivera said. "And there's zero transparency around which books were removed and for what reason. And for us, we haven't tried to hide anything. I acknowledge this is a national conversation, and different districts can handle it any way that they want. We chose to do it a way--agree or disagree with the outcome--that had integrity and transparency.”
Board member A.B. Almy was also the lone dissenting vote last month when the board initially decided to remove the books.
"I totally respect their opinions and where they come from, and I love working with them," Almy said then. "I just want every person in our district to know that they are cared about and they are heard, and I want them to feel like they can read a book, their child can read books that they feel comfortable with and that their opinion matters."
Marietta City Schools began the process last year reviewing all 20,000 books in its libraries and media centers, mainly targeting books with "sexually explicit" content that have no academic of historical value. The board passed a directive outlining the review back in September of 2023.
The superintendent of Marietta City Schools, Dr. Grant Rivera, previously said the books suggested for removal reflect the review from a committee of educators tasked with analyzing content in the city school district.
"The reality is that our responsibility in a school district is to make sure that the content we put in front of children is appropriate. And in Marietta, it wasn't our intent to remove any reference to any sex whatsoever," Dr. Rivera previously said. "For students that are of high school age, it really was to look at a standard and remove things that we felt were egregious."