Parents' Complaints Claiming "Incest, Prostitution Content"
Education District Committee Decides to Remove Bible from Elementary and Middle Schools
A school district in Utah, USA, recently removed the Bible from elementary and middle school library shelves. This was due to complaints that some passages in the Bible contain obscene and violent content.
On the 2nd (local time), foreign media including the AP reported that the Davis School District, located north of Salt Lake City, Utah, recently excluded the Bible from the book lists in elementary and middle school libraries. The school district board, composed of teachers, parents, and administrative officials, made this decision after receiving a complaint from a parent demanding the removal of the Bible from school libraries. The Bible remains available on high school shelves. The district has about 72,000 students.
The local media Salt Lake Tribune obtained the parent's complaint through a public records request. According to the complaint, the parent pointed out that "the Bible contains incest, prostitution, and sexual assault."
The AP reported, "This situation occurred as the conservative parent group 'Parents United,' which opposes mentions of sex and violence in classrooms, exerted influence on the school board and state legislature." The parent who filed the complaint appears to have done so to argue that even the most conservative and devout versions of the Bible contain many violent passages when viewed from a modern perspective, in opposition to Parents United. The parent also criticized the school district for ceding students' educational rights and library access to Parents United.
Contrary to the complainant's intent, the school district took the complaint literally and made the extreme decision to remove the Bible from schools. Utah, located in the American Midwest, is one of the most conservative regions in the United States. More than half of the population are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormonism), which is also conservative in nature. When asked whether the parent had also filed complaints about the Mormon scriptures, the district spokesperson did not respond. He said, "Complaints related to school books will be treated equally, and we will not judge whether complaints were filed as satire."
This is not the first time American schools have removed the Bible from library shelves. Last year, some school districts in Texas and Missouri temporarily excluded the Bible from their book lists. The AP stated, "The Bible has long been on the American Library Association's list of challenged books."
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