Utah law allows schools to ban “pornographic and indecent material.” According to those who criticized the law, its purpose is to ban, among other things, books dealing with sexuality.
In the US, Utah, a school district has banned the Bible from elementary schools as inappropriate for children.
The Bible, considered too vulgar and violent in the Davis school district, was banned in elementary schools due to a parent’s complaint. The Bible is still allowed in high schools corresponding to the second degree in Finland.
The decision of the committee that dealt with the complaint to ban the Bible was published in the online database, but information about which parts of the Bible are not suitable for children was not disclosed.
In the background is the state approved last year law, which aims to ban “pornographic and inappropriate materials” in schools. According to those who criticized the law, it aims to ban, among other things, materials dealing with sexuality and sexual and gender minorities in schools.
On Friday, a complaint was also made to the school district about the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City, Utah is the center of the Mormon Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Just over half of Utah residents belong to a church.
The Bible is also one of the holy books of Mormons.
The complaint must have been made with the purpose of criticizing the law
In conservative circles around the United States, literature about sexuality or violence offered in schools has been brought up in recent years. In many states, efforts have been made to limit the offerings of schools to, for example, works dealing with sexuality. In the United States, the cause of conservative parents has been pushed by, among others, the organization Parents United.
Utah newspaper of the Salt Lake Tribune according to the editorial, in the parent’s complaint, the demand to ban the Bible was justified, among other things, by the fact that it contains incest, prostitution and rape. The complaint also criticized the activities of Parents United of Utah.
– Utah’s Parents United forgot one of the sexiest books: the Bible, the complaint read.
The complaint is believed to have been filed to criticize the Utah law. The party that made the complaint is unknown.
A school district representative by Chris Williams according to which, in the handling of complaints, it is not considered whether they were made seriously or satirically.
Last year, school districts in Texas and Missouri also temporarily pulled Bibles from schools.
– If people are outraged by the banning of the Bible, they should be outraged by all the books being censored in our schools, said the freedom of speech organization PEN American, who heads the Freedom to Read program Kasey Meehan.
Source: AP