Maryland schools banned 64 books in the 2023-24 school year, tied with South Carolina for ninth-most in the nation among 29 states ranked, according to a report released Friday by PEN America, which said book banning has grown since it started keeping track three years ago.
Maryland’s standing was due largely to Carroll County schools, which the report said banned 59 books last year under an updated policy from the county board of education that said instructional materials deemed “sexually explicit” will not be allowed in schools. According to the policy, “sexually explicit content is defined as unambiguously describing, depicting, showing, or writing about sex or sex acts in a detailed or graphic manner.”
Sabrina Baeta, one of the authors of the PEN America report and a book ban researcher, said in an interview that removing books from schools only hurts students, especially for those who may not have both parents in the home.
“It’s better that they have information available at their fingertips and have consenting adults they have in a school system, or their own parents at home to talk,” said Baeta, a former middle school teacher.
“If they’re not doing that, it’s because maybe they [students] don’t have that at home and the school is providing it. We can’t pretend that we live in a society where they’re going to get everything at home,” Baeta said Wednesday, before the release of the report.
Carroll County officials did not respond to requests for comment. But Suzie Scott, chair of the Moms for Liberty Maryland Legislative Committee, defended the county and challenged the PEN America definition of book banning, arguing that the county did not ban the books in question.
“It’s curating a library of educational materials that are appropriate for children,” she said of the county’s decision. “You only have so much space in your library for books. You want to have the best books you possibly can in that space.”
Some of the books banned from school shelves include “The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend,” “Empire of Storms” and “Deal with It! A Whole New Approach to Your Body, Brain, and Life as a gURL.”
PEN America categorizes book bans by three types: banned books that are prohibited; “banned pending investigation,” defined as books under review to determine if restrictions should be placed on them; and “banned by restriction,” that sets grade-level or school-level restrictions or books that require parental permission.
According to the PEN America report, slightly more than 10,000 book bans were reported in the 2023-24 school year. Florida and Iowa, where state lawmakers passed legislation to take certain books off the shelves of schools and public libraries, accounted for 8,232 of the bans nationwide during that school year.
It found 29 states and 220 school districts registered book bans in the last school year.
PEN America began its review in 2021-22 school year, when Maryland at the bottom, tied with nine other states for 24th place among the 33 states that registered book bans that year. Maryland did not make the 2022-23 school year report, as it did not register any bans that year, according to PEN America.
The organization attributes the book ban movement to conservative and parental rights groups such as Moms for Liberty, which has about 10 local chapters in Maryland.
Scott said the state’s Freedom to Read Act that took effect this year, will make it more challenging to remove books. That law prohibits local school officials from removing materials “because of partisan, ideological, or religious disapproval,” requires development of a review procedure and also requires that books remain available to students and school personnel while until the review is complete.
That means the burden falls on parents, she said.
“Parents have ultimate say and control over what they deem appropriate for their children,” Scott said.