FARMINGTON, Utah (ABC4) — Copies of the King James Bible are being removed from school library shelves at elementary and junior high facilities in Davis County, Utah, after a complaint that the scriptures feature material inappropriate for younger children.
The complaint was filed by an unknown person in March after a statewide law passed in 2022 allowed residents to challenge the books found in school libraries. As of March, the law was used 81 times with Davis County having removed 33 books for material found to contain sex, vulgarity, and violence.
A book removal request can be made on the district’s website, however, the requester must include reasoning. For example, the request for the Bible’s review included 49 pages of Biblical verses that could be deemed inappropriate under the law, including instances of murder, sex, and incest.
Davis County School District Communications Director Christopher Williams said Thursday that while the committee didn’t find that the book contained “sensitive material as defined in Utah Code 76-10-1227, 76-10-1201 or 76-10-1203,” some vulgarity and violence was deemed to be age-inappropriate for younger readers.
The Bible will remain on high school library shelves, however. Williams said the Bible is not taught as part of district curriculum and is being removed from about “7-8” elementary and junior high schools.
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