Banned books return to a Colorado school district's shelves as legal battle continues
Nineteen books are back on the shelves at the Elizabeth School District in Colorado after being removed and disposed of in September.
Earlier this month, a preliminary injunction ordered the banned books be returned to shelves while an ACLU lawsuit against the district plays out. The Elizabeth School District appealed.
On Monday, an appeals court denied that request and gave the district a deadline to re-shelve the books by Friday at noon.
But the books were already replaced as of Thursday afternoon, according to the superintendent of Elizabeth Schools.
"Obviously we're disappointed. We still feel like there's a lack of understanding of the content of these books, but obviously we're complying with the court order," said Dan Snowberger, superintendent of Elizabeth Schools.
It's a win for the ACLU, who brought suit against the district alleging the removal violated free speech protections.
"We think government ought to be out of the business of telling people the ideas that are acceptable," said Tim Macdonald, legal director for the ACLU of Colorado.
Most of the books feature stories of LGBTQ+ individuals or people of color. Titles include Toni Morrison's Beloved, The Kite Runner, The Hate U Give and Thirteen Reasons Why.
The books in question are as follows:
"The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas
"Beloved" by Toni Morrison
"The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison
"The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
"You Should See Me in a Crown" by Leah Johnson
"#Pride: Championing LGBTQ Rights" by Rebecca Felix
"George" (now published and referred to as "Melissa") by Alex Gino
"It's Your World-If You Don't Like It, Change It" by Mikki Halpin
"The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky
"Thirteen Reasons Why" by Jay Asher
"Looking for Alaska" by John Green
"Nineteen Minutes" by Jodi Picoult
"Crank" by Ellen Hopkins
"Glass" by Ellen Hopkins
"Fallout" by Ellen Hopkins
"Identical" by Ellen Hopkins
"Burned" by Ellen Hopkins
"Smoke" by Ellen Hopkins
"Redwood and Ponytail" by K.A. Holt.
"It's a viewpoint discrimination, and it's a violation of the First Amendment and the Colorado Constitution to say we're going to take books out because we don't agree with the political orthodoxy. They don't align with our political values, and so we're going to purge them. The Constitution prohibits that," Macdonald said.
"These are not books about LGBTQ or people of color. These are books that have obscene content and that children should not access them at school," Snowberger said.
Snowberger says the books were thrown away with support from a majority of parents, and three months later, the ACLU filed the lawsuit.
"Anyone who reads content in the books sees a graphic depiction of child rape, sees graphic depictions of incest, sees directions on how to commit suicide, sees vivid descriptions of school shootings. People who feel that belongs in child's hands -- it's sad. I'm very sad about that," Snowberger said.
When the district was ordered to return books to shelves, law firm Wheeler Trigg O'Donnell donated copies of the books to the district, but the board voted to reject them.
"The Elizabeth School District claimed it could not comply with the court's injunction because the school district already had disposed of the books. As part of our representation of our clients in the case, we provided copies of the books used during the litigation to the school district's lawyer to help facilitate the school district's compliance with the federal court order," a firm spokesperson told CBS Colorado.
But after the district's appeals failed, new copies were donated by a local group that wishes to remain anonymous, and returned to shelves Thursday.
"We'll put them on the sensitive topic list so that parents who are concerned about this type of content can protect their children from accessing it," Snowberger said.
According to Snowberger, the books were primarily shelved in the high school, with one title in an elementary school and five in the middle school. The district received the exact number of copies as they threw out. For most of these titles, the district only ever had one copy. Many of these books have been on the school's shelves for decades, and some have never been checked out.
While the books are back in schools, the legal battle isn't over.
"The case will move forward in the trial court, and we look forward to prevailing at trial," Macdonald said. "We don't want a liberal school district saying you can't have conservative ideas in the school library. And we don't want self-described conservative school districts saying, 'Here are ideas that we disagree with, and we don't want in the library.'"
"We'll take this to court until we get the outcome we need to. There has not been a decision on library books from the Supreme Court since 1982," Snowberger said.
Macdonald says this is the first case of its kind that's been litigated in Colorado to his knowledge, but he says it's part of a concerning trend of book banning in the country.
"Some groups that have cropped up, like a group called Moms for Liberty, that has pushed an agenda of banning books that involve LGBTQ+ characters or authors and diverse authors. And we've seen it around the country, and it looks like that's the playbook that was run in the Elizabeth School District," Macdonald said.
There is no trial date set yet, but both sides say they're prepared to take this fight to the Supreme Court.
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