Retained on Wyomissing (PA) High School’s summer reading list of books recommended for juniors and seniors, after a group of parents attempted to get the novel removed because of vulgar language and graphic depictions of sex. The school board voted to retain the book in the curriculum. Two complaints were filed alleging vulgarity and sexual overtones, although school officials believed the cited passages did not reflect the context of the novel. This dystopian novel was offered as a curriculum choice to students in an elective high school English class in Marietta (OH). Alleging “porn and gore and cursing,” the mother wanted the book removed from the high school and held prayer circles outside the library while a committee of more than a dozen staff, administrators, and parents discussed the item. A student’s mother forbade him from choosing the book. This classic novel was included on a reading list before the beginning of a twelfth-grade advanced placement literature and composition class at a north Atlanta suburb’s high school in Georgia. 2020īanned and challenged for profanity and for “vulgarity and sexual overtones.”

SB 226 was withdrawn from consideration by the House on March 31, 2021.

Julia Bernath, president of the Fulton County School Board, provided details about the book challenge process for her district and stated that the parent who objected to The Handmaid’s Tale did not follow the process through to the end. “Every school district is exhibiting obscene materials to minors,” she said.

Another parent testified that her request to ban The Handmaid’s Tale was rejected by a panel of staff and parents that met in the school library. Noelle Kahaian informed the Senate Judiciary Committee that Atwood’s award-winning dystopian novel was “garbage” and expressed dismay that the graphic novel adaptation makes it even more accessible to juvenile audiences. 2022ĭuring hearings for Georgia’s SB 226 which would remove school librarians from the reviewing book challenges and let school principals and school boards be the only decision makers, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale was one of the books singled out by parents as objectionable. Marshall University does not ban books! The information is provided to let people know what has been banned/challenged elsewhere.

The hand maids tale book