A far western Kentucky public school system pulled some books from its high school library shelves after a mailer in support of Amendment 2 was sent out earlier this week questioning whether they were appropriate for students.
Some Ballard County residents received a mailer titled "Just Look What Your Tax Dollars Bought for Ballard County Public Schools” that quoted sexually explicit passages from a trio of books the group deemed obscene.
A social media post made by the district Wednesday said that the books had been removed from the high school library’s shelves in reaction to the mailer. In a subsequent interview, Ballard County Schools superintendent Casey Allen confirmed that the decision was a direct reaction to the controversial postcard.
“The explicit language that was printed on the card and sent to homes not by us, to me, was enough information that I needed to pull those from the shelves, at least for now,” Allen said. “I know that some people will act shocked … but I don't know every book that's in the two libraries that we have, and I didn't know that these books were in there. However, no one in the two days since that mailer went out has challenged the books.”
A bill passed in 2022 – sponsored by Republican state Sen. Jason Howell of Murray – mandated that school districts have a process in place when it comes to material challenges. It also defined what sort of material can be classified as “harmful to minors.” That bill passed into law without Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s signature.
Ballard County Schools had a procedure for challenges more than five years before that law went into effect. Allen said only one item has been challenged since it was put in place, and that it was removed from the school’s library.
The works cited on the card included Susan Kuklin’s “Beyond Magenta,” a collection of interviews with teens on transgender identity; the young adult mystery “Shine,” a novel by Lauren Myracle that follows a teenage girl investigating a hate crime involving the beating and near-death of her LGBTQ friend; and Alice Sebold’s memoir “Lucky,” in which the author describes being sexually assaulted as a teen.
All three have been the focus of challenges to materials in libraries across the country since their publications. Kuklin penned an essay that was shared on NPR in 2022 about her work and challenges to it. She said then that people taking passages out of context is mostly what’s led to her book’s controversial reputation.
