When Allison Strickland urged a suburban Atlanta school board in June to remove four books from school libraries, she was following a path cleared by Georgia’s Republican lawmakers. But after the bitterly debated Georgia law took effect January 1, The Associated Press found few book challengers are using it. One key element restraining complaints is that the law only allows parents of current students to challenge books. Although not new, book challenges have surged since 2020, part of a backlash to what kids read and discuss in public schools. Conservatives want to stop children from reading books with themes on sexuality, gender, race, and religion that they find objectionable. PEN America, a group promoting freedom of expression, counted 4,000 instances of books banned nationwide from July 2021 to December 2022. But while fights are ongoing in Forsyth County, where Strickland was protesting, at least 15 other large Georgia districts surveyed by AP said they have received no demands to remove books under the law. Forsyth County was once a rural locale where white mobs terrorized the Black minority into fleeing in 1912. But suburban growth made it well-educated, affluent, and diverse. Only 47% of Forsyth students were white and non-Hispanic last year. But it’s also heavily Republican, and crowds attacked the system’s diversity, equity, and inclusion plan in 2021.
