Book Bans in the Real World

What FOIA requests reveal about the kinds of books being challenged in SC schools, and about who is making the challenges.

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Starting before the winter holidays, I began to make a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to local school districts. I don’t really have the capacity as a single (mostly unpaid) researcher to do this with every district, so I tried to focus on districts in areas with large numbers of publicized book challenges/ ban, and/ or large numbers of Freedom Caucus/ Moms for Liberty types (who seem to be driving these challenges and bans).

As more districts have made headlines for large numbers of challenges, and/ or their responses to them, I have added these to the list.

Updated 2/11: Most districts I contacted responded quickly (usually within a few days) and provided the information for free. Anderson 1 elected to charge a relatively small fee for the information, but I responded with a further explanation of why I think the information is in the public interest and easy to access, and should be provide…