THE BOOK BAN WAR: I SWEAR UPON A STACK OF BIBLES...

Story Jury's Post

Various Sources

A Pennsylvania school board president took her oath on banned books instead of a Bible, and one photo turned a local board meeting into a national flashpoint.

Karen Smith was sworn in as president of the Central Bucks school board in Pennsylvania with her hand on a stack of frequently challenged books. The titles included Night by Elie Wiesel, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, Lily and Dunkin by Donna Gephart, All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson, Flamer by Mike Curato, and Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin.

Smith said she is “not particularly religious” and that, after years of fights over library books in the district, the books carried meaning for her. The photo spread widely online, drawing attention from figures including Pink and George Takei.

The moment followed a heated local election. The previous GOP-led board had passed policies restricting “sexualized content,” creating a process that led to two books being banned and dozens more challenged. Critics said the policies targeted LGBTQ stories and books by or about people of color. Supporters of such policies have argued that parents should have more control over what students can access in schools.

Smith and four newly elected Democratic colleagues helped flip the board’s majority in November. At its first meeting, the new board moved quickly to suspend or reverse several prior policies, including rules on library materials, staff advocacy, and transgender athletes.

Smith has said parents already have ways to restrict what their own children check out, but should not be able to block access for every student.

School board meetings are usually local politics at their smallest scale, but this photo showed how national debates over books, identity, history, and parental rights are now playing out one district at a time.

Texas and Florida account for most of the 12,000 school book bans last year.
PEN America recorded its highest annual total of public school book bans in the 2025–2026 school year, surpassing every year since the organization began tracking them in 2021.

Those bans affected more than 7,300 different titles. The distinction matters: the same book can be counted more than once when multiple districts restrict it.

More than 4,500 titles entered the organization’s index for the first time, another record. New additions included Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus.
Stephen King was the most banned author, with 312 recorded bans. Young adult author Ellen Hopkins followed with 234.

Texas and Florida accounted for the vast majority of recorded bans. They also have more complete records, partly because local groups have obtained information through public records requests.

PEN America uses “book ban” to cover several kinds of content-based restrictions. These include removing books from libraries or classrooms, making them unavailable during reviews, and limiting access through measures such as parental permission or grade-level restrictions. The total does not mean every book was permanently removed.

The report also raises concerns about schools using artificial intelligence to review their collections. PEN America says these tools can take passages out of context and recommend removing books because other districts have already restricted them.

Books dealing with racism, LGBTQ+ issues and sexuality remain frequent targets, according to the organization.

PEN America says its figures are an undercount because restrictions often go unreported or are difficult to document. Even with those gaps, the latest school year produced the largest total in its five years of tracking.