Activists file book ban lawsuit against S.C. superintendent

South Carolina public school students and librarians on Oct. 7 filed a lawsuit asking a federal court to block enforcement of the state’s book banning regulation and a classroom censorship memo issued by state Superintendent of Education Ellen Weaver.

The move comes on day three of the nation’s Banned Books Week, held this year from Oct. 5 to Oct. 11. The annual recognition is shaped by its rally cry for free and open access to information. It galvanizes librarians, educators, authors, publishers, booksellers and readers.

“Many people don’t know anything about book bans or that it’s happening across America,” Charleston’s Academic Magnet High School senior Kate Selvitelli said in last week’s the lead story in the current issue of the City Paper. “As a country that was built on the freedom of speech and beliefs, book banning goes completely against our foundation that so many people are currently fighting for.”

Click the image above to read the Oct. 3 story on banned books in South Carolina.

The American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina (ACLU-SC) filed Tuesday’s lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina on behalf of the S.C. Association of School Librarians and three minors who are public school students.

“Censorship in schools limits students’ ability to think critically and engage with diverse perspectives,” Tenley Middleton, president of the librarian group, said in a press release. “K-12 students deserve intellectual freedom that empowers them to explore ideas, question assumptions and develop critical thinking skills.

“Leadership from the South Carolina Association of School Librarians has persistently sought to engage with the Department of Education and the State Board regarding Regulation 43-170 — to no avail,” Middleton added. “We stand with the ACLU of South Carolina in denouncing censorship and championing intellectual freedom.”

A long time coming

The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of state regulation 43-170, which bans all materials in kindergarten through 12th grade public schools if they contain descriptions or depictions of “sexual conduct.” The regulation took effect in June 2024 and has seen consistent and ongoing pushback from advocates and educators across the state. The regulation has led to the banning or restriction of 22 books statewide — the largest number of state-mandated school book bans in any state, according to national advocacy group PEN America.

The state Education Department’s Regulation 43-170 has been criticized as having vague language that makes it difficult for teachers to apply consistently, opponents say. Some teachers, particularly those in elementary schools, have stopped keeping individual libraries in classrooms due to the regulation’s requirement for all materials to be catalogued in the classroom. Some school libraries also have begun removing books that they worry may be challenged in the future.

“Regulation 43-170 is so vague that even the state board can’t apply it consistently — retaining [George Orwell’s] 1984 while banning other books with similar content,” said Sam Kennedy, staff attorney for the ACLU-SC. “The result is a climate of fear where librarians preemptively remove hundreds of books and teachers abandon classroom libraries to avoid risking their careers.”

The lawsuit also challenges a memorandum that Weaver issued March 14, 2025, that prohibits 14 ideas and concepts from S.C. Department of Education materials, including “implicit bias,” “restorative justice,” “cisgender,” and “social-emotional learning,” although it notes that its list of taboo concepts is “not exhaustive.” The lawsuit describes the memo as mandating indoctrination of the state’s students.

22 titles banned so far

Ten titles were banned this year by the S.C. Board of Education. These books must be removed from all public school libraries and classroom collections, regardless of grade level: