Utah officials removed the Bible from elementary and middle school libraries citing its 'vulgarity or violence'

• Local Utah officials have pulled the Bible from elementary and middle school libraries.
• It will only be available at high schools, with a committee citing the book's "vulgarity or violence."

Utah officials have pulled the Bible from all elementary and middle school libraries in Davis School District due to it containing "vulgarity or violence," according to local media outlet KSL.

A committee tasked with reviewing books that have been flagged for sensitive material made the decision last week, Christopher Williams, Davis School District's director of communication, told KSL.

Williams told KSL that the review committee "decided to retain the book in school library circulation only at the high school level based on age appropriateness due to vulgarity or violence."

The district's online database for book challenges shows that a review committee found that the text did not contain sensitive material under Utah law that warranted the Bible's complete removal from circulation in school libraries.

The challenge was originally filed in December 2022, with an unnamed parent saying in the complaint that Utah's book-ban law made it "much easier" to request that the Bible be removed from school for its "sex-ridden" content.

The complaint appeared to poke fun at conservative groups who support book-ban laws – which critics say unfairly target books with LGBTQ themes and authors of color – by arguing that the Bible would violate Utah's H.B. 374.

The 2022 law, which is also called the Sensitive Materials in Schools Act, bans books with "pornographic or indecent" material from schools and school libraries.

The parent in the complaint said that the Bible contains "incest, onanism, bestiality, prostitution, genital mutilation, fellatio, dildos, rape, and even infanticide," according to The Salt Lake Tribune.

An appeal was filed on Wednesday by an individual who wants the Bible retained at all school levels, the district's online database for book challenges shows.

"It will now go to an appeals committee consisting of three members of the Davis School District Board of Education," Williams said, per KSL.

He added: "That committee will then make a recommendation to the full Board of Education whether to retain or remove it from school library circulation. The board will then make the final decision."