The federal Department of Education concluded an investigation into a Georgia school district Friday, arguing that the removal of several books containing pornographic material “created a hostile environment” for LGBTQ and nonwhite authors and readers, according to a letter.
The DOE’s Office of Civil Rights launched an investigation into the Forsyth County School District after a complaint was made by an individual, whose identity has not been released, that the district had purposefully gotten rid of books about the LGBTQ community in January 2022, according to The Washington Post.
The department sent a letter to the school district’s superintendent, Dr. Jeff Bearden, on Friday that its investigation had concluded the district was attempting to remove books with “diverse authors and characters, including people who are LGBTQI+ and authors who are not white.”
The district had removed eight books after multiple parents complained about the content matter being too pornographic for children, according to The Washington Post. One mother was initially banned from board meetings after trying to read out loud a scene from “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” by Jonathan Safran Foer, that describes how to give oral sex.