Utah School District That Removed Bible Considers Removing Book of Mormon

A Utah school district that recently pulled the King James Bible from elementary and middle school libraries has now received a new request from a parent to review the Book of Mormon for potential removal, according to school officials.

Christopher Williams, director of communications and operations at the Davis School District, said the district received a request Friday demanding the removal of the foundational text of the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The request calls for the book to be reviewed by the board because it contains graphic violence, including battles, beheadings, and kidnappings.

The latest potential removal comes just a week after the district announced they would remove the King James edition of the Bible from the district’s elementary and middle school libraries after being deemed by a committee to be inappropriate because it contained “vulgarity or violence.”

“The 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,” Williams wrote in an email.

He told CNN he estimated seven or eight elementary schools and middle schools had the Bible in their libraries before the decision.

The school district said it would assess the Book of Mormon for “all elements of the definitions of pornographic or indecent materials” as defined under a Utah law concerning sensitive materials.

He said the school district is attempting to follow House Bill 374, a 2022 law which “prohibits certain sensitive instructional materials in public schools” and requires a “local education agency to include parents who are reflective of a school’s community when determining whether an instructional material is sensitive material.” The text of the law defines “sensitive material” as “instructional material that is pornographic or indecent material.”

One parent in the Davis school district decided to demand the removal of the Bible, claiming it to be “one of the most sex-ridden books around”.

The district decided that while the Bible did not violate the Utah law, it was not suitable for younger students.