Utah students could see more books banned from public schools after state auditors reviewed 22 high school titles flagged by at least one member of a Utah conservative parents rights group and found “notable amounts” of “sexual content.”
The 37-page report released Tuesday comes after state lawmakers asked auditors to identify school library books that haven’t faced formal removal challenges but may contain “objective sensitive material,” according to the audit. State law defines such material as pornographic or otherwise indecent content.
Specifically, the report found that 95% of the 22 flagged titles included sexual content and 73% contained nudity, potentially violating Utah’s sensitive materials law. Auditors called for “more robust oversight” of materials entering public schools.
The list included “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, the first Black woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993; “Wicked” by Gregory Maguire, which inspired a hit Broadway musical and a two-part film; and “A Clash of Kings” by George R.R. Martin, the second book in the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series that inspired the popular HBO series “Game of Thrones.”
Auditors told The Salt Lake Tribune that the list came from a “concerned legislator” who sourced the titles from ratedbooks.org, a website run by Brooke Stephens, a member of Utah Parents United.
The website rates books found in Utah school districts on a scale of 0–5, with “0” meaning suitable for all ages and “5” meaning “deviant” or adults-only. That scale, according to the site, is modeled after the Motion Picture Association’s film ratings.
Utah Parents United also takes credit for the Facebook page “LaVerna in the Library,” which is dedicated to offering parents instructions on how to submit lists of accessible titles they may find inappropriate to school districts for review.
Due to “legislative concerns,” the report states, auditors also examined the books for language and violence, which are not currently criteria for determining what constitutes sensitive material in Utah.
Auditors found more than 800 instances of “f-words” and “c-words” combined, and 112 occurrences of domestic or war/fighting-related violence, the report states.
Auditors recommend stronger policies
In Utah, school books that contain sexual content or nudity deemed to have “no serious value for minors” are legally treated as pornography — what state law calls “objective sensitive material.”
That includes depictions of intercourse, masturbation or touching of a character’s genitals, as well as nudity, defined as anything “less than completely and opaquely” covering human genitals, buttocks and female breasts “below a point immediately above the top of the areola.” Nudity also includes any depiction of “male genitals in a discernibly turgid state,” even if fully covered.
However, in order to determine whether a book amounts to “objective sensitive material,” it must first be challenged by a member of a school’s community. If a review committee determines it to be “objective sensitive material,” it’s pulled from all schools in that district.
A statewide ban is triggered if at least three districts — or two districts and at least five charter schools — reach the same conclusion about a book.
Since the law took effect in July 2024, 18 titles have been banned across Utah schools.
Auditors used this same legal framework to guide their review. They started with 186 books rated as 4 (“not for minors”) or 5 (“aberrant content” or “for adults only”) by ratedbooks.com.
They then searched library catalogs in randomly selected high schools across seven different school districts, adding any title found in at least one library to their review list. From there, they identified 20 books appearing in 42 libraries for closer examination. Two more titles were added at the request of lawmakers, the report stated.
The school districts were Davis, Weber, Salt Lake City, Granite, Canyons, Alpine, and Washington County.
Overall, auditors identified 221 combined instances of “sexual content” and “nudity” across all 22 titles, concluding that if the books were challenged, most “would be found to be ‘objective sensitive materials.’”
Auditors concluded that the state’s current sensitive materials law is “reactive” rather than “proactive.”
“Current sensitive materials laws and related policies focus on removing sensitive materials from schools rather than preventing them from being added,” the audit stated. “Proactive policies could shift the focus away from reactive policies and prevent potentially sensitive materials from entering schools.”
Auditors recommended that lawmakers consider requiring schools to have a policy for “library book selection processes,” which would include rules for “maintaining classroom library collections.”
The state’s next legislative session begins in January.
The audit comes on the heels of Banned Books Week, an annual national campaign organized by the American Library Association and first introduced in 1982. This year’s theme was “Censorship Is So 1984. Read for Your Rights.”
“The 2025 theme of Banned Books Week serves as a reminder that censorship efforts persist to this day,” said American Library Association President Cindy Hohl in a statement. “We must always come together to stand up for the right to read.”
As part of Banned Book Week, the Salt Lake City Public Library shared on Instagram last week that all 18 books currently banned from Utah public schools are available for checkout.
“This is a great month to read banned books,” one post stated.