MCS School Board Wins Georgia Book Banning State Championship

Folks, the score wasn't even close.

Photo by Gergely Badacsonyi

Tired of the Marietta High School football team, girls basketball team, and girls cross-country team getting all the glory in their recent Georgia state championship seasons, the Marietta City Schools Board of Education put up an impressive score to clinch the title of Most Books Banned by a School District in Georgia. Dear reader, they left the competition in the dust! Go Big Blue!

In December, Atlanta Magazine asked the question, “What is the state of book bans in Georgia?” What they discovered will surprise you. It surprised us.

Turns out, for most school districts in Georgia, formal challenges to books in schools have been rejected.

While activists have challenged hundreds of books in Georgia, our reporting found that most efforts did not result in permanent bans. A survey of Georgia counties completed in October 2023 found seven titles permanently banned from specific middle and high schools; other books were eventually returned to shelves, according to PEN America. The permanent bans included two books in Cobb County schools and Marietta City Schools, one in Forsyth County, two in Coweta County high schools, and two in Coweta middle schools. Some counties, including Coweta, Forsyth, and Floyd, have added parental consent requirements or “M for Mature” stickers to certain titles.

Then, in December, the number of banned books in Georgia ballooned when the Marietta City School Board voted overwhelmingly to remove 23 books from its high school libraries. The list includes some popular targets of book ban advocates, such as A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah Maas and Tricks by Ellen Hopkins, but the school board also voted to ban bestsellers like The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chobsky [sic].

In their quest for Moms for Liberty distinction, our school board almost QUADRUPLED the number of books banned by the other competing school systems combined. The closest competitor, Coweta County, banned a paltry four books. Amazeballs!

According to the American Library Association (ALA) 82 to 97 percent of book challenges go unreported as books are quietly removed from shelves by administrators or teachers. Marietta school board members are telling people in the community they should get credit for doing their anti-intellectual tomfoolery out in the open, but discrimination is discrimination whether done in public or behind the scenes. Besides, Moms for Liberty and their fellow travelers wouldn’t know what a great job they are doing if they did it quietly.

Book bans are extremely unpopular. The ALA has found that two-thirds (67 percent) of voters do not support banning books from school libraries. We guess this school board has forgotten its members are dependent on voters for keeping their jobs.

What does the 2023 scorecard look like? Read it and weep, dear readers. We certainly did.

Books recently banned in Georgia

Cobb County, Marietta City Schools

• Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

• Flamer by Mike Curato

Marietta City Schools

• 13 Reasons Why by Josh [sic] Asher

• City of Thieves by David Benioff

• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chobsky [sic]

• This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson

• I Love You, Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle

• It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

• Crank by Ellen Hopkins

• Identical by Ellen Hopkins

• Tricks by Ellen Hopkins

• Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany Jackson

• All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson

• Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin

• A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

• A Court of Thorn and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

• A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

• A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas

• The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle

• Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera

• The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

• Lucky by Alice Sebold

• More Happy Than Not by Ada Silvera

• Grasshopper Jungle: A History by Andrew Smith

• Blankets by Craig Thompson

Forsyth County

• All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson

Coweta County

• The Handmaid’s Tale (graphic novel version) by Margaret Atwood

• Looking for Alaska by John Green

• Tricks by Ellen Hopkins

• A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

Congratulations, MCS BOE on your Book Banning State Championship title! Your diligence in censoring titles outside groups told you to is admirable deplorable! You’ve made your town proud infamous!