Iowa School District Bans 19 Books Including ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and ‘Friday Night Lights’

The Mason City School District in Iowa has banned 19 books after using an AI software to determine if the texts contain any "depiction of a sex act" in order to comply with new legislation signed into law by Republican Governor Kim Reynolds. 

The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood), Friday Night Lights (Buzz Bissinger), The Color Purple (Alice Walker), I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou), The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini) and Looking for Alaska (John Green) are just some of the popular titles that have been yanked from shelves.

Other books being pulled include Killing Mr. Griffin (Lois Duncan), Sold (Patricia McCormick), A Court of Mist and Fury series (Sarah J. Maas), Monday's Not Coming (Tiffany D. Jackson), Nineteen Minutes (Jodi Picoult), Beloved (Toni Morrison), Crank (Ellen Hopkins), Thirteen Reasons Why (Jay Asher), The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Sherman Alexie), An American Tragedy (Theodore Dreiser), Feed (M.T. Anderson) and Gossip Girl (Cecily von Ziegasar). 

"Our classroom and school libraries have vast collections, consisting of texts purchased, donated and found. It is simply not feasible to read every book and filter for these new requirements. Therefore, we are using what we believe is a defensible process to identify books that should be removed from collections at the start of the '23-'24 school year," Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction at Mason City Community School District Bridgette Exman said in a statement via The Gazette. 

She continued: "After this, we will continue to rely on our long-established process that allows parents to have books reconsidered. We are confident this process will ensure the spirit of the law is enacted here in Mason City; parents will always have a voice in their students’ education."

The book ban comes about three months after Gov. Reynolds signed Senate File 496, which bans school books with descriptions and/or depictions of sex acts (defined as explicit actions between two or more people), requires schools to notify parents if a student requests to use new pronouns, prohibits instruction on sexual orientation and/or gender identity before seventh grade, and more.