“Banning books gives us silence when we need speech. It closes our ears when we need to listen. It makes us blind when we need sight.”
― Stephen Chbosky
For those of you who work in smaller, more rural communities, it can seem that book challenges and banning is limited to those areas. It can seem as though you are alone, lost in a sea of angry patrons and politicians, with no idea how to keep up the fight for Intellectual Freedom.
The reality is that these fights are not limited to smaller areas. They also happen in larger, more urban areas, where the population tends to be more left-leaning.
I have spoken of this before, but book banning and book challenges are not a new phenomenon. They have been around for years, and they certainly are not isolated to the United States. We can see examples of it in varying countries, countries that range from democratic, to authoritarian, to totalitarian governments.
One of my favorite quotes by Jo Godwin is, “A truly great library contains something in it to offend everyone.”
The truth is that we cannot please everyone. There will always be those who become upset because we have material that they consider offensive. Our job is to have as much material as we can on a broad range of topics and viewpoints, so that every person can access what they wish.
While many are happy with this arrangement (as it benefits everyone), there are those who are not because their beliefs do not allow them to be so, for whatever reason. Thus, libraries began creating policies that allowed for formal challenges to materials by the general populace.
So book banning isn’t new. What is new are the groups of people who are creating giant lists of books they have not read and sending people out to Board meetings and Commissioner meetings to circumvent the formal process of challenging materials.
This has led those in power to create legislation and policies that allow for that minority of people to dictate what happens, despite the outrage and confusion of those from the majority.
One of these pieces of legislation, passed in 2023, is the NC Senate Bill 49, otherwise known as the Parents Bill of Rights. We have discussed this bill in the past and what it meant for school libraries.
This particular piece of legislation was highly controversial across our state due to some of the parameters introduced for schools and school officials.
On the surface, it was a bill that allowed for parents to have more say in their child’s education, citing that parents had a right to request information about their child’s records, or requesting exemptions for certain activities based on their religious beliefs.
However, this bill also requires schools to contact parents if their child requests to be referred to by a different name or gender than what their records indicate. It also prohibits teaching any form of sex education for grades K-4.
There are concerns over what this means, for obvious reasons.
And many have voiced their displeasure with it, both publicly and privately. This has not been a major issue until recently.
As of December 2025, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro County Schools (CHCCS) district has come under fire for an online video posted in 2024, in which the Chairman of the school district board, George Griffin, publicly stated that he did not support Senate Bill 49 due to its discriminatory nature. He also stated that his board voted and said “No thanks, we are not doing this” (Eanes, 2025).
This video was posted in October to an X account belonging to a conservative group calling themselves Libs of TikTok with a message “alleging he was bragging about defying the law” (O’Hara, 2026).
This brought the video to the attention of certain members of the NC House of Representatives, in particular the Majority Leader, Brenden Jones. Mr. Jones then used his influence and leadership on the House Oversight Committee to summon Mr. Griffin and Superintendent Rodney Trice to a committee hearing in December, 2025.
Board Chairman Griffin left; Superintendent Trice right.
As we have seen with other cases around our state and others, Jones used books completely out of context to lambast Griffin and Trice for not following the law under Senate Bill 49. He used the book Santa’s Husband as an example of what he termed “trash” and threw the book after claiming that the book was being recommended to elementary school students.
A spokesperson for the school district later released a statement saying that the schools did not even offer that particular book, nor would they recommend it as that would be up to the parent (Specht, 2025).
During the hearing, Griffin and Trice continued to say that the district was in fact following the law. Though Griffin had stated his opinion in the video, the school district had adopted all of the requirements under the law, though the provision for alerting parents of a student’s name change was adopted later.
The only piece of the legislation not added to the district’s policies was that of prohibiting teaching sexual education to Kindergarten-4th grade. The reason for this is because the district already had a policy in place prohibiting the teaching of sexual education before 5th grade.
Rep. Jones, (pictured above) and his fellow Republican committee members, continued to bombard Griffin and Trice with questions and accusations to the point that their Democratic colleagues shared their displeasure with how the hearing was conducted. Representative Amos Quick of Guilford County is quoted as saying, “I had second hand embarrassment for the way this meeting was being conducted” (Specht, 2025).
Another Democratic Representative, Allison Dahle of Wake County, was also quoted, saying, “So now is it every time I say something that doesn’t agree with a law or opinion of a Republican who’s in power, or anybody in power, does that mean I’m going to be dragged in to testify about what I said at a meeting?…That to me is an infringement on my right to speech” (O’Hara).
Jones stated multiple times that he would cut spending to that particular district due to their noncompliance with the law. This would only work if it could be proven that the schools were indeed not following the law.
Representative Jeff McNeely of Iredell County threatened new legislation that will be “pretty tough…because we’re not going to put up with rogue school systems who have no money and will not comply with the laws of this state” (Specht, 2025).
The end result of the hearing was that the CHCCS district is now being required to submit a report each month detailing how they have complied with the law, starting in January of this year.
The story doesn’t end there however, because Superintendent Trice was summoned back on April 23, along with School Media Director Al McArthur, as the committee said they were still in noncompliance with Senate Bill 49.
A list of 155 books was reportedly found to be in the schools catalog that Republican lawmakers claimed were in direct violation of the Parents Bill of Rights as they taught sexuality, gender-identity, or had sexually explicit scenes (Yaffa, 2026).
Trice had submitted written testimony before the hearing, stating that the school was indeed in compliance with the law. During the hearing, when being questioned by Jones and other Republican members, Trice stated that the books being available in school libraries did not break the law as they were not being used in the curriculum, nor were they being recommended to students.
According to one article, Trice and McArthur argued that the school has a variety of books on varying topics as they want children to have access to things that appeal to their varying interests. They also want students to see themselves represented in the books being offered (Yaffa, 2026).
Technically, Trice is correct. The Bill states that no materials may be used in the curriculum that teach sexuality, gender-identity, or sexual activity. The books that Jones used in his arguments were not being used as such.
According to Trice and McArthur, the school has had a policy (put in place before Senate Bill 49) that allows parents to limit what items their child has access to from the libraries. They are also able to make formal complaints about books they want removed from the libraries.
Several Democrats again shared their displeasure with the proceedings in the hearings by saying they felt Republicans were using them to take the focus away from the fact that a state budget has yet to be approved.
No resolution was brought forth in this hearing, other than another threat that state funds will be withheld from the school district if they do not comply with the law.
And this may not be an unfounded threat.
Jones has apparently drafted a Bill that would lead to school districts in North Carolina being investigated as to their compliance with the Parents Bill of Rights. If they are found to be noncompliant, they will lose state funding for central office administration. The Bill would also allow parents to sue schools for violations (Pomeranz, 2026).
The proposed title of the Bill is the Curriculum Honesty, Compliance, and Child Safety Act.
Otherwise known as the CHCCS Act…
That was no accident and sends a message I don’t think the Republicans thought through…
Jones has also proposed legislation that would ban certain books from school libraries across the state of NC. Though legislation such as this has been proposed before, and has passed in several states, it has also led to multiple issues.
It could potentially lead to legal action against the state for the violation of the First Amendment rights of students as it has in the states that have passed such legislation.
Publishers have, likewise, sued in those states. An example is this article describing a lawsuit in Idaho.
Though this is not official at this time, it is something to keep on the radar in future, as Jones seems to have a vendetta against libraries in general, but especially school libraries.
For all of our colleagues facing challenges such as this in your libraries, please reach out to us. We can point you in the direction of resources to aid you in your fight for Intellectual Freedom and for your patrons/students.
We will continue to monitor the situation in the CHCCS district and will update as more information becomes available.
If you have not heard it yet today, thank you for everything you do for your community!
Resources:
Eanes, Z. (2025, December 10). “Lawmakers grill Chapel Hill-Carrboro school officials on Parents’ Bill of Rights compliance.” AXIOS Raleigh. https://www.axios.com/local/raleigh/2025/12/10/lawmakers-grill-chapel-hill-carrboro-school-officials-on-parents-bill-of-rights-compliance
O’Hara, J. (2026, January 20). “After viral Libs of TikTok post, CHCCS called to testify at N.C. General Assembly.” The Daily Tar Heel. https://dailytarheel.com/article/city-chccs-state-restrictions-20260120
Pomeranz, A. (2026, April 8). “House Oversight Committee summons school leaders over library books.” Carolina Journal. https://www.carolinajournal.com/house-oversight-committee-summons-school-leaders-over-library-books/
Pomeranz, A. (2026, April 23). “Proposed bill would cut school funds over Parents’ Bill of Rights violations.” Carolina Journal. https://www.carolinajournal.com/proposed-bill-would-cut-school-funds-over-parents-bill-of-rights-violations/
Specht, P. (2025, December 9). “NC legislators grill Chapel Hill school officials on ‘Parents’ Bill of Rights’ compliance.” WRAL News. https://www.wral.com/news/nccapitol/chapel-hill-school-officials-reject-gop-allegations-parents-bill-rights-december-2025/
Yaffa, C. (2026, April 23). “NC lawmakers grill school leaders again over policies for transgender students, LGBTQ books.” WRAL News. https://www.wral.com/news/nccapitol/chapel-hill-carrboro-school-leaders-expected-to-get-grilled-by-lawmakers-thursday-april-2026/
Yaffa, C., Doran, W. (2026, April 23). “‘Parents not being able to parent’: NC lawmakers propose LGBTQ book ban, grill school officials.” WRAL News. https://www.wral.com/news/nccapitol/chapel-hill-carrboro-school-leaders-expected-to-get-grilled-by-lawmakers-thursday-april-2026/