Knox County school board discusses banning books with sexual content
KCS school board member Susan Horn speaks about district policies regarding inappropriate materials in libraries at Monday's board meeting. (Screenshot)
Knox County Board of Education members discussed how they should approach banning books that depict sex or other age-inappropriate content from school libraries at Monday’s school board work session.
Noting a newly amended state law instructing schools to do so, board member Susan Horn suggested that the district should update local school policies to specifically address materials that contain images of sexual activity to make sure the school system is in line with the legislation. The new law goes into effect July 1.
"I don't think books that have sexually explicit images should be in our schools, particularly since these books are paid for with taxpayer dollars," she said. “We’ve been talking about this for a while, but when we get to July 1, they can’t be in our schools, so we’re going to have to deal with this sooner rather than later.”
Horn said she’s spoken with several parents, community members and organizations about the issue amid the national discussion about banning certain books in public school libraries.
“Our current policy says that books with sexually explicit content should not be in our schools but obviously, we’ve had a lot of questions about that,” Horn said. “I don’t think we should have content that is out of line with Tennessee state standards, and I would hope that all board members would want to protect students from books that are inappropriate and not age appropriate for students.”
The discussion has been revisited several times in recent months, as right-wing advocacy groups like Moms for Liberty continue working on the local and national levels to ban books that they consider age inappropriate, which often includes books on racial inclusivity and LGBTQ topics. Moms for Liberty in particular is considered an extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
In April, the district began forming school library councils and title review committees to review and potentially ban books like "Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe, which follows the author’s exploration of gender identity and sexuality from adolescence, among other titles that have come up in discussion.
Knox County Deputy Law Director Gary Dupler told the board Horn’s proposal on Monday could ensure that the district is proactive about being in line with current state law.
"Existing state law, when it comes to sexual education, is in favor of abstinence. It's certainly not in favor of depicting sex acts," Dupler said. "Could this board be looking at this again very soon in July or a policy review? Absolutely."
The topic could receive more attention at Thursday's Board of Education June meeting.
In other business, officials discussed new designs for a proposed school in the Farragut area, funded through the school district's capital improvement plan. The school is expected to be open in the 2026-2027 school year, according to the board.
