Censorship, Bellbrook-Sugarcreek SD, Greene County, OH

In April of 2025, the Board of Education of the Bellbrook-Sugarcreek School District enacted a new policy, #5780, the Parents Bill of Rights. It is a policy restricting school books and materials having to do with "sexuality content," including "gender ideology." Grades K-8 were forbidden any such material; grades 9-12 were required to have parental permission to borrow it. The Board stated that "sexuality content" meant "inherently private sexual acts," and even described it as “if you did it on a park bench, would an officer arrest you for it?” The Board said this policy was meant to comply with the recently-enacted Ohio Parents Bill of Rights (H. B. 8), even though H. B. 8 makes no mention of books or libraries. 

The middle, intermediate, and elementary school librarians had to identify all such books for removal. (The elementary school had none. The Board had the intermediate and middle school books moved to the high school so they could deny that any books were “banned,” not understanding that the books are being removed from their intended audience. That is a book ban.

Five books were removed from Bell Creek Intermediate School, grades 3-5, because they supposedly mention "gender ideology." (There is no explicit sexual content in library books at this age.) The books include two by popular author Rick Riordan; a sweet and award-winning novel by Alex Gino, George, about a trans girl wanting to play the lead in the school play "Charlotte's Web;" and an award-winning Canadian graphic-illustrated history book, No Girls Allowed, that has no "gender ideology" at all, but is about cis women who dressed as men to do brave deeds that the world denied to them as women, such as smuggling an enslaved person to safety. One of those women was Mulan -- ever heard of her?