Responding to a request for legal guidance by South Carolina Representative Harry Stille (D-Abbeville, Anderson, and Greenwood Counties), State Attorney General Charlie M. Condon recommended September 24 that the Chester County School Board remove Norma Klein’s Beginners’ Love from the high school library. “The First Amendment protects against censorship of the school library but does not prohibit removal of indecent or offensive material,” Condon wrote, characterizing the book as “pervasively vulgar.”
The board had voted in February to retain the title over the objections of a mother who challenged the novel’s sexually explicit passages. However, board members gave parents the option of having their children’s school ID marked to deny access to the book.
The American Center for Law and Justice applauded Condon for enabling “school officials to legally remove the novel,” noting that it had offered similar advice in April along with a petition with 1,000 signatures. But school board President Denise Lawson said in the September 27 Rock Hill Herald she stood behind the book’s retention.
Posted October 4, 1999.