Feds Investigate Possible Civil Rights Violations in Georgia School Book Removals

The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights has concluded that a Georgia school district’s removal of books with Black and LGBTQ characters may have violated students’ civil rights by creating a “hostile environment”. The district has agreed to offer “supportive measures” to affected students and to administer a school climate survey. The ruling could affect how administrators in other districts and states manage book-removal requests, as the country faces a historic rise in attempts to pull books from school libraries and classrooms, particularly those dealing with race, racism, and LGBTQ characters and themes.