The Cobb County School District said it has removed an additional book from its middle and high school libraries.
Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said the book “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison was being removed from schools because of sexually explicit material not suitable for children.
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The school district said several passages violated standards for content acceptable for sixth through 12th graders.
One passage they referenced depicted incest and rape.
They noted other works by the author remain available in Cobb schools.
“The words speak for themselves,” Ragsdale said. “Both as a father and as a superintendent, I think about a parent having to explain to their sixth-grade daughter after she encounters explicit descriptions of child incest and rape in a book provided at school, without parents’ knowledge. As the superintendent responsible for the instruction of 100,000 students, I do not have the luxury of making that decision for other parents and their children.”
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More than 30 other books have been removed from the schools’ libraries in recent years.
School board chairman Randy Scamihorn responded to previous criticism that they are banning books in a “Just the Facts” post on the district website.
“We have not ‘banned’ a single book. We have removed age-inappropriate, sexually explicit content for minors,” he wrote.
In August, a fiery speech by Ragsdale at a kickoff for the new school year was not well received by some teachers and staff, according to the Cobb County Association of Educators.
“If I sound (expletive) off, I am; everybody in education should be. They’re trying to use you as teachers to condition kids of something as tragic as trafficking,” the superintendent said.
Over 100 teachers were later questioned for walking out of the speech.
Previous books the Cobb County School District has removed:
Removed in 2025:
- American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
- Dead End by Jason Myers
- Triangles by Ellen Hopkins
- A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard
Removed in 2024:
- Summer of Owen Todd
- More Happy Than Not
- This Book Is Gay
- We Know It Was You
- The Sun and Her Flowers
- City of Saints and Thieves
- A Court of Wings and Ruin
- A Court of Thorns and Roses
- A Court of Mist and Fury
- A Court of Frost and Starlight
- A Court of Silver Flames
- Ironfire
- Laid
- Crank
- Tricks
- Push
- Milk and Honey
- It Starts with Us
- The Infinite Moment of Us
- Casual Vacancy
- Identical
- Boys Aren’t Blue
- Juliet Takes a Breath
- Monday’s Not Coming
- City of Thieves
Removed in 2023:
- Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl
- Flamer
- Blankets
- It Ends with Us
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower
- Lucky
- Thirteen Reasons Why
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