BEAUFORT, S.C. () — The book banning debate started in Beaufort County more than two years ago, but now the state school board is involved, and more books are being taken off school shelves.

The state school board voted to ban four books from all school libraries in the state, declaring them inappropriate for all students, even in high school. However, several teachers, parents, and librarians raised concerns about the decision now being out of the hands of local school districts and instead in the hands of the board.

“Our community worked really hard to review the 97 books that were challenged, and those review committees made decisions and recommendations that were supported by the majority of our board,” said Mary Foster, a preschool teacher in Beaufort County and a member of Families Against Book Bans. “91 of those books were returned. And now the state has created a regulation that allows them to undo all of that.”

The books being questioned in the meeting were just four out of 97 books brought to Beaufort County School District in 2022. Foster said the 91 books that had been saved would now have a chance to be brought back into the spotlight and potentially banned at the state level.

“The policy Regulation 43-170 was written by Ellen Weaver’s team, and it doesn’t take into account anything like literary value or the educational merits of a book,” explained Paul Bowers from the American Civil Liberties Union.

Bowers pointed out that, instead, the state superintendent’s regulation allowed the board to make the ban based on small excerpts that contained “sexual conduct.” But he emphasized that the board didn’t even have to read the books to make the decision to ban them.

Sherry East, president of the South Carolina Education Association, expressed her concern, saying she fears that the next step in the ban will go farther than “sexual conduct”.

“We do feel like they’re going down this road of any character, any lifestyle, someone who doesn’t agree with,” said East. “They don’t think anybody has a right to read about it, which is concerning.”

Beaufort County School District wasn’t available to give a comment, but they shared that they were following the decision from the state board. They will be communicating with all schools in the county to remove the books this week, placing them in a secure location.