FORT MILL, S.C. — The Fort Mill School District has determined a book that caused a statewide investigation into material within South Carolina schools does not meet its standards.
The book, an autobiography presented in comic book form entitled "Gender Queer: A Memoir" details the experiences of author Maia Kobabe, who identifies as nonbinary.
Schools officials to WCNC Charlotte on Nov. 10 the book was pulled from circulation and the district would perform an administrative review to determine whether it should in high school libraries or not.
A spokesperson for Fort Mill provided the following statement to WCNC Charlotte by email on Tuesday, Nov. 16:
Following an administrative review by the Fort Mill School District, of the book Gender Queer: a Memoir by Maia Kobabe, the district determined that the book in question does not meet the standard for inclusion in our high school libraries. The district’s decision to permanently remove the book from our high school collections was based on the inclusion of visual imagery that is not age appropriate for our students.
Gov. McMaster penned a letter to the state on Nov. 10, saying the book contained material that "shocked and disappointed" him. He said he learned about it after it book was brought to his attention by parents within the Fort Mill School District.
The memoir was also found at two schools in the Rock Hill School District. Officials with that district said in a statement, "We did have one copy of the book in question in two of our high school libraries. Those copies have never been checked out by a student or requested. Each copy was pulled from the two libraries today and are under review by our administrative team."
WCNC Charlotte reached out to Rock Hill Schools late Tuesday evening by email to see if a decision had been made by the district's administrative team.
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