Schools in Columbia area removed this book over LGBTQ+ content. Now it’s back

A book removed from a Midlands school district’s libraries over a reference to a character’s same-sex relationship is coming back to shelves after public push back at a Monday school board meeting.

Lexington-Richland 5 superintendent Akil Ross said at the meeting he would reverse an administrative decision that limited student access to the children’s book “I Am Billie Jean King,” after several parents criticized the move during the meeting and board members indicated they wanted the decision changed.

The move would take effect “immediately,” Ross said Monday, although he left open the possibility a parent complaint about the book could eventually end up back before the board.

The district had previously decided that the book by author Brad Meltzer, part of a series of picture book biographies, would be removed from libraries at three schools in the Chapin-Irmo area and placed in the school counselor’s office, where it could be checked out from the library catalog with parental permission. The district cited the fact that at one point King, the tennis great, mentions that she’s gay and married to a woman.

Ross told the board that in Lexington-Richland 5, “We as a district accept and celebrate everybody. We don’t take a position of judgment on any sexual lifestyle.” But the school district had to decide on the age appropriateness of the material available in its schools.

“This started with the question of a child, who asked what does this mean?” the superintendent said in reference to King’s explanation that girls can have romantic feelings for girls and boys for boys. “Who answers that question for this child? Whether male-female, male-male, female-female not the point. … We felt the best person to answer that question is the parent.”

But several parents at Monday’s meeting objected to the book’s removal — reported last week by The State — as an administrative act without a formal challenge and a review by the district.

Ross said that Lexington-Richland 5 dropped its old process of assigning a challenged book to be read by a review committee made up of teachers, librarians and community members. Under new rules adopted last fall, a challenge would now come to the school board. A parent would then have the opportunity to appeal the board’s decision to the state Board of Education, which has voted to remove 22 books from schools statewide in the past year — the highest number of any state in the country.

While Ross cited a desire not to discuss “romantic feelings” with students, speakers Monday pointed out that heterosexual relationships are routinely depicted in media targeted at young children.

“Why is it OK for a 5-year-old to ask questions about the attraction between Belle and the Beast, but not between Billie Jean King and her partner?” community member Annie Mahaffey asked the board.

One person who spoke against the decision Monday said she was a former teacher. When she asked her young students to give a presentation on their families, she learned one student had two mothers. She said she didn’t feel she could tell him not to talk about his parents while his classmates shared theirs — although she now felt like that was what the district would have required.

Mahaffey said the state law the district cited in removing the book, a 1980s law that bars school discussion of “alternate sexual lifestyles” was specific to sex education classes and not relevant to a book available in a library.

“Removal of this book because it communicates Billie Jean King’s sexual orientation is blatant viewpoint discrimination” that could violate the First Amendment, she said. “I would encourage you to reconsider the motives for and legality of this decision.”

Before Ross announced he was re-instating the book, board member Kevin Scully moved that the board vote to put “I Am Billie Jean King” back on library shelves. But when it was pointed out there was no item for the book on the meeting agenda, which has to be published before board members can take action, he requested it go on the agenda for a vote at the next board meeting.

The issue even rose to the attention of the book’s author. Meltzer commented on the book’s removal in a statement to the South Carolina ACLU.

“Billie Jean King is one of the great heroes of our time — and because of one parent, an entire community in South Carolina now can’t learn about her,” Meltzer said before Monday’s meeting. “My hope is that reason and common sense will prevail over fear and baseless hatred.”

This story was originally published May 20, 2025 at 1:23 PM.

Bristow Marchant

The State

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Bristow Marchant covers local government, schools and community in Lexington County for The State. He graduated from the College of Charleston in 2007. He has almost 20 years of experience covering South Carolina at the Clinton Chronicle, Sumter Item and Rock Hill Herald. He joined The State in 2016. Bristow has won numerous awards, most recently the S.C. Press Association’s 2024 education reporting award.  Support my work with a digital subscription