Keywords

Censorship; School Libraries; Parents; Parental Rights; Book Challenges

Abstract

The rapid rise of book challenges and removals in U.S. school libraries has increasingly been justified through appeals to parental rights, yet relatively little research has explored what parents themselves believe about censorship and book removal. This exploratory qualitative study examined Utah parents’ perceptions of censorship in school libraries, the kinds of content they believe should be restricted, and the reasoning underlying those beliefs. Using a grounded theory-informed thematic analysis approach, data were collected through a survey of 319 Utah parents with children enrolled in public schools. The survey combined closed-ended and open-ended questions, allowing participants to articulate their views on censorship and explain their responses in their own words.

Findings reveal that parental attitudes toward censorship are considerably more nuanced than contemporary public discourse often suggests. While participants expressed a wide range of opinions regarding book removals, age appropriateness emerged as a nearly universal concern across all viewpoints. Parents who supported censorship frequently emphasized child protection, developmental readiness, and parental authority in guiding children’s exposure to sensitive topics. Parents who opposed censorship prioritized intellectual freedom, access to diverse perspectives, parental choice, and trust in professional librarians. Notably, both supporters and opponents invoked parental rights, but used the concept to justify different policy preferences. Sexual content was the most frequently identified category for restriction, though parents generally focused on explicit sexual acts and developmental appropriateness rather than specific ideological or identity-based content. Overall, the findings suggest that parental perspectives are diverse, contextual, and often more moderate than polarized political narratives imply. These results highlight the importance of grounding school library policies in empirical evidence about parental beliefs rather than assumptions about parental consensus.

Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

2026-09-14

Language

English

College

Harold B. Lee Library

University Standing at Time of Publication

Full Professor

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