A rural Arkansas school district limited elementary school students’ access to nine books with LGBTQ+ characters and themes two years ago, according to district documents obtained via a public records request.
The Mountain Pine School District board approved the restrictions at the same time that children’s access to LGBTQ+ content in school and public libraries became a hot-button issue throughout Arkansas, and the board’s decision spawned a new state law that will go into effect in August.
The nine restricted titles, all aimed at students between 2nd and 5th grade, are only available to Mountain Pine Elementary School students whose parents or guardians provide written permission. Arnold and Mary Stone, whose child was in fourth grade at the time, petitioned the Garland County school on March 27, 2023 to remove three books they found objectionable from the library.
The five-member school board unanimously voted three days later to “pull any books that deal in sexual orientation, sexual lifestyle or gender preference from the general shelves in the Elementary library,” according to board meeting minutes.
This “temporary decree will be in effect until a new policy is approved by the school board,” according to the minutes.
As of Friday, the three challenged books, as well as six others, are still filed as “Restricted: Parent Note Required” in Mountain Pine Elementary’s online library catalog.
The Mountain Pine district has two schools and 585 students, according to the Arkansas Department of Education website.
Cedarville precedent not a concern
In 2003, a federal court decided the Cedarville School District violated the First Amendment by requiring signed permission slips from parents to allow their children to read the Harry Potter books.
This was not a concern for state Rep. Richard McGrew, a Hot Springs Republican who represents Mountain Pine, when he drafted and presented Act 917 of 2025 in the Legislature, he said Friday.
Act 917 requires public elementary schools to “store non-age-appropriate sexual content, including without limitation a book or other resource that is located in the library media center that is available to the public, in a locked compartment within a designated area.”
Students would only be able to access these materials with parental permission, and McGrew told the House Education Committee in March that this policy arose from a situation in his district.
“In some aspects, it makes it easier if a parent wants their child to learn about something that, quite frankly, I wouldn’t want my child to learn about,” McGrew said.
He also said the “designated area” required in the law can be anywhere in the school building, not specifically in the library.
The law defines “non-age-appropriate sexual content” as “any materials that include explicit instruction, promotion, or advocacy of sexual ideology, behaviors, or orientations that are not developmentally appropriate for kindergarten through grade five (K-5) students.”
The librarian’s response
The books the Stones challenged in Mountain Pine do not depict sexual activity, elementary school librarian Jennifer Wendell wrote in her response to the challenges, obtained via an Arkansas Freedom of Information Act request.
“The content within these books consists of nothing more ‘sexual’ than talking about crushes and chaste kisses,” Wendell wrote.
All school libraries are required to have library content challenge policies in order to be accredited by the state Department of Education. McGrew said Act 917 does not change that.
Instead, Act 917 requires schools to issue a warning to a teacher or media specialist who “knowingly failed to comply with” the law upon the first alleged violation. The second offense would lead to a formal complaint to the Professional Licensure Standards Board, which has the authority to suspend education licenses.
Upon the third offense, the licensure board would be required to revoke the educator’s license. Legislative Democrats expressed opposition to this aspect of the bill, and Rep. Steve Magie of Conway was the only Democrat in either chamber to vote for it.
Act 917 passed the majority-Republican Legislature with 75 of 100 House members’ support and 28 of 35 senators’ support. The law initially failed to pass the Senate, garnering only 16 senators’ support.
Sen. Matt McKee, R-Pearcy, was the law’s Senate sponsor and also represents Mountain Pine.
Other legislation
In their book challenge forms to Mountain Pine Elementary, the Stones cited a proposed state policy: Senate Bill 81, which Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed into law as Act 372 of 2023 the day after the Mountain Pine school board’s vote to restrict certain books.
Federal judge declares sections of Arkansas’ library obscenity law unconstitutional
A federal judge in 2024 blocked the section of Act 372 that would have allowed criminal liability for school and public librarians for disseminating materials some consider “obscenity.” The state is appealing the injunction, which also prevented city and county elected officials from having the final say over whether to relocate challenged public library materials on the basis of “appropriateness.”
Act 372 gives school boards the authority to relocate challenged school library books. This section was not challenged in court, but Wendell pointed out in her response to the Stones that it was not state law at the time.
The Stones’ challenge forms also cited the LEARNS Act of 2023, a wide-ranging education law that includes a ban on teaching of “sexually explicit materials,” gender identity or sexual orientation in classrooms before 5th grade.
LEARNS did not go into effect until three months after the Stones submitted their book challenges, and the books in question were never used in classroom instruction, Wendell said.
“As these challenged books deal with relevant and timely topics in ways that independent reviewers and I deemed age-appropriate/developmentally appropriate, I felt they were beneficial additions to our school collection,” Wendell wrote. “…Removing these books based on the personal belief that homosexuality is not developmentally appropriate for children to be exposed to is a violation of our students’ First Amendment rights and opens our district to potential legal issues and lawsuits.”
Wendell’s response is dated March 31, 2023, the day after the school board voted to approve the book restrictions.
Mountain Pine School District Superintendent Tish Knowles said Friday that some parents in the district have expressed appreciation for the restrictions and that she has not heard any concerns about potential First Amendment violations. Knowles was not yet the district’s superintendent in March 2023.
The Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators did not respond to requests last week for comment on Act 917. McGrew told his fellow lawmakers the organization worked with him on the legislation’s language. Knowles said no one at the Mountain Pine School District helped write the law.
McGrew emphasized that the sequestered books would not be removed from school premises. Act 372 did not pass the House Judiciary Committee in 2023 until it had been amended to say library materials would be relocated to an area inaccessible to minors, not removed from the school or public library entirely, if elected officials find them to be “obscene.”
The law provides libraries no guidance on creating an area that minors cannot access, and it does not limit challenges based on “appropriateness” for minors, U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks wrote in his ruling against the challenged portions of Act 372.
Brooks also wrote that the law “could allow “the views of a vocal few [to] dictate what is generally available to the public” and “decide on any basis they choose” whether to relocate or remove a book.
