YORK, Pa. — Book bans have been become more common recently in the public sphere.
And there's a reason.
In 2022, the American Library Association said they saw a new record high of more than 1,200 attempts to censor books.
Some of these attempts have even crept into south central Pennsylvania.
Pen America found 47% of banned books across the country deal with LGBTQIA themes or characters, and 40% feature a protagonist of color.
But, people on both sides of the issue have the same question: is this constitutional?
A 1982 Supreme Court decision in Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26, et al. v. Pico found that it is unconstitutional to censor books that deal with controversial topics.
However, it also found books could be pulled off the shelves if they “lack educational sustainability" or "they’re pervasively vulgar.”
Central York School District leaned onto the latter part of the decision.
School administrators recently banned two books: "Push" by Sapphire and "A Court of Mist and Fury" by Sarah J. Maas, following a parental challenge.
They ultimately removed the books because they said these two books, “lack literary structure” and “do not meet the standard of development appropriateness.”
Susan Dicklitch, professor of government at Franklin and Marshall College, said this new wave of banning reading material is sending American education down a slippery slope.
“If [students] read a book and they have a question about it, the whole point is you have a dialogue," said Dicklitch. "What we're doing is a disservice to the future of our generations by banning these books."
Dr. Peter Aiken, superintendent of Central York School District, said they want to avoid more controversy and are actively trying to put books back on shelves.
In 2021, the district reversed a decision to ban several books showcasing diversity after local opposition and national attention.
The district is now proposing a new rating system that would assign a label to books that contain content deemed inappropriate and leave the rest up to parents.
"We will work to identify those books which may contain material not all families are comfortable with. In turn, as the parent [or] guardian, you will have the power to approve/disapprove of the independent reading material for your son or daughter," said Dr. Aiken.
FOX43 reached out to the school district about a timeline and criteria for this new rating system. The school district did not respond.
A source at Central York School District, whos asks to remain anonymous, told FOX43 that students have not really heard a response either from administrators. The source said that after many meetings with administrators, students feel their voices are not being heard.
The source confirmed that students gave the school administrators an ultimatum: either return the books to the shelves, or they will walk outside the school to protest.