Barely read, heavily restricted: the data behind Beaufort County’s school library restricted section
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South Carolina Book Bans
The state now has 22 books banned from all public school classrooms and libraries, becoming the nation’s leader in book bans.
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Nine books now sit behind permission slips in all Beaufort County public school libraries, tucked into a restricted section that students can only reach with a note from home.
Over the past three years, those same titles were checked out less than 70 times — most, from a single high school.
A public record request by the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette found that students from just five of the district’s 32 schools, which serve nearly 21,000 students, borrowed the books at all. The data, from Aug. 1, 2022, through June 1, 2025, follows the beginning and peak of Beaufort County’s book ban controversy as it spread statewide.
While Beaufort County helped spark South Carolina’s rise to the front of the national book-ban movement, the data show that the books at the center of the fight were rarely read by students in the first place.
Nine books. Fewer than 70 checkouts
Last month, the Beaufort County Board of Education voted to restrict the nine books in district classrooms and libraries — the first time the board has acted on book complaints under a South Carolina regulation, rather than referring the challenges directly to the state board.
The move marked a turning point not just for Beaufort County but for schools across South Carolina, as more than half of the 22 books banned or restricted at the state level stemmed from complaints by a single Beaufort County parent, who helped make South Carolina a leader in book bans.
Under Regulation 43-170, school districts must publicly review and vote on any complaints about instructional materials, including classroom and library books, that contain descriptions or images of sexual conduct. Parents or legal guardians may submit up to five complaints per month if they have made a good-faith effort to resolve their concerns with school or district staff.
The nine books restricted in the district are listed below:
- “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison — a classic literary novel about race, trauma and identity
- “Sold” by Patricia McCormick — a novel about human trafficking based on real accounts
- “The Freedom Writers Diary” by The Freedom Writers with Erin Gruwell — a nonfiction collection of student essays about overcoming adversity
- “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini — a bestselling novel about friendship and betrayal in Afghanistan
- “The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold — a novel about the aftermath of sexual violence and grief
- “Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher — a young adult novel that sparked national debate over mental health and suicide
- “The Art of Racing in the Rain” by Garth Stein — a literary novel told through the eyes of a dog, touching on themes of family, loss and love
- “Tilt” by Ellen Hopkins — a novel in verse dealing with teen struggles around sexuality and relationships
- “The Duff” by Kody Keplinger — a teen romance about self-esteem and labels
What the local data shows
District library records show that Beaufort County students rarely checked out the nine restricted books in the three years leading up to the school board’s August vote. From August 2022 through June 2025, the titles were borrowed just 67 times across five district schools.
Bluffton High School accounted for the overwhelming majority of those checkouts — 51 in total, more than three-quarters of all circulation. May River High School recorded eight checkouts, Beaufort High School recorded three, Beaufort Middle School recorded four and Whale Branch Early College High School recorded one.
The books were also available at Bluffton Middle School, Lady’s Island Middle School, Hilton Head Island Middle School and Battery Creek High School, but students there never borrowed them. In the district’s 23 remaining schools, the titles were not available at all.
Among the nine, “Thirteen Reasons Why” was the most frequently borrowed, with 23 checkouts, followed by “The Bluest Eye” with 16.
State banned books records unknown
The district’s library records do not reflect the full scope of South Carolina’s 22 banned or restricted titles. Six other books, previously asked for removal at the district level by a Beaufort County parent, were removed from Beaufort County schools years earlier because of low circulation, and one — “Like a Love Story” by Abdi Nazemian — was never purchased for the district’s collection, district spokesperson Candace Bruder said. The earlier removals included:
- “Shine” by Lauren Myracle
- “Skin” by Donna Jo Napoli
- “Carnival” at Bray by Jessie Ann Foley
- “The Infinite Moment of Us” by Lauren Myracle
- “Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen
- “The Black Flamingo” by Dean Atta
No records from the district were provided for “Crank” by Ellen Hopkins, which is on the state’s restricted list. During the three-year period, students in the district never checked out the book.
For the 21 books banned at the state level, it is unknown how many times the books were checked out. The district deleted the books — along with the data — from its catalog to align with Regulation 43-170, Bruder said. That left just the nine restricted books in the system.
