ANNISTON, Ala. - Nine out of Alabama's 132 public school districts have reported parents petitioned school officials to ban certain books from classrooms and libraries.
The Anniston Star and journalism students from the University of Alabama collected book challenge forms from the past five years from each of the state's public school district's to determine how many books were being banned.
Barbara Jones, director of the American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom, says the number of book challenges is likely vastly underreported because librarians and other school officials are afraid of losing their jobs.
Jones says only 20 percent of all book challenges are typically reported.
The newspaper reports 77 districts reported no challenges in the past five years, and 46 didn't provide any information on how many requests were filed.