Utah elementary schools ban Bible reading because of ‘profanity and violence’. The move came after parents complained that the King James Bible contained inappropriate material for children, the BBC reports.

The Republican state of Utah passed a law in 2022 banning “pornographic or obscene” books in schools.

Most of the banned books deal with topics such as sexual orientation and identity.

The ban on the Bible comes amid a larger effort by American conservatives to ban works on controversial topics such as LGBT rights and racial identity. Bans on some books deemed offensive also exist in Texas, Florida, Missouri and South Carolina. Some liberal states have also banned a number of books from schools and libraries, citing racially offensive content.

The Utah decision was made this week by the Davis School District, north of Salt Lake City, following a complaint filed in December 2022. Officials say they have already seized seven or eight copies of the Bible they had on their shelves.

The committee did not specify its reasoning or which passages contained “vulgarity or violence.”

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the complaining parent said the King James Bible “does not have ‘serious value to minors’ because it is pornographic under our new definition,” referring to the 2022 book ban law.

The Utah lawmaker who wrote the 2022 law previously rejected requests to remove the Bible, but changed his mind this week after calling it “difficult to read” for young children.

The district’s ruling determined that the Bible’s content did not violate the 2022 law, but contained “profane language or violence that is not appropriate for younger students.” The book will be used in local high schools.

Bob Johnson, the parent of an elementary school student in the Daviess School District, told CBS News that he opposes removing the Bible.

“I can’t think of anything in the Bible that you should take out of it. It’s not that there are pictures in it,” he said.

The county is not the first in the United States to remove Bibles from its shelves.

A Texas school district pulled the Bible from library shelves last year after complaints from members of the public who opposed efforts by conservatives to ban some of the books.

Last month, students in Kansas demanded that the Bible be removed from the school library.