A state complaint lodged against Chino Valley schools alleges that over 20 books have been pulled from library shelves — including works by Toni Morrison and Ellen Hopkins — without required public hearings.
The complaint filed by Public Counsel, a nonprofit Los Angeles-based law firm, alleges that a Chino Valley Unified School District policy violates the First Amendment and California laws that prohibit discrimination and ensure students have access to inclusive education materials. The filing, made on behalf of district parents Kristi Hirst and Tracie Perez, also alleges that several titles were removed from libraries without a hearing, violating the district’s own policy.
“Books in Chino Valley School District libraries are disappearing without any documentation, accountability or community input,” the Monday, Aug. 17, complaint to the California Department of Education alleges. “There is a gross overreach of power by the School Board. The Board and School District’s targeting of marginalized identities and vulnerable communities mirrors book bans across the country.”
The filing alleges that books being pulled from the shelf are predominantly LGBTQ+ and minority stories written by authors in those communities.
The complaint lists 22 books it alleges were removed from libraries since 2023. These include Robie H. Harris’ “It’s Perfectly Normal,” a 1994 novel that discusses puberty, sexual orientation, and gender identity among other topics, and “Juliet Takes a Breath,” a 2016 novel by Gabby Rivera about a lesbian Puerto-Rican teenager from the Bronx who tackles coming out to her family.
Chino Valley school board President Sonja Shaw, a candidate for state superintendent of schools, said she first heard of the complaint from the news media and called the move politically motivated.
“Yet once again, adults who are determined to fight us at every turn are weaponizing state bureaucracy and running to the media instead of addressing concerns through the appropriate channels,” she said. “Enough. We will not be distracted by frivolous, politically motivated complaints designed to create headlines.”
The district’s policy is a “basic responsibility” of the school board to remove sexually explicit material and is not controversial, Shaw said.
In November 2023, the conservative-leaning Chino Valley school board revised its library materials policy to require that books be pulled after someone files a complaint regarding sexually explicit material.
Chino Valley spokesperson Andi Johnston said the district had not yet received a copy of the complaint.
Under the revision, principals have two days to review a book for sexually explicit material. If it does not have sexually explicit material, the title stays on the shelf. If it does, the principal must tell the superintendent within three days. The superintendent then informs the school board within two days and sets a public hearing within 45 days of the book’s removal from the library or classroom.
After a public hearing, if the school board votes to pull a book, it must be taken off the shelves of all school libraries within five days.
The complaint alleges that the policy violates state law by removing access to LGBTQ, Black and Indigenous stories, which it says limits students’ access to education, violates non-discrimination laws and breaks a California law that limits the removal of reading materials.
In September 2023, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1078, the Safe Place to Learn Act, that requires schools to get permission from the state Board of Education for the removal of reading materials or they could face a fine.
The state Department of Education confirmed it received a complaint but could not provide more information, spokesperson Julie Lautsch wrote in a Thursday, Aug. 20, email. It could not be determined if the district sought permission to pull the titles it’s alleged to have removed or if it has been fined under the law. Lautsch said the department was reviewing these questions.
At an October 2023 Chino Valley school board meeting at which the policy was introduced, excerpts were read from several books on a list looking to ban these books from conservative political activist Karen England. The titles included “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” several books by Hopkins and titles from Sarah J. Maas.
The complaint alleges that several books were targeted to restrict students’ access to books featuring LGBTQ+ people.
Shortly after the policy was passed, those titles and several others were pulled from shelves without a hearing, the complaint alleges. Some of the books appeared on the American Library Association’s 2025 Most Challenged Books list.
The titles pulled in Chino Valley, according to the complaint, include:
- “Push,” by Sapphire
- “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” by Jesse Andrews
- “The Bluest Eye,” by Toni Morrison
- “It’s Perfectly Normal,” by Robie H. Harris
- “The Poet X,” by Elizabeth Acevedo
- “Lawn Boy,” by Jonathan Evison
- “The Haters,” by Jesse Andrews
- “Beloved,” by Toni Morrison
- “Breathless,” by Jennifer Niven
- “Juliet Takes a Breath,” by Gabby Rivera
- “More Happy than Not,” by Adam Silvera
- “A Court of Thorns and Roses,” “A Court of Mist and Fury,” “House of Earth and Blood,” “House of Sky and Breath,” “Kingdom of Ash,” by Sarah Maas
- “Smoke,” “Traffick,” “Glass,” “Tricks,” “Burned,” “Identical,” and “Perfect,” by Ellen Hopkins
Complaints were also made against the Bible and “Looking for Alaska,” a 2006 novel by John Green that follows high school junior Miles “Pudge” Halter, the law firm’s complaint states. The book explores grief, hope, and young adult relationships.
The complaint alleges those were left on the shelf for political reasons, adding that the sexual activity appearing in Green’s book occurs between cisgender male and female characters.
Shaw said that, following the meeting at which the policy passed, librarians had the authority to remove books on their own and that the state Department of Education had no authority in this situation.
“If our staff removed these books because they contain sexually explicit or otherwise inappropriate material, they have every right to make that determination under the district’s policies,” Shaw said. “The California Department of Education does not have the authority to simply order our district to put those books back on the shelves.”
Shaw said the “narrative is being manufactured to create a political controversy where there isn’t one” and that the policy was about pulling what she called “sexually explicit” material from library shelves and taking it out of the hands of children.
“We get another politically motivated attack, another frivolous complaint, and another attempt to manufacture controversy around policies designed to protect children,” Shaw said.
A June 2025 email from district spokesperson Johnston to Hirst said the district does not keep a list of books removed from libraries. Johnston confirmed that this week.
Hirst said that, despite how proud the board seemed of its policy when it passed, the district failed to follow its rules when it pulled books without a hearing.
“It should be transparent and parents should be able to have a say over the books their kids have access to and parents are being cut out completely,” said Hirst, who has three children in the district and is co-founder of the Chino-based Our Schools USA, a grassroots movement that supports equity in education.
Hirst said she hopes a policy will be implemented with “best practices” and that a committee with parents, teachers and librarians would come together to read a book and have a public discussion.
“Every student needs access to books that reflect their own lives and experiences and to have books and educational materials that are vetted and approved by librarians and experts, not politicians and outside interest groups,” Hirst said.
Similar policies have been seen in other Inland Empire school districts.
In the Temecula Valley Unified School District, the board in late 2023 passed a similar ban, but on instructional materials.
In the Redlands Unified School District, the school board approved a policy in August 2025.
Under the Redlands policy, two books, Toni Morrison’s 1978 novel “The Bluest Eye,” and the 1996 novel “Push,” by Sapphire, were pulled or restricted from library shelves within months of the policy being implemented.