Primary schools in US state ban Bible for 'vulgarity, violence'

A school district in the US state of Utah has banned the Holy Bible in primary schools for "vulgarity and violence", the media reported on Saturday.

The decision was taken this week by the Davis School District, located north of the state capital Salt Lake City, the BBC reported.

Officials of the school district said that have already removed the seven or eight copies of the Bible they had on their shelves, noting that the text was never part of students' curriculum.

They however, did not elaborate on its reasoning or which passages contained "vulgarity or violence".

The move came after a parent complained in December 2022, saying that the King James Bible "has 'no serious values for minors' because it's pornographic by our new definition", the BBC reported citing the Salt Lake Tribune newspaper.

It was in reference to the Utah's Republican government passing a law last year which banned "pornographic or indecent" books from schools.

Most of the books that have been banned so far pertain to topics such as sexual orientation and identity.

The Davis School District's ruling determined that the Bible's content does not violate the 2022 law, but does include "vulgarity or violence not suitable for younger students".

The Holy Book will remain in place in local high schools.

The Utah school district is not the first in the US to remove the Bible from its shelves, reports the BBC.

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

In May, students in Kansas requested to have the Bible removed from their school library.