NEWTON, N.C. — The Catawba County Schools district was set to discuss another possible pair of book bans at a special meeting on Monday, Feb. 12.
Monday morning, the Catawba County Board of Education confirmed the meeting had been canceled.
Originally, the books "l8r, g8r" by Lauren Myracle and "The Carnival at Bray" by Jessie Ann Foley were being challenged. However, district leaders said the complainant withdrew her appeal to the board of education on both books. The district did not provide further information as to why the complainant withdrew her appeal.
Two books were on the chopping block at a similar board meeting on Nov. 20. After much back and forth about whether to ban the books completely or just restrict them to access by parental consent only, district leaders ultimately voted on the latter.
At that meeting, the board voted for "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov as well as "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer to be restricted from students and only available with parental consent. In fact, a motion was made that any books on a restricted level requiring parental consent be placed in the media center office and kept out of general circulation. The board voted unanimously in favor of that motion.
Past book ban meetings have always been packed with dozens of opinionated students and families.
RELATED: After hours of public comment, Catawba County Board of Education votes on potential book ban
Prior to the meeting's cancellation, the district said there would be a max capacity of 60 public seats, with no standing will be allowed during the meeting.
Contact Destiny Richards at drichards5@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.