LEXINGTON — Lexington School District One won't remove the book "The Hunger Games" from its middle schools after the district's board voted down a move to ban it.

At the Feb. 25 hearing, the board of trustees heard statements from the district defending the validity of keeping the book for a middle school audience.

This comes weeks after Lexington One parent Nancy Wheeler, whose child attends Lakeside Middle School in Lexington, filed a complaint in December calling for the book's removal and limiting it to high schools.

Erica Bissell, the district's teaching and learning executive director, said that the district-level committee retained the school committee's decision to keep the book in circulation. Both committees did not feel " The Hunger Games" contained sexually explicit content. The board of trustees upheld that decision.

Wheeler was not present at the hearing but provided a file with her concerns of extreme violence in the book, which was also the source material of a blockbuster movie trilogy a decade ago. She said children should read "positive, inspiring books" and sees the premise of the book as "extremely disturbing".

It also included variations of the words “kill” and “die” referenced in the book.

Zoey Durand, an Eighth Grade student at Pleasant Hill Middle School spoke out at the Feb. 25 meeting, calling it unfair for the district to take away a book that “addresses serious topics like poverty and the danger of excessive control."

“It takes away important learning opportunities,” Durand,13, said during the meeting. “It encourages us to think critically about society … Banning the book means missing out on the valuable lessons.”

The book follows a 16-year-old teenager in a dystopian society where two children from each district are forced to fight to the death in a televised competition. It touches on themes of inequality, rebellion and political oppression. On a list compiled by the American Library Association , from 2010 to 2019, the Hunger games was the 12th-most challenged book in the country.

Dr. Erica Bissell, teaching and learning executive director, speaking on behalf of the district on Feb. 25 in favor of keeping the Hunger Games as a book available to students in Lexington One.

Any parent or legal guardian of a Lexington One student can bring forth a complaint to the school board for consideration. If any board in the state concurs with a complaint, the book is banned in the district. However if the board shuts down the complaint, the filer can bring the case to be heard at the State Department of Education.

The state board can rule on the complaint and potentially ban the book in the entire state.

Because the Lexington school board retained the decisions of the school and district level committees, Wheeler can appeal to the state board.

According to state law , books allowed in schools need to be “age and developmentally appropriate” — referring to students’ age and grade level. The current law explicitly mentions material is not age appropriate if it includes “descriptions or visual depictions of ‘sexual conduct’”. There is no direct mention of violence in the law.

The list of banned books across the state currently stands at 11, with the most recent four being added in February after they were challenged by a Beaufort parent because of sexually explicit passages.

The central Lexington County district has not banned any books within this current school year and last school year, according to a spokesperson for the district. This is the first instructional materials complaint filed under the new state regulation which went into effect on Aug. 1, 2024.

The "City of Ember" was given as an alternate book for parents who wished to opt-out of " The Hunger Games." Wheeler was the only one.

Natasha Durand, Zoey Durand's mother, sees banning the book as setting a dangerous precedent of controlling knowledge. Stating that she takes an active role in her child's education, Durand is opposed to others making decisions for her based on their beliefs.

Lexington County School District One building.

“What concerns me is that this decision is now being used to restrict access for all students, rather than allowing parents to make choices that are right for their own children,” Durand said. “Shielding children from challenging ideas doesn’t prepare them for the real world. It only limits their ability to engage with different perspectives, form their own opinions and develop the skills they need to navigate complex topics.”

The Lexington One school district , which houses students from Lexington, Gilbert, White Knoll, River Bluff and Pelion, serves more than 26,000 students and has 32 schools. The district stretches from Lake Murray to the county’s southern border with Aiken County.

In 2023, the nearby Lexington Two school district — encompassing the Cayce–West Columbia area — banned 17 books because some contained sexual scenes or had controversial depictions of race and gender.

The same year, Lexington-Richland School District Five banned "A Court of Mist and Fury," the second book in the popular fantasy series “A Court of Thorns and Roses," after claims of its content being sexually explicit.