| Date | Record | Where |
|---|---|---|
| November 25, 2021 | Incorporation email appears on a Utah Parents United page | Utah |
| October 19, 2022 | RatedBooks is introduced to Utah lawmakers | Utah |
| 2023 | Maryland: Moms for Liberty relied on RatedBooks to pick books | Multi-state |
| April 5, 2024 | Four quotes from one April 2024 talk | Multi-state |
| December 11, 2025 | RatedBooks is written into a library’s rules | Multi-state |
| June 1, 2026 | $100 per library to screen a book list | Utah |
| July 1, 2026 | Her pitch: paid placement of ratings inside library catalogs | Utah |
733 records · 401 source citations · 1956–2026 · background and comparison threads included, not every record is about RatedBooks · browse all records
The email address that later appears as the contact on RatedBooks.org’s 2025 incorporation papers was already on Utah Parents United’s “LaVerna in the Library” page, months before the ratedbooks.org domain existed. (The domain itself is registered to a California app developer of record.)
Brooke Stephens appears in a “Laverna in The Library” video. She says she is on the Utah Parents United board. Her name tag on screen says StoryLabs.
“…All Boys Aren't Blue. And I read that and I'm like, what? This isn't a kid's book [the channel's auto-captions garble this phrase; the two passes do not agree on it], what? And I was horrified. And I like posted it, you know, because I'm on the board of Utah Parents United. And so I posted that. I'm like, yeah, that shouldn't be happening.”
At a Utah legislative committee meeting on H.B. 374, the presenter yields the floor: “She is a mom who then started her own website... It’s called ratedbooks.org. If you want to know what books are in your school... you can go to the website ratedbooks.org.” A committee member replies: “And rated books, I’m glad I can search for it.”
In Carroll County, Maryland, the local paper reports the Moms for Liberty chapter relied on BookLooks, RatedBooks and Common Sense Media to identify books. By fall 2023, 56 to 59 titles are under review there. The chapter’s vice chair acknowledges: “Most of the books [under review] were not read by our members.”
Four quotes from one talk to a national group: the source of the ratings, the price, the rule about which words to use, and the districts she keeps secret.
“They said hey, we need ratings, because you're giving us some really bad ones, some mediocre ones. So BookLooks from Florida is the one who supplies all of our ratings. I'm going to show you her page.”
“I just give them a page and they can say whatever they want up here. It costs $35 — I just made that price up — and one-time fee, just so I could manage if like a million people came at me at once.”
“Not what the left has said, is a book ban or book burning. And by the way, we try really hard never to use the terms book ban[ner], book burning, because we don't want to reinforce their lies. So what we call it is appropriate limits for kids.” (Two transcriptions differ on one word: YouTube captions hear “book banner,” machine transcription hears “book ban or.” Quoted to the agreed text.)
“We went to the school district and said, please click it so we can search the whole district at once, and they did. Now they turned it back because they're mad at us. And in other districts I went through all the schools until I found one that let me search the whole district… so I found those and keep them a secret so they don't change those settings.”
(same talk)
Her closing words to the volunteers:
“Celebrate your wins — 'cause right after that you'll have a loss. You just keep going. Don't worry, you're on the right path. You're doing God's errand.”
The York County, South Carolina library board votes 6–1 to add “reviews by ratedbooks.org” to its official rules for choosing library books.
In her video “How to Use the NBRI,” she offers to run a library’s whole book list through her rating system. The cost on tape: $100 per library, “whether it’s a school or a community.” The store’s own price tiers include one that breaks that rule.
On camera, Brooke Stephens says schools can pay to have RatedBooks ratings show up inside their library catalogs, priced by the size of the library. That is her description of the service. No district or school has been shown to have paid for it.
The Bible was challenged under the same Davis school district process. It was removed from elementary and junior high libraries, then put back at every level on appeal. Fourteen appeal-decision documents cover 52 title decisions; the Bible was the only book to get a written explanation weighing its “significant, serious value.”
A 59-second video: the ALA (American Library Association) president’s page is invoked over “queer material,” “it’s not like this is banning books” is conceded, and the argument lands on images in graphic novels. The speaker is identified as Brooke Stephens by ear. No speaker-labeled record confirms it.
Watch the video (0:48 for the close)
Every record names its source. 527 of 733 are confirmed against the original document. The other 206 carry a mark.
Every moment above is one card in the records below, which hold all 733 dated records from 1956 to 2026.
15 clips from the recordings behind 6 records. Each one plays here and links to its record.
May 2022: the label and the board seat (25s, video)
“…All Boys Aren't Blue. And I read that and I'm like, what? This isn't a kid's book [the channel's auto-captions garble this phrase; the two passes do not agree on it], what? And I was horrified. And I like posted it, you know, because I'm on the board of Utah Parents United. And so I posted that. I'm like, yeah, that shouldn't be happening.”
“I'm the MC for all the list people” (56s)
The screening workflow: ask ChatGPT, then the rating sites (38s) — who is speaking is not certain
The introduction: “new co-chair of PCHC” (22s)
The messaging rule, stated as strategy (20s)
Where the ratings come from (14s)
Pricing a district page (15s)
The Harmer book, retold (50s)
The closing charge (14s)
Why the spreadsheet exists (20s)
The catalog back door (30s)
“Reaching out to librarians to understand the procurement process” (38s)
Green reads the addendum's purpose: the review in "the industry's own working terms" (150s, video)
viewing this review through the industry lens. Not through like the educational realm. ... translates the review's objectives into the industry's own working terms. Approval plans, standing orders, opening day collections, shelf ready processing, cooperative contracts, curated selection lists and so forth.
The final vote: "Ten in favor, one abstention, Chair Hymas, and two no votes" (140s, video)
That motion passes. Ten in favor, one abstention, Chair Hymas, and two no votes being Member Reale and Member Lear.
After the vote: the chair on directing staff, and on what the consent calendar has become (215s, video)
I'll say what you're not going to say, Davina. ... the vote that just passed, 10 to 5, 10 of us say, "Yes, forget this. We're doing this. This is where we're going." ... You don't belong to Molly anymore. You belong to us, all 15 of us.
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Utah · Policy · 1 receiptsupported
document Publicly readable Google Doc 'Notes on "A War We Must Win" by John Harmer', linked from https://www.ratedbooks.org/ratingscale
What this confirms: The publicly linked source document says exactly this: the notes state '1966: Scotus: Memoirs v. Massachusetts' required material be 'utterly without redeeming social value' (p.14) supported
The 1968 California film-rating bill that RatedBooks cites as its origin
Harmer introduced California SB 372, proposing a "California Motion Picture Review Board" to rate and review films; by Harmer's account the mpaa then came forward with its own rating system (corrected August 25, 2026: substitution causality is Harmer's self-account only). RatedBooks/the National Book Rating Index's own rating-scale page footnotes "first introduced in 1968" and links not to MPA rating history but to notes on Harmer as this 1968 CA state senator/anti-pornography campaigner — the origin of the RatedBooks scale page's "1968" citation
Pre-history+1 · Policy / Technology
Utah · Policy · 1 receiptsupported
document Publicly readable Google Doc 'Notes on "A War We Must Win" by John Harmer', linked from https://www.ratedbooks.org/ratingscale
What this confirms: The publicly linked source document says exactly this: the notes state '1968: Senate Bill 372 in CA Senate to create The California Motion Picture Review Board' and that 'mpaa proposed to create the rating system themselves at no cost to CA voters' (p.23) supported
Utah+1 · Policy / Technology
Roth v. United States decided by scotus
Pre-history · Technology · 1 receipt
document Roth v. United States (1957), full opinion
What this confirms: the decision and its date
FindLaw
Pre-history · Technologyneeds verification
Utah · Technology · 1 receiptsupported
document Publicly readable Google Doc 'Notes on "A War We Must Win" by John Harmer', linked from https://www.ratedbooks.org/ratingscale
What this confirms: The publicly linked source document says exactly this: the notes state that in 1964 pornographic material was confiscated by a DA in Sun Valley, Los Angeles, rated 8.5/10 for severity of content (p.4) supported
Same notes state scotus decided the "Roth Case" in 1964
Utah · Technology · 1 receiptsupported
document Publicly readable Google Doc 'Notes on "A War We Must Win" by John Harmer', linked from https://www.ratedbooks.org/ratingscale
What this confirms: The publicly linked source document says exactly this: the notes state '1964 - Roth Case by scotus' (p.14) and summarize its holding and definition of obscenity supported
Charles Keating founded Citizens for Decent Literature
Pre-history · Unsortedneeds verification
Harmer served as a California state senator (R)
Pre-history · Unsorted
Harmer published "We Dare Not Fail"
Pre-history · Unsorted
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receiptsupported
document Publicly readable Google Doc 'Notes on "A War We Must Win" by John Harmer', linked from https://www.ratedbooks.org/ratingscale
What this confirms: The publicly linked source document says exactly this: the notes quote Lord Devlin's 'The Enforcement of Morals' on the state's interest in preserving a common morality supported
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Pre-history+2 · Libraries / Policy / Technology
Pre-history · Libraries · 1 receipt
document D. Michael Quinn, 'Ezra Taft Benson and Mormon Political Conflicts', Dialogue - note 301
What this confirms: The note cites 'Spencer W. Kimball, N. Eldon Tanner, and Marion G. Romney to All Stake Presidents, Bishops, and Branch Presidents in the United States, 15 Feb. 1979, photocopy in folder 25, box 17, Buerger Papers' - proving the letter was cited with that date and those addressees, NOT the letter's text supported
Pre-history · Policy · 1 receipt
document Shrum, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 57:2 (2024)
What this confirms: The article states 'In 1971, W. Cleon Skousen founded the FI in Provo, Utah', that the name referred to the Book of Mormon's 'freemen' (n.7 = Alma 51:5-6), and that nccs is the former Freemen Institute supported
Pre-history · Policysupported
Notes quote Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton (1973) on states' power to regulate obscene material
Utah · Policy · 1 receiptsupported
document Publicly readable Google Doc 'Notes on "A War We Must Win" by John Harmer', linked from https://www.ratedbooks.org/ratingscale
What this confirms: The publicly linked source document says exactly this: the notes quote Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton (1973) on states' power to regulate obscene material supported
Harmer published "Among the Living Are the Dead"
Pre-history · Unsorted
Notes state the FBI reported "snuff" films costing $500 per videotape in 1971
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receiptsupported
document Publicly readable Google Doc 'Notes on "A War We Must Win" by John Harmer', linked from https://www.ratedbooks.org/ratingscale
What this confirms: The publicly linked source document says exactly this: the notes state '1971 = snuff films by FBI cost $500 per videotape' (p.6) supported
Citizens for Decent Literature became Citizens for Decency Through Law
Pre-history · Unsortedneeds verification
Pre-history · Unsorted
Pre-history · Unsorted · 1 receiptsupported
document UPI Archives, June 20, 1982, 'Amid patriotic trappings, Freeman Institute preaches born-again constitutionalism'
What this confirms: UPI reports the LDS Church 'issued a warning in 1979 to its local bishops and stake presidents that Freeman meetings and lectures are not to be announced or discussed in church meetings' supported
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Pre-history+1 · Libraries / Policy · 1 receipt
archived page Washington County School District Policy 4220, "Review of Instructional Media", archived October 27, 2021
What this confirms: The policy's own document history line: "Washington County School District - Adopted 4-9-91; Revised 12-11-18; Revised 11-11-19" (documented)
York County Library (SC) Collection Development Policy first approved
Multi-state · Libraries · 1 receipt
document York County Library (South Carolina) Collection Development Policy
What this confirms: Verbatim on the page: "Approved by the York County Library Board of Trustees on June 4, 1991" (documented)
Pre-history+1 · Policy / Vendors · 1 receipt
document UPI Archives, June 20, 1982, Freemen Institute profile
What this confirms: UPI reports Skousen's teaching guide appendix '101 Constitutional Questions to Ask Candidates' and that 'They come with a list of 101 correct answers'
Pre-history · Policy · 1 receipt
document Deseret News, July 26, 1994, 'Backers tried in vain to recover losses'
What this confirms: The article's sequence box reads 'Spring 1987: Doughty accompanies W. Cleon Skousen to California and elsewhere for The Making of America conferences, solicits loans and donations from attendees, introduces plans for the Skousen Center and Liberty Village at Duck Creek, as well as Mammoth Valley'
Pre-history · Policy · 1 receipt
document Deseret News, September 17, 1989, 'Skousen stepping down as president of institute'
What this confirms: The article reports Skousen is stepping down as president of the National Center of Constitutional Studies, announced 'Saturday morning', and will become chairman emeritus
Pre-history · Policy · 1 receipt
document Deseret News, July 26, 1994, 'Backers tried in vain to recover losses'
What this confirms: The article reports 'Andy Allison, director of the National Center for Constitutional Studies, based in Salt Lake City', that nccs spent the 1980s 'with its books in the red', and that 'since he took over the helm in 1991 he has managed to reduce its debt from $300,000 to $100,000'
Pre-history · Vendors · 1 receipt
document UPI Archives, June 20, 1982, Freemen Institute profile
What this confirms: UPI reports a '13-hour lecture series' sold live or as 'tapes and a study guide for $59.95', that the institute has 'graduated 150,000' people, and a 'Salt Lake City headquarters'
Pre-history · Unsorted
Pre-history · Unsorted · 1 receipt
document UPI Archives, June 20, 1982, Freemen Institute profile
What this confirms: UPI reports Ezra Taft Benson 'has appeared at many Freemen functions' and that 'Benson's son, Mark, is vice president in charge of development'
Harmer's book (ch. 8) discusses Utah "Initiative A," a November 1984 ballot initiative
Pre-history · Unsortedsupported
Citizens for Decency Through Law became the Children's Legal Foundation
Pre-history · Unsortedneeds verification
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Pre-history · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Little v. Llano County, Fifth Circuit en banc opinion, No. 23-50224, decided May 23, 2025
What this confirms: The opinion's own discussion of Campbell v. St. Tammany Parish School Board, 64 F.3d 184 (5th Cir. 1995) (documented)
Pre-history+1 · Policy / Technologyneeds verification
Notes quote Robert Bork's "Slouching Towards Gomorrah" on obscenity and the First Amendment
Utah · Policy · 1 receiptsupported
document Publicly readable Google Doc 'Notes on "A War We Must Win" by John Harmer', linked from https://www.ratedbooks.org/ratingscale
What this confirms: The publicly linked source document says exactly this: the notes quote Robert Bork on obscenity and the First Amendment (p.37) supported
Pre-history · Vendors · 1 receipt
archived page Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) capture (July 30, 2009) of Deseret News archive, 'Ex-devotees want to know: Where did the money go?'
What this confirms: The article reports 'a propane explosion beneath the floor of the Skousen Center condemned the building', a '$107,000 insurance check' for its reclamation, and that the center 'remains half-finished' supported
Utah · Unsorted
Pre-history · Unsorted · 1 receipt
document Deseret News, July 24, 1994, 'Victims blame founder for utopia gone sour'
What this confirms: The article reports 'a December 1993 letter of resignation prompted by what Skousen said was his discovery of elements of self-deception', and that Skousen donated $50,000
Pre-history · Unsortedneeds verification
The Lighted Candle Society organized in Washington, D.C., founded by John Harmer
Pre-history · Unsorted
Lighted Candle Society received its IRS tax-exempt ruling (federal tax ID 52-2116963)
Pre-history · Unsorted
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Davis school district adopted its School Library Media Centers Policy and Procedures
Pre-history · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Amended Complaint, Vonnegut et al. v. Brown et al., D. Utah 2:26-cv-00010-CMR, Doc. 98, filed February 5, 2026, 65 pp.
What this confirms: Paragraph 92: "Davis adopted their School Library Media Centers Policy and Procedures on September 17, 2013," citing Exhibit B1
PAL Humanitarian Services Articles of Incorporation signed by its incorporator
Utah+1 · Libraries / Vendors · 1 receipt
copy on file PAL Humanitarian Services Articles of Incorporation, signature page, April 6, 2014
What this confirms: Nothing published on review; public record, no public URL
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah · Vendors · 1 receipt
copy on file PAL Humanitarian Services Articles of Incorporation, Utah Division of Corporations received stamp, April 8, 2014
What this confirms: Nothing published on review; public record, no public URL
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Pre-history · Unsortedsupported
Harmer published "The Sex Industrial Complex"
Pre-history · Unsorted
Pre-history · Unsorted
An LCS trustee became Utah Attorney General
Pre-history · Unsorted
The LCS-trustee Utah AG resigned ~11 months into the term amid a pay-to-play scandal
Pre-history · Unsorted
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The entity later called Empowered Parents is incorporated in 2016
The Utah nonprofit later known as Empowered Parents is incorporated as Parents Empowered in Education Resources and Support, file number 9699080. Sole incorporator and initial registered agent (a company’s official contact person): a Utah private individual - not Stephens. Stated purpose: 'Help parents with children of all abilities to advocate for their child's education through coaching, training, and providing them with connections to educational resources as well as help parents uphold their parental rights in education'
Utah+2 · Libraries / Vendors / Community · 1 receipt
copy on file Articles of Incorporation of Parents Empowered in Education Resources and Support, Utah file number 9699080, filed March 7, 2016
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented) on the archived PDF)
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Karianne Lisonbee first elected to the Utah House, District 14 (Davis County), running unopposed
Utah · Libraries
Multi-state · Policy
Utah · Policy · 1 receipt
document Utah Legislature bill page, S.C.R. 9, 2016 General Session, 'Concurrent Resolution on the Public Health Crisis'
What this confirms: The Legislature's own page names Sen. Todd Weiler as Bill Sponsor (Rep. Curtis Oda floor sponsor) and records 'Last Action: 29 Mar 2016, Governor Signed', effective 29 Mar 2016
Utah · Technologysupported
By March 2016 the LCS website domain had become a Sedo "for sale" parking page
Pre-history · Technology
Empowered Parents (Utah domestic nonprofit #9699080-0140) formed
Utah+1 · Technology / Community
Follett (the company behind the Destiny school catalog software) owned Baker & Taylor
Publishing & vendors+1 · Technology / Vendors · 1 receipt
document Follett (the company behind the Destiny school catalog software) Corporation press release via PR Newswire, April 18, 2016, 'Follett Acquires Baker & Taylor'
What this confirms: Follett (the company behind the Destiny school catalog software) announced it had acquired Baker & Taylor, LLC, citing $3.6 billion combined sales
Utah · Technologysupported
The sandsapps.com domain registered (Squarespace, CA registrant) but has never resolved to a website
Utah · Technology
LCS filed an amicus brief in Obergefell v. Hodges supporting the states
Pre-history · Unsorted
Pre-history · Unsorted
Utah shut down George Wythe University (built on Skousen's curriculum) over fraudulent degrees
Utah · Unsorted
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receipt
copy on file Articles of Amendment, Utah entity 9699080, receipt 6627528, adopted August 4, 2016, filed November 8, 2016
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented) on the archived computer text-reading)
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
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PAL Humanitarian Services filed an Application for Reinstatement after involuntary dissolution
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
copy on file PAL Humanitarian Services, Utah Application for Reinstatement filed August 16, 2017 after involuntary dissolution
What this confirms: The archived PDF is the filing; no public counterpart was located
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah+3 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors / Community · 1 receiptpartly verified
document California Language Teachers' Association past-conferences list
What this confirms: The 2018 clta conference ran March 8-11 at the Double Tree and Ontario Airport Convention Center, placing the March 9, 2018 exhibit date inside the conference (grading as recorded: (documented) the conference dates only)
Pre-history · Libraries · 1 receipt
archived page Washington County School District (Saint George, Utah) District Policy 4220 "Review of Instructional Media", Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) capture November 17, 2019
What this confirms: Policy page whose revision line reads "Adopted 4-9-91; Revised 12-11-18; Revised 11-11-19", establishing a revision dated December 11, 2018 (documented). Mismatch ON district identity: "WCSD" in these exhibits is washington County School District, Utah (masthead: "Washington County School District, 121 West Tabernacle Street, Saint George, Utah 84770, 435-673-3553"), NOT Washoe County, Nevada. Host is procedure.washk12.org. Any row text or note calling this a Nevada district is wrong.
Pre-history · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Salt Lake City School District Board of Education approved minutes, April 9 2019
What this confirms: the document itself
Pre-history · Libraries
WCSD Policy 4220 revised again
Pre-history · Libraries · 1 receipt
archived page Washington County School District (Saint George, Utah) District Policy 4220 "Review of Instructional Media", Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) capture November 17, 2019
What this confirms: Same revision line "Adopted 4-9-91; Revised 12-11-18; Revised 11-11-19" establishes the second revision dated November 11, 2019 (documented). Capture is 6 days after that revision and is the earliest Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) snapshot of this URL showing the 11-11-19 date; the preceding capture 20190921031134 predates it. District identity same correction as BBA-0085: Washington County, utah, not Washoe County, Nevada.
Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) captures the live WCSD Policy 4220 page
Pre-history · Libraries · 1 receipt
archived page Washington County school district (UT) Policy 4220, "Review of Instructional Media," Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) snapshot November 17, 2019
What this confirms: The policy page was live at that URL on November 17, 2019 under that title
The Ludlow, MA complaint (18 co-signers) was formally submitted to the superintendent
Pre-history+1 · Libraries / Policy
The oldest product on the StoryLabs domain is a California sex-ed curriculum
The storylabs.online /heart page is live and self-describes heart as "A New California Sex Ed Curriculum" / "Health Education and Relationship Training", claiming chya (California Healthy Youth Act) compliance and an independent law-firm audit using the ashwg CAT tool; the same page banners the company as a finalist in the LaunchPad Language Education Technology Competition at actfl. 2019 pricing $3 student / $15 teacher / $25 classroom. The oldest product page on the domain.
Utah+4 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Vendors / Community
Pre-history · Libraries
Utah+2 · Technology / Vendors / Community · 1 receipt
copy on file Facebook post describing leaving salaried employment in June 2017 to start an educational-app business
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented as her assertion))
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah+1 · Technology / Vendors
Pre-history+1 · Technology / Communityneeds verification
StoryLabs’ own site advertises a booth at a second national teaching conference
The storylabs.online site header advertises the company as a finalist in the LaunchPad Language Education Technology Competition and tells readers "Come see us at ACTFL in Washington DC in November 2019" — a second documented instance of conference-floor marketing to educators, 20 months after the clta booth
Utah+2 · Technology / Vendors / Communitypartly verified
One of the two people who later co-found the book-rating company quits his salaried job to start an…
One of the two people who later co-found the book-rating company quits his salaried job to start an…
The former Utah Attorney General (the LCS trustee) was acquitted on all charges
Pre-history · Unsorted
LCS's final IRS Form 990-EZ (FY2018) reported $1 in net assets, Harmer as CEO at $0 compensation
Pre-history · Unsorted
PAL Humanitarian filed a director change
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receipt
copy on file Utah annual report, PAL humanitarian services, INC., entity 9003835-0140, date of filing 5/26/18
What this confirms: From the filing: director change, old director at a residential address in American Fork, Utah removed; new director Stacey Lynn Kozlowski, Director, Syracuse UT added. Signed Pearl Giles 5/26/18. Held ON TWO independent grounds: (1) no public URL exists for Utah registry filings; (2) person exposure - the filing prints individual residential street addresses for both the outgoing and incoming director.
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
John Harmer died in Bountiful, Utah
Pre-history · Unsorted
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Pre-history+2 · Libraries / Policy / Community · 1 receipt
video ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom webinar "Banned Books Uncensored: LGBTQIA+ Stories & Gender Identity", 2020
What this confirms: The captions at 00:30:52 naming "mass resistance who has been very [successful]" as an advocacy group (documented)
View source at 30:52
A 2020 hearing on “problems with databases used in Utah schools”
Judiciary Interim Committee (mtgid 17170): agenda item 4a, presentation "Protect Utah Children From Exploitation at School" by Nicholeen Peck, President of The Worldwide Organization for Women and President of Utah Empowered Families Coalition, who "discussed problems with databases used in Utah schools". Also speaking: Robert Gowans (Tooele CSD), Debi Dixon relaying Karen Broadhead, Stephanie Lauritzen, and Natalie Cline, then "candidate being considered for the Utah State School Board".
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technology
Utah · Libraries
What the education network’s content policy looked like in 2020
The Utah Education Network Board adopts a "Content Selection Policy" governing the Utah Education Network/KUEN broadcast and online programming. It is framed by FCC licensee rules and Corporation for Public Broadcasting requirements, names the UEN Community Advisory Council, the Utah Instructional Media Consortium and Utah's Online Library Central Coordinating Committee as sources of input, routes content complaints first to "the programming staff or Station Manager" then to a review form returned within 30 days with appeal to the Utah Education Network's Executive Director, and reserves all content decisions to "the programming department with oversight from the Station Manager and Executive Director/CEO" expressly "in order to uphold the Public Broadcasting Editorial Integrity Guidelines and Public Media Code of Integrity". This is the policy retired at the May 5, 2026 board meeting.
Utah+1 · Libraries / Policy
Davis school district revised Policy 4I-202 "School Library Media Centers"
Pre-history+1 · Libraries / Policy · 1 receipt
document Davis School District policy 4I-202 'School Library Media Centers', Index: Instructional Programs, Revised: November 4, 2020, 4 pp
What this confirms: The policy's document history block reads 'Revised: November 4, 2020 (by consent) - Five-year review. Non-substantive changes.'
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Utah Judiciary Interim Committee approved minutes, November 18 2020
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented) for the presenters and the motion; (supported) for the audio's 'last time in September' reference) supported
Utah+1 · Libraries / Policy · 1 receipt
document Utah H.B. 38 (2021 General Session), "School Technology Amendments" - official bill page with status history
What this confirms: Numbered and publicly distributed 12/16/2020; Bill Sponsor Rep. Seegmiller, Travis M.; Floor Sponsor Sen. Weiler, Todd D.
Utah · Policy · 1 receipt
document Utah Legislature, Judiciary Interim Committee meeting materials item '5a draft legislation: School Technology Amendments', 3-page PDF headed '11-16-20 draft / 2021FL-0604/002 / school technology amendments / 2021 general session / state OF utah'
What this confirms: The draft's Long Title requires digital resources provided by the Utah Education Network to Utah's public schools to block obscene or pornographic material, and its Highlighted Provisions list: defines terms; requires a digital resource provider to ensure its products used in public schools block 'obscene or pornographic material'; provides that a provider's failure to comply after receiving notice is a breach of contract; requires the Utah Education Network to enter into contracts with digital resource providers that comply; and imposes a reporting requirement.
H.B. 38 numbered and publicly distributed as "School Technology Amendments", sponsor Rep. Travis M.…
Judiciary Interim Committee (mtgid 17170): agenda item 4a, presentation "Protect Utah Children From…
PAL Humanitarian filed another director change
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receipt
copy on file PAL Humanitarian Services, Utah Division of Corporations annual report filing recording a director change, February 23, 2020
What this confirms: Nothing published on review; the filing is a public record but no public URL was fetched
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
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Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Community · 1 receipt
copy on file Utah entity registration 12213207-0140, Utah Parents United
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah+1 · Libraries / Vendors
Publishing & vendors+3 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors / Community · 1 receipt
document Follett (the company behind the Destiny school catalog software) Corporation press release, September 1, 2021
What this confirms: Follett (the company behind the Destiny school catalog software) announced the sale of Follett School Solutions (Destiny (the catalog software school libraries use), Aspen, Titlewave) to Francisco Partners; terms undisclosed
Pre-history · Libraries · 1 receipt
archived page Washington County school district (Utah) Policy 4220, the district site's own /print (dompdf) PDF rendering, Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) capture 2021-10-27T06:05:57Z
What this confirms: The archived object is byte-identical to the local exhibit B2_WCSD_Policy4220_ReviewOfInstructionalMedia_Rev2019-11-11_wayback2021-10-27.pdf: both sha256 5f7f3c879a5811353b39acca92f4126de45910d362909e1aa7fb4606f2b5d34c (documented). Mechanism established: the exhibit's PDF file properties show Producer "dompdf 0.8.6", CreationDate "Wed Oct 27 00:05:56 2021 MDT" = 06:05:56Z, one second before the crawl timestamp 060557 -- i.e. the Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) crawl of the /print endpoint is what generated this PDF. Mismatch: the row calls it the "second Wayback capture of WCSD Policy 4220"; it is not. It is the first of only three captures of the /print URL, and under the plain policy URL the second capture is 20190915123832. Also, district is Washington County, utah, not Washoe County, Nevada.
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
copy on file Unlisted video, "How to find books in Utah Public School District Libraries", uploaded November 5, 2021
What this confirms: The video exists at that id under that exact title and is reachable without login (grading as recorded: (documented) existence/title, (supported) upload date, view count and the step-1 sequencing) supported
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
The video is unlisted: reachable only by direct URL and absent from the channel, its feeds and search. It is cited by title and date rather than linked, because publishing the link would make findable something the uploader chose not to list.
Utah+3 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors / Community · 1 receipt
archived page Utah Parents United, "LaVerna in the Library" page, Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) capture November 25, 2021 04:06:08 UTC
What this confirms: Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) capture dated November 25, 2021 of utahparentsunited.org/laverna.html, titled "LaVerna in the Library - Utah Parents United"; a gmail contact address appears twice in the page body (contact address on the page, not reproduced here) (documented)
Utah · Policy · 1 receipt
document Utah Legislature roll call, H.B. 38 (2021) House 3rd reading final passage
What this confirms: House passage 70-0-5 (documented). Senate 20-4-5 with nays Davis G., Kitchen D., Mayne K., Riebe K. is on the companion Senate roll call (documented)
Publishing & vendors+1 · Technology / Vendors · 1 receiptResearch notesupported
copy on file Connecting note, no external source
What this confirms: the document itself needs verification
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah · Technology · 1 receipt
copy on file Unlisted video, "Book Spreadsheet Introduction", uploaded November 23, 2021
What this confirms: The video exists at that id under that exact title and is reachable without login (grading as recorded: (documented) existence/title, (supported) upload date, view count and step ordering) supported
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
The video is unlisted: reachable only by direct URL and absent from the channel, its feeds and search. It is cited by title and date rather than linked, because publishing the link would make findable something the uploader chose not to list.
S&S Apps moves from California to Utah
S&S Apps LLC domesticated into Utah (Statement of Domestication, CA->UT), effective date; registered agent (a company’s official contact person) InCorp Services
Utah · Vendors
Utah · Community · 1 receipt
copy on file Annual report for Utah entity 9699080-0140 filed August 19, 2021, then named Parents Empowered in Education Resources and Support, signed by the original incorporator
What this confirms: The archived computer text-reading of the filing shows the principals table moving Becky Jean Unker out of the Director slot and Brooke Stephens in, and Jody Sailor out and Corrine Johnson in
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
The 2021 name change to Empowered Parents
The same entity, 9699080-0140, changes its name: Articles of Amendment state 'The name of the corporation is: Parents Empowered in Educational Resources and Support' and 'the new name of the corporation is: Empowered Parents', adopted by unanimous board vote on October 26, 2021 and signed in November 2021. The same amendment changes Article V from 'Executive Director is hired' to 'Executive Director may be hired'
Utah · Community · 1 receipt
copy on file Articles of Amendment renaming Parents Empowered in Educational Resources and Support to Empowered Parents, Utah entity 9699080-0140, adopted October 26, 2021
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented) on the archived PDF)
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah · Community · 1 receipt
archived page QSaltLake Magazine, "Utah Parents United targets LGBTQ books in schools" (November 22, 2021), Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) capture December 2, 2021
What this confirms: QSaltLake article, page datePublished November 22, 2021; body calls Brooke Stephens "the curriculum director for UPI" and quotes "we're going to call the police, we're going to make police reports" (documented)
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receiptsupported
document Los Angeles Blade obituary, April 16, 2021, "Anti-LGBTQ activist Judith Reisman dies at age 86"
What this confirms: A dated news obituary stating Reisman died April 9, 2021 (documented); the row's "2021-04" is consistent
The product "1776 Unites - digital access" is on sale on the storylabs.online storefront
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receipt
archived page storylabs.online product page, "1776 Unites - digital access," first archived capture June 20, 2021
What this confirms: The product was live on the storefront no later than June 20, 2021 (grading as recorded: (documented) presence by that date, (supported) as a launch date) supported
Pre-history · Unsorted
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receipt
copy on file Unlisted video, "Nichole Sex Ed UPU", uploaded August 5, 2021
What this confirms: The video exists at that id under that exact title and is reachable without login (grading as recorded: (documented) existence/title, (supported) upload date and view count) supported
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
The video is unlisted: reachable only by direct URL and absent from the channel, its feeds and search. It is cited by title and date rather than linked, because publishing the link would make findable something the uploader chose not to list.
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receipt
copy on file Unlisted video, "UPU Sex Ed Brooke Stephens", uploaded August 5, 2021
What this confirms: The video exists at that id under that exact title and is reachable without login (grading as recorded: (documented) existence/title, (supported) upload date and view count) supported
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
The video is unlisted: reachable only by direct URL and absent from the channel, its feeds and search. It is cited by title and date rather than linked, because publishing the link would make findable something the uploader chose not to list.
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Washington County School District's informal (non-HB29-compliant) book-review process begins
Utah+1 · Libraries / Policy · 1 receipt
document Utah Investigative Journalism Project, 'School district's book bans may have flouted state law' (Eric S. Peterson, June 9, 2026)
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (supported - reported allegation from district records, not adjudicated)) supported
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Communityneeds verification
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Utah Office of the Legislative Auditor General, Report No. 2025-11, "A Performance Audit of Sensitive Materials in Schools"
What this confirms: Verbatim: "In 2022, one LEA had a police report filed against it for the books in the..."
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technology
Florida enacted HB 1467 (sponsor Garrison)
Multi-state+1 · Policy / Communitysupported
Utah · Policy · 1 receipt
document Utah Legislature bill page, H.B. 374, 2022 General Session, 'Sensitive Materials in Schools', Session Law Chapter 377
What this confirms: The Legislature's own page lists Rep. Ken Ivory as Bill Sponsor and Sen. Todd D. Weiler as Floor Sponsor
Washington County School District's informal (non-HB29-compliant) book-review process begins
Utah+1 · Policy / Community · 1 receipt
copy on file Unlisted video, "How to Make Public Comment in Utah Legislative Meetings", uploaded January 25, 2022
What this confirms: The video exists at that id under that exact title and is reachable without login (grading as recorded: (documented) existence/title, (supported) upload date, view count and step ordering) supported
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
The video is unlisted: reachable only by direct URL and absent from the channel, its feeds and search. It is cited by title and date rather than linked, because publishing the link would make findable something the uploader chose not to list.
RatedBooks.org site text states it has provided book-content information "since 2022"
Utah · Technologyneeds verification
Utah+1 · Technology / Vendors
Utah Parents United's IRS 501(c)(4) ruling date
Utah · Communityneeds verification
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A Davis County Sheriff police report listing 47 school library books filed (incident D22-01690)
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Davis County Sheriff's Office Deputy Report for Incident D22-01690, 23 pages, uploaded to Scribd
What this confirms: The report itself: incident D22-01690, Nature "Pornography", reported 02/16/22, offense code sxpo, Davis County Sheriff's Office (documented); that the list runs to 47 books is stated in the uploader's description, not counted here (supported)
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technologysupported
HB374 substituted #0 to #1 in House Rules Committee, then sent to standing committee
Utah+1 · Libraries / Policy · 1 receipt
document Same page
What this confirms: The action rows "2/22/2022 Bill Substituted by Sponsor in House Rules Comm from # 0 to # 1" and "2/22/2022 House/ to standing committee House Education Committee" (documented)
Utah+1 · Libraries / Policy · 1 receipt
document Same page
What this confirms: The action row "2/24/2022 House Comm - Not Considered House Education Committee", followed by "2/25/2022 House Comm - Substitute Recommendation from # 1 to # 2" (documented)
Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Community
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Utah House Education Committee, February 25 2022 - meeting audio archive (H.B. 374 hearing)
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented) that the recording exists and is public; (supported) that the cited words are at this offset) supported
View source at 27:05
HB374 numbered and publicly distributed; sponsor Rep. Ken Ivory, floor sponsor Sen. Todd D. Weiler
Utah · Policy · 1 receipt
document Utah Legislature bill status page, H.B. 374 (2022 General Session), Sensitive Materials in Schools
What this confirms: The action table row "2/11/2022 Numbered Bill Publicly Distributed" and the header naming Bill Sponsor Rep. Ivory, Ken and Floor Sponsor Sen. Weiler, Todd D. (documented)
Utah+1 · Policy / Community · 1 receipt
document HB374S1 coalition one-pager, filed as a Utah HB374 committee handout (legislature document 00001955)
What this confirms: The handout cites www.StopUtahPorn.com as the source of examples and lists the supporting organizations by name
Utah · Policy · 1 receipt
document H.B. 374 committee handout, Utah Legislature document 00001978 (2022)
What this confirms: The handout the row describes, published on the Legislature's own document server
Publishing & vendors+1 · Technology / Vendors · 1 receipt
document Follett (the company behind the Destiny school catalog software) Corporation press release, February 2, 2022
What this confirms: The sale of Follett (the company behind the Destiny school catalog software) Corporation and Follett Higher Education to an investor group led by Jefferson River Capital LLC, controlled by the James family
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receipt
archived page Richard Price, "Motives in Book Banning," Adventures in Censorship blog, Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) capture February 11, 2022
What this confirms: Blog post titled "Motives in Book Banning" on adventuresincensorship.com, page datePublished 2022-02-11T08:41:25-0700 and displayed date "Feb 11, 2022"; body names Stephens twice (documented)
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Utah+1 · Libraries / Policy
HB374 received by the Utah Senate
Utah · Policy
Utah · Policy · 1 receipt
document Same page
What this confirms: The action row "3/1/2022 (10:49:30 AM) House/ substituted from # 2 to # 5" on the 3rd Reading Calendar (documented)
Utah · Policy · 1 receipt
archived page Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) capture of bwentzel6.wixsite.com/website-7 root, March 3, 2022 07:07:05 GMT
What this confirms: Capture carries 'Stop Utah Porn' 3x and zero occurrences of 'Rating System', '5/5 Rating', 'Fulton County' or 'Michigan'
HB374 sent to Senate 2nd Reading Calendar, rules suspended
Utah · Policy
Utah+1 · Policy / Technology
Utah+2 · Technology / Vendors / Community
Utah+1 · Technology / Communityneeds verification
Utah · Technologysupported
Utah+1 · Technology / Community
Utah Parents United launches a political fundraising committee
Utah · Communityneeds verification
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Follett drops its parental-control module after a week of backlash
Follett (the company behind the Destiny school catalog software) publicly reversed course on a parental-control module for Destiny (the catalog software school libraries use) on April 1, 2022, after "a week of harsh criticism -- including a Twitter firestorm and a petition circulated by school librarians, educators, and authors". Britten Follett (CEO Content) and Paul Isle (CEO Software) issued a joint statement Apr 1. Separately, in a follow-up interview, britten follett alone said these controls "are not in the best interests of our customers at this point". Trigger was "about 30 customers, in districts across Florida, Texas, and Georgia" (her words).
Publishing & vendors+2 · Libraries / Technology / Community
Utah · Libraries · 1 receiptneeds verification
archived page Stop Utah Porn / heed Parent Teacher Alliance Maps page, archived May 18, 2022
What this confirms: The archived page's own text: "Starting May 4, 2022, pursuant to Utah Code 53G-10-103(1)(g) Sensitive Materials in Schools (enacted by House Bill 374 the 2022 Legislature) the following materials are deemed to have 'no serious value to minors'", above a set of Utah district map buttons (documented)
The Utah AG’s office cautions that removals can implicate the First Amendment
Utah AG's Office issued a memo "Laws surrounding school libraries" cautioning that removal can implicate First Amendment rights — author Ashley Biehl, Assistant Attorney General, Education Division: "Does HB 374 change the standard for school library books? No."; the three-prong test at 76-10-1201(5)(a) "must always be utilized"; leaving books on shelves pending review "helps to ensure that schools are not engaging in prior restraint"
Utah+1 · Libraries / Policy · 1 receipt
document Utah AG's Office memorandum to LEAs, May 4, 2022, "Laws surrounding school libraries", author Ashley Biehl, Assistant Attorney General, Education Division
What this confirms: The memo's own text, still hosted by the receiving agency (documented)
Her earliest publisher-supply argument, on tape at the state board
At the Utah State Board of Education Law and Licensing Committee public comment (sensitive-materials rulemaking era), the chair reads the commenter order on tape: Rep. Ken Ivory and Brooke Stephens speak back-to-back; Stephens's comment frames the publisher supply chain — 'publishing companies created a new genre... created a new adult category of books' that failed for lack of space 'in bookstores and libraries' — the earliest publisher-supply argument in the reviewed record of the Utah State Board of Education
Utah+3 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Community
On tape in 2022: “I’m on the board of Utah Parents United”
Brooke Stephens is the guest on "Be Not Afraid with Carob Marcelle" (Carrie/Cari Bartholomew) in an episode titled "Laverna in The Library" (J4CZAZexmb0, 3156s, 166 views when saved). The host introduces her: "brooke's specialty is she is laverna in the library". The recording carries a burned-in participant label reading "Brooke Stephens - Storylabs Spanish" from at least 00:05:00 through 00:30:00 (verified by eye August 19, 2026). At 00:04:51-57, with that label on screen, she says of herself "i was horrified and i like posted it you know because i'm on the board of utah parents united"
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Community · 3 receipts
video "Laverna in The Library" episode, May 2022 — she says "I'm on the board of Utah Parents United" while the video label reads "Brooke Stephens - Storylabs Spanish"
What this confirms: the 2022 LaVerna identification and the Storylabs self-identification
View source at 4:50
Be Not Afraid with Carob Marcelle channel, published May 7, 2022 (Utah time)
clip May 2022: the label and the board seat (25s, video)
What this confirms: her on-screen label reads “Brooke Stephens - Storylabs Spanish” while she says she is on the Utah Parents United board; the label is a video-call display name, not an employment record
“…All Boys Aren't Blue. And I read that and I'm like, what? This isn't a kid's book [the channel's auto-captions garble this phrase; the two passes do not agree on it], what? And I was horrified. And I like posted it, you know, because I'm on the board of Utah Parents United. And so I posted that. I'm like, yeah, that shouldn't be happening.”
Brooke Stephens on “Laverna in The Library,” May 2022 (video J4CZAZexmb0), from 4:50. The participant label burned into the video reads “Brooke Stephens - Storylabs Spanish”. Transcript quoted only where the channel's captions and an independent machine transcription of the cut file agree.
video Be Not Afraid with Carob Marcelle, 'Laverna in The Library' (J4CZAZexmb0), 3156s
What this confirms: At 00:01:30 the host says 'brooke's specialty is she is laverna in the library', and at 00:04:55 the guest says 'you know because i'm on the board of utah parents united and so i posted that'; the recording carries a burned-in participant label 'Brooke Stephens - Storylabs Spanish' from at least 00:05:00 through 00:30:00
View source at 4:55
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technology
A tutorial: map a whole district’s schools and “send it to the principal”
Brooke Stephens records and uploads the unlisted tutorial "How to Search Follett and make a map of locations for multiple schools" (WxpdKPzfCV8, 12:47). Demonstrates follett.com/aasp/ui/pick, sets Location to the whole Granite School District, pulls the title list from ratedbooks.org, sorts by rating fives-first, plots schools on Google My Maps, adds a how-to-challenge URL and shares by TinyURL, "send it to the principal". States the template lives on the maps button of ratedbooks.org and that "this will be the video I'm making right now".
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technology
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receipt
copy on file website-7 captures May 18, 2022 to 05-21 (Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages))
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors · 1 receipt
archived page storylabs.online "Youth Advisory Ratings Sticker Shop," first archived capture May 21, 2022
What this confirms: The rating-sticker shop page was live on the storefront no later than May 21, 2022 (grading as recorded: (documented) presence by that date)
Utah+2 · Libraries / Vendors / Communitypartly verified
Utah · Policy
Utah+2 · Policy / Vendors / Community · 1 receipt
document Deseret News opinion, 'Has your child been exposed to pornography at school? Utah legislators have a solution' (Rep. Karianne Lisonbee, May 18, 2022)
What this confirms: the document itself
BookLooks.org LLC filed in Florida (L22000162128, effective April 4, 2022)
Utah+1 · Technology / Vendors · 1 receipt
copy on file Florida Division of Corporations entity record, booklooks.ORG LLC, document L22000162128, filed April 5, 2022 effective April 4, 2022
What this confirms: The Sunbiz entity record states the filing date and document number (documented); it cannot be linked without publishing a residence address
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah · Technology · 1 receipt
copy on file Unlisted video, "Adding spreadsheet to Google My Maps", uploaded April 23, 2022
What this confirms: The video exists at that id under that exact title and is reachable without login (grading as recorded: (documented) existence/title, (supported) upload date, view count and step ordering) supported
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
The video is unlisted: reachable only by direct URL and absent from the channel, its feeds and search. It is cited by title and date rather than linked, because publishing the link would make findable something the uploader chose not to list.
Utah · Technology · 1 receipt
copy on file Unlisted video, "How to Search Follett and make a map of locations for multiple schools", uploaded May 8, 2022
What this confirms: The video exists at that id under that exact title and is reachable without login (grading as recorded: (documented) existence/title, (supported) upload date and view count) supported
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
The video is unlisted: reachable only by direct URL and absent from the channel, its feeds and search. It is cited by title and date rather than linked, because publishing the link would make findable something the uploader chose not to list.
The “stop school porn” funnel page on RatedBooks’ Wix origin site
First archived 200 of the "stopschoolporn" funnel page on bwentzel6.wixsite.com/website-7 (RatedBooks' Wix build origin): a gated intake matching the billboard/truth-truck funnel Stephens later describes on the April 5, 2024 the Protect Child Health Coalition webinar — "phone number to be verified, or fill out the following form and we will call you." The vanity domain stopschoolporn.com is archived once (August 13, 2022) as a 302 whose Location header points at this exact page. Page title reads "stopschoolporn | Stop Utah Porn"; site code carries 530-350-9272, the documented RQApps/StoryLabs contact number
Utah · Technology · 2 receipts
archived page stopschoolporn.com, archived as a redirect (Aug 2022)
What this confirms: the funnel domain existed and where it pointed
Internet Archive
archived page The funnel page itself, archived May 2022: "phone number to be verified, or fill out the following form and we will call you"
What this confirms: the gated intake, on the RatedBooks build-origin site
Internet Archive
Utah+2 · Technology / Vendors / Community · 1 receipt
video Utah Parents United, "We Just Hit 10,000 Followers On Instagram" (124 s)
What this confirms: The video is live and public under that title; its description carries the $10 ask, the Anedot link, the Venmo handle @UtahParents-United, and the "run entirely by parent volunteers. None of us are paid!" sentence (grading as recorded: (documented) title/availability, (supported) description text) supported
PAL Humanitarian filed a director change
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receipt
copy on file Utah annual report, PAL humanitarian services, INC., entity 9003835-0140, date of filing 05/13/2022
What this confirms: From the filing: director change, new director added (computer text-reading "GUnther Mowes", Syracuse UT); old director removed (computer text-reading "KEWIN KEECGH", a residential address in Kamas, Utah). Signed Pean/Pearl Giles 05/13/2022. Held ON TWO grounds: (1) no public URL for Utah registry filings; (2) person exposure - the filing prints an individual residential street address for the outgoing director.
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
The timeline runs left to right. Scroll sideways, or hold Shift and scroll, to see the rest of this chapter.
Keyboard: ← → move along a lane, ↑ ↓ change lane, Home End jump to the ends, Enter opens the record.
Utah+1 · Libraries / Policy · 1 receipt
document Utah AG memorandum to the Utah State Board of Education, June 1 2022, hosted by the Utah State Board of Education
What this confirms: The memo's text, verbatim: "HB 374 requires the book to be removed", "bright line", and the categorical reading of 76-10-1227(1)(a)(i)-(iii) with a "taken as a whole" analysis reserved to (iv) (documented); signatories Sean D. Reyes, Melissa A. Holyoak, Meb W. Anderson appear on its face (documented)
Utah+1 · Libraries / Policy · 1 receipt
document Same June 1 2022 AG memorandum
What this confirms: The memo's own caution, verbatim: "Federal Law may require more than application of a bright line rule" and "which have not favored bright line rules in obscenity cases", citing Home Box Office v. Wilkinson and Bantam Books v. Sullivan (documented)
Utah+1 · Libraries / Policy · 1 receipt
document Utah State Board of Education board rule R277-628 "School Libraries", the version effective June 2022
What this confirms: R277-628-3(1) verbatim: "On or before September 1, 2022 each LEA shall ... establish a policy and accompanying procedures for the selection and reconsideration of library materials ... consistent with current state and federal law" (documented)
Utah+1 · Libraries / Policy · 1 receipt
document the Utah State Board of Education model library policy instructions, "Final Passed Version, July 26 2022"
What this confirms: The document's own first page reads "Final Passed Version / July 26 2022 / Instructions for LEAs to consider when creating a library materials policy" (documented); it is a fill-in template and references the R277-628 September 1, 2022 deadline (documented)
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Utah State Board of Education news release, July 26, 2022, 'State Board of Education Approves Library Materials Model Policy'
What this confirms: The release states: 'Each district and charter school governing board should review and approve the policy by the September 1, 2022 deadline stated in board rule R277-628'
Utah AG and Solicitor General issued a superseding memo analyzing HB374's obscenity prohibition
Utah · Policy · 1 receipt
document Utah Attorney General memorandum to the Utah State Board of Education on laws surrounding school libraries, June 1, 2022, hosted by the Utah State Board of Education
What this confirms: Memo opens on H.B. 374 and its prohibition of obscenity in school libraries and states 'This memorandum supersedes any prior' guidance
wethepeople2.us domain WHOIS-registered, MA registrant, privacy-redacted
Utah · Technology · 1 receiptsupported
document Rdap record for wethepeople2.us from the .us registry
What this confirms: Registration event 2022-06-24T19:24:33Z; registrant role present with name redacted and address cc=US, state MA; registrar eNom, LLC (documented)
Utah · Technology
Utah+1 · Technology / Communitypartly verified
The timeline runs left to right. Scroll sideways, or hold Shift and scroll, to see the rest of this chapter.
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A parent in Clay County, FL filed 8 reconsideration requests using BookLooks text verbatim
Florida+2 · Libraries / Technology / Community
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
archived page Davis School District (UT) board packet attachment, August 2, 2022 meeting: "Library Policy DRAFT (7-28-2022)", 8 pp
What this confirms: Draft headed "Davis School District Policy and Procedures / Subject: 4I-202 School Library Media Centers / Revised: (Rewritten to Replace Existing Policy) DRAFT: 7/28/2022" -- a full rewrite, not an amendment (documented). Phrase "sensitive material" appears 19x. Passage on first reading is in the 08-02-2022 minutes, BoardBook fileid 3985440 (fetched: 200, application/pdf, 197,979 B): "4I-202 Library Media Policy FIRST Reading ... Julie Tanner made a motion to approve ... Gordon Eckersley seconded ... [7 named members] voted in favor. There was none in opposition. The motion carried." = unanimous 7-0 (documented). "First in 17 years" check against our records: 0 of 1009 computer text-reading'd attachments dated October 18, 2005 through 2022-07 contain "sensitive material"; earliest hit in the whole sweep is this file (documented).
Utah’s state board rejects both StoryLabs curriculum products
the Utah State Board of Education's 2022 Instructional Materials Review Report rejects both storylabs.online curriculum products, as consecutive records. Record 2234 "HEART: Health Education and Relationship Training (A New Sex Ed Curriculum)" is marked Reviewed-Not Recommended / Rejected, with the recommendation "to uphold the denial and remove it as a teacher resource"; record 2235 "1776 Unites" is marked Rejected. The Standards and Assessment Committee took the report as action item 12.4; Member L. Belnap moved to approve and forward it to the Board and "the motion passed unanimously"
Utah+1 · Libraries / Community
A district employee challenges her own district’s books
Vicki Baggett is a district employee challenging her own district's books, and was inside the selection process she challenges. In her letter to Asst. Supt. Steve Marcanio she writes 'As a veteran teacher with over 31 years of high school and college teaching experience' and 'as a veteran English teacher', refers to 'my own school professionals, colleagues, and district personnel', and states that under the My Perspectives curriculum 'teachers were allowed to vote for one classroom novel per grade level. The book in question is certainly not one I voted for... this particular book won the 12th English teacher vote throughout our district'. She emails from VBaggett@ecsdfl.us and her 2024 campaign-finance filing lists her occupation as 'Teacher'
Florida+1 · Libraries / Community
The challenge forms arrive in numbered batches, same date, same school
Escambia's scanned reconsideration forms were filed in numbered batches, not as independent complaints: five forms read by eye all carry a handwritten 'Set N #M' marker (Set 1 #1, #16, #22, #32; Set 2 #2), the same date 8-24-22, the same school (Northview High School) and the same city/ZIP (Century FL), each signed Vicki Baggett. Titles include Melissa (George), Stamped from the Beginning, The Art of Racing in the Rain, Hear These Voices, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Florida+1 · Libraries / Policypartly verified
Utah+1 · Libraries / Policy · 1 receipt
document Davis school district Policy 4I-202 School Library Media Centers, draft 8-23-2022, BoardBook attachment to the September 6, 2022 board meeting
What this confirms: PDF's own document history reads 'Revised: September 6, 2022 - Complete policy revision to comply with HB 374 (2022), guidance from the Utah Attorney General, and the Utah State Board of Education Model Library Policy'
Utah Parents United’s own site starts sending readers to RatedBooks
Utah Parents United's own website starts referring readers to RatedBooks. The page utahparentsunited.org/laverna.html, a numbered four-step how-to titled 'LaVerna IN THE library', gains three ratedbooks.org URLs and one storylabs.online URL. Step 2 tells readers 'RatedBooks.org is a searchable website that has catalogued the rated reports of over 300 books'; step 4 says 'RatedBooks will create a district page for Utah school districts for free if you fill out this form. (Out of state costs $35 here.)' and that link goes to storylabs.online/product-page/custom-ratedbooks-homepage
Utah+4 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Vendors / Community · 1 receipt
archived page Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) capture of utahparentsunited.org/laverna.html, September 20, 2022 04:03:58 UTC
What this confirms: This capture carries the three ratedbooks.org URLs (/booklocations, /books) and the storylabs.online/product-page/custom-ratedbooks-homepage URL; the immediately prior capture 20220816154101 (also fetched, 200, 181,805 bytes) carries none of them
The $50 RatedBooks school webpage shares a storefront with warning-sticker kits
Four products are present together on storylabs.online: the $50 "RATEDbooks webpage for your school or district", "Harmful to Minors" warning stickers, "State of Utah" warning stickers, and the /hb243 page - a Utah Warning Label Law complaint kit citing Utah Code 78B-6-2103 and a $500-per-violation penalty, instructing readers to research their school's catalog, document findings with screenshots, and submit the form to the offending party and the Utah Attorney General
Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Technology
The ratings workbook is the worksheet for a product sold on StoryLabs
The Utah Parents United-linked ratings workbook is the worksheet for a product sold on storylabs.online. The storylabs.online page /hb243, headed 'Utah Warning Label Law' and 'HB243 (2020)', cites 'Violation of Utah Code Section 78B-6-2103' and '$500 penalty payment for each violation', directs the reader to submit a form to the offending party AND to the Utah Attorney General at Suite #230 Salt Lake City UT, and instructs: 'You must research which books are available in your school. Check the online database (sora etc) and your physical library databases. Document your findings with pictures and screenshots. Note the locations and dates.' It then says 'Physical libraries have a different requirement with a date of 5-12-2020, so we have compiled a list of books published after 5-12-2020. See the second tab of this spreadsheet' - and links BY ID, twice, TO spreadsheet 16kXOBblHt1EeNHQu0v-a_vlavr7ywuxjRiKTljh-lxM, the same workbook already registered at BBA-0998. That workbook carries a hidden tab named exactly 'HB243 Published after 5-12-2020'. The same page sells the cure: $6 sticker sheets and a $55 brochure, 'Offending parties may purchase the stickers below to satisfy the law'
Utah+4 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Vendors / Community
Utah+1 · Libraries / Policyneeds verification
Utah · Librariesneeds verification
Florida+1 · Policy / Community
Utah · Technology
Utah+1 · Technology / Community · 1 receipt
archived page Media Matters, Olivia Little, "Moms for Liberty is hiding behind these front groups as they gut public school libraries" (September 20, 2022), Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) capture September 20, 2022
What this confirms: Media Matters article bylined Olivia Little, page timestamp 09/20/22 11:32 AM EDT; states Book Looks "was actually spearheaded by a Moms for Liberty member" and that it uses a rating system shared on the Moms for Liberty Brevard County Facebook page (documented)
Utah Parents United's own website starts referring readers to RatedBooks. The page…
Florida · Unsorted · 1 receipt
document Escambia district reconsideration packet, The Perks of Being a Wallflower (committee script plus complainant correspondence)
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented as her assertion))
Florida · Unsorted · 1 receipt
document Escambia County (FL) Public Schools, "Reconsideration of Educational Media" page and its published 2022-2026 reconsiderations register
What this confirms: The district publishes its own challenge register with links to the scanned challenge forms the row's batch structure was read from supported
The timeline runs left to right. Scroll sideways, or hold Shift and scroll, to see the rest of this chapter.
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Multi-state+2 · Libraries / Technology / Community
Utah Parents United guidance states districts were required to have a challenge policy by 10-1-22
Utah · Librariesneeds verification
Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Technologypartly verified
Utah+1 · Libraries / Policyneeds verification
Utah · Libraries
Utah+1 · Libraries / Policy · 1 receiptsupported
copy on file Davis School District (UT) board packet attachment, January 17, 2023 meeting: "School Library Media -- Sensitive Materials | Scope of Work | FAQ", dated January 5, 2023, 3 pp
What this confirms: District-published document whose "POLICY DEVELOPMENT TIMELINE" states "May 4: Sensitive materials legislation (HB 374) goes into effect" and whose "IMPLEMENTATION TIMELINE" states "October 17: District committees begin reviews" (documented as the district's own account). Interval May 4, 2022 to October 17, 2022 computed = 166 days, matching the row exactly. Grade C is correct and retained: this is a retrospective district summary written January 5, 2023, not a contemporaneous October 17, 2022 record, and no minutes entry for the October 17, 2022 start was located. supported
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
A Save Page Now capture was made August 19, 2026 and reported success, but the snapshot 404s on retrieval, so no public copy is citable. The document is held in the research archive. Re-try SPN before treating this as permanent.
Utah · Libraries
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Amended Complaint, Vonnegut v. Brown, D. Utah 2:26-cv-00010-CMR, Doc. 98
What this confirms: Paragraph 100 and n.24: the Utah State Board of Education Deputy Superintendent Cindy Davis testified to the Education Interim Committee on October 19, 2022, cited to the committee recording at 13:00-17:00
Utah+1 · Libraries / Vendors · 1 receiptpartly verified
document Utah Education Interim Committee, October 19 2022 - meeting audio archive (H.B. 374 implementation)
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented) that the recording is public; (supported) on the offset; speaker unresolved per the row) supported
View source at 108:30
RatedBooks is introduced to Utah lawmakers
Same INTEDU meeting, H.B. 374 item: the presenter yields the floor with 'This is Brooke Stevens [the minutes spell it: Brooke Stephens of Utah Parents United] from Davis County. She is a mom who then started her own website... It's called ratedbooks.org. If you want to know what books are in your school... you can go to the website ratedbooks.org'; Stephens replies, thanking Rep. Ivory, and defends the site's accuracy: 'And rated books, I'm glad I can search for it, and I do the best I can. If I could go into the libraries and verify, I would love to do that' (corrected August 25, 2026: speaker reattributed from a committee member to Stephens)
Utah+3 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Community · 1 receipt
document Utah Legislature committee archive, Education Interim Committee, October 19, 2022, streaming recording plus linked minutes and handouts
What this confirms: The recording is public at this page and the cited words occur at 2:10:27 into it (documented); the committee minutes at the same meeting record "Rep. Ken Ivory presented an update on H.B. 374. Brooke Stephens, Utah Parents United, and Diane Livingston, resident, spoke about their personal experiences with sensitive materials in schools." (documented)
View source at 130:27
Utah+2 · Policy / Technology / Community
A WCSD technology director emailed an activist that the district would consider removal complaints…
Utah+1 · Policy / Technologyneeds verification
Utah+1 · Policy / Vendors · 1 receipt
document Utah Education Interim Committee, October 19 2022 - meeting audio archive
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented) that the recording is public; (supported) on the offset) supported
View source at 145:00
Utah+1 · Technology / Community
The timeline runs left to right. Scroll sideways, or hold Shift and scroll, to see the rest of this chapter.
Keyboard: ← → move along a lane, ↑ ↓ change lane, Home End jump to the ends, Enter opens the record.
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receipt
archived page Book Riot, Kelly Jensen, "The Biased Online Book Ratings Systems Undermining Professional Review Sources: Book Censorship News, November 4, 2022," Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) capture November 4, 2022
What this confirms: Book Riot article, canonical URL bookriot.com/biased-online-book-ratings-systems/, datePublished 2022-11-04T10:40:00+00:00; snapshot text names RatedBooks (6 occurrences) and LaVerna (2) (documented)
A hidden tab is the product’s instructions, carried out against Davis
A hidden tab in the same workbook, 'the Davis School District 243', is a completed violation tally against Davis School District - the product's instructions carried out against one named district. Its columns are '# of violations', 'locations in the Davis School District', Title, Author, Link to Report, Publisher, Rating. It counts 73 physical-copy violations across 17 titles at named Davis schools, 14 sora online-library violations across 10 titles, a further 322 labelled 'X availability in 23 schools, 9 high schools, 14 junior high schools', and prints its own bottom line: 'total violations 394'. At the $500 per violation the selling page states, 394 violations is $197,000. Eighteen Davis schools are named in the location column, most often Northridge (10 titles), Syracuse (7), Layton (6) and Woods Cross (5), plus sora against 10 titles
Utah · Librariespartly verified
Utah · Libraries · 1 receiptsupported
document Utah Education Interim Committee, November 16 2022 - meeting audio archive (district responses)
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented) that the recording is public; (supported) on the offset and on which Alpine presenter speaks) supported
View source at 10:57
Religion is cited as a removal ground on ten of Baggett’s own forms
Baggett's reconsideration forms cite religion as a removal ground in her own words, on 10 forms naming her across two counties (of 13 religious-ground documents found): 6 Escambia forms carrying her complainant signature ("controversial religious commentary" — Triangles, The Year of the Flood, Concrete Rose, The Almost Moon, Neanderthal Opens the Door to the Universe, Rumble) and 4 Santa Rosa forms initiated jointly with Sharon White ("religious commentary" on The Almost Moon and The Circle; "mocking of religious participants" on Almost Adulting; "deliberately mocks religions and races" on Concrete Rose). The other 3 documents show no filer in the extract, including an Escambia Porcupine of Truth form objecting to "continuous mockery of religions, such as 'F-cking Mormons'"
Florida · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Escambia County (FL) Public Schools, 'Reconsideration of Educational Media' page, which publishes the ecps 22-26 Reconsiderations register and links the individual challenge-form PDFs
What this confirms: The district publishes its own reconsiderations register and the underlying complainant forms; the seven cited forms are public and readable signed-out
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Davis School District Sensitive Materials Appeal Committee Recommendation, June 20 2023
What this confirms: the document itself
Florida+1 · Libraries / Communitypartly verified
Empowered Parents filed a director/treasurer change
Utah · Community · 1 receipt
copy on file Utah annual report, Empowered Parents, entity 9699080-0140, date of filing 12/01/2022
What this confirms: Read from the scanned filing: Previous registered principal Lindsay Hull, Treasurer, removed; updated registered principal Nichole Mason, Director, added; both at 640 North Main Street Suite 226, North Salt Lake UT. Signed Nichole Mason 12/01/2022. Row wording ("director/treasurer change") matches. NO public URL for the same reason as BBA-0334.
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
S&S Apps filed a registered-agent change
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receipt
copy on file Utah dccc Annual Report filing, S&S Apps LLC, entity 12115414-0160, filed 12/09/2022
What this confirms: the document itself needs verification
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
The timeline runs left to right. Scroll sideways, or hold Shift and scroll, to see the rest of this chapter.
Keyboard: ← → move along a lane, ↑ ↓ change lane, Home End jump to the ends, Enter opens the record.
Multi-state+3 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors / Community
Utah · Libraries · 1 receiptsupported
document EveryLibrary, "It's Very Real - Recent Attempts to Prosecute Librarians Over Books on the Shelves"
What this confirms: The tracker's entry: "Lancaster County, PA ... do not fit the legal definitions (January 2023)" supported
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
copy on file Davis School District (UT) board packet attachment, January 17, 2023 meeting: "School Library Media -- Sensitive Materials | Scope of Work | FAQ", dated January 5, 2023, 3 pp
What this confirms: Section "SENSITIVE MATERIALS REVIEWS (as of January 5, 2023)" reads: "Number of titles with requests for sensitive materials review: 78 / Number awaiting review: 0 / Number under review: 39 / Number reviewed: 39 / Retained: 10 / Removed: 29" and "APPEAL REQUESTS AND PROGRESS: Number of titles with review decisions which have been appealed: 13 / Number awaiting appeal: 13 / Number of completed appeals: 0 / Retained: 0 / Removed: 0" (documented). Every figure in the chronology row matches the document verbatim; no mismatch.
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
A Save Page Now capture was made August 19, 2026 and reported success, but the snapshot 404s on retrieval, so no public copy is citable. The document is held in the research archive. Re-try SPN before treating this as permanent.
A state school board vice chair names Rated Books at a hearing
Same hearing: the Utah State Board of Education Vice Chair Jennie Earl, co-presenting H.B. 464 (Ivory hands off to her by name on tape), asks 'where are these books coming from?' and names Rated Books — her earliest public RatedBooks reference in the swept record
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receipt
document Utah House Education Committee, February 23 2023 - meeting audio archive (H.B. 464 presentation)
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented) that the recording is public; (supported) on the offset) supported
View source at 22:42
EveryLibrary's "winutah2023" page claimed ratedbooks.org was "built by Moms 4 Liberty"
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receiptneeds verification
archived page EveryLibrary, "A Win in the 2023 Utah Legislative Session: Libraries Hold the Line," Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) capture March 7, 2023
What this confirms: EveryLibrary page dated March 07, 2023 describing HB464 as forcing "a rating system like ratedbooks.org, which is a platform built by Moms 4 Liberty to push false narratives about the content of books" (documented as the page's assertion)
Five appeal decisions pass in one batch vote
Davis school district board consent-approved (Consent Items 1-10, carried 7-0, none opposed: Mumford, Gerrard, Powell, Hogan, Robison, Price, Lamb) the Sensitive Materials Appeal Committee recommendation on 5 titles: Remove The Bluest Eye, All Boys Aren’t Blue, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, Red White & Royal Blue; retain The Clockwork Princess. The appeals committee affirmed the initial district review committee on all 5.
Utah+1 · Libraries / Vendors
Utah+2 · Technology / Vendors / Community · 1 receiptsupported
document Book Riot, "The Book Banners' Recruitment Agenda: Book Censorship News, February 3, 2023"
What this confirms: Verbatim in the article: "These titles come from Laverna in the Library, which is RatedBooks.org ... Ratedbooks.org is an arm of Utah Parents United and No Left Turn in Education" (documented as the outlet's reporting); that RatedBooks already existed and was being used by a Moms for Liberty chapter in Feb 2023 (documented) supported
Utah+2 · Technology / Vendors / Community · 1 receipt
document Utah House Education Committee, February 23 2023 - meeting audio archive (H.B. 464 public comment)
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented) that the recording is public; (supported) on the offset) supported
View source at 52:42
Publishing & vendors · Technology · 1 receipt
document Clay County (FL) Request for Reconsideration packet, Running Loose, filed November 18, 2024 (attaches a Destiny (the catalog software school libraries use) screenshot dated March 12, 2023)
What this confirms: the document itself
Utah · Community · 1 receipt
archived page Atheist Republic, "Parents Try to Ban the Bible from School Shelves for 'Indecent' Material" (March 30, 2023), Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) capture June 8, 2023
What this confirms: Atheist Republic article, on-page date "Thu, 03/30/2023 - 23:10"; body says "The curriculum director of the group, Brooke Stephens, even went so far as to file a report to authorities claiming that 47 books on the shelves of the Davis School District's libraries violated state law" (documented)
Context · Unsorted · 1 receipt
document FLDOE, "2023-2024 School District Reporting Pursuant to Section 1006.28(2), Florida Statutes"
What this confirms: The state's statutory report of materials removed or discontinued by district for SY2023-24 (documented); the "700+" total is a count taken from that report by others, not a figure printed on its cover (supported); PEN America's 4,561 Florida figure is a separate publication (documented, see notes)
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receipt
archived page storylabs.online product page, "Explicit Materials Brochure," first archived capture January 29, 2023
What this confirms: The product was live on the storefront no later than January 29, 2023 (grading as recorded: (documented) presence by that date)
The timeline runs left to right. Scroll sideways, or hold Shift and scroll, to see the rest of this chapter.
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Florida+1 · Libraries / Policy · 1 receipt
document PEN American Center v. Escambia County School Board, N.D. Fla. 3:23-cv-10385, Doc 25-1 (Amended Complaint with index and exhibits, 220 pp.)
What this confirms: Paragraph 103 pleads the April 13, 2023 removal of Push (Sapphire) and Lucky (Alice Sebold) from all district libraries over the review committee's contrary recommendation (grading as recorded: (documented as pleaded))
The Davis challenge map: 32 pins, 89,552 views
Google My Map "Davis School District, Utah (DSD) - Ratedbooks.org" published, layer "4/17/23 - DSD Books needing to be challenged", legend "Blue = rated 5 & 4 (worst) Yellow = Rated 4, 3", 32 pins across Davis District including the district office and five elementary schools (Sunburst, Sunset, Tolman, Wasatch, and Windridge in the 2022 version). Header links tinyurl.com/challengebooks. Views as reported by Google My Maps on August 18, 2026: 89,552.
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors
The first reversal: Monday’s Not Coming goes back on the shelf
Davis school district board consent-approved (consent items 1-10, carried 7-0, none opposed) the Sensitive Materials Appeal Committee recommendation on 3 titles. First appeals-committee reversal of a removal: Monday’s Not Coming, which the initial district review committee had voted to remove, was retained in Jr. High and High School. Thirteen Reasons Why and Sold were both narrowed from Retain to Retain in High School.
Utah+1 · Libraries / Vendors
Florida+1 · Libraries / Community · 1 receipt
archived page South Santa Rosa News, Romi White, published May 31, 2023, first Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) capture the same day
What this confirms: Identifies Mariya Calkins as founder of the Santa Rosa chapter of Moms for Liberty leading the May 30 meeting, and reports the chapter's list of 65 books it wanted removed
Florida+1 · Libraries / Policy · 1 receiptsupported
document PEN American Center v. Escambia County School Board, N.D. Fla. 3:23-cv-10385, Doc 25-1 (Amended Complaint with index and exhibits, 220 pp.)
What this confirms: Paragraph 45 and footnote 2 report, at second hand and hedged with 'reportedly', that Baggett addressed a Moms for Liberty meeting in Santa Rosa County and shared tips on removing content, citing Romi White in South Santa Rosa News (grading as recorded: (supported) as the complaint states it) supported
Utah+1 · Libraries / Community
A sitting state board member speaks against the Bible’s removal, thirteen days before it is reversed
Christina Boggess, in her fifth month as the Utah State Board of Education member for District 8, speaks at a press conference at the Utah State Capitol against the removal of the King James Bible from Davis School District schools, thirteen days before the district's appeal committee reverses that removal. Her address is religious rather than procedural. She asks the young people present to hold their Bibles in the air, calls the removal of ‘the seminal text of the American founding’ a ‘whole new level in definition of un-American’, states there is ‘no good without God and no good outside of God’, and closes on the building’s ‘quasi-transparent ceilings reminding us that God, Yahweh himself, is watching us here today’ and that each person ‘will stand before Yahweh himself and we will account for our actions’. She also asserts that ‘an act of Congress sanctioned the publication of the Bible for its installation into all schools as a tool of instruction’. She publishes the text on her own website the same day under the heading ‘God is watching!’, writing ‘I was asked to speak at the Legislative Press Conference at the Capitol regarding the removal of the Bible in the Davis School District. Below is my statement’, and signing it ‘Christina Boggess, Utah State Board of Education, District 8’ on a page that also carries a donate TO christina button. The recording runs on into the next speaker, who introduces himself as Chuck Bickel, pastor of Faith Baptist in Layton. She posts the video to her own channel on February 22, 2026, two years and eight months afterwards, the same day her interview show begins
Utah+3 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Communitypartly verified
Lawmakers press a district that kept a book: “no evaluation necessary”
At an Education Interim Committee hearing on a district's decision to keep a title, Rep. Lisonbee stated: "This is a tool that the state has given you... the bright line rule doesn't require a previous community standard evaluation... There's no evaluation necessary." A state senator at the same hearing said the district's retention decision could render officials "accessory to distribution of pornography to minors."
Utah · Libraries · 1 receiptsupported
document Minutes, Utah Education Interim Committee, June 14, 2023
What this confirms: Minutes confirm the June 14, 2023 hearing on 'Sensitive Materials Policies in Schools' with Davis school district presenting and Rep. K. Lisonbee present and speaking supported
The Bible: removed, restored on appeal
Davis board appeal committee (three board members) reverses the Bible removal: retained at ALL levels, finding "significant, serious value for minors which outweighs the violent or vulgar content it contains" based on "their assessment of community standards." The only title across all 14 appeal documents 2023-03 to 2026-06 to receive a written Background and Rationale section, and the only document where the phrase "serious value" appears; the boilerplate "Therefore, Utah law requires the book be removed" is the rationale on objective-removal rows in the 3 documents that carry per-title rationales (February 4, 2025, February 3, 2026 except a bespoke variant for Romeo and/or Juliet, March 3, 2026); the 2023-2024 exhibits carry no per-title rationale, and the one other written value-weighing (Fight Club, April 7, 2026) concluded removal (corrected August 25, 2026: boilerplate not universal, a non-Bible title also received a value weighing)
Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Community · 1 receipt
document Davis School District Sensitive Materials Appeal Committee Recommendation, June 20 2023
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented) for the Bible decision and its rationale; (supported) for the 'only title across all 14 appeal documents' comparison) supported
Baggett shows removed-book excerpts to a Moms for Liberty chapter
Baggett addressed the Santa Rosa County chapter of Moms for Liberty at its monthly meeting at the Santa Rosa County Chamber of Commerce, about two dozen attending, and shared tips on how to get content removed. She showed excerpts from books already removed in Escambia including All Boys Aren't Blue, and explicit images from Zahra's Paradise which the chapter said remained available in Santa Rosa schools. Her own words: 'I did not care. This was inappropriate.'
Florida+1 · Policy / Community · 1 receipt
archived page South Santa Rosa News, Romi White, published May 31, 2023, first Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) capture the same day
What this confirms: Reports that Baggett addressed the Santa Rosa Moms for Liberty chapter at its May 30 meeting at the Santa Rosa County Chamber of Commerce and shared tips on how to get content removed, showing excerpts from removed Escambia titles and images from Zahra's Paradise
Bruce Friedman names BookLooks and RatedBooks as peer list-makers
Bruce Friedman, interviewed on "Be Not Afraid with Carob Marcelle" in "The Truth About \"Book Banners\"" (1j37WFNDhf8, 2972s, 344 views when saved), names the rating sites as peers of one another: "there are groups everywhere ... you have book looks and rated books and a number of localized State and County groups throughout the nation everybody has a little list of books that concern them"
Multi-state+1 · Technology / Community · 2 receipts
video Friedman names "book looks and rated books" as peer list sources
What this confirms: a Florida challenger treating the two rating sites as interchangeable, 2023
Be Not Afraid with Carob Marcelle channel, published June 25, 2023 (Utah time)
clip “I'm the MC for all the list people” (56s)
What this confirms: he names BookLooks and RatedBooks as peer list-makers and describes consolidating other people's removal lists into his own
“The problem is there are groups everywhere. You're familiar with many of them. You have book looks and rated books and a number of localized state and county groups throughout the nation. Everybody has a little list of books that concern them. […] So I took on the role of master of ceremonies. I'm the MC for all the list people. If you have a list, send it to me. I will absorb it into my list.” [The bracketed gap is roughly twenty seconds about Gender Queer that three automatic-transcription passes render three different ways; it is audible in the clip and deliberately not quoted.]
Bruce Friedman, interviewed on “Be Not Afraid with Carob Marcelle,” “The Truth About ‘Book Banners’”, published June 25, 2023 (video 1j37WFNDhf8), from 4:52. Clip cut from our saved copy and machine-transcribed from the cut file to verify it.
Utah+1 · Vendors / Community · 1 receipt
video Utah Parents United, "'Parents, do you agree?'"
What this confirms: Video is live and public; oEmbed title matches the row exactly supported
Empowered Parents added naics code 8139 (political/similar organizations)
Utah · Community · 1 receipt
copy on file Utah Div. of Corporations & Commercial Code, "Summary of Online Changes," Empowered Parents, entity 9699080-0140, filed 04/18/2023
What this confirms: Utah registry record adding naics 8139 (Business, Professional, Labor, Political and Similar Organizations)
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
The timeline runs left to right. Scroll sideways, or hold Shift and scroll, to see the rest of this chapter.
Keyboard: ← → move along a lane, ↑ ↓ change lane, Home End jump to the ends, Enter opens the record.
Florida+2 · Libraries / Policy / Community · 1 receiptpartly verified
document PEN American Center v. Escambia County School Board, N.D. Fla. 3:23-cv-10385, Doc 25-1 (Amended Complaint with index and exhibits, 220 pp.)
What this confirms: The filed Amended Complaint: PEN American Center, Penguin Random House, authors and parents against the Escambia County School Board, 220 pages with an exhibit index, pleading that the campaign began with a reconsideration form from Vicki Baggett, 'a language arts teacher at the School District's Northview High School' (grading as recorded: (documented) the filing / (supported, strong) the Northview employment) supported
A complaint says her challenges copied BookLooks verbatim, typos included
The same complaint pleads that Baggett's challenges copied the Book Looks website verbatim and that typos from book looks were carried over into HER challenges, citing her Drama challenge where every quote matches a Book Looks quote; and that her objection to When Wilma Rudolph Played Basketball, 'opines prejudice based on race', is identical to a challenge form previously submitted in a Texas school district
Florida+2 · Libraries / Policy / Technology · 1 receiptpartly verified
document PEN American Center v. Escambia County School Board, N.D. Fla. 3:23-cv-10385, Doc 25-1 (Amended Complaint with index and exhibits, 220 pp.)
What this confirms: Paragraphs 59 and 60 plead that Baggett's challenges copied Book Looks verbatim, carrying its typos, and that her When Wilma Rudolph Played Basketball objection matched a form filed in a Texas district (grading as recorded: (documented as pleaded) / (unverified) as adjudicated) needs verification
The complaint’s accounting: ten removals, each over the review committee’s recommendation
The complaint's own accounting: Baggett compiled lists of 116 titles in August 2022 and prepared reconsideration forms for more than 100 of them; 218 books had been challenged district-wide by anyone as of filing; 155 of those were restricted; 171 removed or restricted; and the Board removed 10 books in four waves dated November 1, 2022, February 21, 2023, March 20, 2023 and April 13, 2023, in every instance over the district review committee's contrary recommendation
Florida+1 · Libraries / Policy · 1 receipt
document PEN American Center v. Escambia County School Board, N.D. Fla. 3:23-cv-10385, Doc 25-1 (Amended Complaint with index and exhibits, 220 pp.)
What this confirms: Paragraphs 57, 64, 65, 88, 98, 104 and 165 carry the complaint's own counts: 116 titles listed by Baggett in August 2022, 100+ reconsideration forms, 218 books challenged district-wide, 155 restricted, 171 removed or restricted, and ten books removed in four waves dated November 1, 2022, February 21, 2023, March 20, 2023 and April 13, 2023 (grading as recorded: (documented as pleaded))
Utah+1 · Libraries / Community · 1 receipt
document Davis school district BoardBook attachment 3985752, "081523 Board Workshop Minutes", posted to the September 6, 2023 meeting
What this confirms: The district's own workshop minutes, published in its BoardBook portal, carrying the line "Policy review was initiated after the controversy surrounding the Bible" and the 4I-202 discussion (documented); that the proposed changes were later adopted is not shown by this document (unverified)
Florida+3 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Community
Publishing & vendors+2 · Policy / Technology / Vendorsneeds verification
Her screening workflow: ask a chatbot, then keyword-search the PDF
On "Be Not Afraid with Carob Marcelle" (the on-air name of Carrie/Cari Bartholomew), in an episode titled "Ethnic Studies Episode #7 Baked Into Everything" (VIOaufrzl3Q, 3205s, 65 views when saved), Brooke Stephens recommends her own site alongside BookLooks and describes her screening workflow: "if you don't have time booklooks.org and ratedbooks.org they have reviews and they do have commentary on that racist ... component of the books as well as the sexual nature and gender ideology is reported on", and "I'll ask chat gbt like if these books has ... what type of content it has and then I'll go get the PDF and then I'll keyword search to find the exact quotes and page numbers".
Utah+1 · Technology / Community · 2 receiptssupported
clip The screening workflow: ask ChatGPT, then the rating sites (38s) — who is speaking is not certain
What this confirms: a described screening practice that runs a book through ChatGPT before a PDF keyword search, and names booklooks.org and ratedbooks.org as the shortcut for parents without time to read supported
“This is very controversial, people don't like this, some people don't like this idea, but I'll ask chat GPT, like, if these books has, uh, what type of content it has, and then I'll go get the PDF and then I'll keyword search to find the exact quotes and page numbers. So if parents aren't aware of what's in books — I mean, read it, that's the first thing, right? But if you don't have time, um, booklooks.org and ratedbooks.org, they have reviews and they do have commentary on that racist, uh, the racist component of the books, as well as the sexual nature and gender ideology.” [One automatic-transcription pass renders “chat GPT”, the channel's auto-captions render the same word “chat gbt”.]
“Be Not Afraid with Carob Marcelle,” “Ethnic Studies Episode #7 Baked Into Everything,” published September 8, 2023 (video VIOaufrzl3Q), from 20:22. The words are on tape (documented); WHO speaks them is (supported) — the captions carry no speaker labels and the identification rests on the visible participant tile.
video Be Not Afraid with Carob Marcelle, 'Ethnic Studies Episode #7 Baked Into Everything.' (VIOaufrzl3Q), a past livestream, 3205s
What this confirms: At 20:08-20:52 a speaker says 'if you don't have time booklooks.org and ratedbooks.org they have reviews' and 'I'll ask chat gbt like if these books has ... what type of content it has and then I'll go get the PDF and then I'll keyword search to find the exact quotes and page numbers' (documented as the recording); that the speaker is Brooke Stephens rests on the burned-in participant tiles, not on the captions, which carry no speaker labels (supported) supported
View source at 20:08
Utah+1 · Vendors / Community · 1 receipt
archived page storylabs.online /freedomined portal page, first archived capture September 29, 2023
What this confirms: The Freedom in Education portal page was live on the storefront no later than September 29, 2023 (grading as recorded: (documented) presence by that date)
Empowered Parents filed a registered-agent change
Utah · Community · 1 receipt
copy on file Utah registry Annual Report filing, July 13, 2023, registered-agent change for Empowered Parents
What this confirms: The filing itself is a state registry record (documented); it cannot be pointed at publicly
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
The timeline runs left to right. Scroll sideways, or hold Shift and scroll, to see the rest of this chapter.
Keyboard: ← → move along a lane, ↑ ↓ change lane, Home End jump to the ends, Enter opens the record.
Six appeal decisions in one batch vote, the largest single exhibit
Davis school district board consent-approved ("Consent Items 1-6 after clerical correction", carried 6-0, none opposed) the Sensitive Materials Appeal Committee recommendation on 6 titles - the largest single appeal exhibit. Remove: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and The Perks of Being a Wallflower (both reversals; initial committee had said Retain in High School), Looking for Alaska (affirmed). Narrowed: Crank and The Handmaid’s Tale to Retain in High School with parental permission required; The Kite Runner from Jr. High and High School down to High School only.
Utah+1 · Libraries / Community
Texas+1 · Policy / Technologyneeds verification
Utah · Technology · 1 receipt
archived page The Community Voice (Kansas), "Inside the book-ban machine: The rise of 'parental rights' groups and their efforts to ban books" (October 14, 2023), Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) capture October 14, 2023
What this confirms: Community Voice article at a 2023/10/14 URL path, captured same day; snapshot text names RatedBooks (2 occurrences), No Left Turn (1), and uses the phrase "national network" (1) (documented)
Utah+1 · Vendors / Community · 1 receipt
document ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer record for Gender Harmony Institute Inc, federal tax ID 92-3827527
What this confirms: The organization's IRS exempt-organization record: federal tax ID 92-3827527, 990-N filer, Salt Lake City UT
Simon & Schuster becomes KKR-owned, $1.62B
Publishing & vendors+1 · Vendors / Community · 1 receiptsupported
document Paramount Global Form 8-K filed October 30, 2023, Item 8.01
What this confirms: Verbatim: "On October 30, 2023, Paramount Global completed the previously announced sale of the Simon & Schuster business to affiliates of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. for an aggregate purchase price of $1.62 billion" (documented)
Utah · Community · 1 receipt
copy on file Unlisted video, "UPU Class from 10/23: 12 Steps to Avoiding Parent Burnout by Jessica Bianco of Kimber Academy", uploaded October 17, 2023
What this confirms: The video exists at that id under that exact title and is reachable without login (grading as recorded: (documented) existence/title, (supported) upload date and view count) supported
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
The video is unlisted: reachable only by direct URL and absent from the channel, its feeds and search. It is cited by title and date rather than linked, because publishing the link would make findable something the uploader chose not to list.
The operator personally donated $50 to a Utah House / gubernatorial candidate
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receipt
copy on file Utah campaign-finance record of a $50 individual contribution, October 30, 2023
What this confirms: Nothing published on review; public record, no citable URL
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
The timeline runs left to right. Scroll sideways, or hold Shift and scroll, to see the rest of this chapter.
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Utah HB29 (2024) added the legislative-audit mandate now codified at 53G-10-103(10)
Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Community · 1 receipt
document Utah Code 53G-10-103, current version (as amended 2025)
What this confirms: Subsection (10) requires the Office of the Legislative Auditor General to audit each school district's compliance and report annually to the Education Interim Committee
Utah+1 · Libraries / Community
Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Community
Utah+1 · Libraries / Community · 1 receipt
copy on file Unlisted video, "Introduction to HEART Sex Ed Curricula", uploaded January 10, 2024
What this confirms: The video exists at that id under that exact title and is reachable without login (grading as recorded: (documented) existence/title, (supported) upload date and view count) supported
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
The video is unlisted: reachable only by direct URL and absent from the channel, its feeds and search. It is cited by title and date rather than linked, because publishing the link would make findable something the uploader chose not to list.
Utah+1 · Libraries / Policy · 1 receipt
document Fifth Circuit opinion, Book People, Inc. v. Wong, No. 23-50668, filed 01/17/2024
What this confirms: That the panel affirmed the preliminary injunction as to Commissioner Morath on the compelled-speech ground (documented)
Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Technology · 1 receipt
document Utah House Education Standing Committee minutes, Tuesday January 23 2024, 2:00 p.m., 120 Senate Building
What this confirms: Verbatim: "Rep. Ivory with the assistance of Brooke Stephens, Educator Director, Utah Parents United, and Gloria Vindas"; Amendment #1 passed 11-1; H.B. 29 passed out favorably 10-2-3
Context · Policysupported
Utah HB29 (2024) added the legislative-audit mandate now codified at 53G-10-103(10)
The Fifth Circuit issued its mandate in the Texas HB900 / READER Act case (Book People v. Wong, No.…
Utah+1 · Policy / Community
Utah+2 · Technology / Vendors / Communitypartly verified
Pavement Education Project incorporation document signed/dated by its incorporator
Utah · Vendors · 1 receipt
copy on file Pavement Education Project, North Carolina Articles of Incorporation, incorporator signature page, January 12, 2024
What this confirms: Nothing published on review; the filing is a free public document image at the NC registry but no URL was fetched
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah · Vendors · 1 receipt
copy on file Pavement Education Project NC Articles of Incorporation (Form N-01, filed 12 January 2024)
What this confirms: the document itself needs verification
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah HB29 (2024) added the legislative-audit mandate now codified at 53G-10-103(10)
Utah · Community · 1 receiptsupported
copy on file No addressable public record. transparent.utah.gov is a false-200 machine.
What this confirms: Proven on review, not assumed: every path on the host returns HTTP 200 with a byte-identical 1,419-byte SPA shell titled "Transparent Utah". Checked / (200/1419), /api/ (200/1419, cmp says identical to /), /api/v1/transactions (200/1419), /DownloadFiles.php (200/1419), /apidocs.php (200/1419) and a fabricated control path /zzzz-fabricated-control-path (200/1419). A fabricated path returning the same 200 and the same bytes as the real site means no URL on that host distinguishes a real record from an invented one, so no URL there can be cited. No export/API route found: api.transparent.utah.gov did not resolve (a scripted fetch exit 000), opendata.utah.gov returned HTTP 400.
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah · Community · 1 receipt
copy on file Unlisted video, "1/4/23 HomeFront - Feminism 101", uploaded January 5, 2024
What this confirms: The video exists at that id under that exact title and is reachable without login (grading as recorded: (documented) existence/title, (supported) upload date and view count) supported
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
The video is unlisted: reachable only by direct URL and absent from the channel, its feeds and search. It is cited by title and date rather than linked, because publishing the link would make findable something the uploader chose not to list.
The operator became Civic Engagement Director of Utah Moms for America, per her own bio
Utah · Unsorted
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receipt
copy on file Pavement Education Project (NC nonprofit, sosid 2772468) Articles of Incorporation as filed, January 18, 2024
What this confirms: Nothing published on review; same NC registry bot wall
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
The timeline runs left to right. Scroll sideways, or hold Shift and scroll, to see the rest of this chapter.
Keyboard: ← → move along a lane, ↑ ↓ change lane, Home End jump to the ends, Enter opens the record.
Utah · Librariessupported
Stephens co-presents the bill that becomes the statewide removal law
Utah Senate Education heard 1st Sub. HB29, replaced with 1st Sub (4-2-3), adopted Amendment #1 (6-0-3), rejected Amendment #2 (2-4-3), passed 1st Sub. favorably (5-1-3); Stephens co-presented, rendered 'Brooke Stevens, citizen' in the minutes (one-letter clerical variant, no org); substitute creating the final statewide-removal mechanism passed 5-1; amendment protecting public read-aloud failed 2-4; Hope of Utah (formed October 14, 2024, filing 241014029522B, sole incorporator Jamie Renda) later lists RatedBooks as an affiliate, ~8 months after this hearing. Ron Williams, who spoke in favor here (not a co-presenter), carries the title 'Founder, Hope of Utah' on the 2025 H.A.R. 143 form, a title the formation filing does not support (corrected August 25, 2026; an earlier version wrongly tied a co-presenter to the founding and used a retracted date)
Utah+3 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Vendors · 1 receipt
document Minutes, Utah Senate Education Standing Committee, February 9, 2024
What this confirms: p.3: 'Rep. Ken Ivory presented the bill with the assistance of Brooke Stevens, citizen'; records the substitution, Amendment #1 adoption, and the committee votes on 1st Sub. H.B. 29
The state school board censures Natalie Cline and calls for her resignation
The Utah State Board of Education censures member Natalie Cline (District 9) and calls for her resignation, after she posted on Facebook falsely implying that a high school girls' basketball player was transgender. The censure strips her of ALL committee assignments, prohibits her from placing items on board agendas, and restricts her from attending board advisory committee meetings
Utah+1 · Libraries / Community
The Legislature censures her as well, and declines to impeach
The Utah Legislature passes HCR018, 'House Concurrent Resolution Condemning and Censuring State School Board Member Natalie Cline', 2024 General Session. Chief Sponsor Robert M. Spendlove, Senate Sponsor Ann Millner, resolved 'by the Legislature of the state of Utah, the Governor concurring therein'. House 72-2, Senate unanimous. The Legislature declined to impeach, which the student's parents had requested. Cline ran anyway and lost the Republican convention on April 13, 2024, never reaching a primary; she left office January 6, 2025 and Amanda Bollinger holds District 9
Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Communitypartly verified
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technology
371 parents sign an open letter that names both rating sites
Deseret News publishes 'Opinion: Open letter to parents from parents on explicit content in schools', bylined Brooke Stephens and Gloria Vindas, carrying 371 signatories. The letter promotes two rating sites by name: 'Parents across the nation have spent their own time and money to develop the website booklooks.org and www.RatedBooks.org, which reviews and rates sexually explicit books in K-12 schools. Ratedbooks.org provides book reports as well as the location of these materials throughout the state.' It asserts 'over 100 sexually explicit book titles rated 4 or 5, roughly the equivalent of the mpaa NC-17 movie rating, or higher' and 'over 1,100 copies' of them in Utah K-12 schools. The signatory block includes Christina Boggess and Emily Knight Green, both sitting Utah State Board of Education members on that date, Cari Bartholomew, then a declared Utah State Board of Education District 13 candidate, plus 'Ken and Becky Ivory', 'Nicholeen and Spencer Peck', 'Dalane Meeks England', 'Diane Livingston', 'Corinne Johnson' and 'Carolyn Phippen'. The page carries the published timestamp Feb 22 2024 9:15 a.m. MST, the same timestamp printed on Ken Ivory's own Deseret op-ed that day (BBA row for ivory-deseret-oped-February 22, 2024)
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Communitypartly verified
Utah · Policy · 1 receipt
document Utah H.B. 29 (2024), First Substitute, Sensitive Material Review Amendments
What this confirms: The bill's own header block: "LEGISLATIVE GENERAL COUNSEL / Approved for Filing: M. Curtis / 02-09-24 12:43 PM" and "Senator Todd D. Weiler proposes the following substitute bill" (documented)
Utah · Policy · 1 receipt
document Utah Legislature handout doc 00001806, Senate Education, HB29, 2024
What this confirms: The document's entire first page reads: "Note: Due to potential criminal code restrictions on electronic distribution, enclosed materials are available upon request." (documented)
Utah+1 · Policy / Technology · 1 receiptsupported
document Frank Strong, "In 2024, We're Taking Down BookLooks", published Feb 10, 2024
What this confirms: Verbatim: "the #FilthyBooks campaign that activists used to influence Texas legislators to vote for HB 900 last spring. The main tool that makes this culling possible, of course, is BookLooks.org" (documented as the author's account) supported
Utah+1 · Policy / Technology
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receipt
archived page storylabs.online /trustedresources portal page, first archived capture February 28, 2024
What this confirms: The page was live on the storefront no later than February 28, 2024 (grading as recorded: (documented) presence by that date)
The timeline runs left to right. Scroll sideways, or hold Shift and scroll, to see the rest of this chapter.
Keyboard: ← → move along a lane, ↑ ↓ change lane, Home End jump to the ends, Enter opens the record.
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receipt
archived page Publishers Weekly, Andrew Albanese, "The Week in Libraries: March 1, 2024," Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) capture March 2, 2024
What this confirms: Publishers Weekly column dated Mar 01, 2024, bylined Andrew Albanese; the page names RatedBooks once, as a hyperlink (to the Nov-2022 Book Riot piece) inside a quoted Kelly Jensen passage about BookLooks and RatedBooks (documented)
Utah+1 · Libraries / Communitysupported
A board member asks who actually orders the books
At the Utah State Board of Education Standards & Assessment (video 02:39:00-02:40:05), a board member asks the library-procurement question in embryo: 'who orders the books that we get? What contracts are we in at a state level or local LEA level with publishers or distributors?... are we on an automatic shipment... it's putting a Band-Aid on a hemorrhage'; a participant at 02:40:37 offers to explain 'how librarians operate... how they contract'
Utah+1 · Libraries / Community · 1 receiptsupported
video '20240405 Standards and Assessment Committee(Live)', the Utah State Board of Education Media
What this confirms: At 2:39:00-2:40:05 a board member asks who orders the books, what contracts the state and LEAs are in with publishers or distributors, and calls the current approach 'putting a Band-Aid on a hemorrhage' (grading as recorded: (supported) as the row grades it) supported
View source at 159:00
The national webinar: BookLooks “supplies all of our ratings”
Protect Ohio Children Coalition hosts a national the Protect Child Health Coalition webinar, "Brooke Stephens - Rated Books" (55:24, YouTube eg4bgl1HPBU): host Diane Stover introduces Stephens as NEW co-chair of the national Protect Child Health Coalition and says pocc "has been advertising her website in Ohio for several years"; Stephens states BookLooks "supplies all of our ratings," retells the Harmer book story (dating it 1964), says of the 3-district statewide-removal law "in order to do that we have to have the data," claims "I actually built this app" of amplifyusa.com, describes keeping district-wide-searchable Destiny (the catalog software school libraries use) schools "a secret," and instructs never to use the terms "book banner, book burning"
Multi-state+3 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors / Community · 12 receipts
video Stover introduces Stephens as new the Protect Child Health Coalition co-chair
What this confirms: the co-chair seat, stated on tape
View source at 0:15
Protect Ohio Children channel, published April 5, 2024
video Origin story: a Protect Child Health Coalition seminar contact showed her "the list"
What this confirms: the Protect Child Health Coalition in her own origin account
View source at 5:30
Brooke Stephens, the Protect Child Health Coalition webinar, April 5, 2024
video The billboard and "truth truck" funnel, described
What this confirms: the funnel operation, her account
View source at 16:05
Brooke Stephens, the Protect Child Health Coalition webinar, April 5, 2024
document the Protect Child Health Coalition: "facilitated by Family Watch International (FWI)"
What this confirms: the coalition's own structure statement
protectchildhealth.org, as captured August 19, 2026
clip The introduction: “new co-chair of PCHC” (22s)
What this confirms: her seat in the national coalition, announced by its Ohio co-chair
“I'm Diane Stover, state director of the Protect Ohio Children Coalition and co-chair of the national Protect Child Health Coalition. Today we are so excited to have my colleague and new co-chair of PCHC, Brooke Stephens, with us. Brooke is with Utah Parents United and she's the founder of Rated Books.”
Diane Stover, the Protect Child Health Coalition webinar, April 5, 2024. Transcript from the video's own captions, checked against our saved copy of the recording.
clip The messaging rule, stated as strategy (20s)
What this confirms: the vocabulary discipline is deliberate, in her words
“Not what the left has said, is a book ban or book burning. And by the way, we try really hard never to use the terms book ban[ner], book burning, because we don't want to reinforce their lies. So what we call it is appropriate limits for kids.” (Two transcriptions differ on one word: YouTube captions hear “book banner,” machine transcription hears “book ban or.” Quoted to the agreed text.)
Brooke Stephens, the Protect Child Health Coalition webinar “Brooke Stephens - Rated Books,” Protect Ohio Children channel, April 5, 2024. Transcript from the video's own captions, checked against our saved copy of the recording.
clip Where the ratings come from (14s)
What this confirms: BookLooks as the operational source of RatedBooks' numbers, her statement
“They said hey, we need ratings, because you're giving us some really bad ones, some mediocre ones. So BookLooks from Florida is the one who supplies all of our ratings. I'm going to show you her page.”
Brooke Stephens, the Protect Child Health Coalition webinar “Brooke Stephens - Rated Books,” Protect Ohio Children channel, April 5, 2024. Transcript from the video's own captions, checked against our saved copy of the recording.
clip Pricing a district page (15s)
What this confirms: the $35 district-page price and how it was set
“I just give them a page and they can say whatever they want up here. It costs $35 — I just made that price up — and one-time fee, just so I could manage if like a million people came at me at once.”
Brooke Stephens, the Protect Child Health Coalition webinar “Brooke Stephens - Rated Books,” Protect Ohio Children channel, April 5, 2024. Transcript from the video's own captions, checked against our saved copy of the recording.
clip The Harmer book, retold (50s)
What this confirms: she cites the 1999 anti-obscenity memoir as her history, dating its story 1964
“A War We Must Win is an accounting of one man in California. It was before movie ratings, and he was trying to get the porn out of theaters, and the librarians were coming along and defending it as freedom of speech. So the pornographers were using librarians even before it was books… they came in and said, oh, we'll rate ourselves. So that was the birth of the movie rating system. It was in 1964.”
Brooke Stephens, the Protect Child Health Coalition webinar “Brooke Stephens - Rated Books,” Protect Ohio Children channel, April 5, 2024. Transcript from the video's own captions, checked against our saved copy of the recording.
clip The closing charge (14s)
What this confirms: the religious framing of the work, her words to volunteers
“Celebrate your wins — 'cause right after that you'll have a loss. You just keep going. Don't worry, you're on the right path. You're doing God's errand.”
Brooke Stephens, the Protect Child Health Coalition webinar “Brooke Stephens - Rated Books,” Protect Ohio Children channel, April 5, 2024. Transcript from the video's own captions, checked against our saved copy of the recording.
clip Why the spreadsheet exists (20s)
What this confirms: the data project's purpose is triggering the statewide-removal threshold, stated plainly
“We have a whole spreadsheet for the whole state, because the law that we just got passed is: if a book has been removed in three school districts, it needs to be removed statewide. And so in order to do that, we have to have the data — so we have done a spreadsheet map for all of these books.”
Brooke Stephens, the Protect Child Health Coalition webinar “Brooke Stephens - Rated Books,” Protect Ohio Children channel, April 5, 2024. Transcript from the video's own captions, checked against our saved copy of the recording.
clip The catalog back door (30s)
What this confirms: she keeps district-wide-searchable school catalogs secret from the districts
“We went to the school district and said, please click it so we can search the whole district at once, and they did. Now they turned it back because they're mad at us. And in other districts I went through all the schools until I found one that let me search the whole district… so I found those and keep them a secret so they don't change those settings.”
Brooke Stephens, the Protect Child Health Coalition webinar “Brooke Stephens - Rated Books,” Protect Ohio Children channel, April 5, 2024. Transcript from the video's own captions, checked against our saved copy of the recording.
Utah+1 · Libraries / Community · 1 receipt
video '20240416 Special Standards and Assessment Committee(Live)', the Utah State Board of Education Media
What this confirms: At 2:51:06 the chair turns to 'Vice chair Green', at the point where staff offer to follow up on procurement and the librarians before the next meeting (grading as recorded: (documented) that the exchange occurs there)
View source at 171:06
Between two drafts, a procurement clause enters the rule, six days after the briefing offer
Utah State Board of Education rule draft R277-628 Draft 3, page-dated April 22 2024, inserts a new conflict-of-interest subsection into the sensitive-materials rule: review-committee membership policy must address 'Those responsible for procurement or the individual who brought the challenge' — six days after staff told Vice Chair Green they would 'get with Adam Herd... about procurement'. In the April 16 packet that presented Draft 2 (credited on the attachment list to 'Board Member Earl'), 'procurement' appears nowhere (0 hits packet-wide, with the draft text present as control)
Utah+1 · Libraries / Communitypartly verified
Utah · Policy · 1 receipt
document Utah Legislature, Enrolled Copy H.B. 29, sensitive material review amendments, 2024 General Session, 8 pages, Chief Sponsor Ken Ivory, Senate Sponsor Todd D. Weiler
What this confirms: Page 1 of the enrolled PDF is headed 'Enrolled Copy H.B. 29 / sensitive material review amendments / 2024 general session / state OF utah'.
Utah · Policyneeds verification
Empowered Parents filed a director change
Utah · Community · 1 receipt
copy on file Empowered Parents (Utah entity 9699080-0140), Annual Report filed March 6, 2024
What this confirms: The March 6, 2024 annual-report filing exists in the registry's filing history (documented); that it recorded a director change is not supported by what the registry shows (unverified) supported
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receipt
copy on file Unlisted video, "UPU Title IX Class", uploaded April 23, 2024
What this confirms: The video exists at that id under that exact title and is reachable without login (grading as recorded: (documented) existence/title, (supported) upload date and view count) supported
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
The video is unlisted: reachable only by direct URL and absent from the channel, its feeds and search. It is cited by title and date rather than linked, because publishing the link would make findable something the uploader chose not to list.
The timeline runs left to right. Scroll sideways, or hold Shift and scroll, to see the rest of this chapter.
Keyboard: ← → move along a lane, ↑ ↓ change lane, Home End jump to the ends, Enter opens the record.
Utah+1 · Libraries / Vendors
Florida+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receipt
copy on file Escambia County Supervisor of Elections campaign-finance itemized transaction export (voterfocus.com export.php), 2024 cycle
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented) on the archived CSV)
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Pre-history · Libraries · 1 receipt
archived page NBC News, "Inside the two-year fight to bring charges against school librarians in Granbury, Texas" (2024-07)
What this confirms: Verbatim: Hood County DA "Sinclair turned down London's request to indict the librarians, citing a lack of conclusive evidence to charge them with felonies," and a librarian "left the district as a result"
Utah+2 · Libraries / Vendors / Community
Utah+1 · Libraries / Policy · 1 receiptsupported
document Amended Complaint, Vonnegut v. Brown, D. Utah 2:26-cv-00010-CMR, Doc. 98
What this confirms: Paragraph 138 and n.27: "LEAs reported 163 books as sensitive material to the USBE pursuant to the Per Se Ban. Of those 163 reports, Davis submitted 77 reports (47%), and Washington submitted 51"
Utah+1 · Libraries / Policy
Utah+1 · Libraries / Policy
Utah+1 · Libraries / Policy
The operator personally donated $50 to HB374/HB29's chief sponsor, her own co-presenter
Utah · Policy · 1 receipt
copy on file Utah campaign-finance record of a $50 individual contribution to HB374/HB29's chief sponsor, July 16, 2024
What this confirms: Nothing published on review; same route failure and privacy hold
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah+1 · Technology / Vendors · 1 receipt
copy on file Utah Div. of Corporations business information report, homeschool adventure life LLC, business ID 14055766-0160, effective 06/26/2024, status Inactive/Administratively Dissolved
What this confirms: Utah registry record of formation date, registered agent (a company’s official contact person) surname and dissolved status
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
The timeline runs left to right. Scroll sideways, or hold Shift and scroll, to see the rest of this chapter.
Keyboard: ← → move along a lane, ↑ ↓ change lane, Home End jump to the ends, Enter opens the record.
Utah+1 · Libraries / Policy · 1 receipt
document the Utah State Board of Education, "Sensitive Materials Removed in a Public School Setting Statewide.xlsx", sheet "Titles", the official statewide removal list linked from schools.utah.gov/curr/librarymedia
What this confirms: The state's own published list, with a "Date threshold met" column per title, is the primary record for statewide-threshold dates (documented); the August 2, 2024 batch of 13 titles is read from the July 6, 2026 snapshot in the vault, not from today's live copy (supported)
Escambia adopts a policy: books removed elsewhere “shall not be selected”
Escambia County (FL) School Board adopted policy po2520, drawn from the Neola commercial model-policy service (the text carries "© Neola 2024"). Its cross-district clause directs the media specialist to consult the Department of Education website and provides that books removed by other school districts "shall not be selected unless specific approval is requested of and obtained by the School Board."
Florida+2 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Utah the Utah legislature’s audit office Report No. 2025-11, "A Performance Audit of Sensitive Materials in Schools"
What this confirms: Verbatim: "In November 2024, our team began an audit of the sensitive materials review..." with a sample of 15 districts and 2 charter schools
'Living Dead Girl' crossed the statewide removal threshold (Davis, Tooele, Washington)
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Same the Utah State Board of Education statewide removal list
What this confirms: The state list is the primary record for the "Living Dead Girl" threshold date and districts (documented); the specific row is read from the July 6, 2026 snapshot (supported)
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Utah Legislative Audit Subcommittee, November 19 2024 - meeting audio archive
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented) that the recording is public; (supported) on the offset) supported
View source at 91:41
Utah+1 · Policy / Technology · 1 receipt
document Letter: Refusing Complicity in Israel's Literary Institutions, published October 28, 2024
What this confirms: That the open letter was published on October 28, 2024 with its signatory list (documented)
Florida · Technology · 1 receipt
document Clay County (FL) Request for Reconsideration packet, Running Loose, filed November 18, 2024
What this confirms: the document itself
The timeline runs left to right. Scroll sideways, or hold Shift and scroll, to see the rest of this chapter.
Keyboard: ← → move along a lane, ↑ ↓ change lane, Home End jump to the ends, Enter opens the record.
Utah+1 · Libraries / Policy
An Idaho library network pulls 140+ titles and proposes an adults-only room
The Community Library Network (Kootenai County, ID; seven branches) moved to implement Idaho HB 710 by creating an adults-only room in one branch, pulling 140+ titles from shelves “for review,” and seeking to eliminate all-access library cards for minors; it also proposed a collection development policy barring acquisition of children's, teen or YA materials containing “abortion, police discrimination, drugs, gender identity, occult, racism, rape, suicide, violence, nontraditional families or lifestyle”
Multi-state+2 · Libraries / Policy / Vendors
'Damsel' (Arnold) crossed the statewide removal threshold (Davis, Park City, Washington)
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Same the Utah State Board of Education statewide removal list
What this confirms: The state list is the primary record for the "Damsel" (Arnold) threshold date and districts (documented); row read from the snapshot (supported)
The board pulls the appeals from the batch vote and tables them
Davis school district board pulled the Sensitive Materials Appeal Committee recommendation OFF the consent agenda (a batch vote with no discussion) at the president’s request and, after discussion, tabled it until February by unanimous motion - conditioned on the district first publishing rationale information, and committee vote tallies, to its website. Consent items 1-7 were approved without it. The 5 titles (Breathless, How Beautiful the Ordinary, Lighter Than My Shadow, Lucky, The Almost Moon) returned on February 4, 2025 on the first appeal exhibit of the fourteen to carry a Rationale column.
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Community
'Like a Love Story' crossed the statewide removal threshold (Davis, Jordan, Washington)
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Same the Utah State Board of Education statewide removal list
What this confirms: The state list is the primary record for the "Like a Love Story" threshold date and districts (documented); row read from the snapshot (supported)
Utah+1 · Technology / Vendors · 1 receipt
copy on file Florida Division of Corporations annual-report history for booklooks.ORG LLC
What this confirms: The Sunbiz annual-report history is a state registry record (documented); the row's own date and 'last report' characterization are contradicted by the research archive's July 20, 2026 pull needs verification
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah · Community · 1 receipt
copy on file Unlisted video, "Highlight Reel of Gender Harmony Clips", uploaded January 27, 2025
What this confirms: The video exists at that id under that exact title and is reachable without login (grading as recorded: (documented) existence/title, (supported) upload date, view count and the description's naming of GenderHarmony.institute) supported
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
The video is unlisted: reachable only by direct URL and absent from the channel, its feeds and search. It is cited by title and date rather than linked, because publishing the link would make findable something the uploader chose not to list.
Delaware · Unsortedneeds verification
Publishing & vendors · Unsorted · 1 receipt
archived page PEN America "Banned Author List 2025", archived October 27, 2025
What this confirms: PEN's statement that the most banned author in U.S. public schools in the 2024-2025 school year was Stephen King, with 206 instances of book bans and 87 titles affected, and that Sarah J. Maas and Jodi Picoult were repeatedly targeted (documented)
Nlte (No Left Turn in Education) filed a 990-N postcard (receipts <=$50K) for CY2024
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receipt
document IRS Form 990-N (e-Postcard) bulk data file, apps.irs.gov
What this confirms: File contains the row '853163475|2024|NO left turn IN education|T|...' - a CY2024 990-N attesting gross receipts under $50,000
S&S Apps filed a Utah Annual Report/Renewal without changes
Utah · Unsorted
The timeline runs left to right. Scroll sideways, or hold Shift and scroll, to see the rest of this chapter.
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Six removals pass in one batch vote
Davis school district board consent-approved (Consent Items 1-6, carried 7-0, none opposed: Gerrard, Price, Powell, Hogan, Barber, Mercer, Stevens) the Sensitive Materials Appeals Committee recommendation to remove 6 titles - Breathless, How Beautiful the Ordinary, Lighter Than My Shadow, Lucky, Storm and Fury, The Almost Moon - and to defer Drama pending a Subjective Review. First exhibit in the 14 to carry a Rationale column.
Utah+1 · Libraries / Vendors
Utah+3 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Vendorspartly verified
A tab counts which districts have removed each title, and marks the ones that crossed
A tab in the activist workbook tracks removals the district never announced, and a second column assembles the three-district case for putting a title on the state list. The workbook created February 21, 2025 for Jordan School District carries eleven sheets of which seven are hidden. Its visible tab named for unreported removals holds 61 titles laid out as an availability grid across thirteen named Jordan schools, with 31 cells marked simply 'gone' across 24 titles, sitting beside longhand equivalents in neighbouring cells such as 'No longer showing at Valley HS' and 'Removed, now showing in Valley High Catalog'. How that data is produced is documented by the workbook's own column headers rather than assumed: a person opens each district's public library catalog, searches title by title on a dated pass, and records what is present at which school, with a later pass marking gone where a title that was there before no longer appears. Headers carry the catalog address, the date of the pass and workarounds for districts whose catalogs cannot be searched district-wide. The first column of the same tab is headed 'Removed in Utah' and annotates 13 titles with the other districts that had removed them, ten of them reading Davis and Washington, while the second column's header states that an orange highlight means the title has met the statewide removal threshold
Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Technologypartly verified
Three unrated Utah targets borrow a filled Florida complaint as their evidence
Where the Utah operation had not rated a title, its workbook linked a completed Florida complaint instead. Three titles in the February 2025 Jordan workbook carry, in place of a rating-report link, a filled Santa Rosa County Florida citizen's request form for re-evaluation of instructional materials. Each of the three cells says so in the same words, that the title is not rated yet and that all districts still need to be searched. All three forms name the same initiating filer, a documented Escambia-area complainant, and carry her objection text in full with page citations and the Florida statutory hooks 847.012 and HB 1069. One of the forms carries a handling instruction in its own header stating that the textual evidence may not be deleted or altered in any form or fashion and that the complainant's address and phone number must be blacked out before publishing on the county website. The links sit in four separate tabs, repeated across the per-district columns
Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Technologypartly verified
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receiptsupported
document Public Google Sheet "Books Rated 4's and 5's in Utah", tab "35 Utah locations"
What this confirms: That the tab carries a row for "Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins" with school codes SHS, THS, GHS, dphs, cjjh, tjhs under the Washington School District column (documented)
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receiptsupported
archived page Minnesota Reformer, "ACLU, teachers, students sue St. Francis Area Schools over book bans", March 24, 2025
What this confirms: That St. Francis Area Schools adopted a library policy in November relying on BookLooks ratings, with a rating of 3 or higher subject to removal, and that the ACLU, teachers and students sued (documented as the outlet's reporting) supported
'Tricks' (Hopkins) crossed the statewide removal threshold (Davis, Tooele, Washington)
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Same the Utah State Board of Education statewide removal list
What this confirms: The state list is the primary record for the "Tricks" (Hopkins) threshold date and districts (documented); row read from the snapshot (supported)
The day BookLooks announces its shutdown, RatedBooks promises to carry its reviews on
Same day as the shutdown notice, RatedBooks founder Brooke Stephens posted as Admin in the 'LaVerna in the Library - Utah's Mary in the Library' Facebook group, attaching the notice graphic: 'RatedBooks.org is grateful for all of the work and reviews freely given by booklooks.org. RatedBooks.org will continue to provide links to all of booklooks.org's reports and will continue aiding in organizing and providing book reviews.'
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Community
A split Davis board removes Twisted and The Hate U Give on a 4–3 vote
Davis school district board, Sensitive Materials Appeal (moved from Consent #7 to a Business Item): the motion to uphold the Objective Committee's determination to retain Drama and remove Twisted and The Hate U Give failed 3-4 (in favor: Pres. Brigit Gerrard, Julie Powell, Kristen Hogan; opposed: VP Emily Price, Alisa Mercer, Joani Stevens, Michelle Barber). Emily Price's substitute motion to approve the Appeals Committee recommendation carried 4-3 (the same split reversed). The board's pro-removal minority on these titles = Gerrard, Powell, Hogan.
Utah+2 · Libraries / Vendors / Community · 1 receipt
document Davis School District Board of Education minutes, Regular Meeting March 18, 2025 (BoardBook Premier, org 914)
What this confirms: Records the failed 3-4 motion to uphold removal of Twisted and The Hate U Give and the carried 4-3 substitute motion, with per-member votes
BookLooks posted a shutdown notice on its own site
Utah · Technology · 1 receipt
archived page booklooks.org home page carrying the shutdown notice, archived March 9, 2025 23:08 UTC
What this confirms: The notice verbatim: "As of Sunday March 23, 2025 BookLooks.org will be ceasing operation and taking down all of our reports from the site ... after much prayer and reflection it has become apparent that His work for us here is complete" (documented)
Utah+2 · Technology / Vendors / Community
First press mention: RatedBooks “is maintaining the BookLooks archive”
Minnesota Reformer, covering the ACLU-Minnesota/Education Minnesota suits against St. Francis Area Schools filed that day, reported: 'BookLooks is shutting down, according to a message on its website, but a similar organization — ratedbooks.org out of Utah, is maintaining the BookLooks archive'; the earliest located press statement of the RatedBooks absorption, published one day after BookLooks ceased operation
Utah · Technology
Utah · Community · 1 receipt
copy on file Utah annual report, Empowered Parents, entity 9699080-0140, filed March 12, 2025 (filing number 250312260194B)
What this confirms: From the PDF: "Domestic Nonprofit Corporation - Annual Report / Renewal with changes"; charitable-organization question = Yes; required to file 990/990-EZ/990-N/990-PF = Yes; supporting doc 03122025115220146AM.pdf is a Form 990-N (e-Postcard) for tax year July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024. Row wording matches the document. NO public URL: the Utah registry serves entity records only behind a Cloudflare Turnstile post, and the annual-report PDF has no addressable URL.
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receipt
copy on file Unlisted video, "Time to Speak Up", uploaded March 1, 2025
What this confirms: The video exists at that id under that exact title and is reachable without login (grading as recorded: (documented) existence/title, (supported) upload date and view count) supported
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
The video is unlisted: reachable only by direct URL and absent from the channel, its feeds and search. It is cited by title and date rather than linked, because publishing the link would make findable something the uploader chose not to list.
The timeline runs left to right. Scroll sideways, or hold Shift and scroll, to see the rest of this chapter.
Keyboard: ← → move along a lane, ↑ ↓ change lane, Home End jump to the ends, Enter opens the record.
ALA released its Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2024 during National Library Week
Publishing & vendors · Libraries · 1 receipt
archived page ALA "Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2024" page, archived May 1, 2025
What this confirms: That ALA published a Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2024 list, live on ala.org by May 1, 2025 (documented). That the release happened during National Library Week (April 2025) is not stated on this page (unverified)
Verified August 20, 2026: the timestamp this receipt named did not exist; Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) was serving a different capture and returning 200. Re-pointed to the capture actually served.
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Same the Utah State Board of Education statewide removal list
What this confirms: The state list is the primary record for the "Water for Elephants" threshold date and districts (documented); that this was the first batch not including Washington is our own reading across rows (supported)
PAL Humanitarian filed an Annual Report confirming charitable-org filing requirement
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
copy on file Utah Div. of Corporations & Commercial Code, Domestic Nonprofit Annual Report/Renewal, P A L humanitarian services INC., entity 9003835-0140, filing 250527376253B, filed May 19, 2025
What this confirms: Utah registry annual report answering the charitable-organization questionnaire "Yes"
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Baggett asks the board to remove books other Florida districts removed
Vicki Baggett writes to Supt. Leonard, the Escambia board AND FL Attorney General James Uthmeier objecting that library committees voted 6-2 and 8-0 to keep two titles; she asks the board to 'remove books that have already been removed in other Florida school districts', says 'several school districts are now following your lead', cites a 'master submission list' Google Sheet, and links a YouTube 'video Review that I have made available to the public'
Florida · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Vicki Baggett letter May 27, 2025 to Supt. Leonard, the Escambia board and AG James Uthmeier, in the district's own published reconsideration record
What this confirms: The letter's text: the 6-2 and 8-0 committee votes to keep, the request to "remove books that have already been removed in other Florida school districts", "several school districts are now following your lead", the linked master-submission Google Sheet, and the YouTube "video Review that I have made available to the public" (documented)
Florida · Libraries
Utah's HB29 statewide list reached 22 titles per the EveryLibrary tracker
Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Technology · 1 receiptsupported
document EveryLibrary, "Utah's Statewide Book Banning Machine Is Now at 22 Titles"
What this confirms: That EveryLibrary reported Utah's statewide removal list reaching 22 titles (documented as the tracker's own statement) supported
Applying for the seat, Longacre says students still reach explicit books
Seeking the Utah State Board of Education District 7 appointment, Erin Longacre answers a Coalition Utah questionnaire put to all six candidates. Asked whether students still have access to sexually explicit materials through the schools, she answers: 'I do believe, and know first hand, that students still have access to books that are not age appropriate. My child bought a book at a scholastic book fair that was being displayed on a table about animals. She loves animals. It was geared to her age group. I saw the book's cover and thought to myself that it looked fine. The quote, don't judge a book by its cover, is more true than ever in this day and age. The book was about a girl transitioning. It had nothing to do with cats. I was angry and frustrated to say the least. So, YES! Kids still have access to inappropriate books.' Asked which provisions of current state law facilitate that access, she leaves it blank. Rival finalist Kris Kimball answered that part by naming the LEA-threshold removal provision
Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Community
Escambia’s board orders removals from a state list “without further review”
Escambia County School Board directs the Superintendent, 5-0, to 'eliminate all pornographic or age-inappropriate books from district media centers, as identified on the Department of Education's book removal list, without further review'; same motion delays media-center book purchases and donations until a screening process exists. Motion Fetsko, second Adams; yes: Adams, Fetsko, Williams, Bergosh, Harrell
Florida · Libraries
Utah+1 · Libraries / Policy · 1 receipt
document Utah the Utah legislature’s audit office Report No. 2025-11, "A Performance Audit of Sensitive Materials in Schools," transmittal letter
What this confirms: Transmittal dated June 18, 2025, over Kade R. Minchey, Legislative Auditor General; audit visited 15 districts and 2 charter schools and confirmed all 41 school districts had policies
The state party sends the Governor three names, all three promoted by Cline’s group
The Utah Republican Party State Central Committee, after three rounds of voting, sends Governor Cox three names for the vacant Utah State Board of Education District 7 seat: Kris Kimball, Erin Longacre and Glen Burton. Under Utah Code 20A-1-504 the Governor must appoint 'from three persons nominated by the state central committee of the same political party as the prior officeholder', with no Senate confirmation on this branch. The seat was open because Molly Hart had been selected state superintendent. At least six people sought it. ALL three finalists were promoted by Higher Ground, run by former Utah State Board of Education member Natalie Cline with Monica Wilbur, and Families for Liberty endorsed the same three
Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Communitypartly verified
Utah Code 53G-10-103 took effect in its current HB29-amended form (2025 General Session Ch. 173)
Utah · Policy
Utah+2 · Technology / Vendors / Community · 1 receipt
copy on file RatedBooks.org Utah Articles of Incorporation / Business Information Report, entity 14574510-0140
What this confirms: the document itself needs verification
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
RatedBooks.org filed a Utah Annual Report listing three directors (Utah, South Dakota, Michigan)
Utah · Technology · 1 receipt
copy on file RatedBooks.org Utah Annual Report, filed May 25, 2025
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah+1 · Technology / Vendors · 1 receipt
archived page storylabs.online product page, "Rated Books Donation," first archived capture June 21, 2025
What this confirms: The donation product was live on the storefront no later than June 21, 2025 (grading as recorded: (documented) presence by that date)
The timeline runs left to right. Scroll sideways, or hold Shift and scroll, to see the rest of this chapter.
Keyboard: ← → move along a lane, ↑ ↓ change lane, Home End jump to the ends, Enter opens the record.
Florida · Libraries
Florida · Libraries
The Eleventh Circuit dismisses the board’s appeal
The Eleventh Circuit dismisses the Escambia School Board's appeal in PEN America v. Escambia County School Board for lack of appellate jurisdiction. Two jurisdictional holdings and no merits: the Board cannot appeal because the legislative privilege belongs to its individual members, and the five members cannot appeal because they never participated below - their filed declarations were 'substantially less participation than the school district in Finn'. Panel Branch, Abudu and Kidd
Florida+2 · Libraries / Policy / Community · 1 receipt
document PEN American Center v. Escambia County School Board, 11th Cir. No. 24-13896, unpublished per curiam opinion, July 15, 2025
What this confirms: The panel dismisses the Board's appeal for lack of appellate jurisdiction on two grounds and reaches no merits; caption marked PER curiam and DO NOT publish; panel Branch, Abudu and Kidd
Florida+1 · Libraries / Policy · 1 receiptpartly verified
document PEN American Center v. Escambia County School Board, 11th Cir. No. 24-13896, unpublished per curiam opinion, July 15, 2025
What this confirms: Footnote 1 records that plaintiffs asserted ten books removed in the complaint and only nine on appeal, and does not resolve the discrepancy (grading as recorded: (documented) that both figures were asserted / (unverified) which is correct) needs verification
The court quotes her stated grounds, including “LGBTQ agenda using penguins”
The opinion quotes Baggett's stated grounds directly, calling her 'a county teacher': the books allegedly contained 'pornography', 'race-baiting' and 'explicit language', 'encourage[d] pedophilia', and presented an 'LGBTQ agenda using penguins'. The five Board members are named in the caption as Interested Parties-Appellants: Kevin Adams, Paul Fetsko, Patty Hightower, William Slayton, David Williams
Florida+2 · Libraries / Policy / Community · 1 receipt
document PEN American Center v. Escambia County School Board, 11th Cir. No. 24-13896, unpublished per curiam opinion, July 15, 2025
What this confirms: The opinion quotes the challenger's stated grounds, including 'race-baiting' and 'pedophilia', and names the five Board members in the caption as Interested Parties-Appellants
Florida+1 · Libraries / Policy · 1 receiptpartly verified
document Escambia County School Board agenda item, Jul 15, 2025 Regular Meeting, item 44.A 'Media Center Materials Removed In Compliance with School Board Directive'
What this confirms: Motion by Kevin Adams, second by Tom Harrell, Motion Carries, Yes: Adams, Fetsko, Williams, Bergosh, Harrell - removing the listed titles in compliance with the June 17, 2025 directive keyed to the FL DOE removal list, 'without further review' (grading as recorded: (documented) the board action / (unverified) the 410 count from this URL) needs verification
Florida+1 · Libraries / Technology
Florida+2 · Libraries / Technology / Community · 1 receipt
video S&S Apps, 'How to Use the National Book Rating Index'
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented) that the form template appears on screen with those pre-printed categories)
View source at 10:33
RatedBooks rates Bag of Bones its worst band; a Davis challenge follows in seventeen days
RatedBooks.org adds Bag of Bones by Stephen King to its master report list, rating 5, its worst band, carrying the '5*' flag the list's own header glosses as 'Alt Gender or Sexualities', with a report link and a tinyurl. Seventeen days later a challenge document for the same title is created and filed in Davis School District. Six Stephen King titles appear on the RatedBooks list - Bag of Bones and Different Seasons and Apt Pupil and Doctor Sleep and The Bazaar of Bad Dreams all rated 5, and 11/22/63 rated 4 - and TWO of the six are now banned statewide in Utah
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technologypartly verified
Cox fills the seat, and his office does not announce it
Governor Spencer Cox appoints Erin Longacre to the vacant Utah State Board of Education District 7 seat; she assumes office August 14, 2025. The Governor's office does not announce it. A search of governor.utah.gov for her name returns ONE article block, a generic schedule page, while the same endpoint searched for 'Adams' returns SIX, including 'Gov. Spencer Cox appoints Angela Adams to Fifth District Juvenile Court'. ABC4 obtained the date by asking, and was told the office 'typically do not announce when they fill a vacancy'. She faces voters for the first time on November 3, 2026, in a special general for the unexpired term, against James Martin (D); the June 2026 Republican primary was canceled
Utah+1 · Libraries / Policy
The timeline runs left to right. Scroll sideways, or hold Shift and scroll, to see the rest of this chapter.
Keyboard: ← → move along a lane, ↑ ↓ change lane, Home End jump to the ends, Enter opens the record.
Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Technology · 1 receiptneeds verification
document KUTV, 'Most Utah school book bans trace back to one district, data shows'
What this confirms: Article states 24 of 25 book challenges filed in Davis School District came from a single individual, per Let Utah Read data
The Bag of Bones challenge file is a RatedBooks-generated document
The Davis School District challenge document for Bag of Bones is a RatedBooks-generated document. The 11-page, 885 KB PDF 'Bag of Bones plausibility document.pdf' carries the footer 'Generated by RatedBooks.org' seven times, alongside the vendor's standard structure: a 'Summary of Concerns' list, verbatim excerpts under 'Page Content <N>' headings keyed to printed page numbers, and profanity word counts. Its opening tag line reads 'profanity, racism, self-harm, sexism, suicidal thoughts, and violence (graphic). By Stephen King' followed by five ISBNs. The district's own tracker records the challenge date as August 14, 2025, its note on the row reads 'Challenge form appears to use AI', the decision on September 26, 2025 was remove, and the title had 61 circulations. The threshold for statewide removal was met February 13, 2026, naming Davis, Granite, Jordan and Tooele
Utah+3 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors / Communitypartly verified
The same document answers a Davis challenge form and travels to Jordan in a legislator’s email
The document a legislator sent to a Jordan board member to get a book challenged is the same document that answers question 11 on the Davis challenge form for that book. On 14 August 2025 Representative Ken Ivory emailed Jordan School District board member Brian Barnett, blind copying Brooke Stephens, and asked him to submit Bag of Bones for challenge because, in Ivory's words, he is not considered a person authorized to challenge such materials. Ivory supplied a link and described it as an analysis performed by concerned parents. The link is a Google Doc titled 'Bag of Bones by Stephen King', headed 'AI Review of violations' and organized by the subsections of the state statute Ivory cites in the same email. The Davis School District challenge form for the same title, created the next morning, answers its question 11, which asks the filer to explain concerns in their own words, with the body of that Google Doc, every one of its 450 words matching, and answers its question 12, which asks for supporting evidence, with the same short link the Google Doc prints on its first line. That link resolves to a seven page RatedBooks 'Pending Final Report', a copy of which is stapled to the Davis bundle and matches the linked copy token for token. Barnett filed Jordan's reconsideration form at 1:17 in the morning on 16 August; Ivory forwarded the confirmation to Stephens that afternoon and she replied three minutes later. Bag of Bones crossed the statewide removal threshold the following February, naming Davis, Granite, Jordan and Tooele
Utah+4 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Vendors / Communitypartly verified
Utah+3 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors / Community · 1 receiptpartly verified
copy on file Facebook post and flyer image for a paid 15-week 'Exemplars of Liberty' course, dated August 20, 2025
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented as the flyer states))
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Community · 1 receipt
copy on file Flyer image for 'exemplars OF liberty', 15 classes 9/4-1/15, $100 or free to Moms for America members
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented as the flyer states))
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Publishing & vendors+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receiptsupported
document Follett (the company behind the Destiny school catalog software) Content news release, September 23, 2025
What this confirms: Follett (the company behind the Destiny school catalog software) Content announced it 'will support the children's and Young Adult public library space', citing 6,000+ publishers, 370,000 titles, 80,000 FollettBound (documented); the release does NOT mention Baker & Taylor (documented) supported
Utah · Unsorted
Blockade GitHub repo (SchoolingDelaware/B.L.O.C.K.A.D.E.-Book_Scanner) last commit, version 0.177b
Delaware · Unsorted
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receipt
copy on file Unlisted video, "Charlie Kirk Was a Role Model for the Freedom to Speak, Live and Believe According to Conscience", uploaded September 17, 2025
What this confirms: The video exists at that id under that exact title and is reachable without login (grading as recorded: (documented) existence/title, (supported) upload date and view count) supported
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
The video is unlisted: reachable only by direct URL and absent from the channel, its feeds and search. It is cited by title and date rather than linked, because publishing the link would make findable something the uploader chose not to list.
The timeline runs left to right. Scroll sideways, or hold Shift and scroll, to see the rest of this chapter.
Keyboard: ← → move along a lane, ↑ ↓ change lane, Home End jump to the ends, Enter opens the record.
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Office of the Legislative Auditor General, Report No. 2025-28, "A Review of School Library Books"
What this confirms: The audit exists, reviewed a selection of 22 books, and cites ratedbooks.org in its own text (documented); the "~34 books banned statewide", "33 of 34 first removed in Davis" and "104 total Davis removals" figures are NOT in this report (documented as a negative, see notes) supported
Utah · Librariesneeds verification
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Utah the Utah legislature’s audit office Report 2025-28, 'A Review of School Library Books'
What this confirms: p.35 carries the Utah State Board of Education's October 6, 2025 response letter to Auditor General Kade Minchey reaffirming its LEA support role
The state audit’s book sample comes from a ratedbooks.org list
Utah the Utah legislature’s audit office transmitted Report 2025-28, 'A Review of School Library Books: Questionable Content Shows the Need for More Robust Oversight'; sample drawn from a 186-title ratedbooks.org list (itself based on the 'now-defunct' booklooks.org rating system) supplied by 'a concerned legislator,' 7 districts reviewed, settling on a 22-book sample (20 found plus 2 added 'based on legislative concern'); 21 of 22 (95%) contained statutorily-defined sexual conduct, 16 of 22 (73%) nudity; the Legislative Audit Subcommittee received the presentation and voted (one dissent) to refer 'a review of school library books' to two committees
Utah+3 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Community · 1 receipt
document Utah the Utah legislature’s audit office Report 2025-28, 'A Review of School Library Books: Questionable Content Shows the Need for More Robust Oversight'
What this confirms: Report states the books were chosen from a 186-title list supplied by 'a concerned legislator', that the list is ratedbooks.org and the ratings derive from 'a now-defunct website called booklooks.org', and that 21 of 22 (95 percent) contained sexual conduct and 16 (73 percent) nudity
Utah+3 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Vendors · 1 receipt
document Book People, Inc. v. Wong, W.D. Tex. 1:23-cv-00858-ADA, Document 110, filed 10/21/25
What this confirms: The order, signed October 21, 2025 by alan D albright, holding READER's rating requirements compelled speech, void for vagueness as applied, and an unconstitutional prior restraint (documented)
'Thirteen Reasons Why' crossed the statewide removal threshold (Nebo, Tooele, Washington)
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Same the Utah State Board of Education statewide removal list
What this confirms: The state list is the primary record for the "Thirteen Reasons Why" threshold date and districts (documented); row read from the snapshot (supported)
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technologysupported
Utah+2 · Policy / Technology / Community
Utah · Technology · 1 receipt
document RatedBooks.org rubric PDF linked as 'Download v. 2' on https://www.ratedbooks.org/ratingscale
What this confirms: A 1-page PDF, pdfinfo Title 'Copy of 10/2025 Downloadable Copy of Comprehensive Rating Scale', Author Brooke Stephens, CreationDate October 20, 2025, reading 'Comprehensive Content Based Rating Scale / Version 2.0 - October 2025 / Pavement Education Project with RatedBooks.org'
Utah · Technology
Utah Moms for America incorporates, with Stephens as an officer
Utah moms FOR america registers as a Utah domestic nonprofit corporation, Business ID 14619261-0140, status Active/Current, "Solicits Charitable Contribution: No." Principal Information, all last-updated the same day, lists four people: an incorporator and a treasurer who share a surname and a city and appear nowhere else in these records, Officer brooke stephens (Layton), Director cari bartholomew (Payson), who is also the registered agent (a company’s official contact person) and whose address is the entity's own
Utah+2 · Technology / Vendors / Community · 1 receiptpartly verified
copy on file Utah moms FOR america, Utah domestic nonprofit corporation, Business ID 14619261-0140, effective October 9, 2025
What this confirms: The Utah Business Information Report is the filing and prints the four principal titles (documented); that the named officer is the Brooke Stephens in this investigation is a strong inference from exact name plus exact city across two independent state filings (supported)
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
A "UT HEART sex ed homeschool version" product appears on the storylabs.online storefront
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receipt
archived page storylabs.online product page, "UT HEART sex ed homeschool version," first archived capture October 10, 2025
What this confirms: The product was live on the storefront no later than October 10, 2025 (grading as recorded: (documented) presence by that date)
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Utah+4 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Vendors / Community
Utah+3 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors / Community
A legislator asks why the catalog cannot be searched at once, and twenty minutes later it can
The search limit the challenge operation had been working around for nine months was removed by the district and its catalog vendor inside a twenty-minute email reply, with the rating operator on copy. In February 2025 the activist workbook for Jordan recorded that district as not searchable district wide and worked around it school by school, carrying thirteen separate named school columns that were checked individually. On 6 November 2025 Representative Ken Ivory emailed a Jordan board member asking why parents could not search the district's entire catalog at once, unlike most other districts, and in the same message urged the district to remove everything rated 4 or 5 and scrutinise what was rated 2 or 3. Twenty minutes later the board member replied that the district had worked with its catalog vendor to provide a work-around allowing district-wide searches, gave step-by-step instructions, and said the vendor would provide a full-blown enhancement soon that would work more seamlessly. Brooke Stephens was copied on the reply
Utah+4 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Vendors / Communitypartly verified
Utah+3 · Libraries / Policy / Vendors / Community
Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Communitypartly verified
Take Back the Classroom's Utah dataset lists 45 districts, 535 schools, 3,414 flagged books
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receiptneeds verification
archived page Take Back the Classroom backing API, districts endpoint for state code UT, Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) snapshot August 19, 2026
What this confirms: The site's own API returns 45 Utah districts and 535 schools with per-district flagged-book counts (grading as recorded: (documented) on the snapshot's contents, (supported) on the row's numbers) supported
Florida · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Ecps 22-26 Reconsiderations (website) - Escambia County (FL) Public Schools reconsiderations register
What this confirms: the document itself
Florida · Libraries
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Official minutes, Utah Education Interim Committee, Wednesday, November 19, 2025
What this confirms: That the Utah legislature’s audit office's Leah Blevins, Audit Manager, and Morgan Hagey, Lead Performance Auditor, presented both audits, and that the Utah State Board of Education responded through Dr. Amanda Bollinger, Vice Chair, and Elisse Newey, Deputy Superintendent of Policy (documented)
Utah+1 · Libraries / PolicyResearch note
Utah+2 · Technology / Vendors / Community · 1 receipt
copy on file Operator's November 2025 newsletter announcing the National Book Rating Index members-only index "coming end of 2025" at $5/month or $50 lifetime
What this confirms: Nothing published on review; the source is a distributed newsletter with no located public archive
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah+1 · Technology / Vendors · 1 receiptsupported
document Book Riot, "What Is Take Back The Classroom?: Book Censorship News, November 14, 2025"
What this confirms: Verbatim: "BookLooks reviews did not disappear, though. They were folded into RatedBooks, another such unprofessional review site" (documented as the outlet's statement) supported
Utah · Technology
The defensive domain nationalbookratingindex.org created
Utah · Technology
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Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Technology
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receipt
copy on file Tooele County school district records release, removal emails December 1, 2025
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
An Arizona district reads a library policy twice and passes it the same night
Queen Creek USD (AZ) Governing Board held a study session and first read of revised Policy 5-209 'School Libraries, Media, and Resource Centers,' presented by an associate superintendent, two board members raising workload/syllabus points; the Board then approved the revised policy on second read the same night as part of its consent agenda (item 6.F), citing A.R.S. 13-3501/13-3506 and 15-120.03(C) as new legal authority, requiring classroom-library inventory review and 60-day public posting of new materials
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Community
A board member describes publishing as an industry with “no accountability”
At a Utah State Board of Education Study Session / usdb Governing Board meeting (video 03:45:09), Member Green delivers the full supply-chain recitation: 'reaching out to librarians to understand the procurement process... curating an order, picking that, shipping that, receiving that, inventorying that, cataloging that'; 03:46-03:48: 'these industries to push these novels... no accountability... the biggest market in our nation, which is public education and its libraries'
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Community · 2 receipts
clip “Reaching out to librarians to understand the procurement process” (38s)
What this confirms: a sitting State Board member describing library acquisition as a supply chain, on the record, in the meeting that took up the sensitive-materials motion
“I've spent some time reaching out to librarians to understand the procurement process. Like, what is it? What does it take to get a book? And if you stock your business shelves, you know that there are many, many, many levels that go into curating an order, picking that, shipping that, receiving that, inventorying that, cataloging that, placing it on the shelves. And then the process of that being used.”
Member Green, Utah State Board of Education study session, December 5, 2025, at 3:45:09 in the meeting recording. Transcript from machine transcription of the cut file; two independent passes agree on every word quoted.
video 'December 5, 2025 | the Utah State Board of Education Study Session Meeting and Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind | the Utah State Board of Education', the Utah State Board of Education Media
What this confirms: At 3:45:09 Member Green gives the supply-chain recitation - reaching out to librarians to understand the procurement process, then curating, picking, shipping, receiving, inventorying and cataloging an order
View source at 225:09
Multi-state+2 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors
Utah+4 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Vendors / Community
RatedBooks describes its own rating formula in a fundraising email
Kelly Jensen (Well Sourced) publishes a piece quoting RatedBooks' own Giving Tuesday solicitation copy, in which the operation describes its public-facing ratings in the first person: "We use a manually assigned formula to generate a generic safety rating (all ages, juvenile advisory, youth advisory, youth restricted, adults only & deviant content)." Jensen notes RatedBooks revised the email ask campaign after the first send
Utah · Technology · 1 receiptsupported
document Well Sourced (Kelly Jensen), 'What is the National Book Rating Index?', dated December 6, 2025
What this confirms: The post contains the phrase 'manually assigned formula' once supported
Utah · Technology · 1 receipt
video S&S Apps, 'Introduction to the National Book Rating Index'
What this confirms: Video is live and public; oEmbed title matches the row exactly
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Utah pays Hope of Utah $135,000 of a $150,000 appropriation
Transparent Utah shows a single FY2026 payment of $135,000 from the State of Utah to Hope of Utah, dated Aug 6 2025. The enacted appropriation was $150,000 (S.B. 3, 2025 GS, Item 184), so the payment is $15,000 under it, not over. Rep. Lisonbee sponsored H.A.R. 143 (cobi issue 23854) requesting $58,000 one-time + $250,000 ongoing; the ongoing request was denied in full and the one-time was enacted at $150,000. S.B. 3 states intent to grant $150,000 in FY2026 'for empowering local community leaders and nonprofits' (no mention of books/libraries)
Utah+3 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors / Community
Utah+1 · Libraries / Policy · 1 receiptpartly verified
document Arizona SB 1435, 57th Legislature 2nd Regular Session (2026), introduced by Senator Hoffman
What this confirms: Same document as BBA-0430 (grading as recorded: (documented) on text and sponsor, (supported) on the manner of death) supported
Three more titles cross the statewide removal threshold in one day
the Utah State Board of Education emailed/notified LEA sensitive-materials reps that three titles -- 'Wicked,' 'Nineteen Minutes,' and 'Perks of Being a Wallflower' -- met the statewide threshold and crossed it the same day (Davis, Tooele, Washington), bringing the cumulative statewide total to 22; 'One Last Stop' (also removed independently at Tooele on December 1, 2025) did NOT appear on the statewide list; 'Wicked' was also one of the 22 books in the 2025-28 audit sample
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
document the Utah State Board of Education, 'List of titles to be removed from Utah public schools'
What this confirms: The official USBE-published statewide removal list, linked from https://www.schools.utah.gov/curr/librarymedia supported
Authors, students, and the Vonnegut Estate sue over Utah’s removal law
The Vonnegut Estate, three named authors, and two anonymous students, represented by ACLU of Utah, filed the original 59-page Complaint in D. Utah (2:26-cv-00010-RJS-CMR) against the Utah AG, the Utah State Board of Education, and multiple districts -- a First/14th Amendment Sec. 1983 challenge to HB29's single-passage rule and Statewide Ban. Per the original Complaint: Davis ~77 books removed under the Per Se Ban, Washington ~52, Granite ~71, Salt Lake City 22.
Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Technology · 1 receipt
document Original Complaint, Kurt Vonnegut Estate v. Brown, D. Utah 2:26-cv-00010, filed January 6, 2026, as published by ACLU of Utah
What this confirms: The filed complaint itself: caption "Case 2:26-cv-00010", "Filed 01/06/26", 59 pages (documented); the per-district removal counts are in its numbered paragraphs (documented)
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receipt
document Kelly Jensen, "Bad Library Bills, 2026 Edition: State-Level Legislation of Concern", Well Sourced, January 10, 2026
What this confirms: The post exists, is dated January 10, 2026, and names RatedBooks / the National Book Rating Index in its text (documented)
Her email to 85 legislators: “In my work with RatedBooks”
Brooke Stephens sends a mass email titled "Reasons your should support HB 197" to roughly 85 Republican Utah legislators at 10:23 AM. Writing "In my work with RatedBooks," she argues for the bill's requirement that the Utah State Board of Education furnish LEAs a review list (lines 299-309), recounting that she asked Davis School District to link to her ratings and "They said they don't use resources from private citizens; they will only use something from the USBE"; that she then asked Utah State Board of Education board members to circulate "our monthly list" and only one reported doing so; and that on October 14, 2025 she asked the State Superintendent to share flagged materials with schools and was told "she needs the legislature to do that"
Utah+3 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Community · 1 receipt
copy on file Utah Legislature Utah public-records law release: email 'Reasons your should support HB 197', January 12, 2026, 2pp
What this confirms: The released email arguing for HB197's USBE-list provision and recounting a school district's refusal to link privately produced ratings (documented)
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah+1 · Libraries / Community · 1 receipt
video S&S Apps, 'Understanding Propaganda and Protecting Children' (January 21, 2026)
What this confirms: Video is live and public; oEmbed title matches supported
Utah · Libraries
Utah · Libraries
Same video: the operator states South Carolina has "about 20 statewide removals"
Utah+1 · Libraries / Vendors
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receipt
document Utah House Health and Human Services Committee, January 27 2026 - meeting page and recording
What this confirms: the document itself
Utah+2 · Policy / Technology / Vendors · 1 receipt
document Utah Legislature, introduced text of H.B. 197, 2026 General Session, 'School Materials Amendments', 13 pp, header stamp 01-08 15:27
What this confirms: The as-introduced bill text; chief sponsor Nicholeen P. Peck
Utah+1 · Technology / Community · 1 receipt
document IRS Form 990-N (e-Postcard) bulk data file, apps.irs.gov
What this confirms: File contains CY2025 990-N rows for rated books (392728966), Utah Parents United (862759097) and pavement education project (990990863), each attesting under $50,000
Utah · Technology
Utah+1 · Technology / Community
Utah · Unsorted
Utah · Unsortedsupported
Utah entity record shows S&S Apps Active, 'Last Renewed' 01/31/2026, 'Renew By' 01/31/2027
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receipt
copy on file Utah entity record for S&S Apps LLC, entity 12115414-0160
What this confirms: The Utah entity record states the status and renewal dates (documented); it has no publicly reachable URL
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
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Publishing & vendors+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receipt
document Follett (the company behind the Destiny school catalog software) Content news release, February 19, 2026
What this confirms: Follett (the company behind the Destiny school catalog software) Content announced '10+ experienced professionals with more than 300 years of collective public library experience - including individuals who previously held roles at Baker & Taylor'
Utah+1 · Libraries / Community · 1 receipt
document Davis School District board exhibit 'December 17, 2025 Sensitive Materials Appeals', attachment to the February 3, 2026 Regular Meeting consent agenda (a batch vote with no discussion)
What this confirms: Names the five titles the Appeals Committee recommended for removal and the board consent-approved (passed in a batch vote, with no discussion) on February 3, 2026
Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Vendors · 1 receipt
document First Amended Complaint, Doc 98, Kurt Vonnegut Estate v. Brown, 2:26-cv-00010 (D. Utah), filed 02/05/26
What this confirms: 65-page amended complaint adding Caged Bird Legacy LLC as plaintiff; states 22 titles on the Statewide Ban List, ~91 Davis, ~57 Washington
Multi-state+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receipt
document Same York County Library (SC) policy page
What this confirms: Verbatim: "Last revised by the York County Library Board of Trustees on Feb. 6, 2026"; "Books addressing mature themes or topics on gender identity or other mature themes may be placed in the Teen-Collection"; and, twice, "reviews by ratedbooks.org will also be considered" (documented)
'Bag of Bones' crossed the statewide removal threshold (Davis, Granite, Jordan, Tooele)
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Same the Utah State Board of Education statewide removal list
What this confirms: The state list is the primary record for the "Bag of Bones" threshold date and districts (documented); row read from the snapshot (supported)
A 59-second explainer mixes up which bill it is explaining
Utah Moms for America posted a 59-second explainer titled "SB197 explained: graphic content out of school libraries and hold vendors accountable", in which the speaker says she "went to give a public comment about SB 197" and describes it as "the digital front for graphic material", proactive rather than reactive, and "about holding vendors accountable". The bill she describes is HB197, School Materials Amendments. Utah's 2026 SB197 is Transportation Funding and Governance Amendments.
Utah+3 · Libraries / Policy / Vendors / Community
Utah+1 · Libraries / Policy · 1 receipt
document Minutes of the Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Criminal Justice Standing Committee, February 18, 2026
What this confirms: The filed minutes: "Jeff Bennion, President, Gender Harmony Institute", "Chloe Cole, Senior Fellow, Do No Harm", Gayle Ruzicka (Utah Eagle Forum) in favor, Jakey Siolo (Nuanua Collective) opposed, and "the motion passed with a vote of 5-2-2" on HB0174S01 as amended (documented)
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Community
A sitting state school board member runs her own interview show for eight weeks
Christina Boggess, sitting Utah State Board of Education member for District 8, runs an interview livestream titled 'Liberty, Literacy and Legacy' on her personal YouTube channel @cb4ed, cross-posting episodes to her Substack cb4ed.substack.com as podcast-type posts. Nine full-length videos carry the show name across an eight-week run, eight distinct episodes, plus 14 shorts. Guests: Emily Green, the sitting Utah State Board of Education District 14 member and author of the school-library procurement addendum, on SIX of the nine videos, five distinct episodes; Cari Bartholomew, State Director of Moms for America Action, on two; Susan Lee on one Davis County tax special. Audience is small, 8 to 34 views per episode at capture. The run stops after April 14, 2026
Utah+3 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Communitypartly verified
The board member who wrote the school-library rule never mentions libraries on the show
Negative finding. Emily Green, the sitting Utah State Board of Education District 14 member who authored the Utah State Board of Education School Library Materials Acquisition and Procurement Review addendum, appears as the guest on six videos of Boggess's show, five distinct episodes, and does not discuss school libraries at any point. Across all six recordings, two of which are the same episode posted twice, the word 'library' never appears. Neither does 'pornography', 'obscene', 'RatedBooks', 'sensitive material', 'HB 374', 'addendum', 'procurement', 'Moms for America', or the name of the woman behind the rating site. The word 'book' comes up seven times, every one of them a reading recommendation. The episodes are instead a structural governance argument: the Utah State Board of Education's constitutional rulemaking authority, the third-party scholarship complaint loop, policy 'designed to pass, not function', and a candidate-vetting checklist
Utah+4 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Vendors / Communitypartly verified
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Community
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receipt
document Same public Google Sheet, tab "Rated 45 & 55"
What this confirms: A row dated February 27, 2026 for "Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick 4" with two district school lists (documented)
Maya Angelou estate joined the ACLU-of-Utah HB29 suit via an amended complaint (Doc 98)
Utah · Policy · 1 receipt
document Amended Complaint (Doc 98), Kurt Vonnegut Estate v. Brown, No. 2:26-cv-00010-RJS-CMR (D. Utah), filed 02/05/2026
What this confirms: the document itself
Utah+1 · Technology / Community · 1 receipt
video HopeofUtah channel video "Rated Books", uploaded February 5, 2026, 121 seconds
What this confirms: That the video exists, is public, is titled "Rated Books", and is on the HopeofUtah channel (documented). The 23-upload channel inventory and its February 5, 2026 to August 11, 2026 span rest on a channel inventory taken August 17, 2026 (supported)
Her own video: the aggregation is weighted toward “family-friendly reviews”
Brand video "We love reading!" (2:02, 2 views): the operator self-identifies as "founder of ratedbooks.org," cites Piaget's stages of cognitive development as rationale, and states the aggregation is weighted — "specifically family-friendly reviews. We put these reviews alongside secular organizations so parents can see the differences and decide who they trust." Named sources: The Good and the Beautiful, Rated Reads, Plugged In by Focus on the Family, Christian parent reviews. Claims "nearly 17,000 books." Closes: "Ratedbooks.org is a proud partner with Hope of [Utah]"
Utah+1 · Technology / Communitysupported
Utah · Technology · 1 receipt
video S&S Apps, 'We love reading! That's why we work so hard to share rated reviews.'
What this confirms: Video is live and public; oEmbed title matches supported
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The 2026 worklist and the ratings workbook sit on the same account
The 2026 challenge worklist is owned by the same account as the ratings workbook, and it is open for anyone to comment on. A Drive lookup on the public document behind "Books to Challenge in DSD" returns as its owner the same personal Gmail account behind the bwentzel handle, created March 1, 2026, last modified July 28, 2026, and a permission set of exactly two entries: the owner, and 'anyone' at the role of commenter rather than viewer. The same account owns the ratings workbook and the warning-label complaint form template already recorded here. The commenter setting matches the instruction sheet that circulates with the list, which ends its loop with 'comment on the list' and then 'Repeat'. The modification date is the same day as the last challenge wave in the district's own challenge record
Utah+3 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Vendorspartly verified
Texas+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receipt
archived page MuckRock release: New Braunfels school district (TX) Public Information Act production 'onshelf', 330 emails, completed March 20, 2026 (archived August 2, 2026)
What this confirms: The released email of March 2, 2026 from the district records office opening ORR-2026-039 and describing it as 'another library book request specifically related to Destiny (the catalog software school libraries use) and Bookmarked' (documented)
Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Technology · 1 receipt
document Same the Utah State Board of Education statewide removal list
What this confirms: The state list is the primary record for the four March 2, 2026 threshold titles (documented); the overlap of "The Carnival at Bray" with the 2025-28 audit sample is our own cross-reference against the audit (supported)
A sixth Author-Plaintiff book was reported added to the Statewide Ban List
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receiptsupported
document Same CourtListener/recap docket, entry 114 (the brief whose p.5 n.2 the row cites)
What this confirms: The docket establishes the brief exists and its filing date (documented); the p.5 n.2 footnote reporting a sixth Author-Plaintiff book added to the Statewide Ban List cannot be read from any free public copy (supported) supported
Utah · Librariessupported
Utah+1 · Libraries / Community · 1 receipt
document Davis School District board exhibit 'March 3, 2026 Sensitive Materials Appeals', attachment to the March 3, 2026 Regular Meeting consent agenda (a batch vote with no discussion)
What this confirms: Names the six titles the Appeals Committee recommended for removal and the board consent-approved (passed in a batch vote, with no discussion) on March 3, 2026
A Moms for America state director tells viewers never to attend a board meeting alone
On episode 'Institutional Gaslighting' of Boggess's show, guest Cari Bartholomew states on air 'I'm the state director of Moms for America' and gives a recruiting instruction for school board meetings, at 25:05: 'as we look for like school district ambassadors, because I'm the state director of Moms for America, and as we look for them, I always say never attend if you're attending on your own. You need at least three people for them to consider you valid.' She frames the reason as being singled out when alone, 'they look and they spot you out and they say, oh, that's the crazy one', and the payoff as 'if you have at least three people, you have a group. Maybe it's one person on that board. They might listen to you.' At 53:23 she adds 'Moms for America does cottage meetings where we discuss all of this stuff'
Utah+3 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors / Communitypartly verified
A public spreadsheet of books to challenge next, keyed to RatedBooks reports
The public Google Sheet "Books to Challenge in DSD", which is not a district document but a file on a personal account, lists 81 titles and logs challenge-submission dates in this window, each keyed to a RatedBooks.org rating report -- a forward worklist, mostly distinct from already-banned titles. Specific submission-batch dates observed in the sheet: >=5 titles marked '3-13-26' in the Date-challenged column; ~a dozen further titles marked 'submitted 3/28/26'; another batch marked 'submitted 5/2/2026.'
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Vendorsneeds verification
Revised Texas school-library collection standards took effect, codified at 13 Tex. Admin. Code 4.2
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Texas Register, Adopted Rules, Title 13, issue of March 6, 2026
What this confirms: Tslac's adoption of amendments to 13 TAC Sec. 4.2, TRD-202600755, filed with the Secretary of State February 18, 2026, "Effective date: March 10, 2026" (documented)
Utah+3 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Community
'Looking for Alaska' crossed the statewide removal threshold (Davis, Jordan, Tooele, Washington)
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Same the Utah State Board of Education statewide removal list
What this confirms: The state list is the primary record for the "Looking for Alaska" threshold date and districts (documented); row read from the snapshot (supported)
A single sitting cleared the wave, then seventy-six days passed before the shelves changed
One committee sitting disposed of the whole 2026 challenge wave, and the books stayed on the shelves for another seventy-six days. Davis School District's own book-challenge working file, 27 tabs covering every challenge-submission date from October 22, 2024 to July 27, 2026, records 97 titles and 662 individual copies. Eight of those titles were challenged on four different dates between February 23 and March 13 of 2026, and their process trails then converge exactly: an objective review form sent for all eight on March 16, an objective committee decision of Remove for all eight on March 21, a notification email for all eight on May 18, and catalog deletion plus a public-list update for all eight on June 5. Fifty-eight copy rows in the file carry a dated deletion and forty-six of them fall on just two days, February 5, 2026 and June 5, 2026. Across the whole file the median gap between the challenge date and the public list being updated is 112 days, with a range of 0 to 305
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Communitypartly verified
Utah · Policy · 1 receipt
document Defendants' Amended Motion to Dismiss (Doc 109), Vonnegut Estate v. Brown, filed 03/13/2026
What this confirms: the document itself
Utah+1 · Technology / Vendors
Asked again about her corruption claim, she adds no evidence to it
On a livestream that began March 30, 2026 at 8:02:11 p.m. MDT, published to the channel the next morning as 'How Rigor Gets Replaced by Chaos', a speaker answers challenges to the January not-seeking-re-election statement, at 28:25: 'When people challenged me on my statement when I said I wasn't going to run again, I said anybody who doesn't believe there's corruption on the board has not been watching the board. Because all it takes to see corruption is watch the board meeting.' This is the only follow-up anywhere in our records to the corruption and financial-kickback allegations of the January 2, 2026 X post, and it adds NO evidence: no named party, no document, no meeting date, no figure
Utah · Unsortedpartly verified
The timeline runs left to right. Scroll sideways, or hold Shift and scroll, to see the rest of this chapter.
Keyboard: ← → move along a lane, ↑ ↓ change lane, Home End jump to the ends, Enter opens the record.
Publishing & vendors+2 · Libraries / Policy / Technology · 1 receiptsupported
document Follett (the company behind the Destiny school catalog software) Content news release, April 30, 2026
What this confirms: Follett (the company behind the Destiny school catalog software) Content announced the Follett Street Date Program plus 600,000+ adult print titles, 18,000+ publishers and 50,000 shelf-ready books per day (documented); Baker & Taylor is not named in the release (documented) supported
404 Media reports the raters ask AI models about flagged passages
404 Media (Woodcock) reports that Rated Books reviewers "ask different AI models" about flagged passages, with one screenshot column headed "Gemini AI Rater 2" and another "ChatGPT Rater 3"; asked whether those were people or chatbots, Stephens clarified that three humans operate the models. The same article separately covers blockade, which uses xAI or OpenAI API keys to generate book reports from PDF/ePUB files, as a distinct tool and not one operation with Rated Books
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Community · 1 receipt
document 404 Media, Claire Woodcock, datePublished April 1, 2026
What this confirms: The article quotes Stephens that 'there are, in fact, three humans involved in the Rated Books review process' and separately describes blockade as a GitHub tool generating book reports via xAI or OpenAI API keys
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Davis School District board exhibit 'April 7, 2026 Sensitive Materials Appeals', attachment to the April 7, 2026 Regular Meeting consent agenda (a batch vote with no discussion)
What this confirms: Names Fight Club as recommended for removal on subjective sensitive-material criteria and consent-approved (passed in a batch vote, with no discussion) on April 7, 2026
Plaintiffs answer the motion to dismiss: “hundreds, if not thousands” removed
Plaintiffs filed their Opposition to the Motion to Dismiss (Doc 114, 24pp); the brief states 'hundreds, if not thousands' of books were removed under the Per Se Ban and 28 titles under the Statewide Ban; arguing authors have standing, this is not a subsidy case since the books were already shelved, and library removal is not government speech; characterized the AG's guidance as shifting between a Miller-for-minors 'as a whole' standard (Memo #1) and bright-line rules with no holistic review (Memo #2)
Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Technology · 1 receipt
document CourtListener/recap docket, Kurt Vonnegut Estate, The v. Brown, D. Utah 2:26-cv-00010, filed January 6, 2026
What this confirms: The docket carries entry 114, 'Apr 9, 2026 - Plaintiff's memorandum in Opposition re 109 Amended motion to Dismiss' (documented); that the brief's text says what the row quotes is not checkable from a free copy (supported)
“It can’t be pornography if it doesn’t have images”
Utah Moms for America publishes a 59-second YouTube short, "Are school libraries crossing the line? Let's discuss!" (OY8qCV64W_c, 163 views when saved), in which a speaker cites the American Library Association president's webpage as stating "her intent and her support is for queer material to be put into the libraries", concedes "it's not like this is banning books", argues instead for ratings and parental transparency, and then closes: "a lot of people will say it can't be pornography if it doesn't have images. But a lot is, as you said, images. It's in graphic novels especially"
Utah+1 · Libraries / Community · 1 receiptsupported
video Utah Moms for America, “Are school libraries crossing the line? Let’s discuss!” (59s)
What this confirms: the argument as delivered: the ALA president’s page invoked for “queer material”, “it’s not like this is banning books” conceded, and the close — “a lot of people will say it can’t be pornography if it doesn’t have images. But a lot is, as you said, images. It’s in graphic novels especially.” Who is speaking is not established by the recording itself supported
View source at 0:48
Utah Moms for America channel, published April 9, 2026, 163 views when saved. Offset 48s is where the closing passage begins. The words are on tape (documented); the speaker is (supported) — an ear identification, not a speaker-labeled record, and “as you said” shows it is dialogue. Transcribed by a single machine pass, with no channel captions available to agree or disagree.
Utah+4 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Vendors / Community · 1 receipt
video S&S Apps, 'the National Book Rating Index School District Library Screening' (April 14, 2026)
What this confirms: Video is live and public; oEmbed title matches supported
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technologysupported
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technologysupported
A product video shows parents how to sort a school’s books by an LGBTQ column
the National Book Rating Index product video "Running Lists for School Districts" (4:28, 4 views): same Destiny (the catalog software school libraries use) Follett (the company behind the Destiny school catalog software) export workflow, but addressed to parents, not to the district — "I'm running some lists for some parents in a school district" — and the sortable columns are named, with the LGBTQ column's purpose stated: "The other columns that you can sort is, you know, LGBTQ. So parents can use this to opt their children out if they do or do not want those. At least they're marked." The next columns are then enumerated: CRT ("this is a limited right now"), removed, and challenged (quote boundary corrected August 25, 2026; an earlier version moved the sentence break so "marked CRT" read as one phrase)
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Communitysupported
Both product videos start from the same input: the catalog’s own export
Both export-workflow videos — one addressed to a school district (ifJ6IsHIfUw), one to parents (v_EO1Mk3ntI) — open by requiring a Destiny (the catalog software school libraries use) Follett (the company behind the Destiny school catalog software) catalog export as the product's input — the parent-facing video says "Destiny Follett can export... either as a spreadsheet or as a PDF" and the district-facing video separately instructs "Always ask for a Excel file" (rendered as spoken; quotes separated August 25, 2026 — an earlier version spliced the two videos into one utterance) — and the operator names the export's own data defects: no ISBNs, inconsistent author-name formats, and duplicate records requiring manual merging
Utah+3 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors / Communitysupported
Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Technology · 1 receipt
document Same the Utah State Board of Education statewide removal list
What this confirms: The state list is the primary record for the four April 17, 2026 threshold titles (documented); the three-of-four overlap with the audit's 22-book sample is our own cross-reference (supported)
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
archived page storylabs.online product page, 'UT heart Health Education and Relationship Training - 7th, 8th & 9th Grade', April 20, 2026 snapshot
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented) that the page opens with 'the Utah State Board of Education approved' on that date)
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
archived page Book Riot, 'Utah Adds Two More Books to Banned List; 34 Now Outlawed in State Public Schools', published April 28, 2026 (archived April 29, 2026)
What this confirms: The article reporting that two titles were added to Utah's statewide removal list, bringing it to 34 (documented); that one of the two was also in the 22-book 2025-28 audit sample is not in this article (supported, from the audit file)
Defendants filed their Reply in support of the Motion to Dismiss (Doc 115)
Utah · Policy · 1 receipt
document CourtListener docket, Kurt Vonnegut Estate v. Brown, No. 2:26-cv-00010-RJS-CMR (D. Utah) - entry 115
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented) that the filing exists on the docket; the document itself is not free)
Utah · Policy · 1 receipt
document CourtListener docket, Vonnegut Estate v. Brown - entry 117
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented) that the request to submit was filed; (supported) that no ruling has issued) supported
Utah · Technology · 1 receipt
document RatedBooks.org rubric PDF, the image link on https://www.ratedbooks.org/ratingscale
What this confirms: A 1-page PDF, CreationDate April 16, 2026, reading '0-5 Explicit Content Rating Scale / Version 2.1 - April 2026 / Pavement Education Project with RatedBooks.org' and carrying 'No instruction on, information about or discussion on gender identity or sexual orientation.'
Delaware · Technology
Pre-history · Technology
Publishing & vendors+2 · Technology / Vendors / Community · 1 receipt
archived page ransomware.live victim listing, 'Follett (the company behind the Destiny school catalog software) Software LLC', group Shinyhunters
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented) that the listing exists and says this; (unverified) on whether any breach occurred) needs verification
Utah · Unsorted
PAL Humanitarian filed an Annual Report without changes
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receipt
copy on file P A L Humanitarian Services, Inc., Utah domestic nonprofit annual report / renewal without changes, entity 9003835-0140, filing 260415938001B, effective April 7, 2026
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented) on the archived PDF)
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
The timeline runs left to right. Scroll sideways, or hold Shift and scroll, to see the rest of this chapter.
Keyboard: ← → move along a lane, ↑ ↓ change lane, Home End jump to the ends, Enter opens the record.
KUTV: 34 books removed statewide, 33 of them first removed in Davis
KUTV reported Utah had removed 34 books statewide, 33 of them (roughly 97%) first removed in Davis school district; identified the operator as 'civic education director for Utah Moms for America,' creator of the National Book Rating Index; quoted her: 'I haven't removed any books -- the committees have.' Separately, Let Utah Read's administrative director told KUTV: 'It's just one person who says, "No, I don't want my kids to read it." Therefore, no kids get to read it.'
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Community
Utah’s statewide teaching-materials library adopts a sensitive-materials policy
The Utah Education Network Governing Board adopts the eMedia Content Policy as a Board Action item (agenda 2.03 "Policy: eMedia Content"). eMedia is UEN's statewide open-educational-resources repository for Utah schools (lesson plans, learning modules, assignments, assessments) — NOT the ebook/database collection, which is Utah's Online School Library. The policy incorporates the sensitive-materials statute by reference — "Resources published in eMedia must comply with Utah law related to educational practices and materials, including but not limited to Sensitive Materials and Prohibited Submission ( 53G-10-103 , R277-628 )" — and creates a public challenge process: a member of the general public may file a Statement of Concern; the Utah Education Network convenes "a panel of licensed educators or other individuals deemed qualified by UETN" which recommends to "remove, reclassify, or retain" within 30 business days; appeal goes to the Utah Education Advisory Council, deciding within 60 days after its next quarterly meeting; materials stay available during review; one Statement of Concern per individual or organization at a time; "UETN retains final authority over all material selection decisions." A Collection Maintenance and Weeding section makes material "deemed by UETN to be inaccurate, outdated, low-quality, irrelevant, low-use, or identified as spam" subject to removal.
Utah+4 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Vendors / Community
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
document the Utah Education Network Governing Board public BoardDocs meeting archive
What this confirms: The public system where the Utah Education Network posts board agendas, packets and minutes; a reader can enumerate its meeting list and check whether May 5, 2026 appears supported
That policy passes with no discussion
The Utah Education Network board adopted the eMedia Content Policy with NO discussion. On the meeting recording, Rich Nye — introduced as "the chair of our policy and nominations committee" — presents it as "just an update of the policy, the e-media content policy we discussed in our committee", says it "brings all of that compliance by reference to those lines of code, and particularly around the [sensitive] materials, and then identifies what maintenance and weeding also looks like", and states "We had a good discussion, reviewed, and created some modest modifications to it". The chair then asks "Any questions? Or discussion?" — nobody responds — and the item passes by motion, second and voice vote. Item 2.03 runs 00:19:14 to about 00:21:40 of a 1:40:45 meeting.
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
document the Utah Education Network Governing Board meeting recording, May 5, 2026, agenda item 2.03 'Policy: eMedia Content' (starts 00:19:14)
What this confirms: The recording of the board's adoption of the eMedia Content Policy by motion, second and voice vote with no discussion after the chair asks 'Any questions? Or discussion?' (documented); the presenter is addressed aloud as chair of the policy and nominations committee (documented)
View source at 19:14
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
document the Utah Education Network Governing Board meeting recording, May 5, 2026, the policy-retirement exchange at 00:21:04-00:21:26
What this confirms: The recording of the exchange in which the chair reads out a content selection policy, a closed caption policy and a community representation statement and policy, and the policy committee chair answers 'Those are retirements of policies' and 'we didn't discuss those outside of other than just retiring them' (documented)
View source at 21:04
Four protections in the old policy have no counterpart in the new one
The policy the Utah Education Network board called "just an update" replaced a public-broadcasting editorial policy with a school-digital-library collection policy, and four protections in the old text have no counterpart in the new one. Gone: (a) the whole-work rule binding the reviewers, "Content is considered in its entirety, not solely on portions taken out of context"; (b) the other-parents clause, balancing a complainant's concerns "while also preserving that right for other parents/guardians"; (c) the revision guard, "revisions will not be undertaken when a formal request for reconsideration is occurring"; (d) the editorial-independence anchor to the Public Broadcasting Editorial Integrity Guidelines and Public Media Code of Integrity.
Utah+1 · Libraries / Community · 1 receipt
archived page Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) capture of the Utah Education Network 'Content Selection Policy', April 29, 2025
What this confirms: Snapshot contains all four clauses the row says are gone ('Content is considered in its entirety', 'while also preserving that right', 'revisions will not be undertaken', 'Editorial Integrity'); the live page at the same URL contains zero of the four and 14 occurrences of 'eMedia'
A state board member floats copying Texas’ vendor-rating mandate
At the May 8 2026 the Utah State Board of Education Standards & Assessment Committee a member proposes copying the Texas vendor-rating mandate, at [02:18:38] on the recording: Texas "requires that vendors who sell to school libraries actually evaluate all materials and issue a rating of sexually explicit or sexually relevant. And if it's challenged and found that they rated it incorrectly, they send it back and require them to relook at it or face being barred from selling to Texas libraries." Asks whether Utah should do "something like that instead of making more work on the librarians", framed as a legislative request the board could make "during the summer going into next year".
Utah+3 · Libraries / Policy / Vendors / Community · 1 receiptsupported
video the Utah State Board of Education Media, "2026-05-08 | Standards and Assessment Committee (Live) | USBE"
What this confirms: That the recording exists and is public on the Utah State Board of Education Media channel (documented). The quoted proposal to copy the Texas vendor-rating mandate is transcribed at [02:18:38] in the research archive capture (supported, machine transcript) supported
View source at 138:38
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
document the Utah State Board of Education CivicClerk public packet, Law and Licensing Committee, July 14, 2026, fileId 2205
What this confirms: The packet's own attachment: "Title: Library Materials Model Policy / Date: May 8, 2026 / Draft #: 1", followed by "Model Library Materials Policy Guidance - Instructions for Local Education Agencies (LEAs)..." (documented)
Utah · Librariesneeds verification
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receiptneeds verification
video 'How to Use the National Book Rating Index', S&S Apps
What this confirms: In the walkthrough she says a PEN America-reported banned title was checked 'on May 19th, 2026' and found in three libraries at Central York High School (grading as recorded: (supported) - the transcript is auto-caption grade and the moment was not timestamped on review) supported
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Community
Utah+1 · Policy / Community · 1 receipt
copy on file Adams Leadership political fundraising committee expenditure of $10,000 to Utah Parents United, May 4, 2026
What this confirms: Nothing published on review; the record is public but no per-record URL exists
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah · Policy · 1 receipt
document Order granting in part motion to proceed by pseudonym (Doc 119), Vonnegut Estate v. Brown, signed 05/13/2026
What this confirms: the document itself
Publishing & vendors · Technology · 1 receipt
archived page ransomware.live victim listing, 'Follett (the company behind the Destiny school catalog software) Software LLC', group Shinyhunters
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented) that the listing carries this text)
Publishing & vendors · Technology · 1 receipt
archived page ransomware.live victim listing, 'Follett (the company behind the Destiny school catalog software) Software LLC', group Shinyhunters
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented) that the listing states this deadline)
Publishing & vendors · Technology · 1 receiptneeds verification
archived page Migliaccio & Rathod LLP, "Follett Software Data Breach Investigation" (classlawdc.com, posted May 5, 2026)
What this confirms: A plaintiff-side class-action firm published an open investigation page naming Follett (the company behind the Destiny school catalog software) Software, citing dark-web monitoring reports of May 2, 2026 and the April 30, 2026 ShinyHunters claim
Utah+1 · Technology / Vendors
Empowered Parents filed an Annual Report stating it is NOT a charitable organization
Utah · Community · 1 receipt
copy on file Empowered Parents (9699080-0140), Annual Report filed May 11, 2026, filing number 260511987759B
What this confirms: The filing exists and is dated as the row states; confirmed on-screen in the live registry on review
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah · Community · 1 receiptpartly verified
document IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Utah state extract (CSV), last-modified Mon, 10 Aug 2026 17:11:49 GMT
What this confirms: Covers only the Utah Parents United half of the row. Fetched on review: HTTP 200, 2,227,145 bytes. The row for federal tax ID 862759097 reads "862759097,UTAH PARENTS UNITED,% BROOKE WENTZEL STEPHENS,640 N MAIN ST STE 226,N SALT LAKE,UT". This is the primary IRS file, not a mirror. The Empowered Parents half of the row (2026 annual report giving the same suite as principal office/mailing, and answering NO to the charitable-organization question where 2025 answered YES) is verified from the local PDF only and is held - no public URL.
She says state department staff asked her to compile the lists
She says on camera, twice in one video, that Florida state department staff asked her to compile challenged titles grouped by school and by county: 'I have been contacted from people from the state department regarding asking me if I would put these books together per school' and 'some people at the state department asked me to please group this according to the schools and according to the counties'
Florida · Community · 1 receiptpartly verified
video CleanBooks-vb, 'DO what? 'All This Twisted Glory,' 'The Pact,' 'The Unhoneymooners,' 'Chain of Iron.''
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented as her assertion) / (unverified) as a fact about FLDOE) needs verification
View source at 7:58
Another batch marked 'submitted 5/2/2026' on the Davis school district challenge-tracking sheet
Utah · Unsortedneeds verification
The Instructure/Canvas breach ransom was settled
Utah · Unsorted
The timeline runs left to right. Scroll sideways, or hold Shift and scroll, to see the rest of this chapter.
Keyboard: ← → move along a lane, ↑ ↓ change lane, Home End jump to the ends, Enter opens the record.
Florida+1 · Libraries / Technologysupported
Florida+1 · Libraries / Technologysupported
An objection form answers Yes to reading it all, with page numbers from a PDF
The same packet includes the Florida state objection form — "Specific Material Objection Template Incorporated in Rule 6A-7.0714, F.A.C.", effective November 2023 — on which the filer has inserted a red notice: "PDF VERSION WAS USED. PAGE NUMBERS MAY VARY." Question 2, "Did you examine this material in its entirety?", is answered Yes; question 3, which requires specific page numbers, is answered "SEE BELOW" and followed by an 8-page excerpt list carrying specific page citations
Florida+1 · Libraries / Vendors
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors · 1 receipt
video S&S Apps, 'How to Use the National Book Rating Index' (June 1, 2026)
What this confirms: Video is live and public; oEmbed title matches supported
View source at 8:01
Utah+1 · Libraries / Communitysupported
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Book Riot, "Utah Has Banned Its 35th Book from All Public Schools" (Kelly Jensen)
What this confirms: Verbatim: "On Friday, June 5, the state added its 35th book to the list of books that must be removed from every public school in the state: Lucky by Alice Sebold"
Utah+3 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors / Community · 1 receipt
copy on file Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) capture of ratedbooks.org/testimonials, June 7, 2026 21:27:29
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Communitysupported
South Dakota+2 · Libraries / Technology / Community
What she told the district about JSTOR does not match JSTOR’s own page
On camera she tells Santa Rosa County that jstor 'has a secondary collection that is filtered and appropriate for high school students' which the district 'has not registered for'. Jstor's own page sells that collection on price AND breadth, not filtering: 'the vast majority of jstor's archival journals and primary sources, all at a fraction of the cost'. filter, age-appropriate and 'appropriate for' all return 0 across the captured page with the control passing
Florida+1 · Libraries / Vendors · 1 receiptpartly verified
video 'jstor Access--A digital platform advertised through a local High School', CleanBooks-vb, uploaded June 17, 2026
What this confirms: At 5:44 she says jstor 'has a secondary collection that is filtered and appropriate for high school students' which Santa Rosa County 'has not registered for' (grading as recorded: (documented) that she says it / (unverified) whether the collections differ) needs verification
View source at 5:44
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors
Utah+3 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Community · 1 receiptpartly verified
copy on file Facebook post carrying a 2026 primary endorsement slate and a photograph of a marked ballot
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (supported) the authorship / (unverified) the post date) needs verification
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
South Dakota · Libraries
Utah · Policy · 1 receipt
document Utah Lieutenant Governor, June 23, 2026 Primary Election Statewide Canvass certification
What this confirms: Certified State Senate District 7 Republican primary totals: 7,726 / 6,113 / 4,074, total 17,913 (grading as recorded: (documented) on the totals)
Utah · Technologysupported
National press · Technology
Publishing & vendors · Technology · 1 receipt
document California Attorney General, list of reported data breaches (public notification database)
What this confirms: California maintains a public, statutorily required breach-notification list; it is the list the row's absence claim is measured against supported
Publishing & vendors · Technology · 1 receiptneeds verification
archived page ransomware.live victim page, "Follett Software LLC" / ShinyHunters
What this confirms: A leak-site aggregator carried a listing naming Follett (the company behind the Destiny school catalog software) Software LLC, discovered April 30, 2026 22:27 UTC, claiming >4M Salesforce records and a May 4, 2026 deadline, labeled as a claim
Utah · Technology
Florida+1 · Technology / Community · 1 receipt
video RootsGparenting, 'Interview with Bruce Friedman No left turn in Education'
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented as his assertion))
View source at 34:19
California · Vendors · 1 receiptpartly verified
document California Department of Education School Directory record for Marble Valley Academy, CDS 09619116135776
What this confirms: Status Closed, Closed Date June 30, 2026, Open Date April 28, 2009, Low Grade K, High Grade 12, El Dorado county (grading as recorded: (documented) as the CDE record / (unverified) whether the school ceased operating) needs verification
Utah · Community · 1 receiptpartly verified
copy on file Facebook Intro panel of a personal profile, as screenshotted June 9, 2026
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented) as displayed on the saved screenshots)
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
The operator personally donated $50 to her own state representative
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receipt
copy on file Utah campaign-finance record of a $50 individual contribution, June 3, 2026
What this confirms: Nothing published on review; same route failure and privacy hold
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
The timeline runs left to right. Scroll sideways, or hold Shift and scroll, to see the rest of this chapter.
Keyboard: ← → move along a lane, ↑ ↓ change lane, Home End jump to the ends, Enter opens the record.
A one-hour interview: “one of the main people who is creating a rated book system”
Utah Moms for America streamed a 3,982-second interview titled "What's the Deal with Book Banners -With Brooke Stevens", hosted by Carrie Bartholomew. In a 333-second companion upload of the same stream's opening, she introduces herself as "otherwise known as Cara Marcel" on a show called "Be Not Afraid" and introduces her guest as "my friend, Brooke Stevens. Brooke is Laverna in the library. She is one of the main people who is creating a rated book system." The 3,982-second stream's own opening instead introduces the guest as "my friend Brooke Stevens. Brooke is also the creator of RatedBooks.com" (as auto-transcribed), corrected on-air to .org. Two shorter uploads share the title, 333 seconds and 3 seconds. (corrected August 25, 2026: the "Be Not Afraid" and "Laverna in the library" introductions occur in the 333-second companion upload, not the 3,982-second stream)
Utah+4 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Vendors / Community
On camera: paid ratings inside the library catalog, priced by library size
On camera the operator describes a paid, priced-by-library-size integration of RatedBooks ratings into a library's own catalog system: "we can integrate our ratings with your library system. So when patrons are using it they can see the rating in there and it's ongoing as we get more reports as you get more books those will be rated because it has an API that it uses to keep it live and active." She declines to give a price - "I can't give you a price because it's how big your library is". Alongside it she pitches a free bulk service: "get automated inventory reviews we can review the whole collection in your library in under 10 minutes you send us an excel spreadsheet of the books we just need the title the author the isbn... we don't need to know what school it's from... We will match it against our 34,000 reviewed reports". A barcode scanner is described as "coming soon".
Utah+3 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Vendors · 1 receipt
video Utah Moms for America, 'What's the Deal with Book Banners - With Brooke Stevens' (July 1, 2026)
What this confirms: Video is live and public; oEmbed title matches the vault bundle supported
View source at 64:28
She says Texas sends her pre-purchase lists for screening
Same interview: the operator states that Texas sends her pre-purchase lists for screening - "I've been running um against the NBRI the 34,000 rated books that we have aggregated again um texas has been sending us lists before they purchase it so we can give them a rating on it and say, hey, this might not be one you want to get" - and describes the same capability as available generally, "we could do pre-purchase lists too".
Utah+4 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Vendors / Community · 1 receipt
video Utah Moms for America, 'What's the Deal with Book Banners - With Brooke Stevens' (July 1, 2026)
What this confirms: Video is live and public; oEmbed title matches supported
View source at 40:37
An author-boycott filter, added at a librarian’s request
Same interview: the operator describes an author-political-speech filter she added to the National Book Rating Index at a librarian's request. She cross-referenced signatories of a pro-Palestinian publishing pledge against the index - "so there were thousands of authors so i cross referenced that list of authors who had signed this ban against israel and then marked him in the book" - and states the field is labeled "flagged for local review, state anti BDS legislation", justified because the signature "goes against 38 state laws".
Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Community · 1 receipt
video Utah Moms for America, 'What's the Deal with Book Banners - With Brooke Stevens' (July 1, 2026)
What this confirms: Video is live and public; oEmbed title matches supported
View source at 19:40
Utah+4 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Vendors / Communitypartly verified
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receipt
archived page Book Riot, 'Utah Bans Its 36th Book From All Public Schools', published July 8, 2026 (archived July 9, 2026)
What this confirms: The article reporting that a further title was added to Utah's statewide removal list, bringing it to 36 (documented); that the title is not among the 22 audit-sample books is not in this article (supported, from the audit file)
The rating index reaches a South Dakota county commission meeting
At the Brookings County, school district Commission meeting, five residents asked commissioners to pause county funding of Brookings Public Library; Carla Dieter named the National Book Rating Index from the podium and described its parental-permission mechanism — an NBRI-provided form restricting access to flagged books, parents selecting a level from zero to five their children may check out, each book's designation labeled by the system
South Dakota+2 · Libraries / Technology / Community
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Book Riot, "Utah Bans Its 36th Book From All Public Schools"
What this confirms: A dated published account that "Different Seasons" became the 36th title on Utah's statewide removal list in July 2026 (documented); the article dates the addition to Monday July 8 (documented)
Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Community
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors · 1 receiptpartly verified
copy on file Scholar'S LAB, Utah assumed name (DBA), Business ID 14713126-0151, effective July 8, 2026, owner S&S apps LLC
What this confirms: The Utah Business Information Report is the filing (documented); that the storefront product line and the registered name are the same thing is an inference (supported)
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receipt
document Utah State Board of Education, Library Media page - the public home of the statewide removal list
What this confirms: The Utah State Board of Education page publishing 'List of titles to be removed from Utah public schools' as a linked spreadsheet under Sec. 53G-10-103 (documented); that this page's linked file is the copy obtained on July 13, 2026 (supported) supported
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
copy on file Internal "modified" file timestamp of the usbe-statewide-removal-list xlsx snapshot, July 13, 2026
What this confirms: Nothing publishable; a file-property timestamp of a local snapshot is not a public fact
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receipt
video S&S Apps, "How to Use the NBRI"
What this confirms: That this video is public on the S&S Apps channel (documented). Per the research archive transcript it carries the "$100 per library, whether it's a school or a community" pricing line and names Syracuse High School while narrating a Destiny-Follett inventory export (supported, one transcription program) supported
The LaVerna Facebook group shares a contact email with RatedBooks’ incorporation papers
Facebook group 'LaVerna in the Library' (public, ~4,000 members) found to share a contact email with RatedBooks.org's own Utah Articles of Incorporation, identifying a national 'Mary in the Library' franchise brand with Utah and South Dakota chapters; a MassResistance field director's post sharing MassResistance material was found as the top post inside the same group, and a separate post concerned a campaign to pull county funding from a South Dakota public library
Utah+3 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors / Community · 1 receipt
copy on file Facebook group 353057099906284, "LaVerna in the Library - Utah's Mary in the Library", and RatedBooks.org's Utah Articles of Incorporation contact address
What this confirms: The Facebook group and the Articles of Incorporation exist (documented); the link between them is an email address this project may not publish
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technology
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Community · 1 receiptpartly verified
copy on file Internal citation audit finding (true page locations for Ashes and Sunrise on the Reaping)
What this confirms: the document itself needs verification
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receiptpartly verified
copy on file Internal citation audit finding (sweep of 75 page-count-less RatedBooks reports, zero new impossibles)
What this confirms: the document itself needs verification
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
copy on file Clay County status census (13,587 titles) derived from Friedman's share master list
What this confirms: the document itself needs verification
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah · Libraries · 1 receiptneeds verification
copy on file Utah public-records law request to Washington County School District regarding its informal removal process, drafted July 14, 2026, rewritten August 4, 2026
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (unverified), and the row says so) needs verification
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
The index turns PEN America’s ban-tracking reports into removal filters
The National Book Rating Index site's removal-type filter exposes sortable facets with counts, dozens of which are labeled "Pen America Reports:" — e.g. "Pen America Reports: Challenged in Escambia County Public Schools (FL) (1534)", "Pen America Reports: Removed/Restricted in North East Independent School District (TX) (866)", "Pen America Reports: Removed/Restricted in Department of Defense Educational Activity (Nation) (486)"
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technology
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technology
South Dakota+2 · Libraries / Technology / Community
Utah · Policy · 1 receipt
copy on file Utah public-records law request draft seeking the Utah legislature’s audit office correspondence on the 'concerned legislator'
What this confirms: the document itself needs verification
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah+1 · Technology / Community
Utah · Technology · 1 receipt
document Book Riot, "Utah Bans Its 36th Book From All Public Schools"
What this confirms: Verbatim: "Davis has been included in 35 of the bans" and "Davis School District was recently in the news for a potential breach of information, after book banning advocate Brooke Stephens ... one of the leaders behind the biased book review websites RatedBooks and the National Book Rating Index" (documented as the outlet's statement) supported
Utah · Technologysupported
Utah+1 · Technology / Vendors · 1 receiptneeds verification
copy on file Absence of any S&S Apps / the National Book Rating Index / RatedBooks signatory record in the sdpc / A4L data-privacy-agreement registry
What this confirms: Nothing; an absence has no document. The contradicted marketing claim is public and is linked in notes needs verification
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah · Technology · 1 receipt
document IRS Form 990-N (e-Postcard) bulk data file, apps.irs.gov
What this confirms: The public bulk file the row describes pulling; linked from https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/tax-exempt-organization-search-bulk-data-downloads
Utah · Technology
Utah · Technology · 1 receipt
copy on file Our BookLooks full-records audit, July 18, 2026 (901 Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) PDFs enumerated, 851 parseable, 705 with page citations)
What this confirms: Our own count over the archived pages; no public document states the audit result
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah+1 · Technology / Community
Utah · Technologyneeds verification
Utah Division of Corporations lookup for S&S Apps, LLC completed
Utah · Vendors · 1 receipt
copy on file Utah Division of Corporations lookup for S&S Apps, LLC
What this confirms: Nothing published on review; the registry search is public but produces no citable URL
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receipt
copy on file Same Utah entity record for S&S Apps LLC
What this confirms: The Utah entity record states the Last Updated dates on the agent, principal and address panels (documented); it has no publicly reachable URL
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receipt
archived page Candid/GuideStar public organization profile for Rated Books, federal tax ID 39-2728966, snapshot August 19, 2026
What this confirms: Snapshot fetched: HTTP 200, 53,524 bytes, title "Rated Books - GuideStar Profile". Server-rendered text includes "Ruling year info 2025" and "IRS filing requirement / This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990-N." Row wording matches the page. The profile also renders "IRS subsection 501(c)(3) Public Charity" on the live page.
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receipt
copy on file Internal citation audit finding (3 citations confirmed impossible after two-source hardening)
What this confirms: the document itself needs verification
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receipt
copy on file Internal pilot test result (n=3->4) on whether Friedman routinely challenges unread titles
What this confirms: the document itself needs verification
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
The timeline runs left to right. Scroll sideways, or hold Shift and scroll, to see the rest of this chapter.
Keyboard: ← → move along a lane, ↑ ↓ change lane, Home End jump to the ends, Enter opens the record.
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors
South Dakota+1 · Libraries / Policy
Utah · Libraries · 1 receiptpartly verified
copy on file Internal OpenLibrary edition re-pull for Ashes
What this confirms: the document itself needs verification
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
copy on file Utah public-records law request drafted July 17, 2026 for complete unedited Davis school district district-operator correspondence, never sent
What this confirms: That the request was drafted and not sent (documented); the draft file's own header states drafted, NOT sent
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Technology · 1 receipt
video 'Understanding Propaganda and Protecting Children', S&S Apps
What this confirms: The source recording the eight the National Book Rating Index interface frames were extracted from (grading as recorded: (documented) the video / (documented) the frames as our own derivation)
The stated standard and the applied standard diverge across four videos
Cross-read finding: the stated standard and the applied standard diverge across four videos on the same channel. Public-facing (nDfEsyGbuwA, audio-verified): "It has nothing to do with sexual orientation. It has nothing to do with race. It's all about being sexually explicit for minors." Workflow and tutorial videos (ifJ6IsHIfUw district-addressed, v_EO1Mk3ntI parent-addressed, _KnKD-obpxo tutorial): LGBTQ is a sort column, a named scale, and a stated rating criterion; CRT is a sort column
Utah+1 · Libraries / Communitysupported
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receiptsupported
copy on file Central York school district Follett Destiny (the Destiny catalog software, from the school-library company Follett) catalog (centralyork.follettdestiny.com)
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
South Dakota+1 · Libraries / Technology
Public catalog search vs. librarian-level access: the distinction
— the catalog-access distinction, stated so it cannot be blurred later. Guest catalog search (Central York and the 69 enumerated Destiny (the catalog software school libraries use) instances (72 catalog links incl. 3 Follett (the company behind the Destiny school catalog software) metasearch links)): public by design, exposes bibliographic data, no patron records, not unauthorized. Librarian-level access (Davis school district, February 20, 2026): granted in person, to a system holding student addresses, phone numbers and checkout history; a ferpa attorney called granting the access a likely ferpa violation regardless of whether she viewed data (supported, expert opinion) (corrected August 25, 2026: the attorney's qualifier was data viewing, not intent; the source brief grades the opinion (supported))
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Community · 1 receiptResearch note
copy on file Analyst note
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah+1 · Policy / Technology · 1 receipt
copy on file the National Book Rating Index "State Anti-BDS Legislation" policy flag attached to 308 books, applied by author
What this confirms: Nothing publishable; the finding rests on a live backend pull that no longer resolves
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah+1 · Technology / Vendors · 1 receiptpartly verified
copy on file Vendor-payment sweep of Utah's statewide payment dataset finding zero payments to the named entities
What this confirms: Nothing publishable; this is our own analytic sweep, not a document
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah · Technology · 1 receiptpartly verified
copy on file Internal deeper re-sweep of the 75 unaudited RatedBooks reports
What this confirms: the document itself needs verification
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah · Technology · 1 receipt
copy on file Internal match of 196 RatedBooks report titles against the Clay County status census
What this confirms: the document itself needs verification
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah · Technology · 1 receiptpartly verified
document Books Rated 4's and 5's in Utah - the multi-state RatedBooks tracking spreadsheet
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented) presence of both titles; (unverified) any removal status) needs verification
Utah · Technology · 1 receipt
copy on file Our removed-title citation audit, July 16, 2026 (42 Utah-removed titles, 31 linking to RatedBooks-generated reports)
What this confirms: Own computation; no public document states it
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah · Technology · 1 receiptpartly verified
copy on file Our BookLooks mechanism stress test on the 4 surviving reports, July 18, 2026
What this confirms: Own computation; no public document states it (grading as recorded: (documented) 3 of 4 / (supported) mechanism) supported
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah · Technology · 1 receipt
copy on file Utah public-records law request to Utah's Division of Arts & Museums for the executed Hope of Utah grant agreement and reconciliation of the $150K/$125K/$135K appropriation figures - drafted, NOT sent
What this confirms: The vault file is an internal working draft; its own header reads 'Status: drafted, NOT sent' and 'recorded, NOT queued. DO NOT re-raise as a next step' needs verification
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Multi-state · Technology · 1 receiptsupported
copy on file Internal records-dispatch index entry, July 19, 2026: York County SC foia route for the library collection-policy drafting records
What this confirms: The research file recording that the request was routed to a filing channel (supported); that the request was ever filed or answered is not established here (unverified for the filing) supported
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah+1 · Technology / Community
Utah · Technologysupported
Utah · Vendors · 1 receipt
document ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer page for No Left Turn In Education, federal tax ID 85-3163475
What this confirms: Page renders the FY2023 figures 137,887 (officer/key-employee compensation), 276,223 (total expenses) and 267,144 (prior-year cash)
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receipt
copy on file Internal citation audit revision (The Sympathizer dropped from the confirmed-impossible list)
What this confirms: the document itself needs verification
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receiptpartly verified
copy on file Internal stress test of the Ashes and Sunrise citations
What this confirms: the document itself needs verification
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receipt
copy on file Utah public-records law request draft, July 16, 2026
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receipt
document ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer page for federal tax ID 88-3021092
What this confirms: Page title reads 'Zelenko Freedom Foundation'; the string 'American Made' does not appear on it supported
Utah · Unsorted
Delaware · Unsortedneeds verification
Utah · Unsorted · 1 receipt
video S&S Apps, 'Understanding Propaganda and Protecting Children'
What this confirms: the document itself
View source at 4:10
The timeline runs left to right. Scroll sideways, or hold Shift and scroll, to see the rest of this chapter.
Keyboard: ← → move along a lane, ↑ ↓ change lane, Home End jump to the ends, Enter opens the record.
What BookLooks’ own taxonomy says about Utah’s removal list
Measured July 20, 2026 against BookLooks' own 'Summary of Concerns' taxonomy: of the 36 titles on Utah's statewide removal list (July 16, 2026 snapshot), 34 carry a BookLooks classification - 32 flagged for sexual content with NO LGBTQ-coded tag, and 2 tagged 'alternate sexualities' (Like a Love Story; Nineteen Minutes) - while 2 have no BookLooks report (Bag of Bones; Different Seasons, both absences confirmed by a second tool). Of the Utah legislature’s audit office 2025-28 22-book audit sample, 18 are classified: 16 sexual-content-only, 2 LGBTQ-tagged (Red White and Royal Blue; This is Kind of An Epic Love Story), 4 no report
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors · 1 receipt
copy on file Our July 20, 2026 cross-tabulation of Utah's statewide removal list against BookLooks "Summary of Concerns" tags
What this confirms: Own computation over the Utah State Board of Education list plus 895 BookLooks PDFs; no public document states the split
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
South Dakota+1 · Libraries / Policy
Utah · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Davis School District board exhibit 'June 30, 2026 Sensitive Materials Appeals', attachment to the July 21, 2026 Regular Meeting consent agenda (a batch vote with no discussion)
What this confirms: Names Sybylline and The Sympathizer as recommended for removal and consent-approved (passed in a batch vote, with no discussion) on July 21, 2026
Florida+2 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors · 1 receipt
video CleanBooks-vb, "A Look at the tool called BOOKLENS and 'What Unbreakable Looks Like' by Kate McLaughlin", uploaded July 22, 2026
What this confirms: The captions at 00:07:08-00:07:11 carrying "...of five rating um with ratedbooks.org" (documented)
View source at 7:08
No trademark was ever filed for BookLooks or RatedBooks
Uspto verified negative: no trademark application containing "booklooks" or "ratedbooks" has ever been filed (tmsearch.uspto.gov wordmark search, 0 live and 0 dead each) and no assignment records exist for assignor "booklooks", assignee "booklooks", assignee "ratedbooks", or assignor "maikisch" (Assignment Center); test searches for a known name worked on both systems ("google": 291 and 602 hits)
Utah+1 · Technology / Vendors · 1 receipt
copy on file Uspto tess/Assignment Center search results, July 20, 2026
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
The timeline runs left to right. Scroll sideways, or hold Shift and scroll, to see the rest of this chapter.
Keyboard: ← → move along a lane, ↑ ↓ change lane, Home End jump to the ends, Enter opens the record.
Green’s procurement questionnaire, dated August 4, is in the board packet
the Utah State Board of Education Member Emily Green's questionnaire "School Library Materials Acquisition and Procurement Review", Draft 1, carries its own date line "Date: August 4, 2026", runs 23 pages, and is published at pages 1232-1254 of the Board's public packet for the August 6 2026 meeting. In its own words it "translates the review's objectives into the industry's own working terms: approval plans, standing orders, opening-day collections, shelf-ready processing, cooperative contracts, curated selection lists"; item B-13 asks whether a district's ordering platforms can "filter or block titles by: the USBE statewide removal list"
Utah+2 · Libraries / Vendors / Community · 2 receipts
document Green addendum, "School Library Materials Acquisition and Procurement Review", Draft 1, dated August 4 2026, 23 pages
What this confirms: the document's own title, date and page count, from the packet copy
the Utah State Board of Education public packet for August 6, 2026, pages 1232-1254, via CivicClerk event 535 file 2221; captured August 7, 2026
document Item B-13: can ordering platforms "filter or block titles by: the USBE statewide removal list"
What this confirms: the questionnaire asks districts whether their vendor platforms can enforce the state removal list
green-addendum-p1232-1254.txt line 520
Florida+2 · Libraries / Vendors / Communitypartly verified
The state board adopts the library review and makes the addendum mandatory
The Utah State Board of Education adopts the 2026 school-library review plan as amended on second final reading, appropriates $60,000 from board discretionary funds, and includes the Green procurement addendum. Six recorded votes on the item: a sub-amendment replacing "include" with "consider" fails 6 to 9, leaving the addendum mandatory rather than advisory; the addendum is added "ten in favor and five opposed"; and the main motion passes "Ten in favor one abstention. Chair Hymas and two no votes being Member Reale and Member Lear"
Utah+1 · Libraries / Community · 3 receipts
clip Green reads the addendum's purpose: the review in "the industry's own working terms" (150s, video)
What this confirms: the addendum described from the dais as translating the review into procurement language
viewing this review through the industry lens. Not through like the educational realm. ... translates the review's objectives into the industry's own working terms. Approval plans, standing orders, opening day collections, shelf ready processing, cooperative contracts, curated selection lists and so forth.
Utah State Board of Education board recording -CctnMQ7ZxU, video 6:56:50-6:59:20, cut August 7, 2026
clip The final vote: "Ten in favor, one abstention, Chair Hymas, and two no votes" (140s, video)
What this confirms: the tally on the main motion, announced from the chair
That motion passes. Ten in favor, one abstention, Chair Hymas, and two no votes being Member Reale and Member Lear.
Utah State Board of Education board recording -CctnMQ7ZxU, video 7:59:15-8:01:35, cut August 7, 2026
clip After the vote: the chair on directing staff, and on what the consent calendar has become (215s, video)
What this confirms: the board-versus-staff objection raised immediately after the addendum vote supported
I'll say what you're not going to say, Davina. ... the vote that just passed, 10 to 5, 10 of us say, "Yes, forget this. We're doing this. This is where we're going." ... You don't belong to Molly anymore. You belong to us, all 15 of us.
Utah State Board of Education board recording -CctnMQ7ZxU. Edited excerpt, about four minutes omitted at 1:48. Ends at the chair handing off to Vice Chair Bollinger, which the 3Play transcript places at 9:02:38; the "10 to 5" it opens on is therefore the addendum vote at 8:54:12, which is an inference from position, not a stated reference.
The first state-level appeal of a book removal: Fight Club, Davis
The Utah State Board of Education Standards and Assessment Committee hears the first state-level appeal of an LEA book removal, over Fight Club in the Davis School District. The board memo states that under R277-123-10 "the scope of the State Board's review is narrowly focused" to whether the LEA violated the operational and procedural requirements of its own adopted sensitive materials appeal policy, so the remedy available is returning the matter to the LEA with corrective orders, not reinstating the book
Utah+1 · Libraries / Community · 1 receipt
document Utah State Board of Education board memo: under R277-123-10 "the scope of the State Board's review is narrowly focused"
What this confirms: the state board reviews procedure only and cannot reinstate a removed book
the Utah State Board of Education Standards and Assessment packet for August 7, 2026, agenda item 1.2; captured August 11, 2026
Florida · Libraries · 1 receipt
archived page Escambia County (FL) Public Schools, "Reconsideration of Educational Media" department page, Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) capture August 18, 2026
What this confirms: District page that publishes the ecps reconsiderations register workbook. Register re-exported live August 19, 2026 via the site's own Google Sheets export route (200, xlsx, 194,185 B): sheet "Current challenges" = 103 data rows, Date Challenge Submitted September 2, 2022 to August 12, 2026 (103/103 read); sheet "Resolved challenges" = 223 data rows. Decision column on the 223: Removed 168 + "2025 update: Removed" 17 + Nov-18-2025 lists L/M/H 13 = 198 removed; Restricted 3; Retained 11; Lost 11 (documented). Mismatch: row says "198 ended in removal or restriction" -- 198 is removals only; removal-or-restriction = 201. The 103/223/11-retained figures and both date bounds match exactly.
The tool is the district’s own catalog software
Follett Destiny (the Destiny catalog software, from the school-library company Follett) is the tool named on camera in at least four of the 15 videos ('in the Destiny program', 'the Destiny report was so limited', 'the Destiny summary, of course, is insufficient as it normally is', 'Destiny does not reveal to the parents anything about what is truly in the book'). She uses the district opac to enumerate which schools hold a title, then reads the holdings list aloud school by school
Florida+3 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Community · 1 receiptpartly verified
video 'Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman', CleanBooks-vb, uploaded August 12, 2026
What this confirms: At 0:13 she says the title 'was found at Northview High School in the Destiny (the catalog software school libraries use) program' (grading as recorded: (documented) that she says it / (unverified) on Destiny permissions) needs verification
View source at 0:10
The new statewide challenge form, scored against a model standard
the Utah Education Network's "Statement of Concern" form — the challenge form created by the May 5, 2026 eMedia Content Policy — is a public Asana form linked from the policy page itself. Scored against a 7-part model challenge-form standard: it meets read-the-whole-work ("Have you read or listened to the item in its entirety?", required) and one-title-per-form ("Title of Content", singular); it is partial on own-words (two required free-text fields but no bar on pasting) and on no-third-party-attachments (NO file-upload input exists at all, though a URL can still be typed into free text); it differs on standing (it requires "a primary residence within the state of Utah" but does NOT require parent/guardian status — the school field is not required); and it fails verifiable citations (no page or locator field anywhere).
Utah+3 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Community
The new challenge form reaches further than the policy that created it
The Utah Education Network Statement of Concern form is broader IN scope than the policy that created it. The form reads "your concern about an item found in Utah's Online School Library or UEN's eMedia", while the eMedia Content Policy's own Scope section reads "This policy applies to the maintenance of materials within UETN's eMedia library at https://emedia.uen.org." Utah's Online School Library is the ebook and database collection (the ebsco route) and is not named in the policy's scope, yet the challenge form reaches it.
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technology
The retired policy’s page was overwritten in place
The Utah Education Network policy the board "retired" on May 5, 2026 as a "content selection policy" shares a URL with the policy that replaced it, and that page has been overwritten IN place. uetn.org/about/governance/policies/content-policy.php is headed "eMedia Content Selection Policy" but its body is the same text as the eMedia Content Policy adopted May 5, 2026, differing only in the page heading and site chrome; both carry "Adopted: May 5, 2026". So the pre-retirement text is not available on the live web.
Utah · Libraries
Utah · Librariessupported
The policy-flag mechanism she described is in the published product
The policy-flag mechanism the operator described on July 1, 2026 is present in the published rating-index widget, and it is broader than she described. The index is an iframe whose source carries a filter checkbox id="filterPotentialViolations" labeled "Potential policy violation", a per-book "policyFlags" array (8 references) whose entries carry "policy_name" and "policy_url", link text rendered verbatim as "Flagged for Local Review", an expandable table whose two column headers are "Report Link" and "Policy / Statute", and the tooltip "Content may violate local law or policy. See links for details." The note above the table reads "These entries indicate potential policy or statute violations flagged for review."
Utah+3 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Community
The $100-per-school product page, unchanged for three weeks
The National Book Rating Index "Library Transparency Package" product page is unchanged between July 26, 2026 and August 17, 2026: rendered text is byte-identical at 3,522 characters. It advertises "$100.00 Price" against a required "Number of Schools" selector whose options run from "Up to 20 schools" to "Up to 1750 schools", and states "You must already have access to your library inventory list to purchase this." This is the priced-by-size structure the operator described on camera as "I can't give you a price because it's how big your library is."
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors
The price list: $10 a month for adults, up to $2,999 a year for institutions
The National Book Rating Index publishes a five-tier subscription price list at nationalbookratingindex.com/pricing-plans/list. Individual Index Access is $10 every month or $50 every year, both described as "available to adults". Institutional Index Access is banded by size served: Small $399/year ("Public libraries = <25k pop. served. Public schools = <1k students"), mid-sized $999/year ("25-150k pop. served... 1k-5k students"), large $2,999/year ("150k+ pop. served... 5k+ students"). All three institutional tiers carry the same line: "Ask about getting a white-labeled portal on your website." The institutional pitch reads "Reduce staff research time, support policy-compliant decisions and provide diversity in book evaluation."
Utah+3 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors / Community
Confirmed live: exactly two “potential violation” filters, anti-boycott law and Utah’s statute
Confirmed IN THE live product: the National Book Rating Index carries a "Filter by Potential Violations" select with exactly TWO options, "State Anti-BDS Legislation (308)" and "Utah Sensitive Materials Law (11)". Applying the anti-BDS filter returns "Showing 1-50 of 308 books" against a full index of "Showing 1-50 of 37964 books". The designation panel states the purpose verbatim: "Designations are provided to help libraries stay in compliance with federal and state law and local policies." The first title listed under the filter is a reference work about censorship, "120 Banned Books" by Karolides, Bald and Sova.
Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Technology
The price ladder runs to $175,000, with one tier oddly cheap
The National Book Rating Index "Library Transparency Package" is priced at $100 PER school, read by selecting tiers in the live store and reading the displayed price: 2 schools $200.00, "Up to 900 schools" $90,000.00, "Up to 1250 schools" $125,000.00, "Up to 1750 schools" $175,000.00. ONE tier breaks THE ladder: "Up to 1000 schools" displays $10,000.00, one tenth of the $100,000 the pattern implies, and it is bracketed on both sides by tiers that follow the rule. Buying the 1000-school tier therefore costs $80,000 less than the 900-school tier immediately below it.
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors
The “statute” links behind the anti-boycott flag lead to an open letter, not a law
The two links the National Book Rating Index offers a librarian behind its anti-BDS flag are NOT a statute. Expanding a flagged title renders a "Report Link" and a "Policy / Statute" column. The Report Link resolves to a public Google Doc, 6,673 lines, which is an open letter dated October 28, 2024 and its signatory list, opening "We, as writers, publishers, literary festival workers, and other book workers" and pledging "we will not work with Israeli cultural institutions that are complicit or have remained silent observers of the overwhelming oppression of Palestinians." The Policy / Statute link resolves to jewishvirtuallibrary.org/anti-bds-legislation, titled "Anti-Semitism: State Anti-BDS Legislation", a reference page on an advocacy site whose own opening sentence reads "To date, 38 states have adopted laws, executive orders, or resolutions designed to discourage boycotts against Israel."
Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Technology
The rating index’s backend is publicly reachable, and its full dataset was captured
The National Book Rating Index index is served by an unauthenticated public json API, and its full filter dataset was captured from it. The index iframe hardcodes its backend as bwentzel6.wixsite.com/website-9 in a function whose own comment reads "Hardcode the Wix site URL since the iframe origin is different", and exposes two post endpoints, /_functions/getFilters and /_functions/searchBooks. getFilters returns 868 removal/restriction categories with per-category title counts summing to 25,150, exactly 2 policy categories ("State Anti-BDS Legislation" 308 and "Utah Sensitive Materials Law" 11), and its own throttle counter of 200 requests per hour. Of the 868 categories, 816 (94.0 percent, 21,851 of the 25,150 count-sum) are labeled "Pen America Reports:". The 4 categories carrying no state tag are "Removed from Prison" (258), "Utah Statewide Removal" (36), "South Carolina Statewide Removal" (21) and "Pen America Reports: South Carolina Statewide Removal" (20). Iowa carries the most categories of any state at 232, ahead of Florida at 170 and Texas at 79; Utah has 37 summing to 611.
Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Technology · 1 receipt
document the National Book Rating Index getFilters json endpoint on bwentzel6.wixsite.com/website-9 (unauthenticated post)
What this confirms: Live response returns exactly 868 removalTypes, exactly 2 policies ('State Anti-BDS Legislation' 308, 'Utah Sensitive Materials Law' 11) and its own rateLimit object
The 868-category removal taxonomy barely moves in 34 days
The National Book Rating Index removal taxonomy did not change over the 34 days from July 14, 2026 to August 17, 2026. All 868 category names returned by the API on August 17, 2026 are present verbatim in the July 14, 2026 site scrape: zero categories added, zero retired. 864 of the 868 counts are identical. Four moved, netting +12 titles on a 25,150 base (+0.05 percent): Burke County Public Schools (NC) 34 to 44, Removed from Escambia County (FL) 370 to 374, Removed from Santa Rosa County (FL) 51 to 52, and Removed from Clay County (FL) 690 to 687. Both policy counts, 308 and 11, are unchanged across July 14, 2026, July 18, 2026 and August 17, 2026.
Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Technology · 1 receipt
document the National Book Rating Index getFilters json endpoint
What this confirms: Current response still returns 868 categories, and 'Removed from Clay County (FL)' still reads 687 - the post-move value the row records supported
A second copy of the rating index is found under an older name
A second, previously unfetched copy of the National Book Rating Index runs at parentalchoiceindex.weebly.com, on a Weebly whose navigation still reads the unconfigured template default "MY SITE". It carries the National Book Rating Index wordmark, the 0-5 badge key, a live search-and-filter interface and the "Review Sources and Ratings" and "Removal Documents" modals. It shares eleven element ids with the published index widget captured the same day, including the table id "pciTable" and the error div "pciError" - Parental Choice Index names still present inside the published National Book Rating Index. The published copy additionally carries seven ids the Weebly copy lacks, all of them the policy-flag machinery (filterPolicies, filterPotentialViolations and its icon, and camelCased filterCrt/filterLgbtq with icon siblings, where the Weebly uses upper-case filterCRT/filterLGBTQ). The Weebly copy contains no backend wiring at all: zero matches for "_functions/", "getApiBaseUrl" and "bwentzel6.wixsite.com" against a live comparison copy. It had never been archived: the Wayback Machine (an online library that saves copies of web pages) held zero saved copies of it, checked four ways against a working ratedbooks.org comparison, and our request on August 17, 2026 created its first snapshot.
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Community
Two versions of the rating methodology do not match
The rating-conversion methodology published on parentalchoiceindex.weebly.com differs materially from the same methodology in the National Book Rating Index's own March 2026 sheet. The Weebly page describes "a clear 0-8, color-coded scale" and assigns numbers to Challenged (6), Reviewed (7) and Removed (8); the March 13, 2026 sheet describes "a 0-5 scale" and the published index shows those three as unnumbered badges. The Weebly lists eight sources against the sheet's nine: Romance.io appears on the Weebly and not in the sheet, while Kiss the Book and "Banned in Prisons" ("Prison Rating") appear in the sheet and not on the Weebly. Three conversions disagree outright: Rated Reads "High" maps to 3 in the sheet and to 4 on the Weebly; Christian Parent Reviews "Prayerfully Consider" maps to 1 in the sheet and to 2 on the Weebly; and Compass Book Rating uses bands 0-1/2-3/4-7/8-10 topping out at 3 in the sheet versus 0/1-2/3-4/5-6/7-8/9-10 reaching 5 on the Weebly. The Weebly page also carries an internal contradiction in its own key: the Rated Reads row reads "High - 4 - Youth Restricted" while the key on the same page assigns 3 to Youth Restricted and 4 to Adults Only.
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Community · 1 receipt
archived page parentalchoiceindex.weebly.com "Rating System Explanation" page, saved on review
What this confirms: The Weebly page's own methodology text, including the "clear 0-8, color-coded scale" framing (documented). The divergence from the National Book Rating Index's March 13, 2026 sheet rests on that private capture, not on this URL (supported)
The older copy preserves a rating source that was quietly removed
The parentalchoiceindex.weebly.com copy of the index carries content that predates April 17, 2026, dated by a signal independent of its stylesheet timestamp. Its rating-methodology page lists Romance.io as a source with a full conversion table, and Romance.io was silently removed from ratedbooks.org/indexproducts and /nbri between January 16, 2026 and April 17, 2026, a window already established by the Wayback Machine (an online library that saves copies of web pages)’s saved copies. The National Book Rating Index's own March 13, 2026 rating-conversions sheet, which falls inside that removal window, lists nine sources and Romance.io is not among them. The Weebly's stylesheet is requested as /files/main_style.css?1766078517, an epoch decoding to 2025-12-18T17:21:57Z, and the December 8, 2025 the National Book Rating Index introduction video likewise shows Romance.io as a live per-title rating source. Three signals agree that the Weebly site came first.
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Community · 1 receiptsupported
archived page Same saved page
What this confirms: That the Weebly methodology page lists Romance.io as a rating source (documented). The dating inference (that this copy predates April 17, 2026) depends on the archive-dated removal window and the stylesheet epoch recorded in the research archive, neither of which this URL shows (supported) supported
Florida · Libraries · 1 receiptpartly verified
document Ecps 22-26 Reconsiderations (website) - 'Compilation of FL State Objecti...' sheet
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented) of the sheet's contents)
Florida+3 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors / Communitypartly verified
Zero rating-vendor citations in Escambia’s 478 challenge documents
Zero rating-vendor citations anywhere in Escambia's 478 text-bearing challenge documents: ratedbooks, booklooks, the National Book Rating Index, BookLens, OnShelf, Screen It First, PEN America, Moms for Liberty, Florida Citizens Alliance, Library Exposed all return 0 files. Test searches on the same set: Escambia 151, reconsideration 221, ' the ' 472. Hosts actually cited inside the documents are mostly defense-side: all4ed.org 20, reading.org 10, ncte.org 10, search-institute.org 10
Florida+2 · Libraries / Technology / Vendorspartly verified
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receiptResearch note
copy on file Analytic sweep of 297 the Utah State Board of Education CivicClerk public-packet files locating the state's disposition of heart
What this confirms: Nothing publishable; this row records our own sweep, not a document
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Florida+2 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors
A $100-to-$1,000 homeschool mentoring product on the same storefront
The storylabs.online /scholar page is read for the first time. Scholar'S LAB is a priced homeschool mentoring product in three tiers - Package A "Building Blocks" $100 a year for portal and curriculum access, Package B "Map & Outcomes" $500 adding two private mentoring consultations and a customized learning plan, Package C "Project-Based Learning" $1,000 adding private mentoring for a student project. It carries its own contact details, scholarlabdesign@gmail.com and a 530 (Northern California) phone number, and its logo tagline is "CUSTOMIZED LEARNING DESIGN". The page navigation still lists both heart Sex Ed editions, CA and UT, alongside Spanish, Latin, 1776 Unites and Amplify USA
Utah+1 · Libraries / Vendors
The storefront’s only privacy policy is from 2020 and names no student-privacy law
The only privacy document the storylabs.online storefront links is a Privacy Policy revised May 25, 2020, unchanged since (PDF Title "Microsoft Word - STORYLABS Privacy Policy (2).docx", Creator Word, CreationDate June 1, 2020, 9 pages). It contains NO certification, pledge or signatory claim and names no student-privacy framework: Coppa 0, ferpa 0, sdpc 0, "Student Privacy Pledge" 0, gdpr 0, "children" 0, California 0. It places the consent duty on the teacher, not the platform - the Educator User "agree[s] that you will obtain and maintain all required consents from Student Users or their parents or legal guardians (when such Student Users are under the age of 13...)"
Utah+2 · Libraries / Vendors / Community · 1 receiptpartly verified
document Storylabs Privacy Policy PDF, 9 pp, 'Revised: May 25, 2020', linked from https://www.storylabs.online/scholar
What this confirms: The only privacy document the storefront links; PDF Title 'Microsoft Word - storylabs Privacy Policy (2).docx' (documented); that its silence disproves any certification claim made elsewhere is not established (unverified)
Florida+1 · Libraries / Community
Utah+1 · Libraries / Vendors
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technologypartly verified
Utah+3 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors / Communitypartly verified
Utah · Libraries
Florida · Libraries · 1 receipt
video CleanBooks-vb YouTube channel video listing
What this confirms: The 15-video set this row was measured against is public and still live at this channel (grading as recorded: (documented) that the videos are public / (documented) the absence, from the archived transcripts)
Her handwritten challenge forms, read and verified against the court record
All 17 single-page Baggett challenge forms filed as exhibits to the PEN America complaint were rendered at 200-300 dpi and read BY EYE. Every objection phrase the complaint and the Eleventh Circuit attribute to her is verified against her own handwriting, including 'Opines prejudice based on race' (Wilma Rudolph), 'encourages pedophilia' (The God of Small Things), 'LGBTQ agenda using penguins' (And Tango Makes Three), 'race-baiting; anti-whiteness' (New Kid) and 'LGBTQ introduction; not age appropriate' (When Aidan Became a Brother)
Florida+1 · Libraries / Policy · 1 receipt
document PEN American Center Inc. v. Escambia County School Board, N.D. Fla. 3:23-cv-10385-TKW-ZCB, Amended Complaint with Index of Exhibits, Doc. 27 filed July 24, 2023, 220 pp.
What this confirms: The Baggett "Request for Reconsideration of Educational Media" forms are exhibit images in a publicly filed federal complaint (grading as recorded: (documented) the exhibits are public, (supported) the eye-read transcriptions) supported
Florida · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Santa Rosa County challenge register, the Google Sheet published on srcchallengedbooks.com
What this confirms: The 'Link to Challenged Books' item on srcchallengedbooks.com resolves to Google Sheet 19SSc2Sym8u7..., a Santa Rosa County register, distinct from the Escambia sheet 1hv6Wtu55zY3...
Florida+1 · Libraries / Community · 1 receiptpartly verified
document Google Sheet 'Book Challenges for Santa Rosa County, Florida 2023-2026', linked from srcchallengedbooks.com
What this confirms: Public register of Santa Rosa challenge forms; the forms it links carry the filer name on the face of the document supported
Florida+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receipt
document Santa Rosa County School District Citizen's Request Form for Re-Evaluation of Instructional Materials, form SR900717 rvsd 10/2020, as published on srcchallengedbooks.com
What this confirms: A representative Santa Rosa form carries an 'Initiated By' line naming the filer on the face of the document, unlike the Escambia register
Florida+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receiptpartly verified
document Santa Rosa County challenge register, the Google Sheet published on srcchallengedbooks.com
What this confirms: The sheet is maintained by the challenger, not the district: its status column carries first-person commentary such as '(So-called Review Committee voted to keep this book.)', and it holds 211 data rows (grading as recorded: (documented) the counts / (supported) what the status words mean) supported
A Santa Rosa challenge register: Baggett named on 106 of 169 parseable forms
A Santa Rosa County FL challenge register published by Vicki Baggett on srcchallengedbooks.com, with its 205 source documents captured: 211 rows / 210 distinct titles, submissions May 23, 2023 to August 6, 2026 (2023:71, 2024:63, 2025:35, 2026:29, 13 undated), 1,392 pages, zero scans - all born-digital. Of 169 forms with a parseable filer field, 106 (62.7%) name Baggett, nearly always jointly with one of a few repeat co-filers (53, 25 and 7 forms); the next independent filers account for 20 and 6
Florida · Libraries · 1 receipt
document Santa Rosa County challenge register, the Google Sheet published on srcchallengedbooks.com
What this confirms: 211 rows of Santa Rosa County challenges with submission dates and a link to each challenge document (grading as recorded: (documented) the register / (supported) the filer-name percentages) supported
Florida · Libraries · 1 receiptneeds verification
copy on file Santa Rosa County District Schools approved digital instructional resources list
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (unverified), and the row asserts the block, not the content) needs verification
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
On 217 filings the page numbers come from a PDF, not the shelf copy
On at least 217 challenge filings across TWO Florida districts the complainant discloses in writing that her page citations come from a PDF, ebook or Internet Archive copy: 'PDF version WAS used. Page numbers MAY vary' (133 documents), 'page numbers MAY vary' (217), one in red type reading 'from ebook, pages MAY vary', and 6 naming the Internet Archive. Escambia 89 of 751 documents, Santa Rosa 128 of 205
Florida+1 · Libraries / Technologypartly verified
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receipt
archived page Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) capture of utahparentsunited.org/laverna.html made on review, August 19, 2026 22:09:15 UTC
What this confirms: Rendered text 7,205 chars with control 'the' = 37, and counts Stephens 0, Brooke 0, heed 0, booklooks 0, stoputahporn 0
Verified August 20, 2026: the timestamp this receipt named did not exist; Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) was serving a different capture and returning 200. Re-pointed to the capture actually served.
Two independent captures of the register agree: Baggett on 133 of 235 legible forms
TWO independent parallel captures of the same Santa Rosa register exist, made three minutes apart by different sessions, in directories differing by one hyphen: srcchallengedbooks-santa-rosa-register-August 18, 2026 (169 forms read, 106 naming Baggett) and srcchallengedbooks-santarosa-register-August 18, 2026 (203 read, 113 naming Baggett). Cross-checked: the 131 documents read by both agree on the filer, with all 26 apparent disagreements being invisible-character and punctuation differences. Union = 235 legible forms, Baggett named on 133 = 56.6%
Florida+1 · Libraries / Community · 1 receipt
document Santa Rosa County challenge register, the Google Sheet published on srcchallengedbooks.com
What this confirms: The register both parallel captures were made from (grading as recorded: (documented) the reconciliation, from our saved copys)
Utah+1 · Libraries / Community · 1 receiptpartly verified
copy on file Utah registry principal-change filings for Empowered Parents, entity 9699080-0140, 2021-2026
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented) each archived filing / (unverified) any 2024 removal) needs verification
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Follett’s catalog directory is open, and most sampled libraries allow guest search
Follett (the company behind the Destiny school catalog software)'s national school-catalog picker exposes an unauthenticated json API, and each school's record carries a guestAccess flag. Chain verified end to end with no login and no special software: destinydiscover.com -> /aasp/service/aasp/pick/v1/locations (76 state and province entries) -> /searchDistricts -> /search -> /sites/<id>/details. Of 111 library-type sites sampled across 34 state and province codes, 106 (95.5%) return guestAccess true
Publishing & vendors+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receiptpartly verified
document Follett Destiny (the Destiny catalog software, from the school-library company Follett) Discover public school-catalog picker, site-detail json for Cottonwood High School (primaryKey 389339)
What this confirms: The unauthenticated json record for a school site carries the field guestAccess: true (grading as recorded: (documented) the route and the field / (supported) that guest access renders a usable search) supported
Publishing & vendors+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receipt
document Follett Destiny (the Destiny catalog software, from the school-library company Follett) public catalog-picker API, searchDistricts endpoint
What this confirms: The unauthenticated json response returned by the picker's own district-search endpoint with location set to /US/UT (documented); that the state selector is a ranking hint rather than a filter (supported)
Florida · Libraries
Florida · Libraries
Utah+1 · Policy / Technology · 1 receiptpartly verified
archived page storylabs.online heart curriculum page, earliest Wayback (an online library that saves copies of web pages) capture
What this confirms: The curriculum storefront existed on storylabs.online by November 20, 2019, more than two years before any rating merchandise appears on the same site (grading as recorded: (supported) on the order / (documented) on this date as a ceiling) supported
Utah+1 · Technology / Vendors · 1 receipt
document Rdap registration record for ratedbooks.org
What this confirms: Registration event date 2022-03-24T13:13:22Z for ratedbooks.org; registrant identity is redacted
Utah+2 · Technology / Vendors / Community · 1 receipt
document ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer search for 'heed Parent Teacher Alliance'
What this confirms: Returns 'Nonprofits (0) ... No nonprofits found' for that name across the IRS exempt-organization universe ProPublica indexes (grading as recorded: (documented) scoped to this index)
Correction: HEED did self-identify, on an earlier Wix site
Corrected August 18, 2026: Heed DID self-attribute as an entity, just not on ratedbooks.org. The predecessor Wix property bwentzel6.wixsite.com/website-7, captured March 3, 2022, carries the visible footer '©2019 by heed Parent Teacher Alliance. Proudly created with Wix.com'. Separately, across 522 archived 2022 paths for ratedbooks.org there is no /about, /contact, /donate, /terms, /privacy, /board, /staff, /who-we-are, /mission or /legal page, and the rendered July 12, 2022 ratedbooks.org home page carries no 501, nonprofit, Inc., LLC, federal tax ID, address or copyright line
Utah+2 · Technology / Vendors / Communitypartly verified
Florida+1 · Technology / Vendors · 1 receipt
document Santa Rosa County challenge register, the Google Sheet published on srcchallengedbooks.com
What this confirms: The register and its linked forms are the record set the vendor-name search covered (grading as recorded: (documented) scoped to the archived filings, (unverified) from this URL alone) needs verification
Utah+2 · Technology / Vendors / Community · 1 receiptpartly verified
copy on file Utah business-entity search for 'heed', run in a browser
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented as her first-hand statement) the registry's empty result / (supported) the conclusion) supported
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
The three entities’ tax classifications, verified from the IRS master file
Verified tax classification of the three entities from the IRS Business Master File, read by the file's own header row: Rated Books and Empowered Parents are both subsection 03 with deductibility code 1, contributions are deductible, and both appear in Pub 78 as PC. Utah Parents United is subsection 04, a 501(c)(4), with deductibility code 2, contributions are NOT deductible, and it is absent from Pub 78. None of the three appears on the IRS Auto-Revocation List
Utah+1 · Technology / Community
The IRS lists Brooke Stephens as the contact name for both nonprofits
The IRS Business Master File lists brooke wentzel stephens as the in-care-of name for Utah Parents United (federal tax ID 86-2759097) and brooke W stephens for rated books (federal tax ID 39-2728966). The IRS defines the field as "the person (officer, director, etc.) to whose attention any correspondence should be directed". Utah Parents United names a different principal officer on its own Form 990-N in every year it has filed: Nicole Mason (tax year 2021, tax year 2022), Corine Johnson (tax year 2023, tax year 2025), and no name at all for tax year 2024
Utah · Community
Florida · Community · 1 receiptpartly verified
document Santa Rosa County School District Citizen's Request Form for Re-Evaluation of Instructional Materials, initiated by Mariya Calkins, for Twisted (Laurie Halse Anderson)
What this confirms: The form's own field 'If yes, name of Organization' is answered 'Moms for Liberty, Santa Rosa County Chapter' (grading as recorded: (documented) the form field / (unverified) any coordination claim) needs verification
Two Utah parent groups share four people and one address
Empowered Parents (UT 9699080-0140, federal tax ID 81-1431524) and Utah Parents United (UT 12213207-0140, federal tax ID 86-2759097) share four people and one address. Johnson is a director of Empowered Parents entering August 19, 2021 and signing its May 11, 2026 annual report, while being Utah Parents United's president in filed governance and Utah Parents United's 990-N principal officer for tax year 2023 and tax year 2025. Dickson signs the same 2026 Empowered Parents report, is Empowered Parents' own 990-N principal officer for FY2025, and is in Utah Parents United's filed governance. Mason is an Empowered Parents director from December 1, 2022 and Utah Parents United's 990-N principal officer for tax year 2021 and tax year 2022. Stephens was an Empowered Parents director and then President in 2022 and is Utah Parents United's IRS in-care-of name. Both organizations give 640 North Main Street Suite 226, North Salt Lake
Utah · Community · 1 receiptpartly verified
copy on file No single public document. This connection is drawn from four earlier saved records, not one document.
What this confirms: Local the source record read on review: six surname rows plus an address row, each citing a different source - Utah registry filings for the Empowered Parents column, separately captured Utah Parents United governance filings and Utah Parents United Form 990-N principal-officer fields for the Utah Parents United column, and the IRS BMF for the shared address. NO ONE URL shows the crossing. Its two component routes split: the irs-bmf address side IS public (the source record, verified under BBA-0856, both entities' rows carry 640 N main ST STE 226 N salt lake UT), while the Utah-registry personnel side has no public URL at all.
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
Florida · Unsorted · 1 receiptpartly verified
document Ecps 22-26 Reconsiderations register - 668 distinct links to the underlying challenge forms
What this confirms: (grading as recorded: (documented) that the register publishes the forms; (supported) that the workbook itself supports the 106/81 count) supported
The timeline runs left to right. Scroll sideways, or hold Shift and scroll, to see the rest of this chapter.
Keyboard: ← → move along a lane, ↑ ↓ change lane, Home End jump to the ends, Enter opens the record.
The cross-district clause is Escambia’s choice, not vendor boilerplate
Controlled comparison of policy 2520 across every Neola-subscribing Florida district on BoardDocs establishes that Escambia's cross-district removal clause is NOT vendor boilerplate: St. Lucie carries the identical "© Neola 2024" line with no such clause and no Department of Education website consultation, and Collier has neither. Escambia also resolved the vendor's option to its strictest form, dropping the draft's "x other school districts" threshold so that removal by ANY single district triggers it.
Florida+2 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors · 1 receipt
document Escambia County School District Policy 2520, as adopted, on BoardDocs
What this confirms: The adopted policy text carries the cross-district removal clause and the Department of Education website consultation alongside the vendor's copyright line
Texas’ Lt. Governor threatens school ratings and budgets over library books
At an official press conference carried only on the Lieutenant Governor's own site, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick threatens to enforce SB 13 through school accountability ratings and district budgets, with Bonnie Wallace presented on stage: "If you're a C, you'll be a D" (17:54), "We also can look at potential budget issues" (18:03), and "So we're coming for the books" (18:46), having opened by claiming "about 80% of the school districts have not done anything" about SB 13 (2:56)
Texas+2 · Libraries / Policy / Community · 1 receipt
copy on file Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, official press conference, at 00:17:54 / 00:18:03 / 00:18:46
What this confirms: the three enforcement quotes, verbatim in two independent transcriptions (channel captions and a transcription program large-v3); control "book" = 104 on the same pipeline
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
If you're a C, you'll be a D. ... We also can look at potential budget issues. ... So we're coming for the books.
ltgov.texas.gov homepage embed, unlisted on a publicly-empty channel, 322 views when saved; a full copy is archived in the research files
From the same podium, Wallace sends the public to her book lists
From the Lieutenant Governor's podium at the same press conference, Bonnie Wallace directs the public to recoveramerica.com and takebacktheclassroom.com for book lists and challenge forms — "You can also download my dirty book list, 2,198 books" (19:43), "The other website is TakeBackTheClassroom.com" (20:06), after Patrick's handoff "you can go to RecoverAmerica.com" (19:27) — and ratedbooks.org is never named on the tape
Texas+1 · Libraries / Technology · 1 receipt
copy on file Bonnie Wallace from the Lieutenant Governor's podium, at 00:19:27 / 00:19:43 / 00:20:06
What this confirms: the routing to recoveramerica.com and takebacktheclassroom.com, and that ratedbooks.org is never named: "ratedbooks", "rated books", "brooke" and "stephens" each 0 across both engines against a firing control of "book" = 104
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
...you can go to RecoverAmerica.com ... You can also download my dirty book list, 2,198 books. ... The other website is TakeBackTheClassroom.com.
ltgov.texas.gov homepage embed, unlisted on a publicly-empty channel; a full copy is archived in the research files
Utah+1 · Libraries / Policy
Utah+1 · Libraries / PolicyResearch note
Escambia reports “None Removed” in a year when 136 challenged titles were off the shelf
Escambia County (FL) reported "None Removed or Discontinued" to FLDOE for school year 2023-2024, and its own reconsiderations register confirms zero decisions of any kind landed in that year. But 155 titles challenged on or before June 30, 2023 were still undecided after June 30, 2024, and 136 of those carry the register column "Restricted Access Y/N During Review Process" = Y. Because s. 1006.28(2)(a)2 requires objected material to be removed within 5 school days and "remain unavailable to students" pending resolution, the year reported as None is a year in which 136 titles were off the shelf. The statute’s reporting scheme is binary, each material removed or discontinued versus each material not removed or discontinued and the rationale, with no restricted category, so a year-long pendency has nowhere to be reported.
Florida+1 · Libraries / Policy · 2 receipts
archived page FLDOE, 2023-2024 School District Reporting Pursuant to s. 1006.28(2), F.S.
What this confirms: Escambia’s line in the state report reads “None Removed or Discontinued” for that school year
Florida Department of Education, archived November 10, 2024; 1,062,525 bytes, byte-identical to our saved copy
copy on file Escambia County reconsiderations register (the pendency counts)
What this confirms: the count of titles challenged before July 1, 2023 and still undecided after June 30, 2024 — a separate claim from the state report above, and one no public document supports
Copy held in the research archive. No public link yet.
held in the research archive; not publishable as-is. The counts are re-derived from the register, never quoted — three parses gave three answers before the date formats were handled.
Florida’s statewide report changes shape, and the backlog field disappears
FLDOE’s s. 1006.28(2) report changed shape between school years 2022-2023 and 2023-2024, and the change dropped the only field that showed a pending backlog. The 2022-2023 report gives every district a paired count, Objections and Removals, on 72 district lines (corrected August 25, 2026: Martin County's line lacks the colon after Objections, so a colon-keyed count reads 71). The 2023-2024 report contains the string Objections zero times and Removals zero times, and a district instead either lists removed titles or reads None Removed or Discontinued, which appears 49 times. Escambia’s two lines read Objections 215 Removals 9 for 2022-2023, then None Removed or Discontinued for 2023-2024.. The 2024-2025 report keeps the new shape: "Objections:" appears zero times and "None Removed or Discontinued" 57 times, so the change persisted rather than being a single-year anomaly
Florida+1 · Libraries / Community · 3 receipts
archived page FLDOE, 2023-2024 School District Reporting Pursuant to s. 1006.28(2), F.S.
What this confirms: in this year’s format the strings “Objections:” and “Removals:” appear zero times, and a grade-level field is added
Florida Department of Education, archived November 10, 2024; 1,062,525 bytes
archived page FLDOE, 2022-2023 School District Reporting Pursuant to s. 1006.28(2), F.S.
What this confirms: 71 districts carry a paired “Objections: N Removals: N” line; Escambia’s reads “Objections: 215 Removals: 9”
Florida Department of Education, archived September 23, 2023; 175,003 bytes, byte-identical to our saved copy
archived page FLDOE, 2024-2025 School District Reporting Pursuant to s. 1006.28(2), F.S.
What this confirms: the 2024-2025 report contains "Objections:" zero times and "None Removed or Discontinued" 57 times, so the format introduced in 2023-2024 persisted
Florida Department of Education, archived October 3, 2025; 188,072 bytes
Texas+1 · Libraries / Technology · 2 receipts
document Recover America, “Inappropriate Books in Schools” — searchable 2,193-title book list
What this confirms: Recover America publishes the list and the removal instructions tied to RatedBooks scores; its notation key defines “by RB / rb” as “RB classified by AI; no report yet”
Recover America live page and JavaScript bundle captured August 20, 2026; the date is an observation bound, not a publication date
document Recover America leadership page — Bonnie Wallace profile
What this confirms: Recover America identifies Bonnie Wallace as its legislative liaison, says she joined in May 2025, and says she has traveled to 100+ cities across Texas
Recover America’s own leadership description, captured August 20, 2026; the role and travel count are attributed to the organization
Statewide check: Escambia’s reporting pattern is unique among Florida’s 73 districts
Controlled three-year pass over every Florida district in FLDOE's s. 1006.28(2) reports establishes that Escambia's pattern does NOT generalize. Across 73 districts, the shape titles-then-None-then-titles occurs exactly once, and it is Escambia (9 removals, then None, then 22 titles). The dominant pattern is the boring one: 41 of 73 districts reported zero removals in 2022-2023 and None in both later years, so for a clear majority None means nothing happened. Statewide: 1,218 objections and 386 removals in 2022-2023; 762 titles listed and 49 None-districts in 2023-2024; 445 titles and 57 None-districts in 2024-2025.
Florida+1 · Libraries / Community
Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Community
Utah+1 · Libraries / PolicyResearch note
Multi-state+2 · Libraries / Technology / Communitypartly verified
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Communitypartly verified
Utah Parents United links a public spreadsheet tracking removals district by district
Utah Parents United's own site links a publicly readable Google Sheet that functions as a cross-district book removal and retention tracker keyed to RatedBooks ratings. Three tabs holding 810 unique titles, and the rating scale runs 0 to 5, not 4 to 5: tab gid=0 has 157 unique titles all rated 4 or 5, tab gid=2008256472 has 632 unique titles rated 0 to 3, and tab gid=1804069070 has 73, of which 51 also appear in tab one. Combined rating distribution across all three: 61 zeros, 152 ones, 199 twos, 182 threes, 190 fours, 40 fives. Its columns are Map Template, 'UT Bright Line violations', Date Added, Title, Author, 'Rating 5 = worst', Publisher, 'Link to Rated Report', 'Retained by...', 'Removed', 'Reported by:', Content, and three grade-band columns. It carries 21 direct ratedbooks.org asset links and directs readers to that same Gmail address 'to add other ratings'. Its own header states that To Kill a Mockingbird was rated 'at the request of a school district who adopted the rating system and wanted to see how it applied to that book'. The Removed column is non-empty on 46 rows naming Utah districts by initial (WSD 14, the Davis School District 6, plus ASD, JSD and multi-district combinations); 'Retained by...' is non-empty on 16 (ASD 6, JSD 4, WSD 2, the Davis School District(hs) 2, JSD Bingham High 1); 'Reported by:' on 5. Date Added spans 2022 to 2025. No authentication is required: the CSV export route returns HTTP 200 to an anonymous request
Utah+2 · Libraries / Technology / Communitypartly verified
Checked against Davis’s own record, the tracker is stale where it is wrong, not invented
Tested: the district-outcome claims in the Utah Parents United-linked rating tracker holds up against Davis School District's own challenge record, and where they diverge the tracker is stale rather than wrong. Of 49 tracker rows naming the Davis School District in 'Removed' or 'Retained by...', 40 match into the 213-row tracker kept by Let Utah Read, an advocacy organization and not the district. Against the district's Final Decision column, 32 agree and 8 disagree. Seven OF THE eight disagreements are explained by a later appeal on record: in each the tracker's value matches the district's review committee decision and the Final Decision differs because the appeal flipped it. Five of those seven are a committee retain flipped to remove on appeal, every one marked '(Consent)' - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, The Lovely Bones, The Perks of Being a Wallflower and The Poet X. One flipped the other way, Monday's Not Coming, committee Remove to appeal 'Retain (Consent)'. One, Thirteen Reasons Why, was retained twice locally and then removed by the state list at threshold October 23, 2025. Exactly ONE genuine conflict survives: Go Ask Alice, which the tracker marks removed by the Davis School District while the district record shows no committee decision, no appeal, and Final Decision 'Retain' as of March 29, 2024
Utah+3 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Communitypartly verified
The district’s own catalog splits the two disputed titles
Davis High School's live public catalog, searched unauthenticated in a real browser, splits the two disputed titles. Go Ask Alice returns NO results, on two independent query forms - the title 'go ask alice' and the author 'beatrice sparks'. Monday'S NOT coming returns one result with status IN, call number FIC Jackson (T). That means Monday's Not Coming is on the shelf, matching the district's own record of 'Retain in Jr. high + HS' and contradicting the rating tracker's removal claim, while Go Ask Alice is absent, matching Davis's internal 'Removed Books' email of June 13, 2023 and contradicting the district's own public Final Decision of 'Retain' dated March 29, 2024. Positive control run first in the same session: 'hatchet' returned 2 results, both status IN with call numbers, so the search works and the null is about the book
Utah+1 · Libraries / Technologypartly verified
The tracker names Jordan schools, and a shelf check agrees with it
The Davis catalog method extended to Jordan School District, where the rating tracker is sharper because it names schools rather than only districts across its 15 JSD rows - 'JSD Bingham High', 'JSD W. Jord High', 'JSD Copper Hill High', 'JSD W. Jord Middle'. A three-title spot-check at Bingham High School, unauthenticated guest access, positive control 'hatchet' returning 4 results status IN: A Court of Frost and Starlight, which the tracker marks removed at Bingham, returns NO results and is also on the Utah State Board of Education statewide list naming Jordan, so tracker, state list and shelf all agree; Last Night at the Telegraph Club, which the tracker marks retained at Bingham and which is NOT on the statewide list, returns NO results; and crank by Ellen Hopkins, also marked retained at Bingham and also not on the statewide list, is absent from the five records the word 'crank' returns
Utah+3 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Communitypartly verified
The state list’s district column is not a census of the districts that removed a book
the Utah State Board of Education's statewide-list district column undercounts removing districts. Washington County School District's own published removal log records People Kill People by Ellen Hopkins removed 7/22, while the Utah State Board of Education's statewide removal list records the three-district threshold for that title as met April 17, 2026 naming Davis, Jordan and Tooele - exactly three districts, Washington absent, forty-five months after Washington removed it. The removing_districts column is therefore not a census of the districts that removed a title. Four further Washington titles are missing from their the Utah State Board of Education rows (A Clash of Kings, A Stolen Life, Bag of Bones, Water for Elephants) but each shares the calendar month of its threshold date and the log records month only, so their order cannot be established and they are NOT citable as instances. The same reconciliation run against Davis School District's own tracker found zero discrepancies in either direction across 36 titles, so the undercount is Washington-specific rather than a general property of the column
Utah · Librariespartly verified
Against Davis’s own record the removed tab is right 45 times and wrong 7, all one direction
The activist workbook's hidden 'Removed' tab scores 45 of 52 against Davis's own record, and its seven misses all run the same direction. The tab lists 67 titles as removed. Reconciled against Davis School District's own 213-row challenge tracker: 45 confirmed removed, 7 contradicted by the district's own final decision, 15 with no Davis row at all. The seven the district says it kept are Beautiful, Crank, Go Ask Alice, Sold, The Freedom Writer's Diary, The Handmaid's Tale, and The Handmaid's Tale: A Graphic Novel. This settles Go Ask Alice three ways: Davis's tracker says Retain, Davis's live Destiny (the catalog software school libraries use) catalog showed it present at two of three high schools searched on August 29, 2026, and only the activist sheet says removed
Utah+3 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Vendorspartly verified
The operational workbook sits on a personal account, not the organization’s
The ratings workbook and the Utah Parents United contact sheet have different owners. A Google Drive permissions query on the two spreadsheets Utah Parents United links from its own site returns: the ratings workbook is owned by the personal Gmail account behind the 'bwentzel' handle, and the Utah county-commission contact directory is owned by the organization's own Gmail account. Both carry the same link-sharing grant, role 'reader' type 'anyone'. So the operational artifact - the workbook holding the ratings, the hidden per-school Davis violation tally and the HB243 list the storylabs product page points buyers to - sits on a personal account, while the organizational account owns only the contact directory
Utah+4 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Vendors / Communitypartly verified
Thirteen hidden worksheets sit behind the public ratings tabs
The Google Sheets workbook behind Utah Parents United's 'LaVerna in the Library' page carries thirteen hidden worksheets behind its three visible tabs, readable only via the xlsx export (/htmlview lists visible tabs only). The hidden layer is an operational toolkit: a 905-row reproduction of Rep. Matt Krause's Texas list (opens with its canonical first title); a 405-row Davis-targeted worklist with columns 'LGBTQ', 'CRT', 'Laverna link' and 'Mary USA Link'; a 32-row sheet locating titles by named Davis school; a per-title checkbox matrix scoring quoted passages against statutory 'bright line (Utah’s automatic-removal rule)' categories; a challenge-outcome ledger counting days without results ('over 272 days'); a rated Nampa, Idaho removal list; a 'Good Books' whitelist; and an elementary-target list. A full-workbook date scan (string dates + Excel serials, known-date control passing 9x) finds NO cell dated after February 18, 2025, three weeks before the BookLooks shutdown notice and the operator's same-day continuation post
Utah+3 · Libraries / Policy / Technology / Communitypartly verified
The district record sorts its challenge waves by which document they came from
Davis's own challenge tracker sorts its challenge waves by which document they came from, and the document it names for 2026 is not the ratings workbook. The tracker carries a column headed 'BS coordinated challenge?' whose five values are perfectly disjoint in time: 24 rows marked 'BS Challenge' run November 16, 2021 to December 13, 2024 (20 of them in 2022), 9 marked 'Likely BS' run August 30, 2025 to October 29, 2025, and all 46 marked 'BS Spreadsheet' fall in 2026, between February 23, 2026 and July 28, 2026. Matching each category's titles against the two candidate source documents separates them cleanly. The 46 rows of the 2026 wave are 74 percent present in the public challengers' worklist (34 of 46) and only 7 percent present in the ratings workbook (3 of 46), while the 24 rows of the 2022 wave are the reverse: zero in the worklist, 21 of 24 in the ratings workbook. Not one of the worklist's 34 title matches falls in any other category, a 34 to 0 to 0 to 0 to 0 split. Tightened on dates against the July 18, 2026 capture of the worklist: of its 80 rows, 25 appear in the tracker, all 25 carry the 'BS Spreadsheet' label, and their challenge dates agree with the district record to within a day, 17 same-day and 5 next-day. One correction belongs on this card: the tracker states its own basis in a tab that was not opened before this row was written. Its statistics notes say that Brooke Stephens keeps a public spreadsheet tracking which books she has challenged in the district, and that the spreadsheet dates back to February 2026. The separation of the waves is therefore the tracker's own account rather than a discovery here. What this row adds is which captured document the label points at, an identification the tracker never makes by name or link
Utah+3 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors / Communitypartly verified
Checked against Davis, the hidden worksheet is right 16 times out of 18
The hidden worksheet's claims about what Davis did are accurate, and its only two conflicts are both already explained. The 405-row hidden worksheet named "DSD challenges", which sits behind the three public tabs of the ratings workbook and which the August 28, 2026 comparison never saw, asserts a Davis outcome on 26 of its rows. Eighteen of those match a row in the district challenge record; 16 agree with that record's final decision and 2 disagree. Both disagreements are the ones already documented: Thirteen Reasons Why, where the worksheet says retained and the record's final reads removed by the state under the October 23, 2025 statewide threshold, a different stage rather than a conflict; and Monday's Not Coming, where the worksheet says removed and the public record says retained, which is the known split between Davis's internal removed-books email of June 13, 2023 and its public register. Across the whole worksheet 97 of 405 titles match a district row, the rest being titles the district has no challenge on file for
Utah · Librariespartly verified
The state list is a floor, not a census: 35 of 38 reported removals never appear on it
Reporting a removal to the state does not put a book on the state's list, and thirty-five of Davis's thirty-eight reports went nowhere public. Davis School District's own working file records a reported-to-state step on 38 of its 97 challenged titles, in 18 dated batches between May 22, 2025 and June 25, 2026. Matched against the state's published removal list of 37 titles, only 3 of those 38 appear on it: Bag of Bones with a threshold date of February 13, 2026, A Clash of Kings on April 27, 2026, and Different Seasons on July 6, 2026. The step does not predict membership in either direction, because 3 further titles reach the published list carrying no reported-to-state date in the district file at all. The list's own header explains the gate: the titles on it have been determined to contain objective sensitive materials in a final determination AND have met a statewide threshold of removal from at least 3 school districts, or at least 2 districts and 5 charter schools. Local reporting is the input; the public list is a downstream aggregation that a single district cannot trigger on its own
Utah+2 · Libraries / Policy / Communitypartly verified
Context+3 · Libraries / Technology / Vendors / Communitypartly verified
Utah+2 · Policy / Technology / Communitypartly verified
Utah+2 · Technology / Vendors / Community
Utah+1 · Technology / Community
A homepage-builder form feeds buyers the sheet and sends them to StoryLabs
A Google Form titled 'Customized RATEDbooks Homepage' uses the LaVerna workbook as its book-selection input ('use this list to select the books you want included in your display', linking the sheet three times) and directs buyers to storylabs.online/youth-advisory-ratings-stickers (two references) - the volunteer character sheet published on Utah Parents United's page feeding a paid StoryLabs product
Utah+2 · Technology / Vendors / Communitypartly verified
The timeline runs left to right. Scroll sideways, or hold Shift and scroll, to see the rest of this chapter.
Keyboard: ← → move along a lane, ↑ ↓ change lane, Home End jump to the ends, Enter opens the record.