ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. — The Elizabethtown Area School District Board of Education will vote on whether "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” should be removed from library shelves later today.
Multiple groups who are either in favor of the ban or oppose it will be rallying outside of Elizabethtown Middle School before the vote.
According to Marshall University Libraries, the book is being challenged by schools across the region because it is considered sexually explicit and degrading to women.
In Nov. 2021, a man presented the book "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” by Jesse Andrews to the Elizabethtown Area School Board and stated there was text in the novel that discussed oral sex.
The Elizabethtown Area School District temporarily pulled the book from library shelves to conduct an investigation. Later, officials said the allegations about the book were unfounded, and “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” was returned to the shelves.
Earlier in the year, Jesse Andrews, the author of “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” said in a tweet he wrote a letter to the Elizabethtown School District urging officials not to remove the book from the shelves.
Andrews also addressed the concerns of the book containing pornography: “Anyone making that claim has either never read the book or never seen pornography.”
The school board will vote tonight at 6 p.m. to determine if the book should be removed indefinitely from libraries in Elizabethtown. Multiple groups, including Freedom Reading and Common Sense, plan on rallying outside the Elizabethtown Middle School before the meeting.
Life Gate Church tells FOX43 News they will also be in attendance to pray before the vote at 5:30 p.m.
FOX43 reached out to Tim Portser, director of school and community communication and information, for a comment. He said, “The school board will not be participating in any interviews at this time.”
The meeting is set to take place on Oct. 25 at 6 p.m. at Elizabethtown Middle School.