For the past several years, progressive leftist activists pushed absurd claims that conservative Republicans were "banning" books for children, and the Biden-Harris administration outrageously propped up and ran with those nonsensical assertions as if they were gospel truth.

Reality prevailed on Friday when the Education Department announced an overdue end to "Biden's book ban hoax" with the dismissal of several current and pending investigations of complaints about alleged book bans, The Hill reported.

Those complaints dealt not with actual book bans, but rather involved parents and school districts making decisions on the appropriateness of certain reading materials in school libraries for students in various age groups.

Complaints about non-existent "book bans" dismissed

A Friday press release from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights announced the dismissal of 11 active complaints and six pending complaints about alleged so-called "book bans" in school districts across the country.

Those complaints were based on false allegations that "local school districts’ removal of age-inappropriate, sexually explicit, or obscene materials from their school libraries created a hostile environment for students -- a meritless claim premised upon a dubious legal theory."

The DoE OCR has now "rescinded all department guidance issued under the theory" that such action constituted a violation of civil rights, and further got rid of a "book ban coordinator" position created by the Biden-Harris administration to investigate the alleged banning of books.

What department attorneys quickly realized following an initial review was that, far from banning books, concerned parents and school districts had worked together to establish "commonsense processes by which to evaluate and remove age-inappropriate materials," and because that is a "question of parental and community judgment, not civil rights, OCR has no role in these matters."

No more "book ban coordinator" to investigate bogus claims

The DoE press release noted that the Biden-Harris administration created the "book ban coordinator" position in June 2023 in response to complaints from activist groups that a "hostile environment" had been created and students' civil rights were being violated by supposed bans on books, and how OCR in Washington D.C. had overruled and silenced regional offices that had attempted to dismiss the complaints based on false allegations.

Craig Trainor, the acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a statement, "By dismissing these complaints and eliminating the position and authorities of a so-called 'book ban coordinator,' the department is beginning the process of restoring the fundamental rights of parents to direct their children’s education."

"The department adheres to the deeply rooted American principle that local control over public education best allows parents and teachers alike to assess the educational needs of their children and communities," he added. "Parents and school boards have broad discretion to fulfill that important responsibility. These decisions will no longer be second-guessed by the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education."

Different reactions to the dismissal of the hoax

The School Library Journal reported on the Education Department's dismissal of the so-called "book ban" complaints and shared the outraged reaction from two advocacy groups that had helped push that particular hoax over the past few years.

Both PEN America and EveryLibrary responded with statements that insisted books are being banned for school children, with the first group calling the complaint dismissals "alarming and dismissive" of actual censorship, and both groups asserting that they would continue to push the disproven hoax as though it were fact.

Conversely, Florida Politics reported that the dismissals were cheered by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was among the first to call out the "book ban hoax" for what it was a couple of years ago when activists in the state attempted to use the false claims to attack him politically.

"R.I.P. to the Book Ban Hoax The conflation of parents objecting to age-inappropriate, often sexually charged material being in their kids’ schools (even in elementary grades) with 'banning' books was always a ridiculous narrative that the left, legacy media, and the Biden administration manufactured and advanced," DeSantis said. "Glad to see the Trump USDOE (before it gets shut down) put the kibosh on this nonsense."