Ken Ivory: a dated record

House Education Standing Committee minutes, 4:14 PM: “Rep. Ken Ivory presented the bill with the assistance of Larry B., Superintendent, Washington County School District, and Brooke Stephens, Utah Parents United. They distributed handouts and responded to questions from the committee.” The bill is 1st Sub. H.B. 374, Sensitive Materials in Schools.

Deseret News op-ed by Ken Ivory: “The website is www.RatedBooks.org.” He writes that “at www.RatedBooks.org these books are rated as 2s on a scale of 1 to 5,” that Two Boys Kissing “is also rated on this site as a 2,” and: “Please judge for yourself whether the books rated as 4s and 5s that are in your children’s schools right now violate the sensitive materials standard.”

Same period

A July 2026 copy of the index rates the title 3. It lists a 2015 edition, and the 2022 rating scale has not been matched, so the two ratings may use different editions or criteria.

• Ivory introduces Stephens and RatedBooks.org

  Oct 19, 2022 · 55 seconds

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  00:00 And I want you to hear from the parents that have been trying to be heard for more than a year. Just trying to have someone at their school board hear their concern and say, we don't want our children exposed to this. And then even when the law is passed, we have schools saying, yeah, we're not going to follow that. If you would, please, Brooke. This is Brooke Stevens from Davis County. She is a mom who then started her own website to put the books up and the material up. It's called ratedbooks.org.

  00:34 If you want to know what books are in your school and what's in the books in your school, you can go to the website, ratedbooks.org, that a mom with other moms put together to try to be heard about the material that's in their schools. Brooke, thank you. Yeah, thank you, Representative Ivory. And.

  Ivory says Stephens “is a mom who then started her own website to put the books up and the material up. It’s called ratedbooks.org.” He tells the committee they can go to the website “that a mom with other moms put together to try to be heard about the material that’s in their schools.” Stephens answers, “Thank you, Representative Ivory.”

  Source: Utah Legislature, Education Interim Committee, Oct. 19, 2022.

Education Interim Committee minutes, 1:15 PM: “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.” In the recording, Ivory hands the floor to “Brooke Stevens from Davis County,” says she “started her own website,” and names RatedBooks.org twice. Stephens answers, “Thank you, Representative Ivory.”

The newsletter says there are “dozens and dozens of obscene and indecent materials in JSD schools,” urges readers to press Jordan School District board members, and ends: “Find out which obscene materials are still in JSD at RatedBooks.org or http://booklooks.org/”.

Read the newsletter text preserved in the app

• Closing remarks on HB 29: “the fours and the fives”

  Jan 23, 2024 · 78 seconds

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  00:00 i hope the media will blast out to utah what's in this ratedbooks.org and the fours and the fives i will tell you it's hurt my soul to read these things that they'd send this is in my child's school and they won't even allow me to talk about it in the school board meeting to get it out and they keep it there and we've challenged and they retained it and we challenged they retained it i actually sat in a meeting with my own school board and they talked about how something had

  00:39 been challenged and retained and appealed and retained and and i i tried to read one line just like here and they go no no no no no we get it but the material sits there in front of kids how many people does it take to report a crime as you pointed out madam chair that provision with the three districts is only to remove the material that is criminally indecent and has been since 2007 everything else local control

  After the chair called for a summation, the speaker says, “I hope the media will blast out to Utah what’s in this ratedbooks.org and the fours and the fives.” The speaker also says the three-district provision “is only to remove the material that is criminally indecent and has been since 2007. Everything else, local control.” The tape does not name the speaker; our notes identify the voice as the bill’s sponsor, Ivory.

  Source: Utah Legislature, House Education Committee, Jan. 23, 2024.

Minutes: “Rep. Ivory with the assistance of Brooke Stephens, Educator Director, Utah Parents United, and Gloria Vindas, citizen, presented the bill.” A Daysha Stephens, citizen, spoke in favor.

Stephens’s Jan. 24 post

In a post dated Jan. 24, 2024, Brooke Stephens thanked Ken Ivory and Gloria Vindas for their work getting HB29 through the House Education Committee.

• Presenting HB 29 to the Senate committee

  Feb 9, 2024 · 57 seconds

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  00:00 Mr. Chair, is the bill. I have Brooke Stevens as one of the mothers that came to me originally in 2021 with materials in their schools that I frankly didn't believe when they told me what it was until they showed me a binder of the materials and the things that are there. My intern passed out a brown paper bag of some of the materials that are still in schools today that have not been removed, notwithstanding HB 374 because of what we've heard is a misunderstanding on the clarity.

  00:36 And so you've got that there. You can see some of the examples. If you were to go to a website, ratedbooks.org, that was built by parents for parents, you could see all of the various materials in all of the various schools throughout the state that appear to violate those standards that were set forth.

  The speaker presenting H.B. 29 says, “I have Brooke Stevens as one of the mothers that came to me originally in 2021 with materials in their schools,” and: “If you were to go to a website, ratedbooks.org, that was built by parents for parents, you could see all of the various materials in all of the various schools throughout the state that appear to violate those standards that were set forth.” The minutes list Rep. Ken Ivory as the presenter; the clip does not name him.

  Source: Utah Legislature, Senate Education Committee, Feb. 9, 2024.

Minutes: “Rep. Ken Ivory presented the bill with the assistance of Brooke Stevens, citizen. Gloria Vindas, citizen, spoke in favor of the bill.” Nicholeen Peck, listed as President of the Worldwide Organization for Women, and Megan Jay, citizen, are also listed as speaking in favor.

Same period

Sen. Keith Grover’s Amendment #2 would have protected public-comment readings of excerpts from instructional material available to students in that LEA, subject to the board’s generally applicable time, place, and manner restrictions. It failed 2–4–3. The substitute bill passed out of committee 5 - 1 - 3.

Deseret News op-ed, “Protecting children from explicit material shouldn’t be controversial”: “It pains my soul that Utah parents are criticized for building a website, RatedBooks.org, at their own expense, to help other parents see for themselves the obscene and indecent materials in their children’s schools.” It also refers to “the 2007 criminal standard.”

The September 30 report lists transaction 1333474: a $50 contribution from “Brooke Stephens.”

Read contribution transaction 1333474 (public excerpt)

In an email to Jordan School District board member Brian Barnett, with Brooke Stephens blind-copied, Ivory wrote that Bag of Bones “remains in a number of JSD schools” and asked: “Would you please review and submit this book for challenge inasmuch as I am not considered a person authorized to challenge such materials?” He linked a Google Doc titled “Bag of Bones by Stephen King,” which he called “an analysis performed by concerned parents.”

Barnett replied at 1:17 a.m. on Aug. 16 that he had found the book in two high school libraries and had “just submitted the ‘Request for Reconsideration of Library Materials Form.’” That afternoon Ivory forwarded the reply to Stephens, calling Barnett “our one and only really good school board member.” Stephens answered three minutes later: “Wonderful! Thank you so much! He’s wonderful!”

USBE announced statewide removal of Bag of Bones on February 13, 2026. That announcement date does not verify when USBE received the qualifying reports or when the threshold was first crossed. The statewide list includes Davis, Granite, Jordan and Tooele. These emails do not show whether Barnett’s challenge is the one that led to Jordan’s removal.

The state’s candidate list, last updated Aug. 24, 2026, shows Ken Ivory (R) and Drew Howells (D) as election candidates for House District 39. Lisa Dean (R) and two others in the district are “Out in Convention.” For House District 38, Gloria Vindas (R) is “Out in Primary.”

The August candidate list identifies the seat Ivory was seeking during his 2026 library-policy work.

Read the four candidate rows (saved August 24, 2026) · Download the original saved candidate spreadsheet (Excel)

The August 2026 candidate list places Ivory and Drew Howells in the House District 39 general election scheduled for November 3, 2026. As of this October 3 update, that election is still ahead; this entry gives the election timetable for the legislator whose library-policy work is traced here.

Open Utah’s election information

Read the saved House District 39 candidate rows

• Brooke Stephens, an administrator of the “LaVerna in the Library - Utah’s Mary in the Library” group, posts: “There are 28 books rated 4 or 5 to be challenged in Davis School District. Who wants to help?” with a spreadsheet link (“Books to Challenge in DSD”) and a challenge-form link.
• A comment shown under the post from an account displayed as Ken Ivory (“23w” old when captured): “Would you mind please sending me a similar list for JSD?” Stephens replies: “Ken Ivory yes! I’ll get right to it!” A second reply begins “Ken Ivory There’s about 100 probable bright line violations:” and is cut off at the bottom of the screenshot.

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