A lawsuit stemming from a book banning policy in the St. Francis school district has been settled, and the books will return to shelves.

In March, Education Minnesota-St. Francis and the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota filed lawsuits after the district adopted a policy that removed librarians and teachers from the book approval process and replaced them with a website called "Book Looks."

The website, which shut down in late March, was affiliated with Moms for Liberty, a group at the forefront of the conservative movement targeting books that reference race and sexuality. 

The website ranked the books from zero to five, with zero being "for everyone" and five being "aberrant content." If a book with a rating of three or above was challenged, the policy dictated that it would be removed from shelves, the ACLU said in its lawsuit.

More than 30 books were removed from libraries and classrooms, including "The Bluest Eye," "Slaughterhouse-Five," "The Kite Runner," "Brave New World," "The Handmaid's Tale" and "Night."

The school board accepted the settlement during its regular meeting on Monday. The education union agreed to drop the lawsuit and did not seek any financial damages. 

A new book policy in St. Francis will include input from teachers, librarians and student representatives. A review committee can only remove a book with a supermajority vote, and the school board can only overrule the review committee after publishing a report and acting in a public meeting. The new policy must also stay in place for at least three years.

"We achieved this settlement because parents, students, our community and even Minnesota authors stood with educators to defend the freedom to read in public schools," said Education Minnesota-St. Francis President Ryan Fiereck. "The students' stories and commitment to fixing this terrible policy were particularly inspiring."

WCCO has reached out to the St. Francis Area School Board for comment.

• Minnesota
• Book Bans