Just found out that Empress was banned from a middle school in Texas last year. You can download a PDF copy of the report from the ACLU of Texas which has all the banned and challenged titles, as well as the ones for which a decision is still pending. There’s also an html table which lists the locations of, and reasons for, the challenges, but doesn’t tell you which titles were actually banned.
According to the list, Empress was banned for “Profanity or inappropriate language.”
If anyone from Arnold Middle School would like help finding a copy, please let me know.