A Granbury Independent School District trustee has been censured after reportedly sneaking into a school library earlier this month, apparently in search of inappropriate books.
Granbury High School Assistant Principal Danny Guidry alleged that he was walking past the school library around 9:30 a.m. on August 2 when he saw Karen Lowery, a Granbury ISD trustee, and one other woman, later identified as Carolyn Reeves, inside, reported The Daily Beast.
Guidry reported the incident in an email to the district office and said, “It was dark and difficult to see,” but he asked the two women to identify themselves, per The Daily Beast.
“One of the ladies identified herself as Karen Lowery, Board Trustee,” wrote Guidry in his report.
Security video from that morning shows Lowery and Reeves entering the library at 8 a.m. and switching lights off multiple times as the motion detector turned them on.
Once discovered by Guidry, Lowery told him, “I have been asked by the superintendent to come and look at some books,” per The Daily Beast.
Guidry then asked the two women to leave.
Prior to entering the library on August 2, Lowery asked her fellow trustees if she was permitted to “go into any library at any school at any time,” to which School Board President Barbara Herrington said she would have to schedule an appointment first, per The Daily Beast.
The front desk worker on the morning of the incident said that Lowery did not have an appointment, according to The Daily Beast.
After reviewing the information available to her, Herrington wrote an email to Lowery to discuss the incident.
“You were completely untruthful when the assistant principal confronted you and told him Dr. Glenn had asked you to come and look at some books,” it read, according to The Daily Beast.
“When you left, in addition to your purse, you have a stack of papers in your hand that were not in your hand when you entered,” Herrington added. “Would you care to explain that?”
“In my 33 years as [a] public school educator, 10 years as an adjunct professor [of] art [at] Tarleton [State University] supervising interns in a master’s programs for school administrators, and more than 18 years on the GISD school board, I have never seen such a blatant breach of ethics in public schools,” she wrote.
A third party is conducting an investigation and will be “reviewing the evidence and preparing an independent report of the alleged incident,” Herrington wrote in an email sent to The Dallas Morning News.
At a special meeting held on Wednesday night, the board voted 5-2 to censure Lowery for her actions. Over 50 speakers were given three minutes each to voice their opinions on the situation.
Opinions from those who spoke were split, with some saying there are more pressing matters that should be handled by the board.
“Based on my observations, some community members have developed an unhealthy obsession with book banning, and at this point, they’re willing to do anything. … Why the obsession with finding these books? Why is that your fantasy? It’s weird,” said Adrienne Quinn Martin, a district parent, per The Daily Beast.
Those in support of Lowery claimed the board had no grounds for censure and argued she was only looking out for the students in the district.
“Accuse Mrs. Lowery of anything you want,” said another speaker at the meeting, according to WFAA. “But [don’t] accuse her not of caring for our children.”
Lowery was also given time to speak during the meeting and told the board that she is “not going anywhere” despite the vote against her, as reported by KERA.
“‘Vengeance is mine, and recompense,’ says the Lord,” added Lowery.
Before Lowery’s election as a Granbury ISD trustee, she had been vocal about her desire to have books she deemed inappropriate removed from libraries. In May 2022, she filed a criminal complaint that alleged a high school was holding books illegally.
