(TEXAS SCORECARD) – Citizens at a Llano Independent School District board meeting placed issues with the school grievance system for removing inappropriate books on full display.
During the meeting earlier this week, resident Bonnie Wallace, whose daughter graduated from the district several years ago, was called before the board for a Level Three grievance hearing on Ellen Hopkins’s book “Crank.”
According to BookLooks, a resource used by grassroots activists that chronicles books available in some school libraries, the book features “explicit sexual activities; sexual battery; profanity; and drug abuse,” including a rape scene.
“‘Been smoking pot since I was 13. Couldn’t quit if I tried,’” Wallace read as an excerpt from page 67, “Page 68: ‘We used to do coke, till “Just Say No” put the stuff out of reach. Now it’s crank. Meth. The Monster. It’s a b–ch on the body but damn do you fly.’”
“‘So when he asked about getting high, I didn’t think, I agreed. We smoked some good California green. Took three tries to put me in the place he said I should be…I wanted to meet the monster.’” she read from page 85 before looking at the board. “Do you want your kids to meet the monster?”
Wallace also informed the board that “Crank” is required to be removed under the district’s book standards and violates the standards for inmates by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Her hearing was part of Texas’ typical school grievance process, which involves three levels: a written appeal to a school administrator or a campus principal, a meeting with the superintendent or a superintendent’s designee, and a hearing before the school board.
Wallace told Texas Scorecard after her second-level meeting with Superintendent Mac Edwards that she hoped he would heed the call from concerned parents and completely remove the book from school libraries.
“I told him, ‘Doing the right thing is never the easy thing, ever,’” explained Wallace. “It’s hard to do the right thing. It’s a lot easier to do the wrong thing. There’s a lot of pressure to do the wrong thing, and there’s hardly any accolades when you do the right thing.”
Wallace expressed displeasure with Edwards’ decision to hold the line on the school’s existing policy, which would keep “Crank” in a section of school libraries available to students 18 and older or to students under 18 with a parent-signed opt-in form.
Edwards briefly explained his reasoning for defending the book after Wallace made her case, noting that a committee involving parents and school administrators had also determined it to be appropriate.
“I’ve read the book. The book is a cautionary tale of drug use. … how it affects not only yourself, but it affects your family–your immediate family,” Edwards said.
“The committee made the decision they made to leave it in the 18 and older section and I think the book is properly placed in our library,” he added.
After hearing both Wallace and Edwards, the board adjourned for several minutes before unanimously voting to keep the book in the library.
Wallace told Texas Scorecard that she was disappointed in the board’s decision but was already in the process of taking the next step in challenging it before the Texas Commissioner of Education.
“Why are we purchasing books with tax dollars that glorify an illegal activity?” asked Wallace. “In this battle, God has asked me to do everything I can to open eyes as to the harmful content that our children are being exposed to. So, I will continue to fight for God’s Honor and God’s Glory in all things. God will have victory, maybe not in the way I would imagine it or in the time I would imagine it. But there is no doubt that God will have victory!”
Still, questions lingered after the hearing regarding the efficacy of the existing guidelines for how local grievances should be conducted.
For example, Trustee Lance Dillard recused himself before the hearing started, citing a potential conflict of interest as his wife, Jill Dillard, is a librarian at the high school.
Another trustee, Rob Wilson, who made closing arguments defending the book right before the vote took place, is married to Dena Wilson, a librarian at Llano Elementary School. He did not recuse himself from the hearing.
Education law attorney Janelle Davis wrote last year that the deck is currently stacked against parents, students, and teachers who raise concerns in the grievance process.
“In my situation, Prosper ISD actually made the argument that I needed to file a new grievance to address how they handled the first grievance before I could then appeal that issue to the TEA,” wrote Davis, who had filed a grievance alleging that several coaches bullied a student in the district.
The Monday hearing was not the first battle for Wallace and her army of grassroots activists. She has filed 21 separate challenges to books in Llano libraries and then faced pushback from the district in attempting to file additional ones.
Llano ISD adopted a new book review policy in March that prohibits residents like Wallace from challenging suspect books if they are not currently a “District employee or a parent or guardian of a District student.”
Issues like those displayed in Llano will likely be raised to Texas lawmakers in the upcoming legislative session. They previously passed the READER Act in 2023, mandating new “collection development” standards for school libraries.
However, in January, a federal court temporarily blocked part of the measure, including a dedicated rating system for books based on their level of vulgarity and sexually explicit content.
The ruling leaves parents and concerned residents with a continuing need to comb through school libraries to challenge already-present books.
Llano ISD did not respond to Texas Scorecard’s request for comment on the board’s decision to keep “Crank” on its library shelves.