Members of a local faith-based activist group showed up at a Fort Worth ISD school board meeting on Tuesday to voice their feelings about certain “pornographic” books that were returned to the school library shelves after being pulled for review.
For Liberty & Justice, a non-profit organization that aims to “bring righteous reformation statewide,” met ahead of the scheduled school board meeting to pray and rally the crowd to protest sexually explicit books in school libraries.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Fort Worth ISD returned some potentially inappropriate books to library shelves this past April. Tarrant County Citizens Defending Freedom last year found 76 books that had sexual and violent content. More than 500 copies of the books were in circulation at Fort Worth ISD. Fort Worth ISD pulled the books and closed its libraries for the first two weeks of the 2023-2024 school year.
Fort Worth ISD stated that the book review process was finalized, and the books were to be returned to the campuses where they belong.
“We are letting them know this is not ok. This is very, very, bad, very dangerous to our students here in Fort Worth, and this will permeate, I believe, Tarrant County going into Dallas County and spilling over into the state of Texas,” For Liberty & Justice member Joshua Moore said at the rally.
At the school board meeting, protesters held up signs that read, “We need Education, not Indoctrination,” and “Parents Should Have The Final Say.”
The majority of people who spoke during the board’s public comment session criticized the school district’s decision to bring back “pornographic” books.
“Returning the books which contain sexually explicit content to the shelves of the Fort Worth ISD libraries is a blatantly reprehensive act which you as school board members must be called into immediate accountability by those of us who are concerned for the protection and safety of our children,” said Mark Fulmer.
“Children who are exposed to explicit content had higher rates of delinquent behaviors, increased high-risk sexual relations, impulsive behavior, anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, and substance abuse,” Fulmer said, citing several studies on the subject. “Even more consequential … are the moral and spiritual laws which you violate by subjecting children to pornographic books.”
“I don’t want them to read it, I don’t want them to see it, I don’t want them to do any of that because that stays in their minds. It literally does; it shapes their futures. We cannot allow these children to be subjected to that,” Melinda Akowski said.
Others were opposed to For Liberty & Justice’s challenge to Fort Worth ISD’s decision to bring back the books.
“Tonight we hearing a repeat of culture war nonsense from pro-vouchers groups,” Sabrina Ball said during public comment. “You have a process for handling complaints from people outside of the school district. Please use it.”
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, sexually explicit books were also reported at Dallas ISD libraries, including the following:
- Being Jazz: My Life as a Transgender Teen by Jazz Jennings;
- Freakboy by Kristin Elizabeth Clark;
- Beloved by Toni Morrison;
- Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov; and
- Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World by Sarah Prager.