As reported by WFAA, concerns from parents in the Keller Independent School District School Board meeting over the content of books in school libraries continue to spark a heated debate.
The most recent example came on Monday night when parents expressed frustration over the Keller ISD School Board’s perceived inaction regarding books that some view as sexually explicit.
The controversial books in the school district were not on the agenda for discussion at the meeting. However, during the public comment section of the assembly, complaints about the books were heard, including remarks about working on voting school board members out of office.
“Why are we here? We’re angry,” one parent said. “We are fed up with pornographic materials that are still in our libraries accessible to our children.”
Disputes about whether or not to remove books from Keller ISD schools have been going on since October of last year. Since then, thirty-three books have been challenged by parents, and ten of those have been taken out of circulation.
The books that have been withdrawn include Gender Queer, by Maia Kobabe, followed by others such as Panic, by Sharon Draper, Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts), by L.C. Rosen, and Flamer, by Mike Curato.
The Dallas Express reported that as of February 28, Gender Queer remained available in some Dallas Independent School District libraries.
Reportedly, the books challenged in Keller ISD are reviewed by a district-formed committee, whose members read the works in their entirety before rendering a decision.
One of the books, Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, was recently reviewed and was allowed to remain on the shelves in Keller schools. A decision is still pending on Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation. The Bible was also formally challenged, but the challenge was later withdrawn.
Social media posts from a political action committee known as “Moms for Liberty” have served as the inspiration for some of the complaints by parents.
According to the group’s website, they “welcome all that have a desire to stand up for parental rights at all levels of government.” The committee also states that “parental rights do not stop at the classroom door.”
The issue of parents challenging library books has been prevalent all across Texas. Governor Greg Abbott has asked pertinent entities within the state to develop statewide standards concerning the content of books found in public schools.
Abbott’s directive went to the Texas Education Agency, the Texas Board of Education, and the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. The governor stated that he wanted to protect children from pornography and inappropriate content.
Still, not all parents support the effort to have disputed books removed from Texas school districts.
Mike Sexton, part of a group of parents uniting to oppose Moms for Liberty, claimed, “The scary part about this is we’re saying anything that offends us we’re going to remove — that means every book is going to be gone.”
Some claim the argument is really about diversity concerns, as many of the texts in question feature topics of gender, sexuality, and race.
“This political action committee (Moms for Liberty) isn’t here to protect our children from pornography; they’re here to attack diversity,” Keller ISD alumnus Julie Henderson said.
But Joni Smith, another parent of a Keller student, argued it is not the overarching topics that are the problem, but rather the sexual content.
“It just so happens that Gender Queer is about gender identity. It could have been about green aliens — it was still pornographic,” Smith said. “While, it’s unfortunate many of the titles are LGBTQ and race-related, we are in no way targeting those only. We are trying to eliminate sexually explicit and pornographic books.”