Conservative activists urged Lubbock Independent School District trustees to remove explicit books available to students in the libraries at a meeting Thursday evening.
Citizens for Education Reform founder Susan Perez told trustees the district has been slow‑walking book challenges despite a flood of complaints.
Perez attempted to read and show images from “Blankets” by Craig Thompson, which contains explicit sexual content, molestation, and nudity. The book in question can be found in Willie McCool Academy and Lubbock High School. However, Perez’ microphone was cut off during this portion of her testimony.
After her microphone was turned back on, Perez said community members submitted about 130 reconsideration forms after state lawmakers passed the READER Act in 2023 and later presented a vetted list of more than 1,000 titles, flagging 635 books they consider sexually explicit across Lubbock ISD campuses.
Perez said the district’s School Library Advisory Council (SLAC) rejected their suggestion to use AI screening, like neighboring Frenship ISD, and instead kept a complex case‑by‑case process that is “very challenging for a parent to use.”
“After three years of the 130 submissions, only seven books that I know of have been removed,” she told the board, adding that the public website no longer shows the original list of challenges. “I’m here asking you to support learning without exposing children to explicit content that is not age appropriate.”
Conservative activist Bonnie Wallace read to the board from “This Boy” by Lauren Myracle, a novel currently available at Estacado High School and Coronado High School.
The book includes explicit sexual activities and nudity, explicit sexual dialogue, references to porn websites, prescription drug abuse, and repeated profanity.
Wallace attempted to read passages from the book explaining how “touching your own dick is awesome, but when a girl touches your dick… your ‘like’ turns into ‘love’ real quick.”
However, her microphone was cut off while she read from the novel.
She told Texas Scorecard that more than 1,000 explicit books at roughly $30 each represent tens of thousands of dollars in district spending that could be used elsewhere.
State Sen. Charles Perry (R–Lubbock) also addressed the board and criticized both the content and the district’s response.
Holding up a printed page of explicit excerpts, he told trustees he would not read the text aloud because he didn’t want to “give credit to the author that produced this trash,” but said the book had gone through the reconsideration process and the SLAC committee still voted 3–2 to return it to shelves.
Perry cited third‑party ratings that marked some Lubbock ISD titles as “minor restricted” and others as “adult only,” saying, “numerous books exist on the shelves of the libraries of LISD today that are … adult only, 18 and up, and three, which are minor restricted. The language and where they go to is, I believe, not in line with community standards.”
He argued that a “public school library should be a safe place, should be a place where parents and grandparents don’t have to wonder about the derogatory terms that are being used in the context of female anatomy.”
Comparing explicit school library content to sneaking adult magazines as a teenager, Perry said past generations at least “knew there was something bad, inherently wrong with it, because we had a backstop at home, we had a moral compass,” but that many students today lack that foundation.
He described the district’s current review process as something that “seems to have been developed to stall and frustrate,” and urged trustees to adopt a faster approach using automated searches for “derogatory list[s] of words that are not acceptable,” noting that Frenship ISD has employed a similar method.
“What’s on the shelves today is not where we want to land,” Perry said, adding that he is prepared to pursue “statute revisions if necessary” but hopes the board will act on its own.
Wallace told Texas Scorecard that it appeared district officials selectively cut off only the comments that would embarrass Lubbock ISD, noting that Sen. Perry’s remarks were allowed to continue while every speaker who read from district‑purchased books had their microphone cut.
“Isn’t it curious that each person who read content from books that LISD has purchased, making it LISD’s government speech, had their microphone cut? I suggest this is to prevent the public from knowing the extreme sexually explicit nature of their government speech!” stated Wallace.
Anne Ivey used her speaking time to argue that reviewers do not need to read every page to determine whether a book is age‑appropriate, likening the process instead to turning off a graphic movie on Netflix within the first five minutes. “It already becomes evident if it is a wholesome book or a dirty and obscene book,” she told trustees.
Ivey highlighted another title she said is still available in the Coronado High library, “Kingdom of the Cursed” by Kerri Maniscalco, which she cited as containing “BDSM orgies, animal cruelty, death, drug and alcohol use, explicit obscene sexual activities, gore, torture, and excessive profanity, including rape and sexual assault.”
“This book could well be the script of an X‑rated movie, but it is in the CHS library, where ninth graders as young as 14 years old could check out this book,” she said.
Ivey asked trustees directly, “Do you agree with pornography being accessible in our school libraries? Do you agree that books describing explicit sexual acts are inappropriate for minors to read?” and urged them “to step up, to be bold, to be unafraid, and to protect our students.”
Perez told the board she and other parents remain willing to work with the district and the SLAC but want a simpler, faster process and a firmer line on sexually explicit material.
“I’m happy to work with LISD and the SLAC committee,” she said, “to support learning without exposing children to explicit content that is not age appropriate.”
