The Fort Bend Independent School District is housing at least five sexually explicit titles, including one with offensive religious material.
One such title is What Girls Are Made Of by Elena K. Arnold, which is available to read in the Clements and Dulles High School libraries.
The book is full of vulgar imagery, including sexual scenes and jokes about abortion, rape, and the Christian religion.
An excerpt on page 107 read: “I don’t believe in God…But if I did, I’d thank him every day for both of my abortions.”
Another shocking 10-page scene describes a character going into a drawn-out monologue about engaging in sexual activities with Jesus.
Push by the author Sapphire is laced with excessive profanity, featuring 31 instances of a**, 47 of b****, 9 of d***, 83 of f***, and even 22 uses of n*****.
Page 25 also contains explicit imagery about a 12-year-old minor recalling past sexual experiences as young as 5 or 6 years old.
The book is available at Missouri City Middle School, Marshall High School, Bush High School, Hightower High School, Travis High School, and Willowridge High School.
Meanwhile, Let’s Talk About It at Hightower High School contains several images of male and female genitalia throughout. It also instructs kids on how to masturbate and contains multiple illustrations of sex.
The book Foul is Fair by Hannah Capin manages to feature 181 uses of f*** and contains a storyline where one of the characters is known for engaging in sexual acts with teachers. It is available to read at Elkins High School.
Tricks by Ellen Hopkins includes long, drawn-out homosexual sex scenes involving minors. It also features rape, illegal drug abuse, as well as adult and child prostitution.
The book is available in nine high school libraries within the district.
Texas Scorecard asked Fort Bend ISD if the titles were currently being reviewed as compliant with the current Texas State Library and Archives Commission standards.
The new standards, which restrict sexually explicit material, were adjusted in December 2023 after TSLAC consulted the State Board of Education on developing them, in compliance with House Bill 900 passed in June 2023.
Fort Bend ISD has not provided a public comment as of the time of publishing.
However, Fort Bend ISD Trustee David Hamilton told Texas Scorecard, “I made multiple attempts to get the former superintendent to review this type of library content and she was more interested in tax increases and hiring more district administrators while blaming teachers for our literacy rates and dismissing concerns from teachers and parents as ‘a few angry teachers’ and ‘elitist parents.’”
“[The new Superintendent] and the School Board now have the responsibility to solve these challenges and move Fort Bend ISD forward,” Hamilton added.
The Houston-area school district is not the first one to come under fire for some of the titles it houses.
Texas Scorecard previously reported that a mother and grandmother, alongside Citizens Defending Freedom and attorney Mitch Little, are challenging the Denton Independent School District.
The plaintiffs are eying Denton ISD over its allowance of the transgender activist book Jacob’s New Dress and Jacob’s Room to Choose by Sarah Hoffman in elementary schools. Two other books were also under scrutiny until Denton ISD agreed to remove them.
