A fight over removing sexually explicit library books from a North Texas school district ended this week as residents got a look at the graphic content some on the left had argued should stay.
On Wednesday, Granbury Independent School District invited the public to inspect the books singled out for removal due to their “overtly sexual content.”
A total of eight books deemed inappropriate for school libraries were displayed in the Granbury ISD administration building.
“Is this it?” asked one of the few local residents who wandered in Wednesday afternoon to look at the books that had raised a national ruckus.
She said she’d been hearing about the books in the news and thought there would be more.
Three books are slated for removal because of sexually explicit material or illustrations: “Out of Darkness,” “We Are the Ants,” and “This Book Is Gay” (described as an “uncensored exploration of sexuality”).
Five other sex-filled “teen romance” novels by Abbi Glines were already taken off library shelves.
The recommendations followed a two-month review of 131 titles plus the Glines books by a nine-member committee made up of parents, community members, and district staff.
Local and national media, as well as left-wing activists, began attacking Granbury ISD’s book review process as “censorship” and “banning” books after a video of Superintendent Jeremy Glenn defending the removal of sexually explicit books went viral in January.
“Abbott said that students should not have access to vulgar or pornographic materials in school, and our district totally agrees with that,” Glenn said in response to critics during a school board meeting.
“It’s not at all like they’re making it out to be,” Granbury ISD trustee Courtney Gore told Texas Scorecard.
She said putting age-appropriate limits on what is available to kids in schools shouldn’t be controversial, and the district’s review was a commonsense response to their community’s concerns.
Granbury ISD’s actions are in line with what many Texas school districts are doing, following Gov. Greg Abbott’s directives to state agencies to keep pornography and other inappropriate content out of school libraries. Granbury’s review focused on “written or visual material that depicts explicit sexual acts or overtly sexual content.”
The review committee completed their book evaluations in March. The result: “A majority of the committee agreed that 116 books on the review list did not include material that matched this definition. These books have been returned to school libraries.”
Granbury ISD trustee Melanie Graft said the review committee has finished its work for now, but parents and district officials will continue to monitor the content of books that end up in school libraries.
Graft, Gore, and Glenn all agree the district shouldn’t be buying inappropriate books with taxpayer money, and kids shouldn’t have access to adult content at school.
Similar fights are playing out in school districts across the state and have become a hot-button campaign issue in local school board races this year.
“You can take a stand on controversial issues and win elections,” Glenn said.
