When copies of the Fredericksburg Conservative hit mailboxes across Gillespie County last week emblazoned with a warning that inside the newspaper were “materials that may be considered offensive and inappropriate,” it was an eye-opener for Texas Hill Country residents.

 

For many, it was the first they’d heard about sexually explicit books found in local school libraries and the controversy surrounding their removal.

Most had never seen the graphic content of the books that parents are challenging as age-inappropriate and pornographic.

For Fredericksburg mom Tara Petsch, it was a godsend.

Petsch and other parents have been fighting for months to get dozens of explicit books out of their kids’ school libraries, relying mainly on social media and local grassroots networks to educate the community about the issue.

“Finally someone with courage,” Petsch said.

That someone is David Treibs, publisher of the Fredericksburg Conservative.

He heard about Petsch’s fight to protect kids through the county Republican Party, to which he was elected this year as a precinct chair, and on local conservative leader Matt Long’s radio show.

“I saw what was going on,” Treibs told Texas Scorecard. “She didn’t have a voice and was trying to reach people.”

Treibs originally published eight editions of the Fredericksburg Conservative back in 2006 and 2007 because “the liberal rag in town” wouldn’t print information he thought was important. “So I decided to print it myself.”

He saw a similar situation with Fredericksburg parents fighting to protect kids from school library porn.

While parents have had some successes, they’ve become frustrated as progress stalled.

Meanwhile, the liberal publisher of the town’s lone local paper mocked their efforts to keep graphic descriptions of sex acts out of school kids’ libraries as “book banning” and ran ads by the Gillespie County Democrats calling concerned parents “a few extremists.”

Yet when Petsch’s parental rights group tried to buy their own ad that quoted the explicit books, the paper refused.

Treibs decided to use his own money to revive his paper and send it to residents of Fredericksburg Independent School District.

Fredericksburg businessman and pro-life advocate Chris Danze heard about Treibs’ project and offered to finance a countywide mailing.

The Education Edition of the Fredericksburg Conservative, published July 12 and mailed to 15,000 Gillespie County residents the week of July 18, includes six pages of excerpts from books researched by parents and found to contain sexually explicit or educationally unsuitable material:

WARNING: Extremely Graphic and Offensive materials, all of which either still are or were in the gov’t Elementary, Middle, and/or High School libraries.

Treibs notes that some members of the community have “vociferously defended” the explicit materials. His goal is “to educate adults to that which children have had easy access via your tax money.”

Petsch is continuing to meet with school officials about problems with the district’s library book review process, which she says is not following the district’s local policy.

She and Treibs hope using the paper to widen awareness about the explicit books may encourage residents to put added pressure on school officials to more quickly remove inappropriate materials from students’ libraries.

Treibs said early feedback has been mixed, but one reader who appreciated his effort agreed the other local paper is not giving conservatives a fair voice.

“Other people can do it too,” he said. “it’s a lot of work, but they just need to have the will power, have a vision, and do it. Whatever resources they have, use them.”

“I hope people who weren’t informed about the issue will see this and get activated,” Treibs added.

“People better get motivated pretty fast. We’re going off the cliff and we’re not coming back.”

Erin Anderson

Erin Anderson is a Senior Journalist for Texas Scorecard, reporting on state and local issues, events, and government actions that impact people in communities throughout Texas and the DFW Metroplex. A native Texan, Erin grew up in the Houston area and now lives in Collin County.

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