A state senator has re-introduced legislation to increase safeguards against sexually explicit books in school libraries.
“The presence of sexually explicit books in school libraries is indeed still a problem in our state,” said State Sen. Angela Paxton (R-McKinney), who authored Senate Bill 13
SB 13 was among nearly a dozen measures relating to parental rights in public education considered by the Texas Senate’s Committee on Education K-16 during a public hearing on Thursday.
“Sexually explicit content has no place in a school library. This content is euphemistically referred to as adult content, but it’s also legally referred to as harmful content, and that’s for a reason. It is not suitable for children,” Paxton explained to the committee.
“Last session, we passed Senate Bill 13 to address the issue of sexually explicit books in school libraries. Unfortunately, the House did not pass this legislation, and the bill that did pass—House Bill 900—only addressed some aspects of the problem,” said Paxton.
Portions of HB 900, also known as the READER Act, have since been blocked by the courts.
Paxton said SB 13 would provide increased structure and transparency to school library standards and to book acquisition and review policies “to ensure that school library collections are appropriate for their campuses based on developmental suitability for those grade levels and appropriate for their community values.”
The measure would prohibit school libraries from containing content that meets the Federal Communications Commission’s definition of indecent content, which is the standard upheld by the Supreme Court for content that can be regulated between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.—the hours in which children may reasonably be in the audience.
“If this content ought not be on TV or radio when there is a reasonable risk of children being in the audience, then this content should certainly not be in school libraries where children are the exclusive audience,” said Paxton.
SB 13 also creates district-level school library advisory councils consisting of parents, educators, and local community members. The councils would make recommendations to school boards regarding whether to purchase library materials that are proposed to be added to school libraries. Books could only be purchased after an elected school board has approved them.
“In other words, approval precedes acquisition,” Paxton noted.
In addition, the bill clarifies parental rights regarding school libraries by requiring parental access to school libraries, library catalogs, and their child’s library checkout records. Parents would also be able to submit a list of school library materials that their child is not allowed to check out.
“No child should pick up a book in their school library, of all places, and be exposed to inappropriate, harmful material within its pages,” added Paxton. “These young brains cannot unsee what they see.”
During public testimony in favor of SB 13, children’s advocate Bonnie Wallace told the committee that hundreds of books considered too explicit for Texas prison inmates are on school library shelves across the state.
“If you’re thinking that there’s no harmful, sexually explicit content, you’re mistaken,” she said. “Why are the minds of hardened criminals better protected than the minors in Texas schools?”
Shannon Ayres, education director for the advocacy group Citizens Defending Freedom-Texas, testified that it’s not the parents’ job to identify and challenge illegal books in their schools, “but that’s what’s happening.”
“We know that without meaningful penalties, many districts will still refuse to remove sexually explicit content,” she added.
I do urge you to consider adding the absolutely critical element that’s missing, and that’s painful penalties. This is the only way to get what I think is the intended result of this bill, which is to protect our children from highly inappropriate, sexually explicit, harmful content in our schools.
Some librarians testified against the bill, claiming that it would undermine the authority of trained experts by deferring to recommendations made by parents and community members.
Paxton noted that the final decisions will rest with elected school board trustees.
State Sen. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe), who chairs the committee, recalled that in 2023 members of the Texas Library Association made the same argument against similar legislation.
“I just think it’s surprising that that there’s so much testimony in opposition, but very little suggestions,” he said.
None of the librarians addressed how sexually explicit and age-inappropriate books ended up in school libraries in the first place: largely based on recommendations from the American Library Association and ideologically captured publishers.
Another opponent of the measure testified that SB 13 would hurt children’s reading scores and literacy.
“I think we can all agree that learning to read doesn’t require sexually explicit material,” Paxton responded.
All 20 Republican senators co-authored SB 13. No Democrats have supported the measure, which was left pending.
Committee members will vote on the measure during a future meeting.
