ACLU urges Granbury school district to put 125 books back on library shelves
The ACLU of Texas on Monday urged the Granbury school district to place 125 books that have been removed back on library shelves.
In a letter to the school board and Superintendent Jeremy Glenn, the ACLU said that other books have disappeared from the shelves without public knowledge.
The books removed cover topics like racism, the KKK, LBGTQ inclusivity, Roe v. Wade and sex education, according to the letter. The ACLU said the removals violate the First Amendment, Texas Constitution and school policy.
“Further, the District should publicly acknowledge its grave missteps in taking these actions and affirm its commitments to LGBTQ+ and racial inclusivity and to educating its students on the history of racism and racial injustice in the United States,” the letter reads.
The school district said Glenn was not available for comment and referred the Star-Telegram to a press release it issued on Friday.
The release said its library review committee put more than 100 books back on the shelves after members did not find “written or visual material that depicts explicit sexual acts or overtly sexual content.” The committee identified one book it will remove and will review 25 more.
In their letter, the ACLU asked that the committee be disbanded because put “in place without transparency” regarding the members’ selection process and their policies. The ACLU also points out that the school district’s policy dictates that it can’t remove materials from libraries in order to deny student access to ideas the district disagrees with.
“Simply put, Granbury ISD cannot remove or ban school library books because district leadership considers the community ‘conservative’ and wishes to keep students from encountering viewpoints that do not align with that ‘conservative’ viewpoint,” the letter reads.
The ACLU’s move in Granbury follows a broader story across Texas and the county as both parents and lawmakers attempt to get books removed in their school districts. In November, Rep. Matt Krause sent a letter to school districts across the state in an attempt to gather info on nearly 850 books in their libraries statewide. The topics covered in Krause’s request covered the same topics as the removals in Granbury.
The Keller school district removed a book on gender identity from a high school library in late October following social media posts about the book’s sexual imagery. Weeks later, Gov. Greg Abbott asked for a Texas Education Agency investigation into “criminal activity” related to pornography in public schools. The agency eventually came in to investigate Keller’s book removal process.
Superintendent Jeremy Glenn was unable to be reached for comment Monday afternoon. A spokesperson for the school system said Monday they hadn’t received a letter and directed the Star-Telegram to their Friday update on their library review committee.
This story was originally published February 28, 2022 at 12:24 PM.
