Books That Belong in Public Libraries Not School Libraries

"The book removals and also the comments create this pervasively hostile environment."

"Both send a message to the entire community that LGBTQ identities are inherently obscene, worthy of stigmatization -- and the book removals uniquely deprive LGBTQ students of the opportunity to read books that reflect their own experiences."

Chloe Kempf, lawyer, American Civil Liberties Union of Texas

"This isn't the sort of civil rights issue that requires federal intervention."

"It's a question about books in schools, not about individual rights being violated."

Will Flanders, research director, Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty

"I think it's gonna hold."

"I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up at the Supreme Court eventually."

John Doherty, School Liability Expert Group

The superintendent of the Granbury Independent School District, Jeremy Glenn, second from right, at a school board meeting in March. He was secretly recorded ordering librarians to remove LGBTQ-themed library books. Credit: Shelby Tauber for ProPublica/The Texas Tribune/NBC News

A Texas school district has allegedly removed books featuring LGBTQ characters from school libraries, leading the U.S. government to open an investigation. The situation marks the first test of a new legal argument that holds the failure to represent students in school books can constitute discrimination.

 

The Granbury Independent School District is now being investigated by the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights, the initiative based on a complaint of discrimination that the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas lodged last summer.

 

Should the government find in favour of the ACLU, what follows could have further implications for schools nationwide. Experts foresee that forcing libraries to stock books featuring LGBTQ individuals and requiring administrators to develop procedures ensuring student access to books some Americans feel to be unacceptable will not go down well with conservative parents. Particularly within a rising tide of book challenges and bans, expressing parental dissatisfaction with what is becoming the status quo, swiftly upturning social tradition.

 

Books focusing on themes of sexual and racial identity with all that implies in all their complexities are those books most often targeted. According to the Texas ACLU complaint, Granbury school officials directed removal of all LGBTQ books from school libraries, citing statements by superintendent Jeremy Glenn a year ago. The Texas Tribune published Mr. Glenn as having informed his staff would be "pulling out ... the transgender, LGBTQ, and the sex -- sexuality -- in books". 

An estimated 130 books representing three-quarters that featured LGBTQ characters or themes were those removed from library shelves. Attorneys for the Texas ACLU argue that those actions violate Title IX -- the federal law that prohibits discrimination in public schools on the basis of sex. The law was recently interpreted by the Biden administration as forbidding discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity; key to the ACLU's argument.

Governmental intervention in the Granbury case, in the opinion of the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty's Will Flanders, could set a worrying precedent of federal overreach. Such decisions on availability and appropiriateness in school libraries of texts should remain with local school boards reflecting the status quo of the public school system from its inception.

ProPublica

John Doherty of the School Liability Expert Group that provides expert witness testimony and legal consultations to schools predicted  it would take one to two years for the federal probe to proceed and might eventually generate penalties for the school district ranging from a reduction in federal funding to government-mandated training on inclusivity -- or nothing at all.

The Texas ACLU contends the removal of books featuring specific values may represent discrimination at a time when school book bans and challenges are surging to historic levels nationally and school officials clandestinely remove texts from shelves to avoid such controversy. The vast majority of books drawing complaints according to analyses from PEN America and the American Library Association, are written by or about people of colour and LGBTQ individuals.

John Chrastka who heads the national political action committee EveryLibrary is exultant over the scope and implications of the ACLU's argument that banning books may violate federal anti-discrimination laws. He expects, if the efforts of the ACLU prove successful. that an explosion will result in the availability of texts devoted to LGBTQ voices and subjects in school libraries.

However, as Rick Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institutes points out, most cases of school book challenges and removals cannot clearly be traced to animus against a particular protected class of people like LGBTQ individuals. Parents in school systems nationwide are filing complaints against books for their sexual or otherwise age-inappropriate content.

 Some of these books are among those banned by school districts in Texas.

Ted Shaffrey/AP

"If school districts everywhere really are systematically removing every book which contains a gay or trans character, that would be problematic, but I find that unlikely."

"But to ask whether something is appropriate for a six- or ten-year-old?"

"That strikes me as eminently reasonable."

Rick Hess, director of education policy studies, American Enterprise Institute think tank