A group of Texas parents has a mission: Let their kids follow their curiosity in school libraries.
The Texas Freedom to Read Project launched in December to counter the statewide surge in book challenges and removals in public school libraries in the state. Organizers said they hope Denton County parents will join the effort.
A Denton resident who is associated with the new organization declined to be named for this story.
Co-director Laney Hawes said she joined Austin resident and parent Frank Strong and Katy resident and parent Anne Russey in forming the grassroots nonprofit because she was angry.
Hawes has two children attending Keller ISD schools and was concerned when a statewide movement to label some young adult titles as “pornography” and pull them from school library shelves made its way to Keller.
Hawes joined the local fight when a group challenged roughly 40 books. One of them was the graphic novel version of The Diary of Anne Frank. In Denton ISD, more than 100 books have been challenged, resulting in volunteer committee reviews. On challenge forms, critics often left a box on the form asking if the person had read the entire work blank, and several book challengers have said during open sessions at board meetings that reading the entire book or work shouldn’t be a requirement for challenging the material. However, in order to verify that material meets or violates the state penal code that forbids making obscene material available to minors, those objecting to the material would need to have read the material completely to know whether the book has literary value.
When Keller ISD solicited volunteers to join committees charged with reviewing the titles, Hawes volunteered and was part of the group that reviewed Anne Frank. The committee decided the book was appropriate for teens, and returned the book to the library.
“A new school board came in, and they took a majority of seats on our board,” Hawes said. “And the first thing they promised to do was to overturn all of the book challenge committees that had happened in the spring because they claimed that the book challenge committees were stacked with liberals. They thought it was unfair, so they didn’t trust the decisions.”
[…]
Hawes said it’s important to acknowledge that not all books are appropriate for all students. She said that some high school students might not be ready to read All Boys Aren’t Blue, one of the most-challenged titles across the country. The book is a memoir by a nonbinary Black author, and the book includes descriptions of sexual awakening as a gay teen.
But some high school students are ready for that kind of book, and Hawes said the campaign to remove titles has targeted books that help teen readers understand consent around their bodies and sexuality.
Harrod said the challenges and HB 900 constitute censorship, and that restricting access isn’t about just the books.
“I mean, essentially, it’s a race to the bottom between Texas and Florida on who can ban the most books, who can restrict the most access,” he said. “And you know, we’re not just stigmatizing content. We’re stigmatizing readers. And it just seems to be ushering in a new sort of tribalism around information and books. And it’s really unfortunate.”
Hawes said the next step for Freedom to Read is to develop and train teams in every school district in the state. Volunteers can submit a form online. The nonprofit will partner with the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and take legal action, if warranted.
“We don’t have a lot of money,” Hawes said. “But we have the commitment to students, to our children. We’re going to protect their First Amendment rights.”
Here’s the Texas Freedom to Read Project website again. The most important things to remember are that book bans aren’t popular, most people want kids to have access to books and libraries, and with that comes the power not just to fight back but to win. Make your voice heard – the power of the book banners comes from the fact that they are all very loud, which amplifies their small numbers – and help people understand in every election who’s on the side of reading and learning and who isn’t. You’ve seen me mention Frank Strong and his coverage of school board races from this angle. Now you can help him in that effort more directly. Go forth and be a force for literacy and freedom.