On the floor of the Legislature, lawmakers brandished a small picture book.
Republican legislators’ sudden interest in the title — Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness — appeared to stem from complaints from Highland Park families.
Texas lawmakers touted the book — a story about racial justice and racism told from a white child’s perspective — as justification for a vague new state law that restricts how teachers can discuss racism and “controversial” topics in the classroom.
Since the law went into effect last month, parents across the state have successfully campaigned against several books and questioned curriculum that delves into challenging subjects, including those addressing social justice and LGBTQ issues.
“We’ve been observing a growing number of challenges to books about racial injustice, Black American history, and the lived experience of Black, indigenous and persons of color,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.
In Richardson ISD, a mother’s testimony during a school board meeting went viral across social media. She took issue with a list of book club options available to her daughter’s eighth grade class and read a passage to trustees that included descriptions of sexual assault.
School officials responded by “pausing” classroom activities that involve teacher-selected book options to make sure they can be vetted.
In a Houston-area district, parent concerns led to a canceled — now rescheduled — event with the author of an award-winning book told from the perspective of a Black student going to a mostly white school. Also in that area, a school system banned from its elementary school libraries a graphic novel featuring a transgender character. And recently, Carroll ISD trustees voted to reprimand a teacher after parents complained a fourth grade student brought home This Book is Anti-Racist.
Education advocates and librarians worry about the power these complaints will have on students’ access to literature, especially as schools work to make their reading materials more diverse and inclusive. Teachers say curriculum and books that reflect students’ identities are essential to keeping them interested in learning.
“Teachers and librarians want to at least have that literature available and accessible for the students who want to read it,” said Jonathan Friedman, director of free expression and education at PEN America. “So the idea that the loudest groups right now should be able to dictate what is available to everybody is of great concern.”
District fights
RISD mom Sherry Clemens read a passage from a book on her daughter’s optional book club list at a recent board meeting.
“The strong language and sexual content in seven of the 10 books is enough for any parent to be outraged,” she said.
Later, after a video of her testimony gained traction online, she appeared on a conservative podcast. She said several titles contain “left-wing ideology … there’s homosexuality, there’s a lot about gender identity, which I think is a huge hot topic right now and scary for our girls to be exposed to.”
In an email, she also said she was troubled by a book that discussed suicide and that other titles had “themes revolving around race, gender and sexual identity.”
“I believe students should come to school and it be a safe place where all values and beliefs are accepted, and the teaching is neutral and presents all sides,” she wrote. “When 7/10 books have mature content and themes that are divisive, how is this neutral?”
The district’s response was almost immediate. The day after Clemens complained in the public comment section of Richardson’s school board meeting, district leaders announced that some of the books in question indeed contained inappropriate material.
As a result, RISD temporarily suspended book clubs across the district until administrators could review guidelines and criteria for teachers in charge of selecting books.
Now, a district group will create a rubric for such choices and hopes to have criteria outlined by the spring, at which point the clubs can resume.
“It’s quite the undertaking because one could argue any text,” said Lindsay Mikulas, an RISD reading and language arts director.
While some parents are concerned about access to controversial materials, some of which had required a parental permission slip, RISD mother Michelle Meals said she wants her sons to encounter difficult topics in books. That way her boys can work through the real issues teenagers face with the help of teachers and parents.
“Even though it can be extremely difficult and messy through literature, I’d much rather them encounter it through a book than through TikTok,” she said.
Earlier this year, Rep. Steve Toth, R-The Woodlands, zeroed-in on a complaint from a Highland Park parent about a children’s book that he argued “teaches critical race theory to little kids.” He held up the cover from the House floor. But the book in question was never part of district materials, Highland Park ISD spokesman Jon Dahlander said.
The book’s author describes the story as being about a white child who sees news about a white police officer killing a person with brown skin. The child explores the history of white supremacy in America and determines they should work to dismantle it.
In Southlake, Carroll ISD teachers were presented a rubric to determine which books could remain in their classroom libraries, NBC News reported.
The guidelines instructed teachers to omit books with a “singular, dominant narrative” that could be “considered offensive.” Teachers questioned how they could know what each of their students’ families found offensive.
Controversies over book titles are nothing new. In 2014, Highland Park ISD suspended seven books after parents complained about sexual content and references to rape, abuse and abortion.
Earlier this year, a Leander ISD community member spoke against some titles chosen for student-led book clubs while waving a sex toy around to demonstrate her distaste. The district eventually removed more than a dozen books from optional book club lists after they were deemed inappropriate or unfit, according to The Austin-American Statesman.
Spring Branch ISD recently banned from its elementary schools a graphic novel with a transgender character following a parent complaint, The Houston Chronicle reported.
Richardson dealt with similar tension last year when some parents complained about books dealing with gender identity and LGBTQ topics. Such titles had been available in district libraries for years and as part of an effort to promote inclusiveness, more were added last school year, Superintendent Jeannie Stone said at that time.
Backlash over curriculum in some cases has gone beyond singular books.
Little Elm trustees, for instance, recently considered backtracking on offering Mexican American Studies and African American Studies next school year. In late September, some trustees expressed concerns that the courses could lead to the teaching of critical race theory, something students typically don’t encounter until higher education.
“It would open the doors for teachers to teach their own personal agendas,” trustee Alex Flores said. “We as a board need to consider the fact that if we do have somebody teach any CRT in the classroom and somebody gets wind of that video, we’re subject to that lawsuit.”
Every year, the American Library Association compiles a list highlighting the most challenged books in the country, based on information from media coverage and voluntary reports filed to the organization.
The bulk of book challenges in 2018 and 2019 involved titles for young adults that “focused on LGBTQ concerns and experiences, particularly trans identity,” Caldwell-Stone said.
That changed in 2020, as the country grappled with its history of race and racism following the murder of a Black man by a Minnesota police officer and the protests that followed.
“This rise in numbers of challenges to these books can actually be tracked pretty closely back to the growing awareness of racial injustice that began with the murder of George Floyd and the efforts of some — I would look at President [Donald] Trump’s effort to ban diversity training for federal employees and federal contractors last fall,” Caldwell-Stone said.
Chilling effect
What’s playing out in school districts across the state is what education advocates who argued against the Republican-backed bills feared, said Chloe Latham Sikes, with the Intercultural Development Research Association.
Sponsors said the Texas legislation was intended to target “critical race theory,” an academic theory that conservative pundits have conflated with a wide host of diversity and inclusion efforts.
Earlier this year, lawmakers passed a bill that prevents schools from compelling social studies teachers to discuss particular current events or controversial issues of public policy. If they do discuss such topics, they are required to “explore the topic from diverse and contending perspectives without giving deference to any one perspective.” The legislation went into effect on Sept. 1.
Language from Trump’s September 2020 executive order obliquely targeting critical race theory is found verbatim in that bill.
In a later special session, legislators expanded the bill’s provisions to include teachers of all subjects and mandated that educators discussing controversial public policy issues should “explore that topic objectively and in a matter free from political bias.” That new law goes into effect Dec. 2.
Neither law contained enforcement provisions and both included vague language, stirring confusion in school districts over what the legislation means for teachers.
“We knew that this chilling effect would come, and it has honestly come in with a real force,” Sikes said.
NBC recently published a recording of a Carroll ISD official telling teachers they had to offer books from “opposing” perspectives — even about the Holocaust. The district’s superintendent later apologized and clarified that the district does not believe there were two sides of the Holocaust.
Carroll school board president Michelle Moore said at a recent meeting that the new law has caused confusion for teachers. Those within the district must work together to figure out how best to apply the laws enacted by the Legislature, she said.
“Our message to our curriculum and instructional staff and teachers is that we support you and understand the challenges that lie ahead of you,” Moore said at the meeting.
Some districts are hearing individual complaints or grievances and then making blanket judgments that impact all students, Sikes said, resulting in a scattershot-like response to sweeping legislation.
Advocacy groups are watching to see how the law translates into what courses and books are targeted in Texas. Friedman said some parents appear to be inspired by legislators, “who also seem to imagine that they should have the responsibility to censor materials.”
“There are pockets of serious opposition to changing the way that we talk and think about sex and gender and racism and history,” he said.
In Richardson, school leaders say they remain committed to providing a breadth of books for students, allowing them to see themselves and their experiences in the stories they read.
“But we need to balance that with what is developmentally appropriate and where that student is in terms of maturation,” deputy superintendent Tabitha Branum said. “So it is a fine line, and it’s not an easy one to create.”
Staff writer Corbett Smith contributed to this article.
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The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.
The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from The Beck Group, Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, The Meadows Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University and Todd A. Williams Family Foundation. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.
