Texas school districts are running scared of Republican lawmakers and pulling books from school libraries in a pre-emptive and futile effort to spare themselves the coming wrath of the stupid.
A Texas school district pre-emptively pulled more than 400 books from its libraries for review following an inquiry from a Republican state lawmaker.
North East Independent School District in San Antonio said it determined its libraries contained 414 books on a list of roughly 800 targeted by state Rep. Matt Krause. Krause, who chairs the House General Investigating Committee, has asked school officials to search their campuses for copies of the books from the list and respond with how many they have, among other questions such as how the books were paid for.
The school district said in a statement Tuesday that it was reviewing the books “out of an abundance of caution” to “ensure they did not have any obscene or vulgar material in them.”
“Most of those are appropriate and will stay on our library shelves as is, however, some may contain content that needs further review to ensure the books are accessible based on age appropriateness,” Aubrey Chancellor, executive director of communications, said in the statement. “For us, this is not about politics or censorship, but rather about ensuring that parents choose what is appropriate for their minor children.”
The books featured on the list are both nonfiction and fiction, and many cover issues such as race and racial equality, gender equality, identity and sexual orientation, as well as topics such as teen sexuality, pregnancy and abortion.
The list includes some well-known and lauded books such as “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Confessions of Nat Turner” by William Styron and “The Cider House Rules” by John Irving.
Chancellor told NBC News the district had already been in the process of reviewing its books after deeming one book inappropriate last year and has looked into the age appropriateness of others. She said the district was being proactive and described Krause’s list as a “jumping off point.”
“When I look at some of those titles on there, they in no way are going to be inappropriate,” she said. “They’re going to be absolutely reviewed and back on the shelves. So, you know, maybe all of them may end up going back on our shelves. But we just want to do our due diligence.”
It's possible that the school is right and the books will be back up.
Right until Texas Republicans start banning and burning them. We know how this ends, folks. It's not going to be pretty when it happens, either.
And it's just the start.
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