Katy ISD adds more restrictions on student access to library books

“I’m absolutely opposed to having students on the committee,” board member Rebecca Fox said at Monday’s meeting. “Although our students are still our students, we still call them children…I don’t want to be part of a decision that puts these students at risk under what the penal code says.”

Two board members – Ashley Vann and Leah Wilson – voted against removing the provision allowing students to participate in the review process. Wilson was the only director who voted against adopting the new policy entirely.

“Our young adults deserve a seat at the table,” Wilson said.

The administrator added that since the new policy adopts the language of Texas law regarding material harmful to minors, the policy should also take into consideration that 17-year-olds are the legal age of consent in the state and no longer have protection. as children in the eyes of the law.

“We can’t choose which parts of the Texas criminal code we agree with,” she said.

Harris County’s West District is one of the most restrictive school systems in the state in its response to book challenges, having at least partially removed 43 of the 104 titles it has reviewed since 2018, according to responses to requests for public records.

A Houston Chronicle analysis published last month found that the wave of book reviews and deletions that have swept across Texas over the past year have been driven more by politicians than parents, contradicting claims that recent Book bans were the result of a national parental rights movement to have more control. on the learning material.

Many of those who say the district has mostly removed books about race or containing LGBTQ+ characters have called on the board during public comments to include students on committees.

“When a book is taken away, it’s a resource that’s forcibly taken from us — from me,” Cinco Ranch high school student Logan McLean said Monday night. “No other group in this room can say the same. To say that we are too immature…to have a say in these decisions is a denial of the fundamental underpinnings of American representation.

As recommended by the Texas Association of School Boards, the district will no longer continue the practice of removing disputed books prior to the formal reconsideration process.

The ACLU of Texas and the American Library Association said Katy ISD’s previous policy of temporarily removing books while they were reviewed may have violated the First Amendment.

Fox, who had previously said she disagreed with the policy change, said she would vote for it if the district could provide data on whether students more frequently check the challenged books.

“If this causes students to want to read books that have made them vulnerable to things that we have deemed inappropriate for them – and I believe it will – if that happens, I will ask to change (the policy.) “

Victor Perez, a newly elected board member who has previously spoken out against “critical race theory” and depictions of LGBTQ+ characters in school library books, said he thinks the board should have the added power to remove books once deemed appropriate by committees.

“The board should have a mechanism to remove obscene materials from libraries and programs if we determine they meet the criteria of harmful or obscene,” he said ahead of the vote on the policy.

Administrator Lance Redman told Perez at the meeting that the board has the power to make decisions about learning materials that meet the level three complaint threshold, meaning a parent has appealed from the decision of a review committee.

“It forces a parent to go through the grievance process, so if the parent doesn’t because they’re not comfortable… then the board is powerless to do anything about it” , Perez said in response.