TEXARKANA, Texas — The Texarkana Independent School District is conducting a review of 58 of its library books after receiving a state investigation of a specific list of books for potentially inappropriate material.
Over the past year, some school districts in the state have received requests from state Rep. Matt Krause, chairman of the Texas House Committee on General Investigating, for a list of about 850 books.
TISD library staff are working to identify these books and review their content, said TISD communications director Todd Marshall.
“TISD was determined to have 71 titles on the list. Of the 71 titles, 58 were confirmed to be actually in the district,” Marshall said. “TISD is conducting a review of these 58 titles based on the Texarkana ISD Board of Directors’ EF (LEGAL) policy, which allows material to be removed for being ‘extremely vulgar’.”
Titles on the TISD list include “The Handmaid’s Tale: The Graphic Novel”, by Margaret Atwood; “All Out: The Top Secret Stories of Queer Teenagers Through the Ages”, by Saundra Mitchell; “And Still I Rise: Black America Since MLK”, by Henry Louis Gates Jr.; and “Abortion: Opposing Views,” by James D. Torr.
A full list of books reviewed by TISD is attached:
Marshall told the Gazette on Friday that no decision has yet been made regarding the educational suitability of any of these library books.
“At the end of the exam, campus management will be notified of next steps regarding these credentials based on the results of the exam,” he said.
TISD received the letter on October 25, 2021. Marshall said district library staff have since reviewed all of his books to confirm which ones were on the list and are currently in the process of reviewing the contents of those books.
“We rely on our education experts to guide us on issues related to their areas of expertise. Additionally, we have processes in place to ensure that we perform due diligence and follow the policies of our advice.”
Spokespersons for Liberty-Eylau ISD and Pleasant Grove ISD told the Texarkana Gazette that they had not received a letter of request regarding the book removals and had not considered removing any books.
Small districts on the Texas side like DeKalb and Redwater ISD say they use the Region VIII Education Center for their library services and have not received any requests to remove books.
State Rep. Krause notified the Texas Education Agency last year that he was “dropping a content investigation from the Texas School District,” according to an Oct. 25, 2021, letter obtained by the Texas Tribune.
Krause’s letter provides a 16-page list of approximately 850 book titles and asks districts if they have these books, how many copies they have, and how much money they have spent on the books.
Its list includes titles like William Styron’s 1967 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Confessions of Nat Turner” and Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “Between the World and Me” to last year’s book club favorites. : “Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women that a movement has forgotten” by Mikki Kendall and Isabel Wilkerson in “Caste: the origins of our discontents”.
Other books listed that Krause wanted school districts to report relate to teen pregnancy, abortion, and homosexuality, including Leanne K. Currie-McGhee’s “LGBT Families,” “The Letter Q: Queer Writers’ Notes to their Younger Selves” edited by Sarah Moon, and “The Underground Guide to Teenage Sexuality: An Essential Handbook for Today’s Teens and Parents” by Michael J. Basso.
Krause gave no explanation about the selection process for these books and why only certain school districts received the letter.
In April of this year, the TEA released statewide standards for how school districts should remove and prevent “obscene content” from entering Texas public school libraries.
School districts are encouraged but not required to adopt the agency’s recommendations, according to the Texas Tribune.
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