Georgetown school district defends book review process, says HB 900 caused changes
After directing librarians to pull more than 100 books at two high schools for review, the Georgetown school district announced this week that at least 33 of the titles can remain on the shelves. The district will also recommend Monday that 25 more titles be made available for checkout, a spokesperson for the district told the American-Statesman.
Among those cleared are Trevor Noah's 'Born a Crime,' Margaret Atwood's 'The Testaments' and Douglas Stuart's 'Shuggie Bain,' according to the list the district provided to the Statesman on Thursday.
The rest of the books are still pending review for age-appropriateness and literary merit. They were singled out as part of the district's implementation of House Bill 900, a 2023 state law prohibiting "sexually explicit' and 'harmful' materials in school libraries, Digital Services Director Kim Garcia said at a school board meeting Tuesday.
The announcement comes after the district threatened to discipline a Georgetown High School librarian who had refused to pull 150 copies of books for review. The librarian, Susan Cooper, said she felt the sweep violated students' First Amendment rights.
'GISD has gone beyond HB 900 requirements and is using the law to remove books it finds inappropriate,' Cooper said during public comment Tuesday.
Garcia and Georgetown school Superintendent Devin Padavil rejected Cooper's characterization of the change as a 'book ban.'
'We are not banning books,' Padavil told the audience at the school board's Tuesday meeting.
A committee of seven people — high school teachers, three secondary librarians and two district administrators —makes the final determination on each title, according to Garcia. They are reviewing all the titles that a vendor, Follett, had rated 'Adult' with 'Mature' themes, except those used in past Advanced Placement English literature exams, as the Statesman previously reported.
'The idea of mature themes consists of a range of topics,' Garcia said. 'As such, our review process consists of looking at the books in our collections to make sure they are age-appropriate and have literary merit.'
She said the new selection criteria will also apply to new purchases.
Titles still in the queue for review include the 'Court of Thorns and Roses' fantasy series by Sarah J. Maas and 'It ends with us' by Colleen Hoover.
In public comments, Cooper criticized the school for using artificial intelligence to help evaluate the library materials. The district defended it as a tool to facilitate research.
'Ms. Cooper is not accurate in implying that AI is being used to determine whether a book aligns with policy,' Georgetown district spokeswoman Melinda Brasher wrote in an email Thursday to the Statesman. 'Rather, it is being used as a tool to inform the committee about content that may not be age-appropriate. These books can then be prioritized for a more complete review, which includes reading the book in its entirety and reviewing it alongside a rubric, before making a determination.'
All titles are still available for checkout at Georgetown High School, but a number of them will remain absent from the East View High School library catalog and shelves until the review is complete.
'We are hoping that within weeks, perhaps months, that we are able to bring (the review) to a conclusion,' Padavil said.
Since the Statesman first reported on the directive to remove the books for review on March 27, more than 1,200 people have signed a petition urging Georgetown High School to "come to a solution on the issue" of book bans.
'It's not the board or the committee's place to decide what should or should not be in our libraries,' Brooke Thomas, a Georgetown High School junior who created the petition, said at Tuesday's meeting. "Ms. Cooper has not only stood up for the students, but also the parents of Georgetown High School."
Thomas read out some of the books on the review list, describing why they were important to her. Rupi Kaur's 'Milk & Honey' 'makes you feel less alone,' she said. "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West" by Gregory Maguire tells the story of "injustice and prejudice."
Padavil thanked Thomas for providing administrators with her feedback.
'Student voice is very important to us,' he said. 'It takes a lot of courage to come up here and advocate for what is right, so thank you.'
Four of Thomas' friends, all Georgetown High students, also attended the meeting to support Cooper and oppose any book removals.
Martha Winters, a Georgetown resident who attended the meeting, said none of the books should be removed from the shelves.
"We have First Amendment rights. We have a right to read what we like," Winters told the Statesman after the board meeting. Speaking of students, she added, "If they're not exposed to various forms of literature, then where are they? They have nothing to compare to."
In her public comments, Cooper invited the board and audience members to meet with her one-on-one at the school library to view the campus' collection.
"I just hope the district does the right thing and sends all the books back and basically starts from scratch, and stops trying to push this through the easy way," she said, adding, "We'll see what happens."
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Georgetown school district returning some books to library shelves
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