Latest news with #HouseBill900
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
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
Russia Today
18-04-2025
- General
- Russia Today
State flag banned over Roman goddess' bare breast
A US school district has removed an online civics lesson about Virginia and its state flag due to rules against frontal nudity, Axios has reported. The Virginia official flag features the state seal, which depicts the Roman goddess Virtus standing over a defeated tyrant. In line with classical imagery, Virtus is partially draped, with one breast exposed. According to Axios report on Friday, the Lamar Consolidated Independent School District (CISD), located outside Houston, Texas, has removed the Virginia lesson from an online platform used by elementary students in grades three to five. The district confirmed the move in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Texas Freedom to Read Project. The group's co-director, Anne Russey, said the district cited its newly adopted policy banning 'visual depictions or illustrations of frontal nudity' in elementary school library materials. The removed content was part of PebbleGo Next, an educational website used by schools across the US, including some in Virginia. Virginia's original 1776 state seal portrayed the Roman goddess Virtus clad in toga and a full breastplate. The imagery was adopted for the state flag in 1861, when the legislature placed the seal on a blue field to formalize it as Virginia's official emblem. In 1901, however, a redesign introduced the bare-breasted figure after the secretary of the commonwealth criticized the earlier version for lacking 'artistic grace and beauty' and appearing too masculine. The current design, finalized in 1931, shows Virtus in a helmet, holding a spear and sword above a fallen tyrant, with the state's Latin motto that reads Sic Semper Tyrannis – 'Thus Always to Tyrants.' The Texas Freedom to Read Project, which advocates against book bans and censorship, criticized the flag's removal and the law behind it. On its website, the group described state policies as 'vague and confusing.' 'Today, it's the Virginia state flag. Tomorrow will it be books that contain historical photos…' the group said. Texas passed House Bill 900 in 2023, aimed at keeping sexually explicit content off of school bookshelves. State Senator Angela Paxton said last month that children should not be exposed to 'inappropriate, harmful material,' adding that 'young brains cannot unsee what they see.'
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Texas may change how schools select library books. Critics say it could lead to more bans.
A bill that would give parents more power over which books their children can read in public school libraries will soon go before Texas senators for a full vote. The measure was approved Tuesday by a 10-1 vote in the Senate Committee on Education K-16. Introduced last month by Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, Senate Bill 13 would represent an overhaul of how schools decide what books are placed in their libraries. SB 13 would require that school boards, rather than librarians, have the final say over which new books or materials can be put in school libraries. The bill would also create a way for parents to challenge any library book and have it removed from shelves until the school board decides whether that material is allowed. Under SB 13, each school district would also be required to have local advisory councils — with parents of students in the district making up a majority of voting members — that would recommend which books should be added and removed from school libraries. Additionally, the bill would not allow schools to have library materials that have 'indecent content or profane content,' which can include books that use 'grossly offensive' language. During a committee hearing last month, Paxton characterized the bill as a way to address parents' concerns about sexually explicit content in Texas' public school libraries. She added the legislation 'clarifies parental rights with respect to school libraries.' It comes as the Senate is also considering a proposal that would amend the state constitution to enshrine parents' right to direct their child's education. 'No child should pick up a book in their school library of all places and be exposed to inappropriate, harmful material within its pages,' Paxton said. 'These young brains cannot unsee what they see.' A similar proposal passed the Senate but didn't get a vote on the House floor last session. The bill would build on House Bill 900, a law passed in 2023 to keep sexually explicit content off of bookshelves. Last year, a federal appeals court blocked Texas from enforcing that law, which required book vendors to assign ratings to books based on the presence of or depictions of sex, saying it was unconstitutionally broad. Since then, Texas conservatives have increased their push for new legislation. This session, SB 13 is one of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's legislative priorities. But the proposal has also drawn harsh criticism from school librarians and anti-censorship advocates, who say it would make it easier for school districts to target and remove books about people of color and involving LGBTQ+ characters. The measure comes as book bans have increased in Texas and nationwide in recent years. Texas banned around 540 books during the 2023-24 school year, according to PEN America, an organization tracking bans throughout the country. Of all the books banned during that time, 44% included characters or people of color and 39% included LGBTQ+ characters. Some of the book titles banned in Texas school districts in 2023 included 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower,' 'The Kite Runner,' 'The Color Purple' and 'The Handmaid's Tale,' among other acclaimed books, according to PEN America data. 'Our communities are diverse and that's the power and beauty of the communities to have so many different experiences available for our students to learn from,' Lucy Podmore, a librarian in the Northside Independent School District and former chair of the Texas Association of School Librarians, told The Texas Tribune last month. 'It's imperative that when we say 'parents' and 'parental choice' and 'parents are the final say' that we include all parents — that we're not just giving voice to a select few.' The library bill also raises some logistical concerns. In requiring school boards to approve each new library material, a responsibility traditionally overseen by school librarians, the bill's proposed process would make it more difficult for libraries to obtain new books in a timely manner, librarians say. As a result, critics add, the bill could lead to school-aged children reading less, even as Texas students are still recovering academically from the COVID-19 pandemic. Shirley Robinson, executive director of the Texas Library Association, said it's 'critically important' for libraries throughout the state to either maintain or increase the number of books available to students given the lagging reading scores. But the Senate proposal, she said, would create new obstacles toward achieving that — and potentially hamper spending on school library books in the long term. 'Budgets are based on what the spending was the prior year,' Robinson said. 'So if we are essentially putting roadblocks and barriers up for those campus library budgets to be spent, they're going to continue to be reduced further and further every single year.' The local advisory councils created under the bill would recommend removing library materials that have 'indecent content or profane content.' According to the bill, these councils would also make recommendations to ensure 'that local community values are reflected' in public school libraries in their districts. Education advocates say it's unclear what the phrase 'local community values' is supposed to mean. For Emily Witt, an author at the progressive-leaning Texas Freedom Network, it's an open question about which community values are being upheld. The answer to that question, she said, may vary depending on the makeup of a given community and result in majority voices having an outsized opinion over what materials are available for all students to choose to read. 'Parents do have the right to control the education of their children, absolutely, but I think that creating laws like this and stoking fear in parents puts out the message that it's not okay for their kids to learn about people who are different from them,' Witt said. 'I think that does a disservice to parents as well.' Texas isn't alone in its efforts to further regulate school libraries statewide. More than 3,400 books have been banned in Iowa school libraries since 2023, a Des Moines Register survey found, after the state passed a law meant to ban books depicting sex acts from school. And in 2023, Florida put in place a policy allowing parents to challenge books in school libraries or classrooms that they say depict sexual conduct. During the 2023-24 school year, Florida led the nation in book bans with more than 4,500, according to PEN America. Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, said these efforts are being driven by advocacy groups that want many books on topics like race, history, sexual orientation and gender identity out of school libraries and out of reach for children. The result, she said, has been increased censorship in schools and public libraries nationwide. 'A library is really designed to be a place where you should be able to find a wide range of ideas that serve a variety of information needs that reflect the views and opinions of a wide range of people in the community,' Caldwell-Stone said. 'Everyone should be able to find something on the shelf that reflects their experience, their identity and their beliefs — and we're seeing that attacked as a concept.' SB 13 is expected to swiftly pass the Senate. All 20 Republican senators sponsored the proposal. A date for the vote hasn't been set yet. Disclosure: Texas Freedom Network has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. We can't wait to welcome you to the 15th annual Texas Tribune Festival, Texas' breakout ideas and politics event happening Nov. 13–15 in downtown Austin. Step inside the conversations shaping the future of education, the economy, health care, energy, technology, public safety, culture, the arts and so much more. Hear from our CEO, Sonal Shah, on TribFest 2025. TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.
