Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called on the Texas Associated of School Boards to remove “clearly pornographic” content found in school libraries.
“A growing number of parents of Texas students are becoming increasingly alarmed about some of the books and other content found in public school libraries,” the Republican said in a letter addressed to TASB Executive Director Dan Troxell.
Certain books contain “clearly pornographic images and substance that have no place in the Texas public school system,” Abbott said, adding that parents “have the right to shield their children from obscene content.”
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“Your organization’s members have an obligation to determine the extent to which such materials exist or are used in our schools and to remove any such content,” Abbott said. “You must also ensure transparency about the materials being taught in the classroom and offered in school libraries.”
Abbott’s letter to Troxell follows a letter Republican Texas state Rep. Matt Krause, the chairman of the House Committee on General Investigating, sent notifying the Texas Education Agency about opening an investigation and asking districts to check their school libraries and classrooms for the titles of 850 books listed in the letter, according to the Texas Tribune.
Krause, a candidate for Texas attorney general, asked each of the school districts to identify any other books which may “contain material that might make students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress” by either unconsciously or consciously saying that students may be “inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive” based off of their race or sex. Additionally, Krause asked the school districts to disclose how much money was spent on the books.
Included among the 16-page list of books Krause asks the school districts to check for are books written by Ibram X. Kendi, critical race theorist and author of How to be an Antiracist and Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas, Mikki Kendall, author of Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women that a Movement Forgot, and John Irving, the author of The Cider House Rules.
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Following Krause’s letter, several authors voiced concerns about their books being on the list and the prospect of them being banned in schools. However, Krause asked the school districts to search and identity the books, but his letter said nothing about banning them.
Krause’s letter said school districts have until Nov. 12 to respond to his request for an investigation.
