A school district in San Antonio, Texas has withdrawn more than 400 books from school libraries to consider whether they are suitable for children, following a complaint from a Conservative MP.
The Northeastern Independent School District, one of Texas’ largest, is the first to announce that it is reviewing 414 books following Republican MP Matt Krauss’s allegations that they contain references to sexuality or race or simply “make students feel uncomfortable.”
“The issue for us is not politics or censorship, but ensuring that parents choose what is appropriate for their minor children,” said Aubrey Chancellor, a spokeswoman for the school district.
“For precautionary reasons, the district has asked its staff to examine the books on Kraus’s list to ensure that they do not contain offensive or obscene content,” he added.
In October, Krauss published a list of some 850 books on gender, sexual orientation, or race — most of which feature women writers, LGBT people, or people of color — and asked school districts to consider whether available in their school libraries.
He even announced that the General Inquiry Committee of the Texas Parliament, of which he is chairman, will launch an investigation into the matter.
Chancellor explained that electronic tools will allow parents to keep track of what books their children are reading in school libraries, and added that some may require parental approval.
Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online. Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association.
Caldwell-Stone commented that efforts have been made for a long time to ban some books from school libraries, but to date she has never seen so many people make efforts in this direction at the same time.
She pointed out that conservative groups post on social media lists of books they want to ban. Parents in various US cities then forwarded these complaints to school officials, prompting investigations.
“They target books that give a voice to people whom our society traditionally marginalizes, encourage the censorship of these books by school boards and libraries,” Caldwell-Stone said.
Defending freedom of speech, PEN America, said Texas was at the center of pressure from Republican lawmakers across the country to demonize books about sexual identity and race.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott asked in November the state education authorities to investigate the existence of what he described as pornographic books in school libraries.
Follow Skai.gr on Google News
and be the first to know all the news
.
