A debate over books in Texas' public school libraries picked up new attention when Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick threatened legislative action unless school districts pull books from the shelves that he and other activists believe are "harmful" to students.
On Aug. 17, a group of citizens in Lubbock gathered with members of the national conservative activist organization Turning Point USA and the group Citizens for Education Reform.
They met to call on leaders in the Lubbock Independent School District to remove books that they believe contain inappropriate content for young people.
The works they listed included “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” a 2012 book about a high school senior and a classmate who’s diagnosed with leukemia. The book has been frequently challenged in school districts, including Lubbock ISD.
Stephen Lara with Turning Point USA argued that this is just one of more than 1,000 books that they believe are “indecent material” negatively affecting students and should be removed from Lubbock school libraries.
Lara said that Lubbock ISD’s library book review process is not just inefficient for those who want to remove books from school libraries, but also, he claimed, it’s breaking Texas law.
“According to Senate Bill 13, it is the school board's responsibility to keep these harmful books out of our schools,” Lara said. “Not wait until a parent or concerned citizen discovers them and files a challenge request.”
Signed into law last year, Senate Bill 13 established a requirement for public school districts to establish school library advisory councils, or SLACs, to process and review book challenges from parents, but many parts of the procedure were left for districts to determine, so Lubbock ISD’s SLAC was established with parents who have children in the district.
In a statement after Turning Point’s press conference, Lubbock ISD said that to challenge a book, any parents, district employees, or “someone who lives in the district’s boundaries” can fill out the reconsideration form by following the information on the Parent and Community Resources page of their website.
According to Lubbock ISD, as soon as a book is challenged through the SLAC reconsideration process, it is pulled from shelves until it can be reviewed and voted on, and students have no access to challenged books while SLAC is conducting its review.
In the past two years, Lubbock ISD stated there have been fewer than 150 challenges submitted through this process. Of those challenges, Lubbock ISD said 10 books have been removed completely from school libraries and several others have been moved up to higher grade levels.
In June, Lubbock’s District 28 Republican Senator Charles Perry, a co-author on SB 13, spoke to the school board about books in Lubbock ISD libraries that he believes are “not in line with community standards.”
Perry told the Board that this would be something he’s considering in the 2027 Texas legislative session in January.
“What's on the shelves today is not where we want to land, and while I will take back the SLAC committee processes, and we will have statute revisions if necessary, I hope this board can appreciate that and take it action on themselves,” Perry said.
In a later story with Lubbock Lights, Perry stated that Lubbock ISD is “accepting and agreeable to meeting the intent of the Legislature,” while working with him to address efficiency in the system.
Within days of Turning Point’s appearance in Lubbock, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick led a press conference joining in the claim that “harmful” books are affecting Texas public school students, and school districts – across Texas, he claims – are violating SB 13 with their review systems.
“It's the law, and we expect you to follow the law. So we're coming for the books,” Patrick said. “We ask that you do it on your own and remove these books.”
While Patrick gave some examples of the “filthy, dirty, vulgar books” that he believes are “disrupting families” from school libraries, he referred those watching to national organization websites by activists that have listed more than 2,000 titles.
“School districts, be aware. Next session, if these books are not off the shelf, we will pass a law that will knock your grade letter down one. So if you're an A school, you'll be a B. If you're a B, you'll be a C. If you're a C, you'll be a D, and an F, you can't go much lower than that to begin with. Maybe that's why you have an F school. If this is what's in your library. We also can look at potential budget issues.”
Hours after Patrick’s press conference, Lubbock ISD’s Board of Trustees met for a previously scheduled special public hearing.
The agenda for Lubbock ISD trustees included two appeals on eight challenged books that were processed through the district’s SLAC and returned.
For over two hours, more than 40 speakers gave public comments on the accessibility of certain books in school libraries, the rights of parents, and whether they feel Lubbock ISD’s SLAC system meets the requirements of state law.
Many speakers who were opposed to the books and the school’s SLAC policy used their allotted time to read pre-printed pages of passages from books containing sexual scenes or using colloquial terms for genitalia, and some describing scenes involving drugs.
Those who spoke in support of Lubbock ISD’s SLAC procedure included people who identified themselves as current and former teachers, librarians, and students.
After hearing from the public, the school board began hearings on eight challenged books; the SLAC committee returned some to middle schools and high schools, while others were moved to high schools exclusively.
The first appeal was for “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” one of 52 “legacy” books that were challenged before the passing of SB 13 and implementation of the SLAC procedures.
Based on the SLAC recommendation, “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” was removed from all Lubbock ISD middle school libraries and kept in high school libraries.
Lubbock ISD superintendent Kathy Rollo spoke in defense of the school’s library procedures.
“Right now, every parent may access our library catalogs. Parents and guardians have the ability to restrict their own children from checking out a book, set of books, or an author at any time,” Rollo said. “Furthermore, parents receive notification any time their child checks out a book from the library with the title and author of that book.”
Rollo’s defense went book by book, pointing at SLAC’s recommendation to the challenged work and the circulation data of each.
According to Rollo, “Heroine” by Mindy McGinnis was recommended by SLAC to be kept in high schools only. She noted that since acquisition in 2019, the book has only been in one high school, and it’s been checked out a total of 15 times.
The book “Lady Midnight” by Cassandra Clare was recommended by SLAC to stay in middle schools and high schools. In the 10 years since it was acquired, Rollo said the book has been checked out 52 times. Another challenged book by Cassandra Clare, “Lord of Shadows,” was recommended for high schools only. Rollo noted that the book has been in two campus libraries since 2009, but one has never been checked out, and the other has been lost.
In the end, the School Board Trustees voted to reject the appeal of “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” and maintain the SLAC recommendations by a vote of 5 to 2. For the remaining seven books, the council voted to remove some from middle schools and keep them in high schools exclusively, but no books were completely removed from Lubbock ISD catalogs.
Lubbock ISD has maintained that the committee and the review procedure were designed and implemented under the guidance of state law.