Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signs ban on 'sexually explicit' books in school libraries into law

A prohibition on sexual content in school libraries became law Monday as Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill banning explicit books along with additional measures to increase parents' input in Texas classrooms.

Connected to Abbott's session-long "parental empowerment" effort, House Bill 900 will prohibit schools from purchasing books that are "sexually explicit, pervasively vulgar or educationally unsuitable."

Titled the Restricting Explicit and Adult-Designated Educational Resources Act, or READER Act, the legislation by Rep. Jared Patterson, R-Frisco, and Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, will set new standards for school libraries to follow when adding books to their collections.

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Signing the bill alongside supporters at the Capitol on Monday, Abbott said the bill will help keep sexual content from students and reaffirm that parents are the primary decision makers on what their children read.

"Some school libraries have books with sexually explicit and vulgar materials," Abbott said. "I'm signing a law that gets that trash out of our schools."

Under the bill, the Texas State Library and Archives Commission is tasked with creating mandatory material standards that will then be approved by the State Board of Education.

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Those standards, which are required to be in place by Jan. 1, would put the onus on book vendors to rate the content they sell to libraries and catalog a list for the Texas Education Agency.

Additionally, the TEA has the authority to review book purchases and ratings and must publish a list of vendors that do not comply with the state rating requirements.

School districts must review their content each odd-numbered year and submit a compliance report to the TEA, with the first audit to occur no later than the start of 2025.

"Explicit material has no place within the public school system and this bill, now signed by Gov. Abbott, has become law to ensure book vendors will be held accountable for the material they are putting into the hands of our children," Patterson said in a statement after the bill signing.

Throughout the legislative process, book ban opponents voiced concerns that the bill targets material pertaining to the LGBTQ+ community and that such prohibitions infringe on a student's right to read.

The Texas Freedom Network condemned the bill becoming law, saying the parameters of what constitutes "sexually explicit" are unclear in the legislation and that any book relating to gender identity could be seen as "sexually relevant."

“HB 900 restricts our children’s ability to read freely by allowing politicians to interfere with our education system when parents already have a system that works to control what their children read in our schools," Val Benavidez, executive director of the network, said in a statement. "All the alarm bells should be going off when state leaders use their elected power to control our children’s ideas and erase the historical experiences of our communities."

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Between July and December 2022, Texas led the nation with 438 bans on books, according to PEN America, a New York-based nonprofit that defends expression through literature. The most bans occurred within the Frisco school district, which is represented by Patterson.

The ACLU of Texas also voiced opposition to the new law in a tweet Monday, saying the legislation "will ban books about LGBTQIA+, Black, and Brown experiences in public schools."

"Lawmakers have no right taking away the freedom of Texas students to read — just because they don’t believe certain people are worth reading about," the tweet continued.

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During the bill signing news conference, Abbott also signed legislation to overhaul the state's education instructional material vetting process, allow parents a say in whether their child should repeat a grade level and direct grant funding for parents through the supplemental special education services program to purchase goods and services to benefit their child's education.

When asked what he'd say to those who view HB 900 as a proposal to simply ban books, Abbott said parents need to know what is in their children's schools.

Abbott said he has personally seen school library materials that are too sexual to be shown on TV, and he called for a returned focus to the "basics" of school, meaning science, math and reading ability.

"It's the kind of graphic image that no one would publicize, and yet we have books like that in our schools that are allowing children to see it," Abbot said. "That's wrong."

And though he didn't discuss a school choice proposal he's been pushing that would provide state funding to help cover students' private school tuition, Abbott again hinted he'd call another special session on the issue.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas Gov. Abbott codifies ban on 'sexually explicit' books in schools