Katy ISD parents take the floor as district considers book ban revisions

KATY, Texas (KIAH) — The topic of book bans has been an ongoing topic for Katy ISD. On Monday evening, the board and parents gathered to give parents an opportunity to speak on where they stand on the issue.

Some parents argued that the district has no place exposing anything that could suggest gender preference or what the district considers “gender fluidity” in its ready materials for their kids while others feel that banning books is violating first amendment rights.

As it stands, Katy ISD’s policy states that parents can request an informal or formal review of materials such as textbooks and library books. With its library collection consisting of over 390,000 books per the district website, it also states that the district removed 14 books that appear to violate the “pervasively vulgar” standard in its policy.

Many parents had mixed reviews on the ban including one senior student from Tompkins High School, Jared Burton. “On the agenda today is to discuss and consider revision to policy EFB, which has been infamously utilized to carry out unfair book bans that disproportionately target stories by authors of color and LGBTQ, plus authors for the latter, these stories have been banned under the guise of being sexually explicit, even when that is not the case and no more explicit than books featuring heterosexual themes and relationships each time.

“It’s been a stretch to classify several of these books as sexually explicit, but with the proposed revisions to board policy, EFB extremists will be able to essentially cut out the middleman,” Burton said.

One parent that disagrees with books that could portray gender fluidity in its content said, “I find it outrageous that this even needs to be addressed. It is my job as a parent to determine when or if I will discuss such topics with my children. Attempts to introduce the topic of gender fluidity to this age group can only be classified as grooming and indoctrination. I urge all of you to vote in favor of keeping this out of our school libraries. Please stand in the gap for our kids if we have as reasonable human beings are not willing to rise up in defense of our children, then we should hang our heads in shame at our own cowardice. Please push back on any and all attempts to normalize gender ideology to our vulnerable young children. They should be learning the fundamentals of education.”

Katy ISD’s website says that board members can request the board to review for the removal of any material from the district’s school libraries.