Thursday, March 28, 2024

GISD panel gets to work assessing suitability of library books

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Keisha Perkins-Kindred said she was angry when she heard that books were being pulled from library shelves in Granbury schools.

And when she heard that a committee would examine whether dozens of books on a Republican lawmaker’s list — most of which deal with LGBTQ topics or include LGBTQ characters — should be banned for inappropriateness, she assumed that everyone picked for the committee would conveniently be of the same throw-them-out mindset, not just as it relates to LGBTQ matters, but also racial justice, gender identity, and equality.

But then, to her surprise, she was asked to serve on that panel.

Considering that there are few Black families living in Hood County and as someone who, according to Perkins-Kindred herself, is well known for speaking her mind even when her views run counter to the majority’s in Hood County, the invitation left her thinking that maybe neither side of the political aisle would win all the marbles in the county’s latest conundrum over books.

For Perkins-Kindred, that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.

On Sunday, Jan. 30, two days before the committee met for the first time and before Perkins-Kindred found out who else was on it, she posted a message on Facebook about being chosen to serve. She encouraged unity and denounced extremism.

“Why would I be asked to be on this committee if this is going to be one sided?” she asked in the post. “Moving forward together is what the focus should be.”

According to Perkins-Kindred and fellow committee member Paul Hyde, so far that has been happening.

“I feel very good about this committee. It seems to be a nice cross-section of the community,” said Hyde, who, like Perkins-Kindred, is listed as a “parent” on the committee list, which the Hood County News obtained through an open records request.

Other committee members are Monica Brown (community member); Karen Lowery (community member); Mike Beauchamp (parent/teacher); Jana Reid (teacher); Jairo Martinez (teacher); Adina Brassie (librarian); and Margaret Rodriquez (administrator).

GISD Curriculum Director Stacie Brown is the committee chair but is not a voting member.

Hyde said that committee members are reviewing books in teams. If a team is concerned about a book, the entire panel will vote on whether to return it to the shelf or send it to the School Board for deeper review. A book will go to the School Board with the votes of four committee members.

At its first meeting, held at the administration building on Feb. 1, the panel had no problem agreeing that several dozen books should be returned to shelves.

At the group’s second meeting, which took place Wednesday evening (Feb. 9), there again was “unity and cooperation,” according to Hyde.

“Everyone is taking the task very seriously and doing a lot of research and hard work,” he stated. “It’s a fantastic group.”

Before the committee began meeting, though, school officials removed and permanently banned five books by author Abbi Glines.

Glines is known for including explicit sex scenes in some of her young adult fiction, but the fact that many other books were also pulled with no input from the public led some to criticize what they felt was a lack of transparency on the part of the school district.

The resulting controversy led to a full house at the School Board’s January meeting and critical national media coverage.

But the Book Review Committee may be proving that even in passionate, often politically divided Hood County, a diverse group can manage to reach consensus on a polarizing issue.

PRELUDE

The current disagreement over books in school libraries closely resembles the controversy that erupted in Hood County in the summer of 2015.

Melanie Graft was at the center of that controversy and is now on the Granbury School Board. She was elected last November along with like-minded Courtney Gore.

The dust-up in 2015 began with a trip to the Hood County Library when, according to Graft, her then four-year-old daughter picked up from a display rack “This Day in June,” a children’s book about an LGBTQ pride parade. Graft complained about the appropriateness of that book, as well as the children’s book “My Princess Boy,” which is about a little boy who enjoys playing dress-up.

(Hood County Library rules require that all minor children be accompanied by an adult.)

Many in the community joined Graft in encouraging the library and the Hood County Commissioners Court to remove or move the books. Then-Library Director Courtney Kincaid and the Commissioners Court-appointed Library Advisory Board refused to remove the books, but Kincaid did agree to move “This Day in June,” which contains a teaching guide, to the adult section.

After receiving advice from then-County Attorney Lori Kaspar, the county judge and commissioners declined to force the removal or relocation of the books.

In late 2021, shortly after the School Board election, GISD Communications Director Jeff Meador acknowledged to the HCN that the school district was conducting a review of books “that include controversial topics currently under investigation by the state and legislature.”

In an email to the newspaper, Meador wrote, “School library books have been under heavy scrutiny over the past several months as investigations are ongoing by the Texas House General Investigating Committee chaired by State Rep. Matt Krause as well as the Texas Education Agency as directed by Governor Greg Abbott.”

Krause represents House District 93, which includes parts of Fort Worth and Arlington. He created a list for review containing about 850 titles, including best sellers and books whose authors received Pulitzer Prizes and other literary awards.

According to Meador, GISD libraries were found to have 133 of the books on Krause’s list. They were pulled for review.

Once that news became public, it was like 2015 all over again.

Clips of some of the 16 speakers at the Jan. 24 School Board meeting were shown on cable news shows.

Some spoke in favor of the review.

“Removing pornographic or sexually explicit content from our school libraries is absolutely the right thing to do,” Linda Husong told Superintendent Jeremy Glenn and school board members.

But others, including students, spoke out against the move.

Kennedy Tackett, a senior at Granbury High School, said that the district’s leaders “are failing the student body.”

FINDINGS TO BE PUBLIC

Meador said that at its first meeting the committee reviewed letters from Abbott to the Texas Education Agency regarding prohibiting pornography in school libraries.

“Accordingly, the scope of the GISD review centers on ‘written or visual material that depicts explicit sexual acts or overtly sexual content,’” he wrote in an email to the HCN on Tuesday.

Thus far, the books reviewed by the committee do not fit that narrow scope despite addressing issues that some might consider sensitive.

Meador told the HCN in emails sent Thursday that almost 100 books had been, or soon would be, returned to shelves. He also said that the committee reviewed the five Glines books that had been removed by GISD administration and unanimously agreed with that decision. 

He said that after the committee’s review is complete, the district will release a list of any books determined to meet the governor’s criteria and will hold a public inspection of the books at the district’s administration building.

Jordyn Stevens contributed to this report.