The Keller Independent School District is under fire after pulling dozens of books from shelves for review, including the Bible.
Several books were pulled from shelves for review, per a directive from Jennifer Price, executive director of Keller ISD’s curriculum and instruction.
According to the Texas Tribune, Price wrote an email to principals, listing all of the books that were challenged in the district last year.
“By the end of today, I need all books pulled from the library and classrooms. Please collect these books and store them in a location. (book room, office, etc.),” Price wrote.
There were 41 books on the list, which included Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer: A Memoir, which describes the journey of Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns.
Maia’s intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears.
However, the Bible was also included on the list of books that must be removed for review as well:
The direction to remove all 41 books surprised some local residents because a school district committee made up of members of the public met last year and recommended that some of the books now being removed — including Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” and “Anne Frank’s Diary” — remain in student libraries.
But since that committee met and recommended keeping some challenged books, three new conservative school board members, all recipients of a Christian political action committee’s donations, were elected to the district’s seven-member board of trustees. And according to the school district, all 41 challenged books are now to be reviewed again by campus staff and librarians to see if they meet a new board policy approved last week, according to Bryce Nieman, the Keller ISD spokesperson.
“Right now, Keller ISD’s administration is asking our campus staff and librarians to review books that were challenged last year to determine if they meet the requirements of the new policy,” the district told USA Today. “Books that meet the new guidelines will be returned to the libraries as soon as it is confirmed they comply with the new policy.”
The district’s move follows increased demands for transparency in classrooms, particularly regarding far-left agenda items such as gender identity and sexual orientation, as well as the inclusion of Critical Race Theory (CRT).