March 11, 2022
A Granbury ISD committee of parents, community members, and staff completed a review of several books in school libraries.
The library review committee met over February and March 2022, with nearly all nine members attending each meeting. GISD curriculum director Stacie Brown served as committee chair but was not a voting member.
At its first meeting, the committee reviewed letters from Governor 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.”
A majority of the committee agreed that 116 books on the review list did not include material that matched this definition. These books have been returned to school libraries.
Three books are designated for removal because of sexually explicit material or illustrations. These are in addition to five Abbi Glines novels previously removed from school libraries. The five Glines books were shown to the committee as examples of sexually explicit content, and the group supported the removal of those novels at the beginning of the review.
A summary of the completed review includes:
- 131 books under review at the start of the process
- 116 books returned to library shelves
- 3 books designated for removal because of sexually explicit content or illustrations
- 6 books confirmed lost and not in school libraries
- 3 books incorrectly listed and not in school libraries
- 3 books were duplicate titles on original list
Click here for a document with books listed by category
The district will hold a public inspection of books designated for removal on Tuesday, March 22 and Wednesday, March 23 from 3:00-5:00 P.M. each day at the Administration Building.
