TEXAS \u2014 Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced last month that he will try to remove what he deems inappropriate books from school libraries.<\/p>\n
His message was clear and simple at an Aug. 19 news conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re coming for the books,\u201d Patrick said.<\/p>\n
Patrick said this latest effort comes after school districts were not following the law \u2014 Senate Bill 13 \u2014 which called for districts to create more transparency over what books are in their schools\u2019 catalogs.<\/p>\n
Patrick said over 2,000 titles are subject to removal. If the districts choose not to remove the books, Patrick said he will urge the Legislature to consider another law that, if passed, could mean some districts could be taken over by the Texas Education Agency (TEA).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will pass a law that will knock your grade letter down one. So, if you\u2019re an A school, you\u2019ll be a B. If you\u2019re a B, you\u2019ll be a C. If you\u2019re a C, you\u2019ll be a D, and an F, you can\u2019t get lower than that. Maybe that\u2019s why you\u2019re an F school if you have these in your library.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among the 2,000 titles was \u201cLet\u2019s Talk About It\u201d by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan, a sex education book created for teenagers.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo filthy, so dirty, so vulgar, so pornographic, and for the ladies here, I wouldn\u2019t even want to show you,\u201d Patrick said.<\/p>\n
Bonnie Wallace of the religious values-based group Recover America provided a list of 14 school districts in Texas that have the book. Spectrum News was able to independently verify that at least 12 of the districts have the book, including in some of the state\u2019s major metro areas like Austin, San Antonio, El Paso, as well as McAllen, Killeen and Galveston.<\/p>\n
Wallace walked through the book, highlighting pages of concern, including discussions of pornography and exploring sexual self-pleasure.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you go to page 164, it tells you the internet is a safe place to research kinks and fantasies,\u201d Wallace said.<\/p>\n
There are other pages, though, that discuss contraceptives, sexually transmitted diseases and signs of an abusive relationship. Despite the variety of topics covered in the book, Wallace doesn\u2019t believe taxpayer dollars should go toward its circulation in Texas schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we need a little bit more discernment on what we\u2019re placing in the libraries,\u201d Wallace said.<\/p>\n
Spectrum News asked Texans in Austin about the book, which is one of the districts that carries it. Here\u2019s a summary of some comments they gave.<\/p>\n
\u201cI looked at the first page, and I was like, \u2018Oh my God, what are we doing?\u2019 \u2026 I was not expecting that this morning,\u201d said one person on a downtown Austin street.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, would you want your daughter to read this, or your son who\u2019s 13? Would you like that?\u201d another person asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it should be in schools,\u201d said another.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important to talk about it. This is obviously human parts. It\u2019s not something that should be so taboo, but it is,\u201d said one woman.<\/p>\n
Other people in Austin said it should be the parents\u2019 decision on what is brought into schools, while another person said it should be up to the students.<\/p>\n
\u201cKids have access to a ton of different things. We need to be better about limiting their access to those things, and I feel like limiting access to this book can be a start,\u201d said another person in Austin.<\/p>\n
The lieutenant governor said he is giving districts until the beginning of the next legislative session in January to remove the books before he drafts his proposed law that would drop districts\u2019 accountability ratings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEXAS \u2014 Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced last month that he will try to remove what he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[12926,1657,1658,132,134,133,1570,102,138,223,287,82,27,1569,835],"class_list":["post-424225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-andres-rendon","tag-app-latest-local-state-politics-stories","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-ctv","tag-dallas","tag-el-paso","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-san-antonio","tag-texas","tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}