Texas school board takes over unilateral control of book vetting process, will exclude parents

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A Houston school board is taking over the district’s book vetting process for rest of the school year, which excludes parents, teachers and librarians from taking part in the review and instead requires residents to go directly to the board with books they would like evaluated. 

Spring Branch Independent School District's (SBISD) board of trustees in Houston voted 4-3 on Monday night to limit the first two levels of the library book complaint process for the remainder of the school year. The decision means parents, teachers and librarians are excluded from weighing in.

Jacob Lessard reads the book "Goosebumps" to a group of cats at the Animal Refuge League on Oct. 7, 2015. Lessard is a member of STRIVE, an organization dedicated to helping developmentally disabled young adults. (Gabe Souza/Portland Portland Press Herald via Getty Images)

"The temporary suspension is expected to run through the conclusion of this school year to assist SBISD’s administration with the high volume of book grievances and allow district educators to focus on academics and a strong finish to the 2022-23 school year," the school district told Fox News Digital in the statement. 

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Superintendent Jennifer Blaine explained that district administrators asked for the board's help as SBISD has received 50 book challenges since August 2021. Over 40 of the challenges were filed in the current school year, resulting in 28 committee meetings, which she said require adequate time and resources.

"My No. 1 responsibility is to make sure our students are educated at the highest levels in a safe and secure environment." she said. "But I cannot and will not ask my entire academic staff, principals of campuses, teachers, librarians and anybody else that has to serve on one of these committees out of instructional time to hear book challenges."

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An elementary school teacher is seen reading a book about gender to students. (Getty Images)

Nathalie Herpin, a Spring Branch resident who serves as both co-founder and director for the nonpartisan PAC Families 4 Every Child, told the Houston Chronicle that she was disappointed by the decision, indicating the focus should be on other problems the district faces like issues with staff retention and funding. 

"I’m disappointed that the votes went 4-3," she said. "I think some of the trustees made some incredible points about overreach in governments and the risks associated with setting a precedent like this. I think there was a far superior way to handle that." 

"We’re hemorrhaging teachers, we’re hemorrhaging funding, we need to focus on those things in order to have a successful school district, and they want to talk about politics," she added. 

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Trustees voting against the measure pointed to the potential overreach of power when duties not typically handled by the school board are allocated to the governing body. 

"I start to get uncomfortable when I think about elected bodies kind of overreaching, and that is my concern," Trustee Josef Klam told the superintendent before the vote. 

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"The option that seems to be on the table is something that’s outside of what we’ve characteristically done as a board, which is stepping out of our lane as the overseers and stepping into the lane of the doers," he added.