State Senator Charles Perry does not want another battle over books with the Lubbock ISD, because he believes the administration is trying to do the right thing when it comes to cleaning up school libraries.
In June, Perry told the LISD Board of Trustees that “obscene, vulgar and derogatory” books were on the shelves. If LISD did not fix it, then he’d take the issue to his colleagues in the Legislature.
But after meeting privately in July with school officials, Perry told LubbockLights.com that “Everybody’s on the same page.”
“They get it, and they’re going to find a way to do it. I think the district is very accepting and agreeable to meeting the intent of the Legislature at the same time, doing it in the most efficient way possible,” Perry said.
Nancy Sharp, board president, said, “I feel like it was a very good conversation and we agreed to continue that conversation going in the future. … We will be having further conversations in August about some of the books over which concerns were raised.”
Trapped in process
Parents spoke at the same school board meeting as Perry back in June. They complained of books describing murder, animal cruelty, drug and alcohol use, explicit sexual activities and profanity.
Kathy Rollo, superintendent, said at the time she agreed books were available that were not appropriate for a school system.
In the most recent legislative session, Senate Bill 13 required school systems to scrutinize library materials, give people the right to challenge books and give parents greater oversight of what their own children could check out from school libraries.
In response, less than a year ago, LISD set up the SLAC or School Library Advisory Committee. It was a new process and SLAC inherited the work of a previous committee.
“I just think, probably, the process got a little bit more unwieldy. … We’re in that initial phase of implementation that left some things on the shelves that arguably shouldn’t have been on the shelves,” Perry said.
Sharp said, “Some of them had gone through a different process. And so, we’ll be addressing that in August. … We were following the law as it had been interpreted by several attorneys.”
If the school district is not opposing the Legislature then what’s the deal?
Perry said, “I don’t think there was any nefarious undermining of what we tried to accomplish as a Legislature. … They just got trapped in transition.”
Even so, Sharp said parents still have control.
“Anytime a student checks out a book from a Lubbock ISD library, the parent is given a notification that their child has checked out that particular book – and can take action if it’s not a book they want their child to read,” Sharp said.
Parents can also submit a list of books or authors in advance if they don’t want their children to read. The school library will honor the parents’ choice, Sharp said.
Perry said, “Kathy [Rollo] told me that if a book’s challenged, it’s immediately pulled off the shelves.”
It then stays off the shelf until the SLAC can review it and the school can take a final vote.
Island Trees ISD v. Pico
We quoted Rollo in June as saying, “It is against the law for me to go into the library myself and pull books off the shelves. I mean, that is absolutely against the law.”
LubbockLights.com asked Lubbock ISD to explain why Rollo said she could not pull books off the shelves.
The district explained Rollo was referencing a United State Supreme Court case called Island Trees Independent School District v. Pico.
The Supreme Court said school officials may not remove library books simply because they dislike the ideas expressed in them. But the opinion spoke of striking a balance – allowing officials to prioritize some books over others.
Perry disagreed with Lubbock ISD’s understanding of the Pico case, saying, “The decision gave the school district the right to remove vulgarity and filth.”
More change is possible
Perry’s willing to take action if it helps LISD, he said.
Sharp said the state law has not been clear. Even taking the issue to the Texas Education Agency still left the district with unanswered questions in the last year. For example, how to handle an appeal started under one committee but then needs to continue under another one.
“We are asking for some help on further clarification about the process,” Sharp said.
Perry is trying to keep it simple.
“I committed to them to explore the concept of them using an ‘acceptable rating’ service so that they don’t have to review those books at the level that they thought they did. And I’m checking on the constitutionality of a rating service,” Perry said.
He admitted that raises a free-speech issue in the courts.
“Some of those rating services – as much as I like them – have been challenged. And they closed down because of the First Amendment conversation,” Perry said.
Sharp said, “There’ve been many lawsuits and that [rating] service is now not available.”
If a rating service is not available, then Perry is a proponent of using artificial intelligence to search books to flag issues.
Clarification: Based on the Lubbock ISD SLAC page, we previously reported the next SLAC meeting date. However, the meeting we listed was canceled and removed from the website. October 19 is the next meeting date, according to the SLAC page.
