and her husband had gone to the Capitol riot in the first place. She wondered aloud: Had her fellow Christians even bothered to read the Old Testament, or had they simply stuck only to the New Testament? ▼ CRIME TIME FLIES Frisco real estate broker who’d been sen- tenced for her role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot officially flew the clink. Federal Prison Camp Bryan confirmed J that Ryan has been released. There’s no word yet on whether she dropped the 30 pounds she’d hoped to shed or how much yoga she did. In November, a federal judge sentenced Ryan to 60 days behind bars and ordered her to pay a $1,000 fine and $500 in restitution to the Capitol architect. U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper felt Ryan demon- strated “a certain lack of accountability for [her] actions” in her numerous statements and media appearances following the riot. Ryan, 51, was set to begin her prison stay in January but surrendered early. Some speculated she may have wanted to spend Christmas there so she could detail it in her forthcoming book. The real estate broker first made headlines after flying to Washington via private plane to attend the Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally. She livestreamed much of the day’s events on so- cial media and filmed herself entering the U.S. Capitol among a throng of rioters. She posed in front of a broken window and called Jan. 6 “one of the best days of [her] life.” Since then, Ryan’s given numerous inter- views to tell her side of the story but has at times accused the media, including this pub- lication, of “slander” and “libel.” She also asked for, but did not receive, a pardon from former President Donald Trump. When her appeals to Trump didn’t work, Ryan reassured her Twitter followers that her God-given looks would help to keep her out of lockup. “Definitely not going to jail,” Ryan wrote CAPITOL RIOTER JENNA RYAN RELEASED FROM PRISON CAMP. BY SIMONE CARTER enna Ryan wanted to lose weight in prison, but now, it’s prison that’s expe- riencing a loss. Last Thursday, the in a March tweet. “Sorry I have blonde hair white skin a great job a great future and I’m not going to jail. Sorry to rain on your hater parade. I did nothing wrong.” Ryan also once told the Observer (before she stopped answering our calls) that the way she had been treated was “how they treated the Jews” in Nazi Germany. Prior to her surrender, she posted videos with her boyfriend, including one where he promised to be true while she was in prison. Then they flicked tongues. For all we know, Ryan will finish her book, land a film deal and run for office be- fore retiring to live out the rest of her days in golden-tanned-luxury at Mar-a-Lago. Or, maybe she’ll keep quiet, delete her social media and do her best to avoid the spotlight. But that might be a little like asking a moth to ignore the flame. ▼ POLITICS DON’T STEAL THESE BOOKS B their own identities,” the petition states. It had received more than 240 signatures as of Friday afternoon. Armintor has read some of the titles on Krause’s list, such as In the Dream House, which depicts an abusive same-sex relation- ship. She said she can think of people who are experiencing much of what’s mentioned in the targeted books. “Why would they think that this wouldn’t be OK for high schoolers?” the ninth-grader said. “Because this is the expe- rience that a lot of high schoolers go through.” In recent months, some Texas Republi- can politicians have ramped up restrictions on what can be taught in public schools. The move to ban critical race theory has ex- panded from public K–12 schools to the uni- versity level, with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick last Friday announcing a crackdown on the aca- demic framework in colleges. Free speech advocates are sounding the RALLY FOR ACADEMIC FREEDOM: DENTON ISD STUDENTS PETITION DISTRICT TO KEEP DIVERSE BOOK TITLES. BY SIMONE CARTER oth of Shulamith Armintor’s parents are English professors, and she’s grown up around books. But one morning, the 14-year-old student said she was getting ready for school when her mom, Denton City Council member Deb Armin- tor, told her about the mounting effort to re- move certain titles from school shelves. In October, state Rep. Matt Krause, a Re- publican from Fort Worth, demanded that school districts report whether they offer any books from a list of around 850. Much of the targeted lit deals with issues surround- ing sexuality and race. Although the younger Armintor said she wasn’t too concerned at first, she later real- ized that the burgeoning book kerfuffle had hit her high school. Then, she got organized. Around three weeks ago, Armintor cre- ated a petition on Change.org asking Denton ISD to keep inclusive books on school shelves. She also wants the district to expand its selection of queer literature. Such books help high school students learn about diver- sity and “can guide them in the exploration of WIN A PAIR OF TICKETS! alarm at a rise in “soft censorship,” de- scribed by the School Library Journal as a “quiet banishing that often comes without explanation.” Some warn that minority views are also being stifled in states like Ten- nessee, which was home to a literal book burning earlier this year. One of the books on Krause’s list has made serious waves, largely because it contained an illustrated depiction of a sex scene. The graphic novel Gender Queer: A Memoir by nonbinary author Maia Kobabe has been held up by some concerned parents as a reason for tighter school-library restrictions. Gov. Greg Abbott has “questioned the book,” The Texas Tribune reported in November, and other ti- tles he considered “pornographic.” But Armintor said she’s read the book and that it “struck a really big chord” with her; she loved reading Kobabe’s account of personal discovery. Armintor knows some who are going through similar experiences, and to read that book would help them know they’re not alone, she said. Critics have argued that teenagers need to be shielded from viewing nudity and sex scenes, such as those present in Gender Queer. But Armintor said that those naysay- ers are acting like “they’ve never met a teen- ager in their life. “Whether they like it or not, a lot of teen- agers do that, or experience those kind of things on a daily basis,” she said. “They’re not protecting [teens] from those ideas; they’re not giving them guidance, and they’re leaving them out in the cold and say- ing, ‘We’re not going to give you any support. You’re not going to have any way to know what to do in this situation.’” Denton ISD Superintendent Jamie Wil- son said in November that the district would not be responding to Krause’s request, ac- cording to the Denton Record-Chronicle. Still, staff pulled a book for review sometime late last year. Denton ISD didn’t respond to the Ob- server’s request for comment by publication time, possibly because of a school holiday. But spokesperson Julie Zwahr told the Re- cord-Chronicle in December that even though no one had challenged the book, ti- tled All Boys Aren’t Blue, it was removed af- ter officials discovered it’d been reviewed by nearby districts. Speaking with NBC News, Zwahr said just one formal book challenge has been submit- ted this school year, yet 11 titles are being re- viewed to see if they’re “pervasively vulgar.” Meanwhile, in Granbury, men were recently photographed carting off boxes of books la- beled “Krause’s list,” according to NBC. Such attempts at censorship are directly af- fecting kids’ education, yet students are sel- dom included in talks about book banning, said Wendy Woodland, director of advocacy and communications for the Texas Library As- sociation. Libraries aren’t a place for “forced learning,” and students should be free to en- gage in voluntary inquiry by choosing litera- ture that resonates with them, she said. “No one book will be the right fit for ev- ery student,” Woodland said, “but one book could make a significant impact on a stu- dent’s life, and these students should be in- cluded in the conversation about the materials they have access to.” School boards approve the process to ad- dress concerns for inappropriate library books, Woodland said. Such protocols should continue to be followed to avoid “hasty decisions being made arbitrarily.” Many Texas school librarians are upset at the current attack on their line of work, she continued, but the community should trust them to do their jobs. Woodland also warned that Texas could continue to see this trend grow. DALLASOBSERVER.COM/FREE/STEVEVAI OCTOBER 8TH | HOUSE OF BLUES DALLAS 9 dallasobserver.com CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS DALLAS OBSERVER FEBRUARY 24-MARCH 2, 2022
