Ozzie Zehner At least 801 books were banned across 22 Texas school districts during the 2021–22 school year, the report says. PEN America defines a ban as “action taken against a book based on its content.” The report mentions Republican state Rep. Matt Krause of Fort Worth, who last year sent a list of 850 books to school dis- tricts, “asking them to investigate and report on which of the titles they held in libraries or classrooms.” “Political pressure of this sort in Texas, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Georgia and elsewhere has been tied to hundreds of book bans,” the report added. Krause sent the letter amid a statewide drive against “critical race theory,” a type of scholarship not taught in public schools. Florida came in second, with 566 books banned and 21 districts banning certain ti- tles. According to PEN America’s study, 32 states and 138 school districts around the country had banned books. All told, book bans have hit more than 5,000 schools with more than four million students, the report explains. Altogether, PEN’s list includes 2,532 “in- stances of individual books being banned” and at least 1,648 “unique book titles.” Of that total, 41% of the books “explicitly address” LGBTQ issues, while around 9% make up “a specific subset of titles for trans- gender characters or stories.” More than one-in-five deal with subjects of race and racism, and another 20% focus on rights and activism. Some 4% of titles – 64 books – are about characters from reli- gious minority groups, including Muslims and Jews. PEN America described the nationwide push to remove titles from school book- shelves as “deeply undemocratic.” The report also pointed to the rise of “a growing number of advocacy organizations that have made demanding censorship of certain books and ideas in schools part of their mission.” Those include Facebook groups and na- tional nonprofits such as Moms for Liberty, which has more than 200 chapters. More than 50 such groups are working to have books removed from schools in states around the nation, the report adds. PEN America released its new report as many around the country, including librar- ies in Dallas, marked Banned Book Week, an awareness campaign that lasted until Sept. 24 and includes events in which books that have been banned or challenged are read and highlighted. Texas is big on banning books. One of the most frequently banned books was Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer: A Memoir, which details the author’s strug- gles with gender identity and includes a handful of pages with explicit depictions of oral sex. Other frequently banned titles include Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, a novel that follows a young African American heroine growing up in the wake of the Great Depression, and Ashley Hope Pérez’s Out of Darkness, a novel about a 1930s romantic relationship between a Mexican American girl and a Black boy in East Texas. In the past, Texas Republicans have de- fended their push to have certain titles re- moved from bookshelves. In a November 2021 letter to the Texas Association of School Boards, Gov. Greg Abbott asked schools to investigate whether their librar- ies carried “obscene” or “pornographic” materials. “A growing number of parents of Texas students are becoming increasingly alarmed about some of the books and other content found in public school libraries that are extremely inappropriate in the public education system,” Abbott wrote in that letter. “The most flagrant examples include clearly pornographic images and sub- stance that have no place in the Texas public education system,” the governor added. In a recent interview with Insider, Krause said he created the original list of books to ensure that districts were in line with the state’s law on “race and sexuality,” although Texas lawmakers have not yet passed any law specifically related to LG- BTQ curriculum. Meanwhile, PEN America’s report mentions several North Texas school dis- tricts, including Frisco, Keller and Carroll ISDs. Frisco ISD recently revised its policy on obscenity in books carried in its libraries and taught in its classrooms, a move that PEN America says will increase “policing of content in books for young people, as well as the continued erosion of their right to access these materials.” In Keller ISD, a book that gets challenged and banned cannot be considered again for 10 years, while in Carroll ISD a banned book “cannot be requested again for students for five years,” the report explains. BEST HAIR SALON DALLAS OBSERVER 18-TIME WINNER BEST COLOR SALON ALLURE MAGAZINE TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS AND PARTIES: Sterigenics U.S. LLC has applied to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for renewal of Air Quality Permit No. 51907, which would authorize continued operation of an Ethylene Oxide Sterilization Facility located at 1302 Avenue T, Grand Prairie, Tarrant County, Texas 75050. Additional information concerning this application is contained in the public notice section of this newspaper. BEST EXPERIENCE D MAGAZINE BEST IN THE USA HARPER’S BAZAAR BEST BRAZILIAN WAX LUCKY MAGAZINE Thank you for voting us Best of Dallas West Village 214-750-5667 • www.avalon-salon.com 9 dallasobserver.com CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS DALLAS OBSERVER SEPTEMBER 29–OCTOBER 5, 2022
