Texas school pulls Bible

Texas school pulls Bible

A Texas school district has pulled the Bible from its library and classrooms ahead of the new school year. The Inter-school district board for Keller, Texas removed the Bible, among other ‘challenged’ books, in order to review these books’ content.

On 16 August Jennifer Price, Keller ISD’s executive director of curriculum and instruction sent an email to the school district’s principals. The email outlined a list of books that parents and other local people had ‘challenged’, meaning that they objected to their presence in local schools.

The list of 41 challenged books  includes The Bible, Anne Frank’s Diary So You’re Being Publicly Shamed, LGBT works like Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, and Toni Morisson’s The Bluest Eye.

Keller Inter School Distirct released a statement on its website. “Keller ISD’s Board of Trustees approved policies EFA (Local) and EFB (Local) at its August 8, 2022, Special Meeting. These policies relate to the acquisition and review of instructional materials and library books. Right now, Keller ISD’s administration is asking our campus staff and librarians to review books that were challenged last year to determine if they meet the requirements of the new policy,” the statement said. “All of the books included in Tuesday’s email have been included on Keller ISD’s Book Challenge list over the past year. Books that meet the new guidelines will be returned to the libraries as soon as it is confirmed they comply with the new policy.”

Books that are challenged are reviewed in a closed-door committee process. Books can survive the review process, but then be challenged; again.

Book bannings in schools and libraries have become more common in America. The targets are typically books that deal withLGBT themes, books that deal with sex, and books about the Holocaust.

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