Photo Caption: (Left) Inclusion teacher Acasha Mills poses in the library with a banned book. (Right) West Brook Library’s display for Banned Book Week.
Photos Courtesy: West Brook Staff
October 23, 2023
By Zykieryan Weston
Staff Writer
Since HB 900 was signed into law Sept. 1, many Texas school libraries are deciding what books they must remove in order to comply with the law.
“The way it would affect our school library is we would have books that would not be allowed to be in the school library anymore,” West Brook librarian Lauren Melancon said.
Melancon said she has a masters degree in library science, and part of her job is to find books that are relevant and have literary value for high school students.
“It is definitely concerning to me that the state is deciding to do that for me, rather than rely on my expertise and education that went along with it,” she said.
Melancon broke down HB 900 in a way that high school students could understand.
“TEA and parents were concerned about some of the material available in school libraries,” she said. “They took their ideas to their local representatives to remove material that they deemed sexually explicit. What that means is that there is no literary value.”
There are many definitions of what could be considered “sexually explicit” in a school library, Melancon said. Any description of actual sexual intercourse along with promiscuity are included under these definitions.
“So much of literature explores some kind of hardship, and many times that comes from things like rape, having multiple children, going through sexual experiences to grow as young people,” she said. “There are so many places that it hits the books we have, even if that’s not the main focus, it’s just a piece of it.”
Many of the teachers were not aware that HB 900 was being signed into law over the summer, Melancon said.
“When we found out that [HB 900] actually passed, many of us were surprised that it had gotten so far, and we didn’t even know it was happening,” she said.
She said both library staff and English teachers at West Brook High School are concerned about removing many of these books from circulation, both in the library and classroom libraries.
“That’s my concern and particularly the English department’s concern, some of these books teach great lessons and show parts of the world that maybe aren’t always represented,” she said. “To remove those from our school library is really taking them out of the hands of students that may need that.”
Melancon said students have shared traumatic experiences with her after reading books in the library and later told her that reading that book helped them find words for that experience.
Banned Book Week was created by the American Library Association, she said.
“Banned Book Week celebrates our freedom to read and learn,” Melancon said.
“It’s important values that libraries offer to everyone and anyone. Banned Book Week is celebrating that ability to read what we want. We don’t live in a country where the government says these materials are not allowed, no one can have them, they don’t filter our internet where we can’t see certain things. We are very lucky to have the freedoms that we have compared to the rest of the world.”
She said Banned Book Week is a reminder to celebrate that we live in America and we do have the freedom to seek out information and learn things everyone may not agree with.
“Now that HB 900 is happening, this is going to be our last Banned Book Week where I can actually offer all the books that other countries and other states may have problems with,” Melancon said. “Next year, I won’t have them necessarily available. It’s very sad that this is happening, and I hate that our intellectual freedom is being threatened.”
Beaumont ISD has decided to wait to remove any books yet, she said. Although HB 900 went into effect on September 1, not all of the criteria for books to be removed has been defined.
Melancon said other school districts in Texas have already opted to remove some books from circulation. Kline ISD released a list of books, including The Hate U Give, to be immediately removed that officials believed probably would fall under HB 900 when the criteria is set.
“The Hate U Give is a very relevant book, especially to this generation,” she said. “The movie definitely just made the book even more popular and got it out to even more people that may not normally read.
“When the movie came out, a lot of kids said, ‘Now I want to read the book.’ That’s one that’s very popular that’s not
going to be available anymore.”
Other books like Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson that deal with the trauma of sexual assault, along with several of Toni Morrison’s books, are also at risk of being removed from school libraries.
An eighth-grade teacher at Hamshire Fannett ISD was fired Sept. 13 after she assigned her class to read a graphic novel adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank, although the book was on a reading list sent out to parents at the start of the school year, according to KFDM, CBS/FOX affiliate.
Students and staff who are concerned about the impact of HB 900 on public school libraries and classroom libraries can contact their representatives, like State Rep. Christian Manuel-Hayes at (512) 463-0662 or by emailing christian.manuel@house.texas.gov.
