The U.P.I. on August 16 reported: The Bible, Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye,” and a graphic novel adaption of Anne Frank’s “The Diary of a Young Girl” are just some of the works that have been removed from Keller Independent School District libraries in preparation for the first day of school.

“Attached is a list of all books that were challenged last year. By the end of today, I need all books pulled from the library and classrooms. Please collect these books and store them in a location. (book room, office, etc.),” Jennifer Price, executive director of Keller ISD’s curriculum and instruction, wrote in an email sent to principals, obtained by The Texas Tribune.

The email came with a list of 41 books that were to be removed, including several Bible translations and a memoir about a transgender woman’s search for her own identity, “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe.

Some neighbors were taken aback by the directive to remove all 41 volumes because a public school district committee had met the previous year and advocated for keeping copies of novels like “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison and “Anne Frank’s Diary” in classroom libraries.

Nonetheless, three new conservative school board members, all recipients of money from a Christian political action organization, have been elected to the district’s seven-member board of trustees since that committee met and recommended maintaining some challenged books.

According to Bryce Nieman, the Keller ISD spokeswoman, all 41 challenged books will be re-evaluated by campus employees and librarians to determine if they adhere to a new board policy passed last week.

According to Nieman, a new policy for purchasing and evaluating books was authorized by the school board, which included the three new members elected in the spring.

The policies are partially based on the model policy produced by the Texas Education Agency in April in response to calls from Governor Greg Abbott for a statewide standard for these practices. Materials may be accepted or rejected at the discretion of the school board or an individual so designated by the board.

Wednesday marks the first day of classes at Keller ISD.

Earlier in the school year, concerned parents discovered Kobabe’s book in the district and asked for it to be withdrawn. This led to the formation of the district book committee. Similarly, state representative for Fort Worth, Texas, Republican Matt Krause, has asked school districts for data on how many of 850 books on race and sexuality (including Kobabe’s) are currently available to students.

A flurry of book challenges across the state were sparked by Keller ISD and Krause, respectively, over books that presented the experiences of LGBTQ people and novels that dealt with the realities of racism.

Titles like “Out of Darkness” by Ashley Hope Pérez, which recounts the love story of a Mexican American girl and an African American boy in 1930s East Texas, including the 1937 New London School explosion some 200 miles north of Houston, are on both the Keller and Krause reading lists.

After heated school board elections in May, which focused on how and which texts students in Texas public schools should be able to access, a number of textbooks were removed from classroom libraries.

Patriot Mobile, a Texas-based mobile firm that gives a percentage of its customers’ phone bills to conservative, “Christian,” causes, spent heavily during those school board contests, overwhelmingly supporting more conservative candidates.

Over $500,000 was collected by the company’s PAC, Patriot Mobile Action, and donated to candidates for Keller and other Tarrant County school board seats.

Top political consulting firms were paid with some of the funds donated to help politicians “save America” by promoting a platform that rejects critical race theory.

Keller ISD parent and former book committee member Laney Hawes speculates that the three newly elected school board members’ campaigns were funded in part by the Patriot Mobile Action PAC, which has a history of funding conservative causes.

“I feel bad for students who, many of them, the only opportunity they’re going to have to learn about really, really difficult topics is in books,” Hawes said. “I feel bad for the most marginalized kids in our school district, the LGBTQ+ kids and also a lot of the kids of color. I’m sad. I’m disheartened and I’m frustrated and I’m angry.”

The head of free expression and education programs at PEN America, an organization that works to promote writers’ rights, said in a statement that the Keller ISD mandate “tramples” on the work that the committee members performed over the past year to their list.

“Students’ First Amendment rights have been horribly violated by the widespread effort to remove these books from classrooms and libraries on the eve of the new school year. Eliminating books from a school or library collection in response to complaints from any source would make administration nearly impossible “As Friedman put it.

Studies in critical race theory primarily take place at the university level, and their primary premise is that racism is structurally institutionalized, rather than confined to isolated people. Although it is not required coursework in Texas’ public schools, conservatives have adopted the term as a catchall for discussions of race and ethnicity in secondary education.

Some parents have referred to books about LGBTQ problems as “pornographic,” and all of the candidates for school board have promised to remove them and replace them with materials that don’t teach “critical racial theory.”

Patriot Mobile Action supported Micah Young, Joni Shaw Smith, and Sandi Walker for the Keller school board. Every single one of them was victorious. The Texas Tribune tried to reach both Young and Smith for comment on Tuesday, but neither one of them got back to us. In an interview with the Tribune, Walker stated flatly that she did not know any details.

Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick are just two of the state legislators who have spoken out against what they call “indoctrination” of students in public schools since last year. In their respective reelection campaigns this November, both senior elected leaders have made protecting parents’ rights a primary issue.

Similarly to the right drive to limit classroom conversations about LGBTQ persons being made in Florida, Patrick has committed to work for a “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Texas.

On January 26 during a campaign event at a charter school in Lewisville, Abbott made the following declaration: “Parents will be restored to their rightful place as the main decision-maker for their children.”

Parents in Texas, however, have enjoyed extensive protections for some time.

At the moment, parents in Texas have the legal right to temporarily withdraw their child from any class or activity that they feel goes against their religious convictions. They are legally entitled to evaluate all course materials and communicate with the school’s administration and student’s teachers.

In addition, boards of education need to put in place a process for hearing out parent concerns.

Sexuality education is voluntary in Texas’s public schools. In 2009, health education was no longer needed for high school diplomas.

Though, some parents have become increasingly vocal at school board meetings, believing their rights have been violated, as a result of their opposition to disguising rules and frustration with nearly three years of on-again, off-again school closures.

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